Being a content creator is now a real job. And the world is booming with emerging “full-time” content creators covering every niche possible. They have mastered the art of growing a following and generating demand.
But is that where the journey stops? What about transitioning your audience into a community and building something sustainable for you and your followers?
We’re talking about a space where people feel like they truly belong. Where they can get human connections for shared passions. And where the connections they make actually matter.
Not just another group where your posts disappear into the void. We want your community to be alive!
We’re sure your mind is already spinning with ideas…
“I’ll start a group for female founders to collaborate and grow!”
“What if I built a community for my followers to get more feedback and encouragement?”
“Ooh, I know – a club for fans of my channel to connect and feature in my videos!”
Love the enthusiasm! But before you dive in, let’s talk about strategy.
Launching an online community is exciting, but it isn’t easy. Growing an engaged, loyal following online can feel daunting, and rightly so.
Yes, it takes some work to build a community online. But this is the work you need to put in if you want to do something big. Because guess what—the present and future of content is community. Within intimate, member-driven groups, learning happens. Creativity is sparked. And impact is maximized.
So don’t just create content; create a community. Work to build an inclusive, thoughtful space where your members feel seen, heard and valued.
We know you are waiting for the big BUT—how even to start building a community online? Let’s answer that question for you in detail, step-by-step.
By the end of this guide, you’ll know exactly how to:
- Choose the right platform
- Attract engaged members
- Foster meaningful connections
- Moderate like a pro
- Transition to a paid community model
Plus, we’ll explore some inspiring community examples along the way.
Are you ready to dive in and take your creator game to the next level? Let’s start with the basics.
Why Build an Online Community?
For starters, we humans crave connection. Forming bonds makes us feel good!
And online communities bring people together around shared interests and experiences – no matter where they are in the world.
But communities also deliver tons of other benefits:
- Monetize your audience—giving you recurring revenue and members tons of exclusive value.
- Learn, exchange ideas, and grow your skills.
- Get support and encouragement during life’s ups and downs.
- Make real friends and expand your social circle.
- Rally around causes and make an impact.
- Promote your brand and offerings to engaged audiences.
- Find your people and feel less alone. There’s a group to lean on
When done right, they also spark personal growth, empowerment, and positive change.
Now, let’s get into the good stuff: step-by-step instructions for building your very own tribe.
How to Create An Online Community (The Right Way)
Building a vibrant community takes effort. You need the right ingredients blended just so.
After examining and helping build countless communities, here are the nine steps to crack the code.
Step 1: Identify Where Your Followers Are
Even if your community promises to be the most valuable out there, people will be reluctant to join if it requires too much work.
For example, if your followers use WhatsApp, Discord, or Telegram to connect daily, but you create your own app for the community—chances are people will not download it.
Keep it simple. Start a group where people already are. The key is to slip yourself into their existing routine and daily habits.
Step 2: Choose Your Platform
Like any structure, your community needs a framework – an online home base. This is called a community platform.
Platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Groups, and Discord are popular, but they all have some limitations:
- Facebook isn’t exactly built for deep connections. And good luck customizing it.
- Slack is great for teams but clunky for large communities. And it lacks community features.
- Whatsapp is suitable for personal connections, but scaling a community is impossible without help. Think about the time required to filter tons of messages and promote engagement. It is just too cluttered.
However, all is not lost. You can convert your audience into a monetized community with the right community platform. A dedicated community platform like Nas.io lets you manage your Whatsapp, Discord, and Slack groups from a single place. Why do you need Nas.io, though?
Because you need a layer to manage your group and make it a true community. And to use:
- Robust features to engage members from the start. Chat, multimedia sharing, member profiles – it’s all there.
- Data and analytics to guide growth. See who’s most active, popular content, overall participation, and more.
- Custom branding and landing page design options to stand out. Make it your own.
- Monetization tools like memberships, courses, and events to generate income.
Bottom line: Choose a platform designed for the community from the ground up. You’ll be glad with your choice!
