Building an Online Community Around Your Work

You can do something that AI can’t: Build an online community.

“AI might have suggestions, but AI can’t replace you – your connection with people, your connection with your topic, how you feel about it,” says Bonnie Paulson, bestselling author and co-owner of the Indie Book Academy.

Bonnie’s presentation at the Content Entrepreneur Expo (CEX) provided a helpful framework for establishing a community for your content business. “Community is all about being a leader and serving the people you’re trying to get in touch with,” she says.

Of the five things to do, most require you to ask a lot of questions. Fortunately, if you’ve been in business for a while, you should have most of the answers. If you’re just starting, the answers will help ground your content business as a whole.

1. Identify the goals and purposes of your community: At this stage, you’re creating a vision. What’s your big idea for the community? Your content strategy, if you have one, can help here. What ties your content to the people who look at it?

The following questions might be easier to answer after the later steps, but doing a rough draft now can center the process.

What three goals might your community have? What do you want to accomplish with your group? How do you help them? What makes this community different?

2. Define your community: First, you should know where your community lives. Are they in social media groups, forums, fan clubs, professional networks, newsletters? Go to where they are so you can learn more about them.

Then, create a profile or avatar of the ideal member of your community by tackling these categories and questions:

• Interests: What topics or activities are they passionate about?
• Goals: What are they hoping to achieve by joining the community?
• Skills: What skills or expertise do they bring to the community?
• Engagement level: How active are they likely to be in the community?
• Values: What are the core values or beliefs that drive them?
• Challenges: What challenges or pain points are they looking to overcome?

I really like Bonnie’s inclusion of skills and engagement level. They’re the difference between defining your ideal community member and your ideal audience member. Communities are active places, while most other content products are passive. Even if people comment on your videos, blogs, etc., they’re engaged but aren’t active community members.

3. Match your community to your ideal community member: Now that you understand who will belong to your community, define what you will bring to the community. The questions follow the same categories as the member profile:

• Interests: How can I create content and discussions that resonate with the interests of my ideal member? What activities or events can I organize that align with what they are passionate about?
• Goals: What resources can I provide to help members achieve their personal or professional goals? How can I facilitate connections within the community that might aid in reaching these goals?
• Skills: In what ways can I showcase or utilize the unique skills of members? Can I offer opportunities for members to teach or mentor others in the community?
• Engagement level: What strategies can I employ to maintain or increase the engagement levels of members? How can I create a welcoming environment that encourages regular participation?
• Values: How do I ensure that the community’s culture reflects the values important to our members? How can I celebrate these shared values within the community?
• Challenges: What tools or support systems can I put in place to help members overcome their challenges? How can I encourage peer-to-peer support and collaboration to address these pain points?

After knowing who your ideal member is and how you can grow a community around them, Bonnie says you need to ask this two-part question: What am I willing to deliver and for how long?

Hint: Everything and forever are never the right answers.

4. Make it a game: “I know it can sound dumb, but we’re all little kids trapped in these bodies. We want things to be fun,” Bonnie says.

To get members engaged, reward their participation, from answering questions to commenting and more. For example, you could create a points system where people get an icon or badge when they reach a goal. If they do even more, they could receive a swag bag.

Possibilities also include leaderboards, challenges and quests, role-playing, interactive polls and competitions, progress tracking, and team-based activities.

5. Get OK with monetization. Bonnie hears some creators say it feels wrong to charge community members. Her reply? “Meet needs to meet needs. If you can’t pay your bills, how long can you support that community?

Membership fees aren’t the only way to monetize your community. You could charge for premium content, accept sponsored posts and ads, and do affiliate marketing. You could sell merch, host paid events, and accept donations and crowdfunding. Perhaps you could sell coaching, courses, and workshops or license the content. 

One more thing (well, 10) to do. Bonnie says you should do 10 things every day that will lead to and grow your community. You should start small but always point to the goal.

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