20 ways to kill your community

It’s Wednesday, Aug 20th, and today we’re talking about 20 ways to slowly kill your community.

First time reading? Sign up here.

Got some praise or feedback? Hit reply.

A slow, sad death.

If a community is going to die, it's usually going to be a slow death; the result of a dozen seemingly small decisions that slowly choke the life out of it.

The signs are small and easy to overlook, which makes it so easy to be lulled into failure.

You probably won't burn your community to the ground; instead, you'll just kill it softly.

Today, I'm covering 20 ways to slowly destroy a community.

1- Starting with a whimper:

While I'm not a fan of obsessing over the grand opening (and neither is Seth Godin), I am a firm believer that you should launch a community with a burst of energy. Bringing founders together for a live kick-off allows you to reinforce the value and build immediate rapport.

2- "Flat" posting.

This is a term I use when I see community managers post at members instead of inviting them into a conversation. It lacks dimension and intimacy. Some examples are teaching posts, linking to outside content with little context, asking yes or no questions, and poorly disguised promotional posts.

3- No real differentiator:

"Oh goodie, another marketing community!" I've never said these words. Pick any subject, and you'll likely find a dozen options for engaging with it. What are you bringing to the table that they can't get elsewhere? Good to know: this doesn't mean you have to be wildly different; just better or more niche than the alternatives.

4- Using a brand voice:

The voice of your community should be a human talking as a human. Vulnerability is a huge asset in the community, and brand voices feel removed and transactional.

5- Abandoned post culture:

This one is rampant: FB groups, Reddit, Slack: I see it everywhere. Someone posts an ask and then disappears. Doesn't respond to comments and doesn't close the loop. Don't let abandoned posts be the cultural norm. It makes members feel like they're wasting their breath.

6- Nothing to do:

I'm not going to say this better than David Spinks, so I won't try. In a nutshell: don't focus so hard on getting people into the room that you forget about what will happen when they get there.

7- Heavy-handed callouts:

Your community members will never be as invested as you are. It's not their world; it's only a small part of their world. Calling members out/tagging them in a post to get them to take a certain action will generally backfire at worst and fall flat at best. The general rule is: don't try to manufacture their behavior. (Introduction posts are the exception. Sorta)

8- Lack of post quality control:

In large communities, you'll often see post-approval turned on as a way to make sure they are on-topic and quality. There are pros and cons to this, but even in highly engaged communities, lots of generic, low-value stuff slips through. Keep an eye on it and don't let it be a pattern.

9- No 1:1 knowledge:

There is NOTHING a community manager can do that has a higher ROI than getting to know their members. Personal welcomes, offers for 15-minute 1:1 intro calls, spreadsheets tracking their expertise and experience; that's the stuff of advanced community minds. If you're not getting to know your members, you're playing little league.

10- Unanswered posts:

No member should ask for help without a few meaningful responses. CMs should be actively monitoring this daily. Members whose post gets no traction will be very reluctant to try again. (exception: posts that are low quality, in which case I recommend you remove and give some coaching)

11- Being spineless:

If you're going to run a community, you're going to deal with some crap. Respond to it gracefully, but don't run from it. Your members are counting on you to hold the line.

12- Valuing growth over intimacy:

The number of times people will talk about growing the group before any real intimacy has been established is crazy-talk. Do you really want to grow something mediocre? Sometimes you'll need to slow down to speed up.

13- Thinking through a social media lens:

Treating your community like an Instagram or Twitter account is a huge loss. The difference in opportunities between one-to-many and many-to-many is vast.

14- Over-indexing on engagement:

Engagement schmengagement. What does it mean to be engaged? You can be in a fight and be engaged. You can play Candy Crush and be engaged. Engagement isn't the focus; facilitating cross-connections that move people toward a common goal is.

15- Not measuring:

I know it's not fun, but you gotta do it. Every week (or month, at least).

16- Measuring too many things (or the wrong things):

Five KPIs will likely give you less, not more good data. Focusing on engagement and a number of comments isn't a great choice, either. The best we can do in the community is proxy measures, but keep them small, tight, and relevant. (I prefer three: stickiness, sentiment, and one KPI that ties directly to the business goal, such as subscription retention)

17- Not gating enough:

Most of us know that a "Community for all" won't cut it. But even a community for 40-year-old women, which introduces two shared demographics, is subpar. Get very specific on the shared traits and layers of friction that will keep the wrong members out.

18- No plan for growth:

While I advocate for intimacy > growth, in almost all cases, growth matters. Don't forget to plot any touchpoints you have with potential members. Post-purchase receipts? Email signatures? Because the community is an owned asset, it's worth driving traffic through multiple touchpoints.

19- Marketing, directing, anything but facilitating:

The community builder is a facilitator. An impresario, if you will. They are there to open and close doors as needed. Not to promote, not to have all the answers, and not to boss people around.

20- Choosing the wrong platform:

Ya, I know :( Platform talk can be soul-sucking. I've talked a lot about choosing the right platform, so let me say this: as it relates to seemingly harmless choices, choosing a platform that favors sync chat (Slack, Discord) is often a huge disadvantage over platforms that favor async post feeds (FB, Circle, Mighty, Skool). Chat-forward platforms punish members who can't check-in frequently and make it hard to get the most leverage out of highly engaging conversations.

Marinade

A few things I’ve read this week that are worth soaking in:

• Next time you run a meeting, utilize this strikingly simple and effective conversation-starting tool.

• 😭 Real community data!? Threado has released its Community Benchmark report. 

• Three compelling reasons to stop focusing on goals and start focusing on systems.

Onward,

April

Want to build an outstanding community? I can help in three ways:

1. Check out the CommunityOS Masterclass, a pithy, low-cost course covering all of the basics of community strategy 👉🏼 Get it here

2. Need full support on strategy, launch, and/ or execution? Book a call with our agency. 👉🏼 Schedule here

3. Starting a community and want some free guidance? 👉🏼 Free seven-day email course on mastering community