Building Community Around Tech Products on Social Media

If I was launching a brand on social media from scratch, here's my exact 90-day plan: Days 0-30: Foundation Building 1. I'd choose max TWO platforms to start - Instagram as my visual home base + community feature build and either TikTok (for faster growth potential) or LinkedIn (for B2B connections if relevant to my brand). Honestly, you could go hard on 1 and thrive! 2. Before posting anything, I'd create a content bible with: • visual themes that define aesthetic • 3-5 content pillars (behind-the-scenes, founder journey, educational content, customer spotlights, cultural commentary, etc. roll up to final offering) • Voice guidelines (how we talk about products, response style, storytelling approach) 3. I'd batch create 2 weeks of content upfront so I'm not bogged down, can maintain consistency, and stay ahead. 4. I'd identify 50 micro-influencers in my niche and engage with their content daily. Not just "cute!" comments but thoughtful responses that show I actually consumed their content. 5. I'd set up platform-specific lead captures: • Instagram + TikTok: Create a custom link tree with email signup (use in stories as well)  • LinkedIn: Create a PDF resource that solves a specific problem and reference it in posts (connect to dm) 6. I'd create a broadcast channel with updates, promos + bts content, even with just 10-20 people initially! Days 31-60: Community Building 1. I'd introduce a weekly Instagram Live series featuring founder talks, product highlights, and Q&A sessions. Daily Drills is a blueprint for this! 2. I'd launch a UGC campaign (if relevant) and repost everyone who participates. If UGC is challenging at this stage, I'd consider gifting products to nano-influencers to generate initial content. 3. I'd start a simple Substack newsletter that goes deeper than social posts, featuring: founder content, industry content, product content, community benefits I'd analyze which content performed best from the first 30 days and double down on those formats. When something works, keep it going. As Ernest Lupinacci says: "Simplify, then exaggerate." Days 61-90: Conversion Focus 1. I'd start incorporating more direct calls to action in content 2. I'd create a series highlighting real customers using the product to build social proof. 3. I'd host a virtual event (webinar, live tutorial, or industry discussion) specifically for email subscribers, driving social followers to join the list. Utilize lives on platforms (Substack, LinkedIn, wherever your audience is!) 4. I'd reach out to 5 publications + newsletters in my niche for potential features 5. I'd analyze the entire 90 days of data to create a refined strategy for the next quarter The goal by day 90 isn't massive follower counts - it's building the right foundation with the right people who will actually convert and champion your brand. Building on social takes consistency over flash. I'd rather have 1,000 highly engaged potential customers than 10,000 passive scrollers.

A few weeks ago, I was on a call with a founder who’d scaled their brand to mid-seven figures, bootstrapped the whole way. They were smart, scrappy, and had that kind of founder energy you can’t teach. First 18,000 units were made in an apartment. Every order packed by hand. Now they had a manufacturing partner, solid product line, and repeat buyers. But growth had started to stall. They were pushing content every day. Instagram, TikTok, even some YouTube Shorts. Influencers were tagging them, and UGC was coming in. From the outside, it looked like momentum. Then I asked, “What’s the strategy behind the feed?” They paused. “I guess we’re just trying to stay visible.” That line stuck with me. Because I’ve heard it before. And I’ve said it myself. When you’ve built something with your hands, marketing can feel like a distraction. You post to keep the lights on. You post because you feel like you should. You hope something hits. But here’s the hard truth. Posting is not building. Posting is noise. Building is systems. So I walked them through how we do it. First, we treat the feed like a storefront. Every post should show people what you stand for, what you sell, and why it matters. No random filler. No outdated promos. Just clarity and consistency. Second, we use stories to teach. Not just sell. What does the product solve? Why was it created? What are the myths around it? What should people know before buying? Third, we treat DMs like customer service tickets. Answer every question. Follow up. Start conversations. That’s how community happens. Fourth, we track performance. Every post is a product test. Did it drive saves? Comments? Clicks? What made someone pause? And finally, we look for winners. Not just viral hits, but posts that clearly resonate. Then we boost those through paid. Not to spray ads everywhere, but to scale what’s already working. This is where organic meets paid. Not as a separate channel, but as a feedback loop. Social is not just the top of your funnel. It’s your storefront. It’s the handshake before the cart. People buy from brands they believe in. But belief comes from story. And story needs structure. So if your content is going out, but nothing is adding up, maybe it’s time to stop posting and start building. Not just for reach. Not just for likes. But to create a brand that earns trust, drives sales, & grows with intention. That’s the goal.

