How To Build Community and Why It Matters: The Power of Working Together [Case Study]

Participating in the community can be one of the best decisions we can make to unlock growth in various areas. The sense of connection and belonging we build through being an active member of the community is a very motivating factor that drives us to act, especially when we are surrounded by supportive people.

“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about”

By blogging and sharing my thoughts and projects, I was able to establish many interesting relationships with people that I would not have met otherwise. Many people started reaching out and building a connection with me after reading my blog posts. Therefore, I decided to launch my own “Create & Grow“ community and send a weekly newsletter.

I’ve never thought of that as something formal but rather than a group of people who build a sense of connection and belonging through sharing interesting books, mental models, and tips. Now, we’re a highly engaged community that helps each other by interdisciplinary collaboration among participants from multiple fields.

I decided to write this blog post after considering how beneficial for me was building a community as well as be an active participant. But also to share a couple of practical tips that may be helpful for you to create your community.

So, I want this blog post to cover the perspective of building community by theoretical and the practical side to getting a sense of the bigger picture.

Here are the lessons I learned along the way on building community and why it matters.

1. Tools and platform.

One of the crucial decisions you have to make when building a community is to choose the right tools and platforms. When choosing them, you need to consider the most valuable features that you want to emphasize that determine the shape of your community.

To get the most out of your community, you need to choose the tools and platform that allow people to contribute and participate meaningfully and effortlessly.

For example, in our case, in the “Create & Grow” community one of the crucial features is the role you fill and your interest. We’re focused on creating projects and growing by doing interdisciplinary collaboration among participants from multiple fields.

So, the main point in growing a community was to build an open space that allows collaborating effortlessly and highlights the main features of a role. For example, some people were interested in coding, others in design and writing.

Therefore, we created a Discord server with different channels, divided analogously to our name and a kind of brand language.

The first group of channels was related to growing. In these channels, we cover topics from mental models, books to mental health and pieces of advice. The second group is about creating. In these channels, we discuss our ideas, share resources and strategies, but most importantly, we build projects together.

Additionally, we added the Discord bot that help us with assigning the most important roles. It allowed us to make the work more structured and well-organized. There are a lot of helpful bots in the leading Discord server.

However, we choose the Carl-bot, which seems to be suited exactly for our community’s needs. It provides a high amount of roles with different modes and allows to streamline the contribution and the work of the whole group.

Here are the examples of how we structured our Discord server:

2. Build connection through authenticity.

One of the rules I believe and try to apply in my life is to play long-term games with positive people. So, the people I build relationships with are highly supportive, and I can share with them my real thoughts, problems, and tips. I was having this same thinking pattern when I started building a community.

“Status games are multiplayer, zero-sum, hierarchical, judged socially. Get grades, applause, titles now - emptiness later“ - Naval Ravikant

Our community is an open space where everyone can contribute and participate while being truly themselves. People don't have to strive for social status and feel the need to be accepted.

I found that a space where people can feel comfortable is one of the best ways to grow a community organically, without focusing on promotion or even a marketing campaign. Providing appropriate conditions for people is the snowball effect that smoothly improves the community.

Authenticity is a great superpower that holistically improves the community and sets it apart from some corporations where we deal with false smiles and emptiness. This is an advantage that makes people want to talk to others about the community in which they participate.

And this is also our case where a lot of people come to see our Discord server or the weekly newsletter by others’ recommendation.

I think a lot of people, especially at the beginning of building a community, are too focused on growing it to an enormous size. But the fact of a growing community is counterintuitive.

People should not focus too much on just growing and constantly adding members to the community, but rather think about being authentic and building a deep connection with the earliest members, who can make momentum and organically contribute to a growing community.

People within our community are highly supportive and share valuable knowledge and practical tips without being worried about being judged. I feel comfortable and aligned with my true identity that I can share a lot of personal tips and things I tried to figure out, even in terms of spirituality and mental health.

Here is one of the pieces of advice I wrote, and I didn't feel like being judged by providing information on spirituality and dealing with anxiety. On the contrary, by being authentic and conveying this information to people, I also learned a lot of valuable information about myself.

3. Common purpose and shared values

“The key is to be true to your community’s norms and values. You can’t just force yourself on people and try to sell them something they don’t want (…) You have to find ways to add value to your members’ lives while being consistent with your brand’s identity“ - Chris DeWolfe, co-founder of MySpace

Before I started participating in communities, I always wondered if they were aligned with my values. I found that clarity of values and purpose are the crucial factors of building a highly engaged community, especially in the earliest days of just laying foundations and setting the vision.

From the beginning, even before I decided to build a community, I spent a lot of time thinking about what significances, attitudes, and goals are coherent with me. And, most importantly, what values I wanted to promote. Then, I quickly realized that the two main things I like to do are building projects and reading books. And that’s how I came up with the name “Create & Grow” community.

My goal was to build a long-term community, not a temporary bandwagon, therefore I knew that the link between values and mission has to be strong.

A community with a common goal and mission is the key to building a long-term and highly engaged community. It’s good to consider consistent vision and language that sets a value that people can relate to.

For example, I was influenced by the open-source movement in programming, artists, and books. Therefore, from the beginning, I was clear with my vision of community that everyone can contribute, participate and just “create & grow”.

I am also a big believer in decentralized, bottom-up initiatives that are open to all people. Additionally, I want to promote a holistic approach to creating all kinds of things, from coding to writing and design. In addition, I like to contribute to the creative process valuable ideas, mental models, and lessons from books and podcasts. In my opinion, it creates one coherent vision of the "Create & Grow" community.

The natural way to build a highly engaged community is to be clear with a higher purpose and vision.