Step 3: Define Your Purpose and Niche
Time for some soul-searching. The next step is to brainstorm what your community will be all about. This gives members a reason to join and stay engaged.
Here are a few examples:
- Passion/hobby: Vegetarian cooking, guitar playing, anime fandoms
- Life situation: Single moms, remote workers, military spouses
- Demographic: Black professionals, indigenous youth, female founders
- Industry: Healthcare workers, freelance writers, SaaS entrepreneurs
The more specific, the better. Niche communities foster deeper connections based on shared experiences. Still confused about narrowing your purpose? Use this handy guide with a small exercise to help you settle down on your niche.
And pro tip: Look for gaps! For example, if you’ve found a need to fill if no communities exist for slow hitchhiking travelers.
Step 4: Name and Brand Your Community
With your niche defined, now you need a name and brand. This helps create an identity that draws in people.
Here are some tips for an incredible community name –
- Keep it short, memorable, and easy to say. “The Ambitious generics” isn’t going to cut it.
- Choose a name that evokes the purpose or niche. “1 Million Club” feels invigorating for people dreaming big.
- Make the name unique but clear. Made-up names can confuse. But common words look generic. Find your balance. And bonus points for catchy acronyms or rhymes!
- Finally, design a logo, colors, and graphics that express your community’s essence. Just make sure it’s polished.
Step 5: Build Your Member Onboarding Process
First impressions are everything. That signup and onboarding flow needs to hook people fast.
Try to make it easy and engaging. Here’s some tips –
- Only ask for essential info like email and name. Keep it short.
- Send a warm welcome email to greet newbies. Build the excitement!
- Share an introductory guide or quick community tour video. Give the 101 rundown.
- Automate introductions in the community feed. “Hey all, meet our newest member [name]!”
- Even better—a direct welcome message your community manager can set up. A little effort makes a long way for the member.
- Encourage new members to personalize their presence by setting a profile pic, bio, and first post.
Effective onboarding keeps members active from day one. Do it right, and you’ll have an invested audience in the long run.
Step 6: Foster Quality Interactions
With the basics covered, it’s time to focus on member experience. Community veterans know quality trumps quantity.
You want meaningful interactions that build authentic relationships, not just random chit-chat.
Here are some ways to make that happen:
- Icebreaker games and get-to-know-you questions
- Guidelines that encourage empathetic listening and constructive feedback
- Thoughtful discussion topics relevant to members’ interests
- Encouraging vulnerable sharing of challenges members face
- Moderation that gently corrects unhelpful behavior and makes all feel included
You can go a step further by chunking your members into groups based on their past interests. Then, you send each group customized messages that feel deeply relatable.
Sounds hectic?
Here’s a bonus tip to do this really efficiently—use Nas.io’s analytics Magic Reach! It allows you to group your audience based on engagement and participation data, select the segment, draft your message, and hit send.
Additionally, you can use Nas.io’s Weekly Engagement reports to chart how meaningful your efforts are. If your community is hosting conversations with worthwhile takeaways, Nas.io’s AI summariser tool will craft beautiful weekly summaries from your conversations. You can post them in the community to foster deeper engagement and to make your audience feel listened to.
Building trust takes work. But the payoff of deeper connections is so worth it.
Step 7: Create Exciting Content
Compelling content keeps your community buzzing. Mix it up with:
- Informative articles and videos relevant to your niche. Teach, inspire, and add value!
- A community newsletter—when done right, it is a quality lead magnet
- Member spotlights showing off incredible work and talents in your group
- Competitions and challenges to motivate participation. Everyone loves a little friendly competition!
- Live workshops or AMAs with special guests like influencers in your industry
- Surveys and polls to get input from members and make them feel heard
Keep ears open for the type of content your members crave most. Pay attention to engagement metrics to see what works. Then, deliver more of that.