Subject: Community First, Agencies Later Dear CEO, It's not time to invest in marketing if there hasn't been an organic investment of time in the community surrounding your solution. The mistake most early-stage B2B startups make is seeking quick fixes for rapid growth. Here's what I hear almost always: "𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘵?" I start by understanding their commitment. Is there signals of traction or product market fit? 1. How many hours a week are you dedicating to community engagement? 2. What is holding you back from being a voice in the community? 3. What is the biggest blocker for you right now? These questions open the door to transparent discussions. The response generally is - not enough time. I remind them the core of their GTM strategy should be active Community Engagement. Don't rush into expensive partnerships targeting an uninformed audience. Instead, commit yourself/team at min. 6-9 months for substantial time investment in community building. To guide them through this phase, here's a simple framework: 𝟭. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 Network Mindfully: Connect with industry folks, allies, and even competitors. It becomes your strategic playground. Smart Starts: → Add 5-10 new connections weekly. → Engage with 3-5 thought leaders; don't lurk, add commentary. → Share insights—think quality over quantity. → Repeat weekly, show them your invested. Build your name. 𝟮. 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗣𝗢𝗩 𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 Address Pain Points: Find the sore spots your customers are dealing with, then post your wisdom and POV, offering tools or frameworks that help. Example: → Your customers are drowning in spreadsheets? Post about how your tool is the lifesaver they've been waiting for. 𝟯. 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Slack and Facebook Diplomacy: Join 2-3 Slack channels or Facebook groups where your tribe hangs out. Dive in with purpose. Strategic Hangouts: → Dive into # TechTalkSlack or # StartupInsights on Slack. → Check out “Tech Innovators” on Facebook. → Reddit for Common FAQs 𝟰. 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗼𝘀 Personalized Convos: Send personalized messages to new, tenured, churned customers. It’s less Tinder, more coffee chat. Conversation Starters: → Learn what they love, hate, and forgot about the product. → Use their insights for future talks and features 𝟱. 𝗙𝗹𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝟭-𝟰. Improve the product, enhancing features and strengthening the offering from real-time interactions. -------- Focus on building your brand. Your name starts to become a trusted partner. Tying back to the solution, the product, and the business. Because word of mouth is the driver for b2b growth if product market fit. What other ways are you building a community? Sincerely, 𝘍𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘊𝘔𝘖 #gtmstrategy #b2b #cmos

Consistency in community-led Go-to-Market (GTM) doesn't mean bombarding. After observing countless product communities, here's a revelation: To 10x your community-led GTM efforts, it's sometimes more effective to... focus less on frequency and more on quality. 1. Pre-launch co-creation ↳ Involve your potential community early. Co-create the product, from features to marketing. This builds ownership and excitement. ↳ Example: Figma engaged designers early through access programs, allowing feedback that shaped development, ensuring it met user needs. 2. Gamified onboarding ↳ Replace boring tutorials with engaging, game-like experiences. Points, badges, and rewards make learning about your product fun and rewarding. ↳ Example: Grammarly boosts engagement with "daily goals" and streaks, fostering a habit of good writing practices through a fun, rewarding system. 3. Micro-influencer partnerships ↳ Leverage micro-influencers within your community. Their genuine connection with followers can authentically showcase your product's value. ↳ Example: Ahrefs partners with industry bloggers and micro-influencers for tutorials and reviews, effectively expanding brand awareness and trust within the SEO community. 4. Community-driven knowledge base ↳ Encourage users to build the knowledge base. User-generated content and peer-to-peer support enhance engagement and collective wisdom. ↳ Example: Zapier leverages its community forum for users to exchange automation workflows and solutions, enhancing the platform's value through collective wisdom. This approach doesn't require daily actions but involves strategic, meaningful engagement that fosters a strong, vibrant community around your product. Remember, quality over quantity always wins. ❤️♻️ P.S. How often do you engage with your community? I think we should aim for meaningful interactions 4-5 times a week. __ 📌 If you found this helpful, reshare this to your network and follow me Joseph Abraham for daily Go-to-market insights, frameworks, tools, and tips

