Create the conditions for a community member’s success

Deb Schell

6 months ago

Hi, Reader!

Do you need help deciding what to do with your online community members?

It’s already more than halfway through the year, and you might be struggling to come up with new content or ideas to spark connections, drive engagement, and ignite members’ interest.

I’m sharing a new episode of The Community Strategy Podcast with Mathilde Leo, Circle’s Head of Community and Customer Education.

You might be familiar with Circle, but if not, it’s an all-in-one online community, program, and course platform for entrepreneurs, startups, and nonprofits.

Mathilde shared a few tips for community builders, including a deeper look into the community. You might find passive learners or potential active members who still need to do something.

Questions for hosts:

Are members connecting online?
Are members in an online course creating study groups?
Do you have passive lurkers?

According to online sources, approximately 90% of online social members are lurkers. If you haven’t heard of the term, lurkers are individuals who consume content but don’t respond. Many online marketers know this as the 90-9-1 rule.

Mathilde said the community strategy changes constantly. Her priority when starting with Circle over three years ago is the same today: teaching members to use the platform to build and grow their online communities.

In the early days of the customer community, we used the customers to provide a feedback loop to figure out what was working well, seeking advice from active members about new product features, and co-creating a vast resource library for current and future hosts.

The platform recently succeeded in launching 100 features within the past year. Directly sourced from the customer community feedback, customers adopted the changes to the platform. The learning continues for Mathilde and the customer community members.

In the future, Mathilde said Circle will focus on scaling online communities in mass. The customers bring valuable experiences and now share best practices and what’s working inside the customer community.

“We want to put the learnings into frameworks that will help as many community builders scale as possible, whether they are Circle customers or not.”

Want to chat? Reply to this email or book a discovery call here.

Have a great week!

Best, Deb

P.S. Creator to Community Builder received a new review; check it out here!