Q&A: How to Build A Powerful Online Community With Slack

Today, we’re sitting down with Community Manager Melissa Thi Le of the Cultivators Community, a community where voices are heard, solutions are shared, and changemakers around the world can mobilize for change.

Building an online community is hard. But with a little help from our friends, we get by. Read on to find out how Melissa built a powerful online community using Slack.

1. When you first joined Cultivate as the Community Manager, what did you do to start laying the foundation for what would ultimately be our Cultivators Community?

I asked a lot of questions! Seriously, a lot. But, here are a few:

1. What is the community mission and purpose? If this is still undecided before the Community Manager joins, it's a perfect opportunity to work that out collaboratively. 

2. Are there resources on-hand and available that will help the Community Manager get started?

3. Are there other communities with a similar mission, purpose, or objective? What is working well in these communities, and what can we improve?

4. What personas make up our audience for this community? Based on these personas, how do market effectively to this audience? 

5. If the community is an extension of a company or business, what are the business objectives and goals? This will help make sure the Community objectives and goals are aligned.

2. During the infrastructure build, were there any community-building resources or tactics that were particularly helpful? If so, which ones?

Of course. I've got another list of five coming your way:

1. Our team was a part of other online communities. Taking a deep time into online communities that came highly recommended by the team helped me determine important community space qualities.

2. Researching online communities with a similar target audience, structure, and engagement that had grown over time helped establish benchmarks.

3. It was valuable to utilize Community Manager communities and networks, such as CMX, The Community Club, and other Ecosystem Builder Networks.

4. Reading! My three recommendations are Building Brand Communities, The Art of Community, and Originals.

5. As an experienced Community Manager, it was helpful to reflect on my past failures and experiences.

3. Why did we choose Slack as our platform? Did we consider other options, and if so, which ones?

Yes, we looked at Facebook Groups, Linkedin Groups, Discourse, and other platforms. Slack made the most sense as it's a popular platform that many in the change-making Community are familiar with. If they're not familiar with it, it's user friendly enough to join with relative ease.

We wanted a separation from personal and professional profiles. Many Facebook/LinkedIn Groups migrated their communities onto a different platform, so we tried to cut out the middleman.

4. Which resources, tips, or tools were most helpful when putting together community values & guidelines?

The most helpful thing was to look at other community guidelines. Some of the communities with strong guidelines include: $he Spends, The Verge, and Online Geniuses.

When it comes to values, we knew our priority was to create a safe space to share ideas and take action on ideas. Psychological safety was top of mind because we know that members will feel more respected, more comfortable taking risks, and more confident contributing to the group.

5. At a high-level, can you talk about why we chose to launch the Community using a phased approach?

It breaks things down in more bite-size and doable periods. It's easy to get overwhelmed with so many things to do and get overly excited to do everything at once, which will ultimately overwhelm the Community itself. Breaking down to phases allows the team to test, measure, and evaluate growth in two-week intervals. 

6. What has been the most challenging part thus far? 

It takes a lot to build a community, and one of the most essential and overlooked areas of a community is the engagement. Creating a virtual community during the time of COVID-19 can be draining as you're competing with so much demand for attention and personal obligations. You have to be very considerate of what the members are personally and professionally experiencing, figure out what they need, and add value.

7. What kinds of posts have received the highest engagement? Why do you think that is?

Posts that have done exceptionally well are posts about the Community purpose, posts about pets, posts about resources related to culture and change-making, and...posts about pets! It's a combo of productive and fun. 

Other posts that do really well are the member introductions, especially when they share who they are, what they plan to contribute to the Community, and other fun facts.

8. The Community is relatively new, but have you been able to incorporate member feedback yet? 

Yes, we are big on co-creating the activities, events, and community elements with our members. Recent member-led events include The 4-Day Work Week with Spencer McCullough and Launching an Internal Program with Todor Milkov.

Many of our members inspire much of what the Community has today, including the beloved pets channel. Recently, one of our members suggested a Changeathon; a hackathon event focused on culture change-making. We are in the process of planning that event now and are super excited about it's potential to connect community members and make ideas happen.

9. What is your ultimate goal for the Cultivators Community as the Community Manager?

My ultimate goal as the Community Manager is to create a safe, fun, and productive space for members to connect, share ideas, and support each other. Of course, we want to have fun and meet new people! That's with any community! What's unique about Cultivators Community is that it's a space where members can be vulnerable and connect with people who care to engage, support, and ask thoughtful questions about others' ideas. 

We're not where I want to be just yet, but I know we're making great strides towards it. 

10. If I wanted to start building my online Community tomorrow, what are the first three things I should do?

1. Determine a purpose. Community building is hard work and takes a lot of time, dedication, and experimentation. That means you're going to fail a lot, whether that's testing things that don't work out, say the wrong something, and posting things late (or not at all!). But if you know why you're doing it and are crystal clear on the purpose people are coming together, it will help you focus. 

2. Ask questions. Get to know what people are interested in, what brought them to the Community, how they heard about it, and who they are as individual people. Curiosity is key. People want to connect with real human beings, not robots who are there only to drive numbers and push sales. The people in the Community are the reason why people come and why people leave. When you focus too much on the numbers and not on the people, you burn out before you start. Ask yourself - what kind of Community would you join?

3. Join other communities. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The beginning stages are all about learning. There are communities now for Community Managers and Builders as people recognize the importance of community building. We're seeing the early stages of a new industry (an intersection between under Marketing, Business Development, People Ops) forming. Joining other communities allows you to learn what others are working on, how they're solving problems, and connecting with others who share similar interests, values, and experiences. By becoming a member of an online community yourself, you'll know exactly what it feels like to be a member of your own.