Building a Supportive Online Community

I’ve coached many of the most successful community leaders. A few are businesses that have grown every year for a decade. I've learned that the key to compounding growth is not complicated funnels, hiring a marketing team, or hanging out on TikTok. The secret to growth for community businesses is… friendship. Helping members make and keep new friends in your community is how you reduce churn, increase your referral rate, and turn your existing members into leaders. And it’s also a really fun metric to build a business around. In her excellent book Platonic, Marisa G. Franco outlines the six elements of starting and deepening friendships. What if we applied these elements to a community business context? Here are the 6 elements, each with one way that we might create an environment that encourages them in our communities: 1. Initiative 💥 One way to encourage: Help your members take initiative by normalizing reaching out and providing them with a clear guide on how to initiate connections. 2. Vulnerability 🤲 One way to encourage: Model vulnerability by sharing your own experiences, challenges, and personal stories in the way you’d like your members to open up to each other. 3. Authenticity 🤸🏻♀️ One way to encourage: Make it clear that the community is different from social media platforms and invite members to show up more joyfully, and less polished than they otherwise would. 4. Productive Anger 🔥 One way to encourage: Be transparent about how conflicts are handled and don’t freak out when they come up. Having clear member guidelines and reminding members of what’s expected of them makes it easier to mediate conflicts when necessary. 5. Generosity 💐 One way to encourage: Encourage members to share what they can offer others, whether it's knowledge, support, or skills. Then, when those exchanges happen make it a point to celebrate them. 6. Affection 💞 One way to encourage: When someone thanks you for introducing you to a new friend because they’re amazing, invite them to also share that message directly with the new friend. It’s a great way to deepen a budding friendship! Cultivating a culture of friendship in your community has the potential to ultimately grow and sustain your business. And it's also a beautiful way to meaningfully improve the lives of your members. What are the ways new friendships have sparked for you in the communities you lead and/or are a part of? Friendship stories are my favorite. ☺️

Notice a gap? What do you do about it? Do you wait for a solution or create it yourself? I noticed a need within the community space and had to find a way to fill it. How did I know? By getting to know my members. I asked what they needed-> surveys, one-on-ones, emails,... Need: Community members wanted to connect. Goal: To bring them together in a common spot. Problem: No common place to gather virtually. To gain more support: Spoke with active users (whom I built relationships with) to contribute and help me promote the event. *Solution: Set up a monthly recurring virtual meet-up -> 'Connect CommUnity' *Benefits from this meetup ↳Members became friends online & offline ↳Learned more about each other & built trust ↳Collaborated at events & in projects together ↳IRL connections happened (picture in comments) Impact of it? ↳Enhanced customer experience ↳Members were excited to hang out ↳Established meaningful relationships ↳Members felt appreciated and heard ↳Over time, members started to host the meet-ups. The beauty of it all? I got to see this all unfold and witness the amazing connections form. Gain more insight into what they needed by listening to their conversations. And continually help create a better environment for them all. ⭐ If you don't see a way to solve a problem, create the solution instead. You don't need to wait for a large crowd to get started. Start with what you have and add on. (If you need help, ask your members)

It’s a tough world out there. ⚠️ And, loneliness is at an all-time high. Online communities can be part of the solution. When designed well, communities provide safe spaces for members to receive support, knowledge and friendship. I want my members to feel like they belong. Like they MATTER. Like they’re valued, just as they are. We had a conversation in The Hive about what it means to create a safe space. Here’s a sampling of what our members think: 🐝 Start with the mindset that every person is equally valuable, no matter how they show up. Demonstrate that belief in everything you do. 🐝 Foster a space where people can form true friendships – in the community, on social media and in real life. 🐝 Allow space. When someone asks a question in The Hive, I pause before answering. I’m the facilitator, not the expert, and I want everyone to have an opportunity to share their thoughts. 🐝 Thank members when they model the behaviors you want to encourage. For example, “Thank you for taking the time to write such a thorough response!” and “Thank you for recommending that excellent resource!” 🐝 Acknowledge elephants in the room. When someone is upset or hurt, pause and address what happened. Just moving on when the energy in the room has shifted can prevent others from learning and connecting. 🐝 Let people know what to expect – the good, the bad and the ugly. Explain why decisions were made. 🐝 Observe rituals that build a sense of belonging. Traditions and routines are comforting. What did I miss? How else can we make our online communities safe and inclusive spaces?

this week is the old girls club 2nd birthday. I promised myself I'd work on it for two years, then decide whether to keep going. this is the transparency post I promised you and myself at this milestone. 📍 current state: - 1,258 members paying $10/mo or $100/year, avg 450 active users/day - 3.5% monthly churn, 89.2% free trial > paid member conversion rate - 268k messages sent, 90% in public channels - 2,413 newsletter subscribers with a 71% open rate - 5,801 brand page linkedin followers ⚙️ software stack: Slack for primary community hub of conversation Memberful for member subscription management Disco for member onboarding, member directory and resource hub Mercury for business banking, paying contractors etc. beehiiv for newsletter management Waves for message archiving & library Luma for event management Common Room for community analytics (will link unlinked companies in comments - LinkedIn why am I limited to your top 8 results for a company name for tagging?? cc Shyvee) 🧠 a few learnings on building community: - building community is f*&cking hard. it's nuanced and complicated. humans are complicated! I could go on for days listing the questions that have no answers. - OGC worked because I built something I needed. I didn't build it with the intention of building a business - I built it because I was lonely. I was exhausted. I needed help. By building something to save myself, I built something that stood out in the market because others needed saving too. - most virtual spaces are really exhausting. they feel like walking into a room where people are yelling about their accomplishments without you asking. we need more spaces where it's okay to be on a journey, not to have reached a destination. - allow your community to build with you. ask for ideas, over communicate, try lots of things, shut them down quickly if and when they don't work. - communities are built on value exchange, and the magic formula is when members are motivated to give value in exchange for receiving value. ✨ why does it matter? as someone who is almost solely motivated by impact, all the stats in the world wouldn't matter without impact. these are the real reasons I intend to keep building: "Someone in OGC hired me to lead partnerships for one of her clients where she's the fractional CMO" "OGC really and I mean REALLY showed up for me when I was spiraling one night about my anxiety around having kids." "I'm now advising two OGC-founded companies and am an angel investor in one." "I started a coaching community with a former OGCer (150+ coaches worldwide!)" "I'm inspired each day by the badassery that is happening in this group. As a solopreneur, I really feel the community" 🥂 to many more years to come.