I often see people who misinterpret social media as a community building tool. It can be used as such, but very tough to do. (and most people who think they are doing it right are just building another distribution outlet — which is great, but different from building a community) It requires a slightly different approach than the average social strategy. Social Platforms (like X & LinkedIn) • Open networks • Content dependent • Great because people are usually spending lots of their time there • Tough to stand out since you’re competing against the algorithm, other creators, brands, and everyone else in the feed Community Platforms (like Discord, Slack, Circle) • Usually closed networks • Dependent on user engagement • Great for consolidating your core group of members • Very tough to maintain over time since you need people to come back to your specific group (even tougher if engagement is declining) Ok, so how do you use social platforms top build an online community? 1/ Define your community 2/ Share it on your social accounts, in your bio, etc. 3/ Align your content around this community and what they love 4/ When you create your content, keep this specific community in mind 5/ Share updates publicly just like you would within a Discord channel 6/ Allocate a good chunk of time per day to community management 7/ Nurture your most engaged followers by supporting their content 8/ Make introductions directly in the feed wherever possible 9/ Use your platform to elevate others in your community 10/ Introduce group language that people can use How do you know when you’re doing it right? • People will use your account to discover others with similar interests • People will use your language and phrases in their posts • People will use the comments section of your posts like a forum • People will host meetups or connect with one another IRL at events • People will often tag you in content related to your community In closing, Yes, you can use social platforms like X & LinkedIn to build an online community. But it requires much more effort than just posting content about your brand or the problem you solve. You’ve got to constantly keep the community you’re serving top of mind, put in the time to nurture your members, and be consistent over a long period of time.

What have I been up to at ZoomInfo, on the team building our first community? 👀 👇🏼 First - what's happening in these B2B powered communities that's so valuable to members, and the company, alike? ↪️ Conversations about buying decisions - dark social in action. ↪️ Real time reviews of products and features. ↪️ Q&A about product/roadmaps for companies. ↪️ Product-specific training sessions. ↪️ Programs tailored to members for learning, mentorship, product knowledge, etc. Plus, lots of great networking, knowledge-shares from peers, and my personal favorite: a jobseeker securing a job from a community connection! Justin Levy and I want to ensure that members join Modern GTM and see an immediate value add to their day to day life. We have really smart people in the community sharing daily tactical tips from the ground. And here are two major KPIs we track internally: ⭐ Deals closing at higher velocity when impacted by community programs/initiatives, defined as a person joining the community before they become a customer. ⭐ Retention attributed to community with X customers from a given account involved as active members. Would be incredible to play a small part in ZoomInfo's massive success with net new customers, and all of our thousands of existing ones, too. ~~ So, how can you get your internal teams involved in community building so everyone can benefit from the space? I think of it like this: ✅ Product: run product launch teaser sessions with community for early feedback, create test groups for product betas, regular product training sessions gain traction with all kinds of community members - prospective or customers ✅ Research: source groups of relevant people and incentivize them to hop on a call to answer questions/walk you through their workflows, listen in on any channel discussions for insights ✅ Sales: get to know your buyers and potential buyers, take a research cap and observe, run weekly sessions on platform demos/sales skills/thought leadership for members to engage with you in ✅ Marketing: get bites of content from the community to leverage in promo, create content WITH community members, give them opportunities to activate across socials, create 1-1 matching programs for references, do a series on customers in your community ✅ CS: create an easy and more informal path to getting common questions answered, use slackbot to identify common questions and create an FAQ sheet that's easily accessible, create regular content for customers within community ❤️ 🚀 #communitybuilding

