Why Join Your Community?

As I often do, when I have an idea for a project or new business, I bounce the idea off of my wife. I think I do this because it helps me find holes in my argument when I verbalize it. I also think that my wife gives me a great perspective on what might be the "gotcha's" in my idea(s). As I have mentioned previously, I have become increasingly interested in building communities of interest, especially to help build better and more profitable channel relationships. I had an idea and went to my confidante for her opinion. Her first question was, "why would anyone care?" Hmmm...perhaps my elevator pitch needs some work. But I took her question and did some thinking.

Building a community has to be about passion. Having 100,000 members of your community does not necessarily guarantee that it will be a success. Wouldn't you rather have 1,000 (or 100) community members that are passionate about the goals of the community? I would. I want the individuals that will participate in the discussion, share thought provoking insights, and challenge the status quo. I want them to tell me how to build my channel programs, how to increase loyalty, and how to grow my business. I want them to see beyond their own self-interests and look at building strength across the big picture. I want passion.

To attract these people, those passionate about a community, you need two things. You need a great story and you need to be willing to let the community take over.

A great story is essential. I think that great stories all share three common characteristics. They are simple, compelling, and relevant. You want your story to be understood so that it can be shared and spread. If you over complicate the story, people will be less willing to tell their friends and other like-minded individuals. Next, it needs to be compelling...interesting. Is your story unique? Does it tap into a need or emotion that has previously been ignored? Finally, your story need to be relevant. It needs to matter to the community members. There needs to be some "profit" in it for all members. I think if you are missing any one of these elements, you will have a story that will not spread and will not have a passionate constituency. Build your story and your audience will find you.

Perhaps the most difficult thing to do is to give control to your community. Wikipedia has done this and the results speak for themselves. Companies tend to have a more difficult time with this concept. They want to get involved. They want to challenge the path the community might be headed. It is important to let the community grow. You have attracted intelligent, passionate thought leaders and you need to give them the degrees of freedom to participate.

You can build a community of interest for your channel, but first you need a story that is simple, compelling and relevant. This will answer the, "why join?" question. Then you need to let the community take its course.