Our company Discord community has 10,000 members. Here is how we do it

Community is the new marketing buzzword. For most, Discord is the place to do it. But the road between "opening a server" and "having a community" is long and bumpy.

Here is some insight into our approach of building a community of 10 000 members strong.?

Some context about inStreamly for the start:

inStreamly is a platform that connects brands and gaming streamers. Using micro-sponsorships, streamers are able to monetise their content, while brands get a way to reach Generation Z in an innovative way. We have enabled over 330 000 sponsorships between small and mid-size streamers and over 170 top brands like Disney, adidas or PlayStation. We also create and execute holistic Gaming 360 campaigns for brands ready to take a deep dive into gaming.

The platform has 106,000 registered gaming streamers at the moment and our community on Discord - 10,000 people (mainly from Germany, France, Spain and Poland). Discord is our key point for communication with streamers. I wanted to shed some light on how we approach building this amazing community.?

"Having users on a platform does not equal having a community,"

Below you'll find the full transcript my conversation with Edyta Kowal , which will give you a behind-the-scenes look at the birth and maturation of our community and the role inStreamly plays in it. The interview was originally published in Marketer+ in Polish. The whole article in Polish will be linked below :)?

E.K: In what channels do you develop your community?

W.W: When I think community, I think space where people interact with each other. It's a communication of many to many. And the fact that the content comes from individual community members only adds value. Our space is a server on Discord. Our users are streamers, and Discord is the most natural communicator for them, hence the choice. It is also highly customizable with bots and advanced settings. This is very important when one space has to function in a dozen different markets where we communicate in the streamers' native languages.?

E.K: What drives your community and how integrated into these needs is your brand??

W.W: Every streamer has their own Discord for their community, but there was no space that brings streamers together. We want to be such a space. Our philosophy in communicating to streamers is: for streamers, about streamers, with streamers. We create a solution that allows them to earn and collaborate with the best brands. For that, you need trust from both sides. Creating a community is also a way for us to educate streamers and make them understand as much as possible why and how this relationship with partners that we enable them works, and what rules (such as brand safety) to follow.??

Our communication is loose, full of memes and emoticons that often an outsider wouldn't understand. There is no room for corpo-speak. At our Streamer Success team, run by Filip Vuki? , that is responsible for our Discord, everyone either streams or used to stream and still watches streams. And that's why it works so well - we talk to our own, and ask them questions we would love to answer ourselves. The real magic happens when streamers answer each other's questions themselves, moderate the discussion, and in a sense are active there without us.?

E.K.: What activities do you focus on, and how do you interact with your community members?

W.W.: We base our activities on three pillars to meet the needs of our streamers:

1: Being among your own - an opportunity to meet other streamers and exchange experiences.?

We give streamers the opportunity to talk freely with other streamers who are just as serious about streaming. There are "improve your stream" channels, meme channels or general off-topic chats. One interesting initiative is the "question of the week" where we ask a streaming-related question (e.g., "What was your longest stream?", "What was the best moment you experienced while streaming?").

2: Being a part of inStreamly: the community is first and foremost a forum to talk with streamers about everything that is happening on our platform.

We announce every new available sponsorship on special channels (which is always met with enthusiastic reactions with emoticons :) ). Much of our customer research takes place on our "feedback-and-ideas" channel, and is often based on easy polls directly in the community - there's nothing easier than voting with an emoticon. We also regularly release "patch notes" about new changes to the platform and are in constant contact on #support channels all the time. We have created an advanced FAQ system and are working on an AI-powered bot. In addition, we are running an inStreamly Helper program, in which streamers from our community, who stand out as the most active on the server and helpful to others, officially support us with support communications in several countries.

3: Being a better streamer: is a pillar that includes community events, tips and discussions to help streamers develop their skills.

We often organize them in collaboration with partners. Recently, we partnered with TikTok for closed workshops on using TikTok for gaming content. The off-topic or "improve your stream" channels also regularly feature discussions with tips from streamers for streamers.

E.K.: How long have you been developing this relationship??

W.W.: We opened the community on Discord almost at the beginning of our operation in April 2020. Initially, the server mainly served as a place for one-to-many and one-to-one communication with streamers. Announcing new campaigns and solving technical problems. We tapped our first thousand members after nine months at the end of January 2021, a year later it was already 4.7 thousand users, and we recently celebrated 10 000. For the past 1.5 years, we have been consciously working to make it a place for streamers, not just about inStreamly, so we are also very focused on engagement metrics.?

E.K.: How do you measure the success of this venture and what metrics do you focus on?

W.W.: We track the most important metrics within those offered by Discord. These include: new members, new communicators (i.e., people who have written something on the server), retention of new members, onboarding completion rate on the server, and the number of people who have muted the server or channel. What matters is not only the number of people, but especially whether they actively visit our Discord. Last month it was about 2,595 users.?

E.K.: How does the community ultimately affect your business??

W.W.: Our community gives us the opportunity to quickly contact streamers in their natural environment. This allows us to respond quickly to reported bugs: check how big they are, fix them, get feedback or study the needs of users. World of mouth is also the basis of our acquisition of new users on the platform. We know that a large community simply legitimizes us and encourages streamers to get involved and be part of something bigger.?

E.K.: Do you have a team/person responsible for community development (and if so, what is its place in the company structure)?

W.W.: Community development is part of the Streamer Success team, which is responsible for everything that happens to streamers after they join inStreamly. From onboarding to retention or support. Thanks to the fact that everyone in this department is either former or current streamer, community development comes naturally to us. By the way, our server is also a very important part of the communication stack with streamers, so it serves a dual function. Leader of the Streamer Succes Team - Filip Vukic - reports directly to me. The team actively collaborates with the marketing, campaign and product teams, being at the core of the company.

E.K.: What is the biggest challenge for you?

W.W.: Community is people, and people, well, are people. A successful community is one where people talk to each other and start threads when the value created by the participants exceeds the value provided by the organizer. Maintaining this state is difficult, requiring constant iteration. It's also common for the most engaged person to become toxic or "territorial" and suddenly have to be dealt with. It's not as simple as "Hide comment" on standard social media. Before you start a community I recommend reading David Spinks article about all the reasons you should not start a community, so you know what you are getting yourself into. It's all worth it.

You can visit our Discord server and explore it for yourself here: https://discord.com/invite/instreamly?

And last but not least:?

This is just an interview of me just relaying the hard work that has been done to make this community happen.

The biggest kudos go to our team members that for the past 3,5 years built the space for streamers to strive. Congrats to especially Filip Vuki? , Bart?omiej Kuczyński , Malwina Galicka , Mi?osz Budny , Micha? Hyczkiewicz , Micha? Kubiak and all the teammemebers and helpers engaged in the project.?Thank you! ??

Do you have any questions about running a community for your brand or company?

Let me know in the comments below and I will answer :)?

PSsst. We also help brands build their Discord servers and communities - from strategy to implementation. DM me for more info ??

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