Why are we still building community on Slack? | from episode 04 of Dear Bri

Slack is a social network that’s reached a threshold where “everyone” is on it, making it a popular spot for building community. The problem is that Slack is not always the best place to build your community.

So, in this edition of the Dear Bri newsletter, I’m bringing you the relevant information you need to make an informed decision on whether Slack or another social network is the right place for your community or not.

We’ll cover:

1. Why we are still building community on Slack
2. When it’s okay to build your community on Slack
3. Slack’s downsides and weaknesses

In this episode, Noele Flowers — the Slack Slayer — and I are helping our writer, Community in a Conundrum. They are creating a community and are wondering where best to host it. Specifically, as it relates to Slack versus all-in-one platforms like Heartbeat .

For the full communitea, press play below.

In this episode:

(03:43) The joys of keeping an eye on the Nextdoor chaos

(06:09) The communitea: Community in a Conundrum’s letter

(08:08) The dilemma of wanting the benefits from both social networks and all-in-one community platforms

(09:46) Why we ARE still building community on Slack and Facebook

(17:06) The differences between Facebook, Slack, and all-in-one community platforms

(23:09) Intentional onboarding and engagement strategies for all-in-one community platforms

(30:25) The learning-to-connection ratio and what it means for your platform choice

(33:06) Going beyond connection

1 - Why we are still building community on Slack

The network effects.

As I mentioned before, “everyone” is on Slack nowadays. So people create communities on Slack to tap into the existing network. They borrow from the fact that community members already have accounts and already have the habit of checking the platform.

“The question that we then have to ask is that a good enough reason to outweigh some of the downsides?” - Noele Flowers

Well, let’s see.

2 - When it’s okay to build your community on Slack

• If there’s a really obvious audience overlap

Slack is a good fit for a workplace-based community.

A good example of this is The Community Community, a community for senior community professionals. People who are on Slack talking about their jobs in their own job workspaces, and then they're opening Slack as well. So there's a clear overlap there.

If you want to know more about it, make sure to watch our Community Dissection: A World-class Example of a Cohort-based Community: The Community Community hosted on Slack .

• If it’s a losing battle to habituate your community yourself

When you build a community you need to make sure your members build the habit of checking into your community.

This is done through an onboarding sequence that educates and guides the members to the right behaviors.

The problem is that there are situations where it’s not worth the effort to try doing this because you know they will not create the habit no matter how hard you try.

For example, if you’re working with a super busy segment like tech CMOs they’re probably not going to learn a new community platform, but they might check into the community if it’s on Slack where they need to be for work already.

• If building the community in an all-in-one community platform is too much work

When you choose an all-in-one community platform, you are putting extra work on your strategic plate and it might just be too much.

For example, if you’re a solopreneur who is running your business as well as running your community maybe you can only devote around 10 hours a week to it.

This doesn’t leave time to do an onboarding sequence or to accomplish the necessary habituating of the community members.

So, even though the all-in-one community platform might be the best platform, a more realistic strategy shows that Slack is good enough in these situations.

3 - Slack’s downsides and weaknesses

???Slack is built for workspaces. So, if your community is not a workplace community, Slack was not built for your community.

???Because Slack is not built for community, there’s the possibility that as it grows and evolves as a tool it will end up going in a direction that's not compatible with the community that you're trying to build.

???Slack is not a sustainable option for community builders because you can’t build any type of architecture or library if the messages are going to disappear.

???In Slack you don’t own or get access to your community’s data. There’s no opportunity for data analytics. This means you can’t calculate your ROI and know if your community is actually worth it.

?? In Slack you don’t get to build content programs, to host events, to organize things the way you want them organized, or to have moderation queues.

So, now that you know all of this, is Slack the platform for your community?

↓ I’d love to hear it in the comments

For more insight into how to decide which platform is best for your community tune into Episode 04 of Dear Bri!

?? Want personalized strategy for your community? Submit an anonymous letter about your community conundrum, fiasco, drama, or other dilemma here .

?? Want to support Dear Bri? Leave a podcast rating and review on the app of your choice. Thank you for making community creation less lonely. ??

This season of Dear Bri is sponsored by our friends at Heartbeat.

Heartbeat is an all-in-one community platform and it’s the one I chose to host my own community. Your members can finally have events, conversation, content and courses in one distraction-free, intimate, customized place.

I’m an affiliate with Heartbeat which means when you sign up through my link , I get paid a small amount at no extra charge to you. Thank you for supporting my work in that way.

Connect with Bri and her services at Ember

Bri Leever is the Founder and Head Community Creator at Ember. Bri and her team help consultants, coaches, and creators craft their community offer and build community-powered businesses. Check out our consulting packages , community and more free resources on our website!

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