Introducing you to the 1st edition of The Community Assemble

Welcome to The Community Assemble - the first installment of Glynk’s weekly series where we bring to you the best of everything that is happening in the world of online communities. Through this newsletter, we attempt to share our learnings from building and researching hundreds of communities. We will also bring actionable insights and fascinating stories of community builders from across the globe. 

“What is the best thing in the world? Connecting human beings” - Scott Heiferman, CEO of Meetup.com

Start with the “Why?”

As community builders, we all yearn to give our members a greater sense of belonging. While this directly translates to loyalty and retention in the longer run, the purpose is much bigger than that. Making members feel like they are part of something bigger is vital to giving them that sense of belonging. How do we do that? 

• Define your community’s purpose and communicate it very clearly. 

• Hand-pick your early members - choose people who really relate with this purpose. 

• Start building your community with them, not just for them. 

As brand communities, this is challenging as we want more and more people to join our community. Only rule to follow in the first early days - be patient and pick your members carefully.

Glynk’s tip 💡 

Clearly present your community’s purpose in all the communication you send out - from your emails announcing your community to the posters publicizing the membership. Once the member joins your online community, make it a part of your welcome message / post as well. Drill down the purpose into your early members, and they will then ensure it reaches the new members.”

Successful brand community stories

Customers who have a place to express themselves will feel more loyal towards your brand. Take Salesforce for eg: While you might think its $140 billion valuation is due purely to its innovation of software delivered on-demand through the cloud, it has also created a community of nearly 2 million members who support each other, organize events, produce content, and are a critical part of its global operations.

That’s all for now! 

Did you want more? We are regularly sharing our learnings on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. We are pretty sure you will find it useful.

If you would like us to cover something in The Community Assemble or would like to contribute to it, please reply to this newsletter. We’d love to hear from you!