[Editorial] Community is not magic. Come to your senses!
Haebom
When I meet startup CEOs recently, many of them are dreaming of entering the overseas market, especially the United States. Naturally, interest in community building is growing. However, many people mistakenly believe that creating a community is as easy as magic. Come to your senses! Community isn't that simple.
One of the most common mistakes is rushing to set up a branch or office. We often see startups entering the U.S. setting up offices in major cities such as New York and San Francisco. This misunderstands the essence of community building. Running an office requires a lot of resources, including rent and staff costs. Can these investments really guarantee ROI? In most cases, no. You can't build a community by simply providing space.
The key to community building is consistency. For example, you need to open Meetup consistently. You need to keep the event going even if there are only 3 or even 1 participants. It is important for the community to remain consistently present. It is rare for people to voluntarily become obsessed with a specific product and expend energy on it. Most people will not actively participate unless prompted.
The first step toward community begins with individual meetings. Whether you have a large number of users or a small number of users, you need to personally meet and interview the people who use your product. You should ask them why they left, why they continue to use them, what features they find most useful, and collect their feedback. Based on the information obtained in this way, users are connected to each other. For example, you could introduce a few active users of your product in a certain region to each other and help them form a network. These small-start networks become the foundation of the community.
Another problem is the deactivation of channels. We've created community channels on Slack or Discord, but most channels are only active with moderators or a small number of users. In these situations, it is unlikely that new users will actively participate. Most users see other people being active and get involved themselves. This requires consistent activity from community managers, but even managers will eventually get tired.
Personally, what was very surprising was that there were many people who paid thousands of dollars to create such a community, and also paid fixed expenses of tens of dollars to run bots, etc. If you go to a restaurant where there are no customers, I should become a regular there! Or maybe I should promote this place! Do you think so? It can be if the taste is fantastic, or the service or something else provides an overwhelming experience. The same goes for products. Unless there is great innovation, most users are likely to be indifferent. In other words, the most reliable method is not to hope for a fluke and to attract someone, but to persistently engage in individual interviews, discussions, and consistent meetups.
To solve this problem, a deep connection with users is critical. We meet with users individually to hear their experiences, reflect on their feedback, and connect them with each other. All products that we commonly refer to as having a successful community are doing that. If we tried to artificially create a community, every community would have done well. Communities directly operated by big tech companies are often less active than expected. This means that it is not an area where you can simply invest money.
In fact, community building is something that team members or representatives who are passionate about our product must passionately expend energy on. It introduces users who use the product in a specific region and provides opportunities for them to communicate with each other. These small encounters become the starting point of a community.
Lastly, it's actually easy for community builders/managers to fall into a trap. If the community does well, it's worth it, and if it doesn't do well, it's okay to take responsibility, but the work of creating and managing the community itself is often overlooked. There are many cases where you have to work 24/7, which requires more energy than expected and requires constant response.
Community building is not magic. It requires consistent effort, dedication, and a deep connection with users. Communities aren't just created; they're carefully built. Come to your senses and create a community with a realistic approach.