Step 8: Promote Your Community
Even the best communities need a growth strategy. Spread the word by:
- Making shareable promotional graphics and content for your social media feeds
- Asking current members to invite friends who might be a good fit
- Partnering with aligned brands or influencers for co-marketing
- Participating in relevant hashtags, groups, and communities to find potential members
- Running contests and special events to incentivize sign-ups
Do this regularly, but also focus on building from within. Nurtured members become loyal leaders driving growth.
Honestly, Nas.io’s public page is an excellent choice to promote your community. It shows new members everything about your community—number of members, the chat app used, overview of live events and list of digital courses and other offerings.
All of this is packaged in a beautiful, customizable short link and a user-friendly landing page that prospective members can sign up on immediately.
Step 9: Consider Paid Communities
You can build momentum right from the start with paid communities.
Offer exclusive member perks that go beyond your online content for followers. Host members-only workshops to engage deeper with your community. Give discounts on your online courses or other offerings as a benefit.
On Nas.io, you can easily charge monthly memberships, sell digital events and courses, and accept payments with low fees. Bypass the barriers of online payments – give members convenient options like cards, crypto, and more.
You can also tap into brand sponsorships matched to your community’s interests. Promote partners whose values align with your members for win-win partnerships.
Just ensure paid memberships enhance the experience, not limit it. Find the balance between paid value-add and free participation for all.
Inspiring Online Community Examples
Now you’ve got the blueprint – let’s check out some real-world communities on Nas.io crushing it!
Nikist Hackers Club- Freemium Community For Ethical Hackers
Imagine waking up to all 1 million Instagram followers suddenly gone – a creator’s nightmare!
This happened to Ahmed when his Instagram account was deleted abruptly. Ahmed learned that relying on unstable platforms was risky.
So, he built a custom Whatsapp community, Nikist Hackers Club, with a paid variant using Nas.io as his central hub. Here he could share content, facilitate discussions, and forge bonds with his true fans – not just fleeting followers.
Nas.io empowered Ahmed to cultivate meaningful relationships insulated from social media’s algorithms. With customizable groups, events, courses, and more, he could deepen connections on his own terms.
Ahmed successfully used Nas.io to create an owned community space that thrives regardless of outside factors.
Web3 Doers – The Space For Web3 Creators
Web3 Doers is a community for creators in web3, started by Chris Koronovsky.
Members join Power Sessions with guest speakers and Mastermind discussions to solve problems together. Chris follows the 99-1 rule for community – focus on the 1% contributing rather than the 99% observing. This core fuels growth.
He chose Nas.io to be the hub for everything from events to content.
Magic Reach is Chris’ favorite feature. It lets him connect with members easily via email, Discord, and in-app notifications.
His top tip? Integrate existing Discord groups with Nas.io for the best of both worlds.
Nas.io’s toolset helps Chris maximize his community’s potential. With customized groups, events, courses and more, he can deepen member connections.
Indvstry Clvb – The Coolest Event Community In London!
Indvstry Clvb is quite popular in London. Their mission is providing unparalleled access to the city’s most exclusive events and experiences across industries.
But how does this elite club finance their member perks and happenings? By building their community on WhatsApp and monetizing it with Nas.io!
Indvstry Clvb charges members just $7/month on Nas.io to access their inner circle.
Followers happily pay each month to gain access to the club’s events and hang out in their exclusive WhatsApp group.
Nas.io handles all the member payments, announcements, and event details seamlessly. This allows Indvstry Clvb to fully fund their events through paid members who value the experience.
You can build a paid WhatsApp community just like them! Nas.io makes it easy to monetize groups while engaging your biggest followers.
Geekout Pro – The OG Paid Community For Social Media Managers
Matt Navarra knows a thing or two about building community. He’s big on Twitter, sharing the latest social media trends with his followers.
But he wasn’t making any money from his tweets and free content alone.
So he started a paid WhatsApp community called Geek Out Pro where engaged fans get exclusive real-time updates. Rather than a complicated platform, Matt smartly chose WhatsApp which followers already used daily.
