He had nine hundred followers and was happy with his relationship with them. Every question came to him, every comment got a reply, every message got an answer in his own hand. He saw that as success.
Then he travelled for a week with no decent internet. He came back to forty unanswered questions, comment threads that stopped dead, and one person who had written: "I asked and nobody replied."
He did not have a community. He had nine hundred relationships all passing through him. He was alone in the middle, and when he tired, everything stopped.
The difference between an audience and a community
An audience is shaped like a star: you are in the centre and every line reaches you. A community is shaped like a network: the lines run between the people themselves, and you are one node rather than all of them.
That is a practical difference rather than a philosophical one. In the first shape, every bit of growth adds to your workload. In the second, every new member adds value for the others without adding work for you. And the difference shows in one sign: do your followers answer each other's questions?
When to start and when not to
Do not open a group because everybody is opening groups. The three signs that the time is right:
- A question repeated by ten different people, whose answer is long and useful to everyone.
- One of your followers answering another's question in the comments, unprompted.
- A steady publishing rhythm, because a community needs something to gather around, and that thing is your work.
If the three are not there, your time is better spent on your channel's community tab, and what works there is in The community tab on your channel: what do you post there between videos?
Where the community lives
| The place | What it suits | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| The channel's community tab | Quick questions, keeping people near your videos | Little, and you own no data |
| A group on a messaging app | Close daily conversation | Constant notifications and constant moderation |
| A community platform with channels | Organised topics and an archive that lasts | Needs numbers to feel alive |
| An email list with a question at the end | The quietest shape, and you own the list | Slower conversation |
| A monthly live meeting | Builds real acquaintance between people | A fixed date you must keep |
Do not open four places. One place with thirty people talking beats four places with a thousand silent ones. And the email list remains the steadiest thing you own, as in Your Newsletter: What Do You Actually Send Your Audience?
The first thirty people
Do not announce the group to everybody on day one. Pick thirty of the people who comment and ask and write most, and invite them with a personal message that gives a reason: "I am opening a small place for people working on the same thing, and I want you in it."
Those thirty are the ones who will set the tone. Start with a thousand strangers and the place becomes a marketplace; start with thirty who know each other and it becomes a house that can grow afterwards.
Three rules you write on day one
Pin them at the top of the place, in three lines rather than a page:
- One subject. This place is for X, and anything outside it moves to where it belongs.
- No promotion. No channel links and no services except on a day you designate.
- Respect. Disagreement about the work is welcome; abuse removes the person.
Rules written on day one protect the place for a year. Rules written after a problem look like a punishment aimed at one person.
How to get them talking
A group does not talk by itself at the start, and you are the one who lights it with three fixed things:
- A weekly question on a known day. "What are you working on this week?" is the simplest question and the most effective.
- Introducing members. Introduce every new member in a line, because people talk to somebody whose name they know.
- A small group task. One exercise a week, and everybody who does it posts their result. That turns the place from talk into work.
The strongest thing for building the network is passing a question to somebody else: "so-and-so has experience with this, ask them." Every time you do that, the place depends on you a little less.
And the content comes out of the community
A group is the best place to gather material for your videos: the questions, the mistakes, the experiences, the examples. That is the right shape of participation, as in How do you involve your audience in making a video without losing your own judgement? They take part in the material, and the decision is yours.
And ask permission before moving anybody's words into a video, even words written in a public place.
Moderating without becoming a policeman
Appoint one or two people from the first thirty to help you, with no title and no post, simply an agreement that they welcome newcomers and remind people of the rules.
You step in for three things only: abuse, promotion, or an escalating argument. Otherwise let people talk, because a moderator who answers everything turns the network back into a star.
What a community does not do
- It does not raise your views. Thirty people will not move a number; their effect is on quality rather than count.
- It does not compensate for weak videos. A community gathers around work, and if the work stops it disperses.
- It does not repair a tired relationship. If the comments already exhaust you, a group will exhaust you more.
Your own limits
A group opens a new door onto your time, so give it a rule from day one: a defined time to go in, notifications off for the rest of the day, and an explicit announcement that you read without replying to everything.
How to set all of that is in Boundaries with your audience: how do you stay close without using yourself up?, and organising reply time is in How to Reply to Your Audience's Comments Without Consuming All Your Time.
And if it does not work
Some channels do not suit a community, either because the subject is a solitary one or because the audience is scattered across many platforms. A dead group is worse than none, because a visitor sees it and judges your channel by it.
Close it with a clear sentence: "I am stopping the group and continuing in the community tab." You have lost nothing. You tried and learned, and thirty people who know your name are still with you.
The only measure of a community's success is that you can be away a week and the place is still talking.