The key to community — "10 True Regulars"

To build a successful community, you don't need 1,000 fans.

You need 10 true regulars.

(Credit to David Spinks for this idea... It's brilliant).

This may contradict what most people imagine about communities — spaces with hundreds or thousands of people actively contributing and forming relationships where everyone is engaged and involved.

In reality, only a small percentage of your members will actively participate.

You don't need a lot of active members to get conversations flowing; you only need the right few.

When new members join your community and see dozens of new posts and hundreds of new comments every week, they won't know if all that activity is coming from ten people or 100 people.

However, getting to ten true regulars is not easy. My recommendation: Start with three.

Get to the point where you have three members who are coming back every day (or most days) and posting and commenting.

You probably already know the three people. A lot of successful communities have the same founding story: "It was just me and a few friends in a group, and it slowly grew from there."

Who are you already talking to about the topic of the community? What three people would you text first with a question? You've already validated that they're motivated. They could be your founding members.

Ask them if they'd be interested in joining a small group of friends who are interested in the same topic. Once you get them together, start conversations, discuss interesting articles, and share learnings.

Be yourselves, the same way you would in a private text conversation. Be weird, tell jokes, have fun. It's that kind of organic, quirky core that can spark a thriving community. Slowly invite more people, but don't invite too many at once, or you'll smother the flame. Be selective and keep curating.

Once you have 3 true regulars — reward them, make them feel special, hang out with them on Zoom 1on1, meet them in-person — give them what they need so they can continue being a role model in your community.

A community starts with a creator, but it's not a community until there are 3 true regulars. They act as the beating heart of the group. Their energy permeates the entire group and keeps it alive.

Community builders — do you want more content like this?

Not a community builder yet? Create your community with a 14-day free trial here.

🙂

202

86 comments