Return to the lighthouse
Issue 7: why communities fail, mistakes community builders make, and your community lighthouse
Hi, I’m Emilie, and I’m writing this newsletter, Connection Engine, to discuss reflections and actionable lessons on community building in a digital world. If you’re a community builder or just curious about community work, you can join the fun by subscribing below!
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The sad reality of community building is that many communities fail. Building a community is hard work — it takes time, effort, and a certain vulnerability to connect with others beyond the fleeting nature of most human interactions.
And yet, sometimes the community just doesn’t work. Engagement simmers down, new member onboarding declines, and even the most devout members feel little incentive to contribute. In every community builder’s worst nightmare: the community becomes boring.
My fellow community designer Caroline once told me that when things start to go wrong or become overwhelming, it’s important to keep your community’s “lighthouse” top of mind. Remember why you’re building in the first place and let that vision guide you back in the right direction.
With that, we’ll get into why communities fail, but also mistakes to avoid as a community builder to better set up your community for success from launch to growth.
Reasons communities fail
Many things can go wrong with your community. There’s no manual for human connection, so a lot of community work is trial and error, which can be scary for a business to invest in.
There are however, a few recurring big reasons some communities just don’t make it:
1. Too focused on marketing
I talked about this in a previous post here, but making your community your sales audience basically guarantees its downfall. Avoid using any marketing tactics on your community’s members. The benefits will reveal themselves on their own over time.
2. Too focused on growth and metrics
Community building takes time because establishing trust takes time. You can’t throw some people together in a chatroom and expect an authentic, valuable community to be born overnight. Many businesses expect community results to happen quickly and often dismantle the community before it has a real chance to show results.
“Even with my deep love of data a sure fire way to kill your Community before it gets going is tying your success too quickly to big business metrics and expecting immediate results.” - Erica Kuhl
3. High moderator turnover
Communities that consistently switch out leadership and moderators set poor examples for their members. Oftentimes the community manager is the face of the community and if they aren’t sticking around for the community why would others feel a sense of commitment and loyalty? If you have moderators for your community, make sure they are appreciated.
4. No clear onboarding or path to contribution
Joining a community for the first time can be extremely overwhelming, especially in an online server in Discord or Slack. Designing a delightful and thoughtful onboarding experience is crucial to the health and survival of your community. Do not create any extra work for your members to figure out how they can best help.
Your job is to make it as easy and seamless as possible to add value and feel appreciation back from that contribution. Whether it’s a personalized message, 1:1 call, or introduction to other members, create an adventure for your new members from the very beginning.
“Joining a community can be overwhelming, particularly if it’s not clear how to introduce yourself and get involved. Every community leader I’ve talked to agrees that designing a thoughtful onboarding process is one of the most important things you do.” - Justine & Olivia Moore
5. Little incentive
If your members feel little to no value in contributing, you can’t expect your community to thrive. Time is precious and is often exchanged only for something of value. Having clear ways your community adds value (and frequent surveys to make sure you are serving the best value possible for any given moment) is critical to retaining members.
Some more reasons from Greg Isenberg:
There’s a lot that a business can do to hurt a community’s growth and success. The biggest thing to remember is that growing an engaged community takes time and patience. You can’t manufacture success with community. It’s the job of the community builder to push this idea and consistently stand behind values of the community.
Mistakes community managers make
With so many moving parts and tasks of community design, it can be easy to neglect an area that later becomes a key reason for the community’s downfall. Here are five common mistakes community managers make that can hurt their communities:
1. Using growth as the top metric
Never sacrifice an engaged, small community for a big, unengaged community. Many community managers feel pressure to grow their community quickly and often do this at the cost of an authentic, valuable community.
Your guiding metric should usually be engagement. If this falls at any point, it is unwise to continue growing your membership without figuring out the pulse of your community first.
2. Thinking the community will grow itself
Some community builders spend months developing an excellent strategy, creating a foolproof framework for their community, and building the foundation for their community in a tool of their choice. They then think the bulk of the work is done and the community will advertise itself, but this is actually where the tough work begins.
Communities, especially early communities, require time and outreach. Lots of it. Find people that match your member persona and then convince them why they should join. This part never stops. Over time, the community will start to grow on its own, but effort should always be put into recruiting the right types of members and keeping the pulse of the community steady and strong.
3. Putting off creating value
Communities run on value, created by contributors and members. Your role is to spearhead how that value and content is created, distributed, and ultimately rewarded, to members. It’s not an easy task, but one of the more important ones. It is also key to never stop showing appreciation. Every single contribution by every single member is worth a thank you of some kind.
4. Not testing enough
Great community managers know that not every engagement strategy will work. It’s important to not give up on testing, whether weekly or monthly, to see if there’s something you can do that really sticks with your community. Give up on trying and you give up on your community.
5. Being too broad or too specific in membership
It’s important to find a good Goldilocks zone for your community’s membership. You’re gathering people around a certain cause or interest, so you want to recruit the right types of people without being exclusive or unwelcoming. This can be a delicate balance, so defining your ideal member is important while also recognizing that a great member will not necessarily check all of the boxes.
In addition to these important things, a community builder should also make members feel welcome, supported, and encouraged throughout all parts of their member journeys. If your community starts to feel toxic or overwhelming, it might be time to ramp up how you show appreciation. If your community feels stagnant, it might be time to reevaluate your engagement strategies. If you’re having trouble getting new members to stay on, it might be time to rethink your onboarding design.
It all goes back to being willing to test, reevaluate strategies, and test again. This part of community work never stops. As your community evolves your strategy will evolve and grow with it.
Your community lighthouse
It’s easy to get lost in the everyday details of community building. But if things are going wrong, it’s likely you’ll need to instead take a step back and reevaluate your big picture strategy. Keep your values front and center when redesigning parts of your community experience — these principles form the foundation of your community lighthouse.
Your community lighthouse should guide you both in the good and bad times and also remind you that you’re building something that could change someone’s life. With a solid lighthouse you’re never left completely in the dark — let it guide you back to your mission and bring you back to your purpose when you’ve strayed too far.
Next week: incentive design! Until then, thanks for being a part of Connection Engine!
About me
I’m Emilie. Why am I doing this? To share my learnings on community work, to learn more myself, and to make new internet friends!
Want to read more? Follow me on Twitter and subscribe to my newsletter here.
Have a community question for a future issue or interested in working together? Check out my website or email me at ekormienko@gmail.com.