15 ideas for building an online community from the ground up

Hi, this is Szymon (Simon) Krupecki, creator of the 2 Meters to Launch newsletter

I welcome you to my mind map titled “15 ideas for community building from the ground up”

Why is it important to know how to build a community? Here are the most important reasons:

1. you get to know your audience better than anyone else:

You know their needs

Dreams

Frustrations

Pains

Questions they ask themselves

2. creating products based on knowledge from point 1. is much easier and more reliable than guessing, what people will like and what they will not:

Don't guess

Ask

Test

Imagine you have a community that:

Likes you

Trusts you

Holds similar values to yours

Sees that you impart useful, proven and easily digestible knowledge

Recommends you to others.

And it ultimately leads to a situation where you and your personal brand (or company), are driven by an engaged community that you have built yourself.

Do you notice how it all interlocks step by step?

I'm going to reveal the cards to you and will tell you about my plan to build an online community that you can also use to build your community from the ground up ;)

1. Identify your ideal audience (customer) and target group:

How old are the people in your target group?

What are they interested in?

What are they looking for on the internet?

Who do they follow on the internet?

2. Determine the purpose of your community's existence

What do you want to achieve with it?

What do you need it for?

What is that supposed to give you?

And most of all - what do you want to give her from yourself?

3. Do some proper research

E.g., in the forums (QUORA)

Find out what problems the people you want to reach have that you can solve.

It can be a very good idea to first strongly contribute to such a group, so that later you can get to the right people right away.

4. Choose where you want to start

Remember: YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE EVERYWHERE!

Pick one, maybe two places to start publishing and just get started.

The configuration is up to you, but I encourage you to choose at least one of these two places to start: the blog or the newsletter, because social media will never be fully yours ;)

You can start with a blog, put some texts on it.

Then set up a newsletter to gather a base (especially if your community is to become your customers)

And for this, choose one of the social media platforms: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn.

You shorten the text from your blog and upload it to social media, by the way, encourage people to sign up for your newsletter, where once a week or once every two weeks you discuss news from your topic, and everything slowly starts to hulk ;)

5. Decide: authenticity or creation?

There is no one way to success, it is up to you to decide if you want to show yourself as you are or play a role like in the theater.

6. In social media, video formats rule:

Instagram Reels

Tik Tok videos

Youtube Shorts

7. Show a behind-the-scenes look:

How do you prepare materials?

What/Who is your inspiration?

8. Educate through storytelling:

We like to read stories, and if they are stories that give us value/knowledge, we like it twice as much.

Share various stories from your life, but remember to take care of the privacy of the other characters in the story.

9. Don't create content blindly:

Sometimes it is better to post nothing than to post something just to show that you are still there.

Prepare yourself a strategy/schedule for publishing content

10. Regularity, consistency, interaction:

... are the keys to successful community building.

Podcast every second Tuesday -> 2 Meters of Kindness Podcast

Newsletter every Friday -> 2 Meters to Launch Newsletter

11. Create a routine that your emerging community will attach to:

On Wednesdays a new post on Instagram, on the last day of the month a summary of the most interesting events related to your topic, e.g. in the newsletter.

12. Create a lead magnet:

That is, a gift for signing up for the newsletter. (like this mindmap)

Don't forget to spread the word on social media about it

13. Show your daily life:

People like to peep (think Big Brother, for example)

People like to identify with the people they follow online.

14. Share knowledge and easy-to-implement tips:

E.g., using infographics that are easily digestible, more likely to be saved and shared

Sometimes it's ideal to post something raw online - here and now.

15. Match the content to a particular domain:

Tik Tok - short videos

Instagram - graphics (carousels), photos & short videos

Blog - photos, video, audio, texts

Newsletter - texts, links to blog articles

And that would be it!

I have presented you with 15 ideas for building your own community from scratch.

Now is the time to put this knowledge to use.

I also encourage you to follow my profile on Instagram, where I show, among other things, what my (future) business looks like from behind the scenes ;)

Stay tuned, cheers!