Three Pillars (Solid Foundations) to Grow Self-Sustaining Communities
A sequel from the last article, here we continue to define and differentiate communities from other forms of agglomerations by offering a simple framework to identify communities (Identity, Connectedness, and Growth).
To do so, I’m remixing content from Hacking Communities - my book which I am (finally) releasing in printed version next week (in case you missed the e-book version).?
Would love to hear your perspective and definition, too.?
What is Community Building, what is Community Hacking??
What differentiates a community from a crowd??
Community means people consistently sharing anything (food, knowledge or ideas) and growing through each interaction. Building communities is about creating safe spaces where they build trust through those very interactions.?Trust starts when people share a sense of familiarity: the more we can relate to others, the more we feel safe to be vulnerable. The more we know each other, the more we show up and share.?
Community hacking means cracking the code to vibrant communities, by going back to the source code of belonging. Is to say, back to the foundational principles of community. It is the compound of tenets and techniques described in Hacking Communities, including:
Communities are conversations that flow in all directions, instead of a linear monologue. It is about people as protagonists, not the audience.
Our job is to consistently create the “excuses for them to connect, build trust, exchange value and belong”.?Knowing that what brings people together doesn’t matter as much as the connections around it.?
Even if you are building communities around a product or service, these serve as a “point of attraction and interaction” for people to meet, interact, and stay connected. The main value is delivered beyond the product or service— from people to people (P2P).
Building Strong Foundations on Three Pillars: Connectedness, Identity, and Growth
Communities built on strong foundations create a virtuous cycle of growth. While they still require nurturing and pruning (aka constant leadership), they are more self-sustaining than traditional, centralized organizational models.?There are three elements that put in evidence if what you are building is leaning more towards a community or just another type of agglomeration (a crowd, a database, or a Cool Kids Club).?
Identity?
The key element of belonging, when people feel part of something bigger (than themselves). It gives them a sense of freedom and safety.?
When people feel at home, they feel others “just get them”, like speaking the same language. They feel more comfortable to express their most authentic selves. They feel like others have got their back. Value is added continuously, from people to people, constantly building ties that bring them back to the community (relationships over transactions).?
Identity is a core element to community because it empowers people and inspires ownership. By feeling part of something, we feel responsible for it.
Connectedness
To be deemed a community, value must be added beyond anything concrete offered (whether a product or service): from people to people (P2P).
Building the connectedness is at the core of community operations. It translates into the day-to-day tasks of a community manager, as the central element of community: people are directly connected to each other through programming or platform.
Community building is about conversations, not monologues. Traditional marketing is about a one-sided speech (advertising). The first builds relationships and the second, transactions.
To build community, you must bring people together consistently, allowing them to get to know each other and stay in touch. In Chapter 14 of Hacking Communities we dive deeper on the three Cs of connectedness: consistency, cadence, and cohesion.?
In the coming editions of this newsletter, I’ll share about it in more depth.?
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Growth
Organic growth is characteristic of communities, because when people can relate to each other and identify with your community core values, they feel as if it belongs to them (as much as they belong to it). It builds a sense of ownership and responsibility. Ambassadorship comes naturally.
Communities don’t immediately grow from one to one thousand, but instead grow progressively from one person to another. From one to two, then three, five, twenty-one, fifty-five, in a golden ratio-like progression. That’s what leads some communities to grow exponentially, organically.
Don’t take this too literally, though: it doesn’t mean to say that if you are building a community around a product or service, you should not invest in targeted marketing campaigns. Nor that once your community picks up, it should continue ad aeternum without any concern, nurturing or interventions from you. Communities will always require some form of nurturing, pruning and caring from their leaders - either these remain their founders or not.?
Growth means that you can see people taking action and responsibility to help your community to thrive. It could mean bringing others to the community, or simply sharing more and adding more value to those currently participating. It could mean depth over distance.
Participation is the ultimate evidence that you build a community: people act as protagonists, not as the audience.
Assessing Your Community Foundations
As in most things, this is more about a range than a black-and white thing.?
We created a simple assessment for individuals and businesses to reflect upon the foundations of their existing communities based on the three pillars above.?I made a fast and dirty version of this assessment into a spreadsheet. You can make a copy of this template on Google Sheets.
Note: The purpose of this (simple) questionnaire is self-reflection, not assessing the value of your community.?
Hacking Communities Beyond its Title
Ideated in 2014, written through 2018 to its first publishing date in 2020, there’s a lot more to be said about community building than what I managed to fit in 200-something pages On a note to the printed version (2023), I shared that:
“While the title (Hacking Communities) alludes to tips and tricks for community building, its content means to equip emerging leaders with the foundations to build self-sustaining communities. It features personal stories, research studies, and creative metaphors collected during my journey to becoming a community leader.”
-from Note to the Printed Edition (available Jan 22nd, 2023, Hacking Communities (2020)
In writing this book, I lived by the African proverb: “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”
This honest book review?from Socially Constructed Online summarized it well in 20 (from minute 0:10 to 0:30):?
“The reason why it is possible using Oliveira’s strategy to hack a community is precisely because she doesn’t focus on strategies and tactics for building community. She wants to help you, the person building the community, grow into the mindset of being a community builder” - from 13 Tenets of a Community Builder: Hacking Communities by Lais de Oliveira
Departing from the principle that anyone is potentially a community builder, I share tenets and principles for you to develop the leadership and communication skills required to sustain high-growth communities. Including:
In Part I of the book, I focus on laying the foundations for community building. In Part II, I share practical steps to actually build or grow a community.
Note this book is not about quick tips and tricks. In writing Hacking Communities, I found no shortcut to community building. No quick hacks to going from zero to belonging. It is about you embodying an authentic community leadership style.
Let’s Catch Up!
In case you missed, sharing the link to my last article below. Also, would love to hear your thoughts on all the above - feel free to leave a comment or email me at (my first name)@hackingcommunities.com. :)
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