Read on Twitter
A lot of companies are starting online communities. A lot of them shouldn't. Let me explain...
1. A community is about being selfless. It's about giving to other real human beings...not broadcasting for selfish reasons... It's about truly giving. You have to be and act in that mindset.
2. While a community can be scalable, it takes a lot of effort for a while, and you have to do a good enough job such that you get raving fans who want to help you lead others. That's hard to do, and not every company can do it.
3. Did I mention communities take a while to scale? And in the meantime, you need to really connect with people. Like...actually connect with real human beings...get to know them...that type of thing.
4a. Starting a community is like starting another business in and of itself. Your members need a pain point, a goal they are trying to reach, and your community needs to be especially positioned to be able to solve that goal...
4b. If you can't figure out how your members can help each other to achieve a goal, then what's the point of having a community?
5. Communities are hard to execute well, and they are expensive.
6. All of that said, if you can hit it right, online communities can be a cool way to bring your people together and to therefore serve them in a way that is otherwise impossible.
