Balance width and depth in community development

1d ago (edited) in Strategy

I’ve already shared with you that, in terms of professional community development, there are four basic types of communities.

Today, we’ll explain what community width and depth mean, and we’ll show a practical metric that you need to monitor if you decide to build a “Laboratory” or “Family Circle” type of community, which are based on a high degree of intimacy.

COMMUNITY WIDTH

Community width includes all activities that lead to the active growth of the community and the processes a prospect goes through before becoming a member. It’s about considering who you actually want in the group, the prospecting method, and onboarding before the new member joins. This includes marketing, advertising strategies, or affiliate marketing. Width focuses on quantitative growth and brings in new members who can enhance the community’s dynamics if properly engaged.

COMMUNITY DEPTH

Community depth involves internal activities that strengthen relationships and trust among members, turning prospects into active members who perceive the community as their own. It’s about giving founding members the space to co-create the community culture, encouraging members to share significant and personal topics that they would normally discuss only with friends or family, and as a founder, stepping back into the role of a quiet observer who supports the community in the background. Community depth creates a stable and well-connected core that holds the community together, even when growth stops or changes occur.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT TO BALANCE WIDTH AND DEPTH

Don’t underestimate depth at the expense of width. If you focus your efforts only on rapid growth through massive advertising campaigns and affiliate marketing at the beginning without building a solid foundation and community culture, members may start leaving and creating their own communities instead of engaging in yours. A sustainable community isn’t just about the number of members but the strong relationships within the group.

If you want to build a quality and sustainable community, don’t underestimate building your base of first 100 - 200 people. In the beginning, it’s more important whom you don’t let into the group than whom you do. A strong base will organically build the culture and character of the community, which will have a natural impact. You’ll start seeing the first results around months 3-6, and rapid growth will come around months 12-24 if you do it right. At first glance, it might not seem so attractive because you’ll spend about 2 hours a day on the community in the first months. However, from the sixth month, your time reduces to approximately 30 minutes a day because the community will start to become autonomous. If you are a good leader in the background, by month 12, the community will only need you in urgent situations for about 4-8 hours a month.

If you initially focus on massive growth without paying enough attention to depth, you will eventually face problems—from members leaving to losing a sense of belonging to the community. The key is to balance width and depth: growth is important, but long-term sustainability is maintained through quality, deep relationships within the community. This way, you build a community that not only grows but also stays tightly knit, even when growth is no longer the main priority.

PRACTIC METRIC TO MONITOR ON SKOOL

Besides monitoring your community’s own activity, it’s important to focus on the number of “globally” active members who frequently come online across the platform. This data helps you understand the real reach of your community within Skool and how well your group connects with other active members on the platform.

Skool Community typically has 0.5% – 1.5% of its community online at any given moment, meaning 700 to 1,800 members who can connect for real-time networking.

The Skool Games usually has 300 to 900 globally active members online at peak times, which is 1.5% – 4.5% of its community.

My Community currently has only 19 members, but they are carefully selected and onboarded individuals whom I’ve ensured understand the community’s mission and have the time to decide whether they want to join voluntarily and without pressure. I have 2-5 globally online members in one moment, representing 10.5% to 26.3% of the entire community. Significantly higher activity than the Skool average.

I’m somewhat of a headhunter who knows exactly what parameters my target group must meet for the culture to come together within six months. For example, I recently asked members to consider which conscious women or friends we could invite, even at the cost of offering them lifetime membership for free, even though our community has been paid from the start ($9/month or $90/year), to balance it on this level, because the women in the group are still not engaging in culture creation.

You can find where I monitor these statistics in the images below, and I’ve attached a few screenshots taken at the same time.

HELP ME CHOOSE NEXT WEEK'S TOPIC

So far, I’ve tried to focus on quantity, aiming to become a GOAT soon by sharing one or two posts a day and commenting on as much as possible. Now, however, I’ll be focusing on developing content for senior community management, sharing only one post a week on a specific topic that I will propose in a poll. You can vote on the topic, and then I will dive deeper into it, similar to the topics I’ve been presenting this week.

1) Building an MVC (Minimum Viable Community)

2) Methods to increase collective intimacy

3) How to prepare for crisis moments when have problem with depth (Your community autonomously generates excess content that overwhelms the collective and causes coss of collective intelligence structure for example).

Have a nice weekend! 🫡

Building an MVC

Methods to increase collective intimacy

How to prepare for crisis moments when have problem with depth

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