Launching a new community: From 0-1
Here are the steps I took to help a prop-tech company launch their membership, from concept to waitlist in a few months.
Taster events – Before the membership was even ready, we started hosting small gatherings to build momentum and start to learn about the struggles that community members were facing.
Launch event - This was our way of saying, we’re here! We opened the membership slightly before the launch event, so that there were already members there on the night to add credibility.
Cohort 1 - I didn't want to open the membership and be trying to build community with only a few members, so we launched the first memberships as a founding cohort (with discounted founding member pricing)
Creating new norms - From day one, I knew that I didn’t want to see anyone co-working next to someone all day and never meeting them! At some point in the day, I would say, do you two know each other? You should! And then provide them a jumping off point: Maya used to live in Madrid and didn’t you study for a while to Madrid as well Sam? Boom! Connection made. I knew it was working when I started seeing people introducing themselves to each other without me. You can faciliate online communities in exactly the same way, by modelling the behaviours, like collaboration that you want to see in the community.
Consistent programming - We held pretty much the same breakfast gathering every two weeks for 4 months. I was worried it would get repetitive. But through trial and error, we got the organising down to a science so it wasn't too big of a lift on our side. It meant if someone was interested in learning more about the membership, there was always a place for them to come and check it out.
Co-creation - I really wanted to be building WITH the community and not just for the community. I made it a point to ask members for their opinion and advice regularly. This builds trust and makes sure you are creating things that people actually want. When members said they wanted to use the space after 5pm, we listened and opened until 10pm.
Advocates - These are the people who LOVE being part of the community and want to make it even better. There are different schools of thought about how to nurture these people. My approach was to spend time really getting to know them, make a point of explaining how the community works and what our goals are, and offer extra opportunities to get involved and shape the future of the community.
Waitlist - Once we had closed the founding membership, we used a waitlist to build excitement for the next cohort. If you are already known to your audience, you could do this for cohort 1.
🌐 I’m Selena, a community strategist, who’s run events in 12 countries and worked across universities, start-ups and civil society organisations. I turn impact communities turn into global movements to change the world.