He priced access at an affordable $5/month and managed everything with Nas.io. His audience loved it! In the first week, Matt generated over $11k in sales. Now he earns $2.5k+ per month from his 500 member WhatsApp community.
Matt shows the power of building community by meeting people where they are and providing exclusive value.
On Nas.io, you can easily monetize groups in WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord and more.
See the creativity? You can design a unique space around any niche, interest, or goal.
The Power of Paid vs Free Communities
We touched on paid memberships already. But should you charge from the beginning? Or start free?
Each approach has pros and cons.
With a paid community, you get to generate revenue immediately. You also get highly engaged “skin in the game” members. With a money investment also comes a high commitment investment.
However, it can potentially add barriers to participation and growth. And you need a solid offering to attract sign-ups.
With a free community, you get member-led growth through sharing and word-of-mouth. You also receive feedback to improve the community before charging an amount. But this doesn’t guarantee that people will pay later. You will feel stuck in transitioning free members to paid ones.
If you feel stuck deciding, we recommend taking this test to see your fit. In general, you can go for a hybrid combination of free and paid elements to:
- Build an audience and participation momentum
- Test and refine your offerings to determine what people find valuable
- Gather member feedback to improve community experience
- Identify and reward your most engaged users who will convert to paid
Some exceptions are communities with high production costs or large overheads. Those may need to be paid from the start to be viable.
Pitfalls and Issues to Avoid
Even with the best-laid plans, issues pop up when building a community. Let’s examine some pitfalls to watch for:
- Choosing the wrong platform that can’t grow with you or meet member needs
- Failure to moderate harmful behaviors and foster a healthy culture
- Paying more attention to member quantity over quality
- Not engaging and involving members in growth decisions
- Appearing spammy with relentless promotional posts
- Canned content that feels impersonal and corporate
- Ignoring analytics and feedback on how to improve
- Acting unresponsive to member’s concerns and complaints
- Not evolving offerings as interests change over time
The key is staying thoughtful, committed, and member-focused. Your community will tell you what it needs – if you listen.
Ready to Start Building Your Online Community?
And there you have it – a complete step-by-step guide to creating your own thriving online community!
You’re hopefully feeling pumped and ready to start bringing people together by now.
Just remember, long-lasting connections need more than a day to build. Community building takes time, passion, and grit.
Too often today, we get distracted by vanity and clout-chasing. But real change doesn’t come from likes or follows. It comes from human hearts connecting.
That’s why we believe the future is communities. Social media grabs attention, but communities transform lives by meeting our need for purpose and belonging.
And the effort pays back tenfold in relationships, transformation, and impact.
You know the best part? You live in a time where online communities are growing and evolving fast. There is no dearth of knowledge.
And there is a community waiting to help the community builder in you! That’s right—you can join Nas.io’s exclusive community and interact with community builders worldwide and us directly. You are not in this alone. We, as a community, will help you grow yours. Join and reach out to us anytime!
Frequently Asked Questions
What are examples of online community types?
Some popular ones include forums, social networks, chat groups, membership sites, brand communities, and peer support groups centered on interests, demographics, or goals.
What makes an online community successful?
Key ingredients are clear purpose and niche, engaged members, quality interactions, active moderation, frequent content, community-led growth, and adaption over time based on feedback.
What’s the difference between a community and an audience?
An audience passively consumes content. A community actively interacts around shared interests and relationships. The community has a sense of belonging and identity that audiences lack.
How many members should an online community have?
There’s no magic number. Some thriving communities have 50 engaged members, while others have 5 million. Focus on culture over quantity. Start small and grow organically.
What are the benefits of online communities?
Benefits include learning, networking, support, impact, creativity, friendship, business opportunities, skill development, and a sense of belonging.
How do you build community online?
Key steps are choosing a platform, finding a niche, promoting growth, facilitating quality interactions, creating content, establishing guidelines, and listening to users. You can build your community using Nas.io, an all-in-one platform to handle your memberships, payments, events, courses, and more.
