Community Management Best Practices
Whether you’re a DAO, DeFi protocol, or NFT project, growing and keeping a community in web3 is tough!
In this post we highlight best practices for growing and maintaining a healthy community in web3, drawing insights from real communities documented in the NFT Playbook.
Web2 vs. Web3 communities
First, let’s examine what makes web3 communities different from ones in web2. and why they pose bigger challenges in growth and engagement.
Communities are more invested. Because members are economically invested and your project is a “public company” from the very beginning, your members want to see the financial success of the project they buy into. At the same time, they’re more demanding!
Web3 doesn’t sleep. That means, sometimes, you might not sleep too. Projects have to cater to the fact that crypto markets are on 24/7.
Web3 is global from day 0. Given the global nature of web3, people come in from all over the world. Internationalization, channels with country-specific vernacular & other global priorities come to the forefront earlier.
Web3 moves at insane speeds. A consequence of a no-sleep web3 world is that it moves at lightning fast speeds. Because we’re so early, the world is greenfield & prime for innovation.
Meme-ing is the name of the game. Some of the best projects are the most meme-able ones. Web3 increases the virality of any one project given its laugh-ability and share-ability — the “Meme Factor” so to say. Best to find a “Meme Intern” join your project early!
Non-Zero-Sum. What web2 might see as competition, web3 sees as an opportunity for collaboration. In the NFT world, you might have a project that looks and feels similar to another project. Instead of competition, this is an opportunity to partner with that project to share audiences and bring each other’s projects to life! WAGMI.
Now that we understand the core reasons community is nuanced in web3 vs. web2, let’s jump into some tips for community growth and engagement.
8 Tips for Growth & Engagement
Immerse Yourself in the Community
Really, the number one way to genuinely start your own community is by being a part of the ecosystem at large. You can either build your brand in public as a person contributing to various projects or find an existing community, participating in conversations and growing within that niche.
One example: The Chain Runners team were early in the Blitmaps community and built trust in that ecosystem. Many of the Chain Runner principals, as well as the early adopters, were inspired and seeded by the Blitmaps community.
Finding Trusted Influential Leaders
One of the most apparent ways to kickstart growth is partnering with an influencer that already has a large audience.
While a good strategy, be careful with this one. You want the right influencers, meaning they actually like the project and aren’t it only for the money. Also make sure their audience is the right type of audience you want to be marketing to. You don’t want to be promoting your basketball project to a bunch of footballers...
Provide Value to an Existing Ecosystem
Think about how your project can be beneficial to an existing project. Here’s an example:
Sovana reached out to Solanabananas with an ask “Can we feature your NFT in our virtual world? We’ll do everything, we just want your permission.” It was effectively free marketing for Solanabananas and allowed Sovana to be associated with an awesome project in the ecosystem. They’ve continued to partner since.
Providing value to an existing ecosystem is one of the best ways of seeding and growing your community. It’s accessible to people who don’t have ready access to influencers and is overall net positive for the ecosystem. Win-win.
Be Explicit About Vibes
If you care about the longevity of your project, your aim isn’t to get X amount of followers; the goal is to build a strong community that will last. Your early community and the vibes of that community form the heart of your project for the long term, so it’s important to curate the right vibes from the very start.
How? Be clear about your values, all out behavior you do or don’t want to see, and don’t be afraid to ban members who negatively impact vibes. For example, Crypto Coven explicitly asks their community not to talk about rarities or floor prices to cultivate vibes that are not focused on market movement.
Hire Good Mods
Good mods are very important both for keeping the community active and ensuring it’s a healthy place for everyone to hang out.
Some of the best mods come from your earliest believers, so start by looking in your community!
Open & Consistent Communication
💡 “Transparency and open communication is essential for building a strong community and instilling trust. We regularly share updates on where we’re at with the roadmap and are very transparent with the roadblocks as well as celebrating important achievements.” Elif (NinjaSquad)
Make sure you’re communicating constantly to your community, answering their questions, and anticipating their needs. Generally, you want to show:
Your dedication to the project through dedication to the community.
That your project is alive and worth the investment.
How you care about and listen to your members.
How you’re handling any setbacks (if any).
Basically, you absolutely want to avoid a chat that look like this:
Synchronous Events
Why do events?
People value live events, especially in the aftermath of COVID-19
People want to hear the plans and vision of the founders, with the voice adding a nice demonstration of passion for the vision from founders
People want to hear from the founders and collaborators themselves, showing that they’re committed to spending time talking to and engaging with community members
To start, you might consider Twitter Spaces so you can reach a wider audience while still catering to your existing members.
Try New Things!
Best practices can be helpful, but the greatest success in web3 is anti-playbook and comes with experimentation and being unique. So balance the principles and tips above with a healthy amount of experimentation with your community.
Be open to new ideas from the community and form a mindset of building with and for the community.
Happy BUIDLING!