There was a time when startups, especially in the product space looked at community building as just a ‘nice to have’ option for marketing. That time has passed.
Over the past few years, changing dynamics of audience engagement and go-to-market strategy have led to incredible results for product-led businesses that engage actively in community building. Audience and community are two different things, many organisations are realising the difference post-pandemic.
Products evolving from community feedback amidst COVID-19
Since COVID-19 took over the world and physical interactions effectively disappeared, product companies took to various forms of community building to engage in real conversations about their product, find comparisons, and discuss possible new features with an engaged group of developers, creators, and product managers.
Such communities thrived on platforms like Slack, We Work, Telegram and even Clubhouse, which itself is a great example of a product that evolved from community-led feedback. Entrepreneurs are finding that a community-led approach could not only lead to selling their products to a more targeted market but also help develop future products.
Among the investor faction too, a community-led approach has replaced the existing ideas of a ‘lean startup’. Some have even re-defined the lean startups of this age as those who build a community first and develop software afterwards.
Clubhouse is a great example, where the founders took the beta version to their own community of VCs and founders before introducing new features.
In between lockdowns and restricted social interactions, the platform grew like wildfire globally bringing on board creators, business leaders and even developers who actively engaged in open conversations about the features and problems of the platform giving the team real-time insight into user preference.
Social media is cluttered, but dedicated community channels are shedding new light on the effectiveness of having an engaged group.
Co-working spaces have fostered collaboration and built niche communities
Think of co-working spaces and the reason why they became such a popular concept. People from different backgrounds started working under the same roof, and eventually found ways to collaborate with each other to build exciting things.
Graphic designers found brand marketers, technical writers found newfound startups, and product discussions happened over lunch with strangers.
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Co-working spaces fostered an environment of creative development with industry peers who are not really colleagues or employed by the same company. Niche communities like these have led to superior product feedback and ideation in real-time, from real users.
Investors today also believe that this approach could be a game-changer for the world of startups. According to Jacob Peters of Launch House, a community platform that represents a virtual Silicon Valley, building a successful community depends on two key factors:
- A good reason for people to gather
- A reason for users to re-engage
We believe another important factor that determines the rise of a great community is the quality of content being shared. If these three areas are not carefully monitored and managed, the initiative will fail eventually.
Identifying true influencers is key to developing a smart community
In the app-based world of technology, product development cannot be reverse engineered to fit into a go-to-market strategy. The time has come for businesses to truly identify their influencers; it is no longer the C-suite employees but actual developers whose personal opinions and recommendations of software can make or break the market for a product.
It is not an easy transition from the traditional thinking of sales cycles, product development, feature introduction, processing bug reports and providing customer and user support. Even the employees need to relook at the methods of engaging with a smart community for the best results.
Ultimately, considering the shift in purchase decision dynamics, companies can sell better with an engaged community.
Therefore, the investors are lining up for companies that get their communities right, even before they build new products. Companies must acknowledge this now and start investing time in identifying where their communities lie and tap them at once.
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