How to Build an Online Community
Many entrepreneurs don’t realize it, but there’s a subtle difference between your audience and your people.
Your audience is comprised of readers, followers, and fans who are interested in your work, but may prefer to observe it from the sidelines.
Your people include both dedicated superfans and like-minded colleagues who are deeply invested in supporting and participating in your offerings.
While clever tools like lead magnets and strategies like online launches may draw a few valuable folks into your people, they’re more suited to building your audience.
To grow your people, you’ve got to dig a little deeper, get a little more personal, and be willing to engage.
Sounds like a lot of work, right? It is.
But the payoff will be a band of raving fans who amplify, support, and promote everything you do.
In this blog article, we'll lay out the basics for finding and recruiting your people and how to build an online community, plus share key tips on crafting an online space that encourages meaningful engagement.
6 Ways to Find and Grow Your Online Community
So just how do you find and recruit these amazing people and ensure they stick around once you’ve caught their attention?
01 Join (or Start) Relevant Groups
The quickest shortcut to gathering a group around yourself is to frequent existing groups that focus on your areas of interest. Naturally, if you concentrate on yoga for flexibility, you’ll want to spend your energy interacting with groups whose expertise overlaps with your own. (Yoga or flexibility or both.) But suss out more general groups, too, including any with an entrepreneurial bent.
You don’t need to limit your membership to people who mimic your exact work philosophy, since some of your most ardent supporters may do work that’s merely adjacent to your own. What kinds of groups, you ask? Facebook Groups and LinkedIn groups can all help you connect with potential members.
Don’t see a group that’s doing exactly what you want? Start one yourself! Doing this will help you attract supporters and position you as a thought leader.
02 Engage and Support Others
Connecting with your people, is community-building, so you’ve got to be willing to give as much as you take. And that means reading, commenting on, and promoting content from folks you want to join your community.
It means tagging people you admire and retweeting smart commentary from people whose work you support. If someone has become a frequent commenter on your social media posts or blog, take the time to check out their work and repay the kindness.
You’re not trying to become a cult leader who just soaks up adoration from the devoted masses. You’re building a family of smart, connected people who look out for one another. So be prepared to praise, boost, and repost your little heart out.
03 Be Your Authentic Self
We know, we know, “authenticity” is the buzziest of buzzwords. But it’s a concept that really should be central to all of your client-facing activities. Refusing to be vulnerable while you’re trying to amass a dedicated community will result in growing a group of people who don’t understand who you truly are.
When you post, be authoritative and honest. When you interact, be transparent and caring. When you create any content at all, make sure it truly reflects your beliefs and philosophy. People are drawn to experts they know to be genuine and passionate, so make sure your uniquely genuine passion shines through.
04 Create Collaborative Offerings
Guest posting on the blogs of like-minded experts might result in a minor bump in traffic, but if you’re seeking loyal members try something more interactive. Join forces with someone whose work complements your own to create a webinar, live Q&A, or online course. You’ll both get priceless cross-pollination between your existing audiences, generate a valuable product that followers will appreciate, and build a mutually beneficial work partnership in the process.
05 Keep Utility Top-of-Mind
Want to attract a group of people who appreciate and advocate for you? Make sure that everything you do keeps their benefit in mind. Don’t promote a friend’s work if her offering won’t help your people, don’t create empty clickbait to drive traffic to your site, and don’t build new classes around trendy topics just to rake in some cash.
Talk to your community, understand their needs, and tailor your actions and offerings to them. You’ll build loyalty and trust, two great traits in community members.
06 Try Live Interaction
Limiting your online presence to static, pre-written content can make followers feel distant. Between Facebook Live, Insta Stories, and Google Hangouts, you’ve got access to three über-powerful, 100% free tools for connecting with potential members.
Pre-recording your Marvelous classes means you can hone and perfect them, and you’d never want your students to think they’re paying to see a thrown-together rough cut. But also offering them the chance to interact with you live, ask off-the-cuff questions, and see you in your daily life will cement them as lifelong community members.
What an Online Community can do for you
Starting to warm to the idea but still unsure why you should pour a bunch of time and energy into cultivating a community? Here are seven solid reasons this is a worthwhile business-building tactic:
Built-in beta testers: Gearing up for a new offering? Ask your community to help you work out the kinks before you start selling.
Launch support: Any time you roll out a new product, these people will be the first to buy it and tell all their friends and followers to do the same.
Sounding boards: You might not want to hit up your general audience when you need advice, but your peers, colleagues, and most loyal students and clients can offer support and insight when you’re feeling stuck.
Crowdsourcing: Well, yes, this could mean Kickstarter or GoFundMe if you’ve got a big project that needs upfront cash... but we’re also talking smaller asks. Need a great web designer or a marketing genius? Wondering which fitness clothing lines your people prefer? Looking to partner with a brand and curious to know about others’ experiences? Want help naming your signature offering or pricing your next online course? Ask your community for input.
Honest feedback: Sometimes you’ll screw up. Your community will be there to hold you accountable and help you manage the emotional fallout. (Remember that failure is part of the journey.)
Ego boosts: On the flip side, these people will be the ones who cheer their heads off when they see you doing great things.
Seamless networking: Being connected to a hive of compatible minds will inevitably lead to meaningful partnerships. Engaged your community members who have your best interests at heart will organically introduce you to others in their networks with compatible philosophies. Beautiful partnerships are formed this way.
There are dozens of effective and creative ways to grow your online business and even more that will help boost your follower count. But if you’re looking for ongoing support from dedicated fans and compatible colleagues, what you need is a dedicated community. And implementing any of the steps we’ve outlined here will help you find and connect with them!
Why you Should Have Your Online Offerings and Community all in one Place
It’s simply marvelous having all your online offerings and community within one single platform! Between the convenience of managing everything from a single dashboard to continuous support from an active client base, plenty of benefits exist.
Here are three reasons why you should have your online offerings and community on one platform:
01 Increased Engagement With an Engaged Community of Learners
Students benefit from engaging with you and each other, discussing their experiences, and strengthening the bonds they form through their participation in the same course, membership, or program. Furthermore, with your entire suite of online offerings and your Marvelous communities in one spot, your clients can easily access everything they need without switching between platforms—further motivating them to stay engaged.
02 Streamlines and Simplifies Communication Between You and Your Students
All communication can be done in one place, eliminating the need for multiple tools to send messages or emails back and forth. This makes it easier for both sides to keep track of what is being discussed, making sure that important updates or changes are not missed. Additionally, having everyone in one place also makes it easier for you to respond quickly when help is needed, as you do not have to search through multiple sources or inboxes.
03 Creates a Unified Experience for Both Material and Community Building
With Marvelous, all course material and communication are located in one easy-to-navigate platform, making it easier for students to quickly access needed resources. Additionally, having everyone interacting on the same platform allows for a greater sense of community as students can easily interact with each other both within a the course material by commenting underneath videos plus in a dedicated community group.
All these highlights make integrating your essential offerings and community on a single platform a must-try.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know the ways to build and grow your online community easily and why you should use one platform for your online offerings and community, we hope you'll be inspired to get out there and give it a shot.
Whether you choose to bring your audience together on wonderful platforms like Marvelous—where they can learn and collaborate—or via other methods, don't forget the ultimate goal of hosting an online community: Developing relationships with clients and students and giving them an active role in creating valuable online learning experiences.
So go ahead— tap into the power of community and make some magic happen. Teaching on Marvelous might just be the best way to start!