4. Involve members.

The true power and value of community come from the members who share the same values, common goals, and a higher purpose. I do not believe in the effectiveness of a highly hierarchical structure of communities and organizations.

Therefore, since we have established the essential tools and built connection through authenticity and by the coherent brand language of the community, it’s time to involve members.

In my opinion, the more decentralized and member-focused, and member-owned community is, the more effective it is. That's why from the beginning, I have been focusing on providing the right, open, and permissionless space for people to contribute.

In the case of the “Create & Grow“ community crucial were the earliest people who have been involved and contributed. It also allowed building a momentum and snowball effect that brought a high return in the form of further engagement.

So, I’d highly recommend finding the best way to involve members in the process of building community because it’s the tailwind and one of the best investments you can make, not only to the community’s growth but also to yourself and others.

For example, one of our members came up with the idea to start a side project and published it on the Discord server. A couple of people were involved in the process of building an productivity app that didn’t turn out to be highly successful but was challenging and worth doing because of the further benefits in form of experience, developing skills, and learning the valuable practice of teamworking.

Another example that comes to mind is sharing articles and blog ideas that sparked a discussion in the community. And eventually, it led to new friendships and collaborations on articles and blog posts. A lot of people have just given me examples of topics that I should write about in my next post or article. Similar to the one you are reading right now. One of the community members came up with the idea for this blog post. Thank you!

Involved and highly engaged members are the driving force of the strong community.

5. Provide value without the expectation of return.

Before starting the community, I was an active participant in several others with great potential who lost momentum over time. One of the main reasons was the lack of commitment because the founders didn't provide enough value for people to be engaged or actively participate.

For people to start participating in a given community, they need a previous trigger, for instance, in the form of getting the value by a blog post, sharing your knowledge, building in public, and so on. And then, while they are committed still need to see the benefits and benefits to maintain that level of participation.

Therefore, you should think about what type of information and knowledge would be valuable for the vast majority of members to keep them active. It's not about rocket science, but for example, giving a couple of tips or advice. They found it valuable and may decide to get involved and share their knowledge or feedback.

For example, in the case of our community, I remember that I initialized the conversation simply by sharing one episode of the podcast and telling what I found valuable and helpful in it. I made a post in which I told what I learned new, and you may be as well. It caused a positive response from people and created a snowball effect, where people started exchanging valuable information from other podcasts and sharing other recommendations.

And by that, a lot of valuable discussions were taking place even without my knowledge or my involvement. Therefore, I’d recommend triggering people with a couple of doses of value to keep the community engaged and create momentum.

Share what you learned, how it made you better or improved yourself, and lastly, how it can be useful and valuable for people.

That point should be a constant reminder to keep a community alive as well as maintain it in the long-term perspective.

6. Make the space for discussions.

When the foundations of the passion-driven community are built, and since members share the same values, looking forward toward a certain future, it’s good to think about how to be a space where the members can discuss their ideas to improve the community.

I believe that the first steps in building community should be more structured and centralized, but after that, all the actions should be a move towards enhancing bottom-up initiatives. Because they determine the further direction, growth, and, as we know, the value of the community comes from people.

A community built on bottom-up initiatives has an advantage over a centralized one because they can be improved according to the needs and hopes of most people. Discussions that are initiated from the bottom up, at the initiative of the members themselves, often generate momentum that ultimately contributes to strengthening community ties and quality.

In the case of the “Create & Grow” community, one of the best decisions was to provide a section “Introduce yourself” and secondly the space meant for commonly working on the project. These two significantly contribute to the better shape of the community.

People by introducing themselves gave us an insight about themselves and showed the trust which contributed to bonding connection. And the section meant for common projects and sharing thoughts maintain the encouragement of people, their involvement, and influence on the whole community. Additionally, there’s also a meaningful way to improve the community because who would better know the needs than the members themselves?

The space for discussion is also the bottomless pit of ideas that can give you a better sense of understanding the members. But also the sense of what you should be focused on and improve.

Therefore, I'd recommend starting from the centralized operations, such as providing tools, platform, and space for discussion, but also signalizing the values and brand language of the community. Get people to know the whole story behind it. And after that, I think that the best way to grow the community organically is by encouraging people to join the discussions and bottom-up initiatives.

Closing thoughts and reflection:

By building and growing the community, I have learned many valuable things and skills that I would not otherwise be able to fully develop. Considering how beneficial it has been for me to build the community, I wish I had started sooner.

I am also a person who is deeply passionate about decentralized and bottom-up initiatives. I believe that the strength of the community comes from people who contribute, participate and try to build together.

In the "Create and Grow" community, we believe that everyone can join and contribute. There is no centralized management or way of doing things. People don't need to have any particular skills except showing respect for others. Everyone can learn and develop at the same time.

There’s a place for people who learn and master their skills under others' supervision, as well as people who teach, because as Phil Collins said:

"In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn."

My further prediction for the community is that their importance will be increasing, especially by Web 3.0 projects' growth, in which the community is foundational. I am also convinced that companies recognizing the role of the community will start to emphasize their importance and perhaps slightly will be changing their model to some kind of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO).

If you find it valuable and helpful, you can join the weekly newsletter as well as our “Create & Grow” Discord server!

Summary:

1. Choose the tools and platform that suit the members’ needs and allow them to participate in a highly efficient and meaningful way.

2. Build connection through authenticity. Some people would love them, others not, stay with the first ones.

3. The natural way to build a highly engaged community is to be clear with a mission, purpose, and values.

4. Involve members in the process of building community, the true power and momentum come from them.

5. Provide valuable information and what you learned to keep the community alive.

6. In the end, make sure that there’s a space for discussion to constantly improve the shape of the community.