Day 1 - Session notes
On 19th/20th September I join the Circle Community Summit. The following are key highlights from day one.
Intro Notes
3 common community business models
- Paid membership communities Members pay monthly, quarterly, or annuallyThe communities are perpetual and ongoing
- Limited time, cohort-based communes. The community exists for a fixed period of time while the members accompilsh something (e. a cohort- based course community, a bootcamp, or a challenge with a start and end date.)
- Product-centric community Maybe a brand or a startup with a product- and the community is a place to learn about the product.
Approaches for Signature gathering
Hot Seats
On a live call, one person goes in the hot seat They talk about a problem they’re trying to solveThe community manager or rest of the group helps them solve that problem.
The hot seat could be a weekly, biweekly, or monthly event.
Live Workshops
It’s okay if you don’t have all your content pre-recorded, teach it live!
This is an opportunity to create content while you’re building your communityAnd your community can join live, ask questions, and learn alongside each other in real time.
Accountability groups
Host a weekly or monthly check in with your community to identify what they need accountability for and then challenge them to pick an accountability partner.
You could create a special space in your community for accountability or your members can create their own private group chat
Office Hours
Office hours are an informal time that gives your community a dedicated time to ask questions and dive deeper into your content/expertise.
You don’t have to plan any content either, because your community provides the questions.
Office hours could also be a time where people join you live and you all work on your tasks/projects together.
Exclusive expert trainings
You don’t have to create all the content and programming yourself! Invite your peers, experts, or even your own members to teach live inside your community
Book clubs
Can help boost engagement and bring community together to experience something new.
Feedback as a service
Community is about sharing and helping each other. Some of the most engaged communities on Circle ask their members to submit their work for review. Members will review the submissions and provide meaningful feedback.
This can especially be helpful in writing, art, and podcasting communities.
e.g. ask for members to submit their writing and give them feedback
Challenges
Hosting monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly challenges give your members something specific to achieve in a short period of time. It helps them gain quick wins and do it alongside like– minded people.
Community powered courses
Perhaps you want to build a community to support your course. Or vice versal You could use the course as the central content that keeps your members engaged until they complete it.
This could include live workshops and mini- challenges that align with the course content
Monthly themed content
Your community has a theme, but so can your content! By selecting monthly, or quarterly themes, it allows your members to go deeper into a specific topicThis could act as a spring board for other content in the community
Pricing
average $28 per month
Tips how to Drive Engagement
- Post regularly
- Correct publicly
- Comment a lot
- 10% active members is already amazing, Reddit is less than 1%
- tag others who might know the answer
- Welcome people and make them feel special
- you need to know, whom you want to appeal too
- scale: work with chapters - 150 members in a chapter
- push on to the community power to execute certain roles
Starting the community
- First page, collect eMails and next page have payed subscriptions.
- You need to talk to the first 300 members
- 15-20 introduction calls and align on their goals they want to achieve.
- Use social like a mad-man…
- Don’t provide free trials … engagement is really low, level of commitment very low
- Have a very clear onboarding flow and show people around.
- Send remember eMail with a weekly review
- Have a welcome pack and get members engaged.
Host breakout sessions, community sessions … where members can meet each other and get to know more about each other.
Maya Elious - about messaging
How can I make this an opportunity to get my money back with the investment in this course.
Don’t be driven by money - so don’t make decisions too much driven by money. Understand why you like money.
Your message matters! Your message can make you millions.
Poor messaging
- vague
- generic
- cliche
- wordy - often because they are not clear
- super predictable (and this way not creating interest)
- unclear
- confusing
No one really understands what you do and how you add value!
Profitable messaging
Clear, specific and NON-inclusive. Good messaging excludes people. Stop trying to save everyone.
It is about to attract the right people.
Have good filters and expectations who you want to include
- Narrow your niche - Health, Wealth and Self - get specific in your industry
- Define your target audience
-
Position your value - acknowledging what the customer wants
- desire, pain and consequence of this pain
- examples Desire: Increase their price point. Pain Point: Don’t know how to provide proper messaging
- Package your offer - creating what the customer will buy
- Differentiate your brand - stand out in a competitive market … saturated can be good, because you what works
Your messaging is trial & error.
What is the first thing people see about you?
Who I am? Whom I help? What I help them do?
Example message templates
Example #1
We are a niche/industry company that helps/works with (target customer] so they can result/value. We are known for differentiator.
Example #2
The most/best/only specific tile for target customer who want to desired result
Example #3
I’m a specific title that’s known for helping target customer achieve specific result using my framework.
Linking