On my way to Qualcomm HQ to give a talk to their GTM team! Was asked to come and share learnings from building Jam, excited! 😃 Here is my talk, 9 steps any team can follow to build a user community: Every weekday, a Jam is created or debugged every 2 seconds! It's used by 165k builders, and this year we've hosted 2,000 devs at our community events and sponsored meetups for 5,300 builders. Here's how we built the community at Jam! In 9 steps ↓ 1/ Meet your users 1-1! A community is just a network of relationships. Start by building real 1-1 relationships. In the beginning, it's just getting to know people. Over time, this will start to look like community. 2/ Share who you are too! Communities are built through real connections between people – not brands. Share as real people behind the company. Show the human moments. "Building in public" so to speak 3/ Build with your users Because community is about doing things together It can be small – like: sending the person who created the 3 millionth Jam a handwritten note from the team! Or like how The Browser Company has a credits page to thank their early users by name. 4/ Host some events! Once you start to know enough users, invite them out to something! We host: AI Demos, Tech Talks, Hack Nights and Keynote Watch Parties It's so fun to meet users IRL, we've made some really awesome friendships this way 😍 5/ When you do host the event, make it something you'd have fun going to! Like – when speakers go over time, we catch them in a giant net like a bug! Or like – tell everyone to reach under their seat to get an AI generated car! 6/ Build real connections. Don't break trust by treating your community as leads or overly selling. Be a person, not a corporate representative. 7/ Always be in service of helping devs build Great communities are where people help people 8/ Celebrate the builders in the community! Great communities support each other What devs build is amazing, let's celebrate it! 🎉 9/ Give back however makes sense! Like, through open source tools or starter pack deals for devs. Or Pauline P. Narvas at Vercel runs an awesome job board in their community forum Building a dev community is really hard because it goes against a company's instincts: ❌ You can't measure ROI ❌ You can't overly sell into it ❌ High effort doing things that don't scale like office hours and irl events But it's the joy of building. Supporting devs is one of the coolest perks of building for them. In today's world by software, devs are the people bringing the future forward. It's awesome! Thanks Qualcomm for having me, flight is landing soon and can't wait to meet y'all and share the lessons from building Jam.dev!

Community marketing drove millions of monthly organic impressions for the brands of Chili Piper, and Apollo.io during my time there. This is the first thing I'd do if I were a company building out a community marketing strategy... Research and build an, "Influence Map." Because the customer shouldn't only be the primary distribution point for your brand... They should also be your compass. ⛵ But what is an "Influence Map," and how do you make one? For me, an Influence Map is a visual representation that shows you where you need to evangelize for your product across different personas. The buying decision is SUPER complex. Understanding what factors influence your buyers along this journey is key. But, like all things community marketing, the best way to go about it is to ASK YOUR CUSTOMERS. So I generally like to run a survey across the different personas within the customer base. This means closed won & closed lost customers, prospects, customers that might represent a future ICP you will be selling to eventually, etc., across the different members of the buying committee and also end users. In this survey, ask them these questions -- and others too: - What social media platforms do you spend the most time in? - What blogs to you read? - What communities do you spend time in? - What events are you attending? - Who do you respect the most in your profession? - Who are your favorite people to follow on social media? - What companies (in a certain space) do you respect the most? - What podcasts do you listen to? - Who within your company is involved in software purchasing decisions? From this you can can create a "MAP" of the spaces where you will want to have your brand show up. Okay, GREAT! Now you know where to evangelize. Then the question becomes... "How do I deploy the authentic customer voice to these spaces that I KNOW hold influence?" But maybe that's a topic for another post. I'm thinking about sharing more about community marketing. If you'd like to hear my thoughts community, please do drop a comment or follow or like. Community marketing has become the primary acquisition channel at every SaaS company I've joined within a year of my role starting. So I'm hoping I can help others in the space too. Thanks! Also, what should we discuss about community marketing next? #communitymarketing

The key to creating a brand that people can't stop talking about? 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲. But it’s not just about creating 𝘢𝘯𝘺 community. It’s about creating one that feels 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐞. Your community should reflect a purpose, a cause that resonates and drives everything you do. So, how do you do this? 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭.  ↳ Instead of just posting on social media, organize virtual or in-person events that align with your brand values.  ↳ For example, if you're a sustainable fashion brand, host clothing swap meetups or upcycling workshops.  ↳ This gives community members a chance to connect with each other and your brand in meaningful ways. 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲-𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐞.  ↳ Involve your community in the creation process.  ↳ Use polls, focus groups, and beta testing to let them influence product decisions.  ↳ Share the journey from ideation to launch, crediting community input. ↳ This not only improves your offerings but also gives members a sense of ownership and pride. 𝐄𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐚 𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦.  ↳ Create a structured program where community members can earn increasing levels of recognition and perks based on their engagement and advocacy.  ↳ This could include exclusive product drops, BTS access, or even advisory board positions for top-tier members.  ↳ This incentivizes active participation and creates aspirational goals within the community. People don't want to be talked at. They want to be part of something real. Build a genuine community, and you won't just have customers. You'll have passionate advocates.