To listen to the podcast episode that features this series, CLICK HERE.

 

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Helen Keller

I’ve been very tuned in to how powerful TOGETHERNESS is since I was a kid.  I was raised in a family with six kids.  I was an avid athlete on just about every team sport you can imagine.  I was always a key leader in school organizations.  And as it relates to business, I spent the past 7 years of my life building an in-person entrepreneurial community with my husband.  So once the dust settled from the launch of this crazy idea I had called Biz Women Rock, I knew without a doubt that I wasn’t simply producing a podcast or building a business that created products and services…I was building a community.  

Google defines community as…

“A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.”  Or “a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.”

Basically, my community was getting created as I gathered my listeners, my supporters, my email readers, my coaching clients, my course students and anyone else who identified with the Biz Women Rock brand and brought them together for a larger purpose.  

This is what I’ve been doing since I was a kid.  And this is what I love.  Because I believe that my purpose is to make a massive impact in the lives of women around the world.  And I’ve seen over and over again how creating and leading a community allows me to do that exponentially.

In the past few years, the word “community” has become a bit of a buzzword within the online business space.  Everyone is talking about their “community.”  They’ve exchanged the words “following” or “tribe” or “email list” or “listeners” or “readers” for community.  And while I love this shift to utilizing my favorite multi-dimensional term, my purpose in creating this series is to expose just how intricate this whole building a community thing really is.  

I’ve identified seven simple steps to follow in order to build a tremendous community.  And I’ve even included some phenomenal advice from some of the most impactful and successful community builders I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing!

This series is broken up into four parts that will be showcased over the next four weeks.  So, if you happen to be diving into part 3, make sure you go back and listen to all the previous ones in order to get the full impact of the lessons here.  

One final note…

Building a community is not for the faint of heart.  Nor is it for someone who wants an “easy” business model.  Building a community and becoming a leader of one is for someone who wants to make an impact in a profound way on the lives of others, who wants to make ripples in the universe and do it through other people.  And as it pertains to business, it’s for someone who believes in giving value to a group of people they truly LOVE (and I don’t use that word lightly) before ever offering products or services for sale…because they understand the value and fragility of having an endless pool of loyal customers who believe in their brand.  

So, if you’re listening to this because you want to “build your following online,” you will definitely get some great ideas here.  However, I highly recommend you listen with an open mind knowing that building a community is something that happens in an entirely different stratosphere…and maybe, just maybe…you’ll feel called to lean into the possibilities it can open for you to live in your purpose.  

So here were go…

HOW TO BUILD A COMMUNITY

PART 2

 

We’re talking about the intricacies of community building!  In this four part series, we’ll be diving deep into what it takes to not only “build an online following,” but build a COMMUNITY…something dynamic, multi-dimensional and POWERFUL!  If you haven’t yet read or listened to Part 1 of this series, make sure to do so by clicking HERE so you can have a solid foundation moving forward.

 

In Part 1, I talked about the first two steps of community building.  The first was to establish your niche and super niche, thereby getting clear on your avatar.  And step two revealed the three levels of platforms that are required to deliver your message and gather your people.  

 

As a quick review, I broke up the different platforms into 3 separate levels: two-dimensional, three-dimensional and multi-dimensional.  And, I stated that to truly be a successful community leader, you must have a platform in EACH level.  

 

Here’s a quick review of those levels…

 

1. Two dimensional (deliver message and receive feedback)

1. Podcast
2. Blog
3. Video blog
4. Email

 

2. Three-dimensional (they can connect to each other only as long as you start the convo)

1. Blab
2. Facebook Live
3. Periscope
4. Twitter
5. Facebook Page

3. Multi-Dimensional (they can connect with you and without you)

1. Facebook Groups
2. Your own forum
3. Physical meetings

 

To get a deeper understanding of these levels, make sure to listen or read Part 1 of this series.  

 

But before you can kick ass in all three of these levels, you must CONSISTENTLY commit to ONE of them.  

 

Which leads us to Step 3…

 

Step 3: Establish your platform and commit to consistently showing up and delivering great content

 

There are 3 key words in this step that dance with each other and will be the makers or breakers of your entire community building experience.  

 

COMMIT

 

Commitment means staying loyal to what you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in has left you. ~ Author Unknown

 

 

Committing to your platform means keeping your word to show up.  Making it a priority.  Getting it done no matter what…because you said you would.  Always choosing to give that platform your energy.  

 

This is why it is VITAL to choose a niche that you love and a platform that you enjoy.  Because if you don’t enjoy either, you’ll stop.  You’ll re-neg on your commitment.  Which is DEATH for a community leader because you’ve now let your members know that you are unreliable and aren’t committed to them or the community you’ve built.  They’ll feel your wavering energy.  And the result of this is a complete unraveling of the community.  If you’re not committed, they are less likely to trust anything you do.  If you’re not committed, they’re less likely to invest in anything you offer (because they won’t know if you’re actually going to stick around to follow through on what you’ve promised).  If you’re not committed, they’re less likely to be an active and engaged member of the community (because why should they have roots in your community if you are touch and go as a leader?).  

 

When your members see that you are committed to them, to the community and to the purpose you are fulfilling by leading them, they have every reason to fall in love with you and give you their loyalty.  

 

CONSISTENTLY

 

Mediocre marketing done consistently over time will beat inconsistent brilliant marketing every time. ~ Jay Conrad Levinson

 

Put simply, consistency is showing up REGULARLY.  On some sort of schedule.  In a way that your community can count on.  It adds another dimension of trust to the relationship you’re developing with your community members.  They know they can rely on your email newsletter every Friday.  They know they’re going to hear your weekly podcast every Monday.  They know they’re attending your meeting on the first Wednesday of every month.   

 

Consistently delivering your content and engaging with your community members deepens their belief that you’re there for them, that you love them, that you value them and that what you’ve created for them is sticking around for a long while.  And most importantly, it reminds them, every single time they hear from you, that you provide VALUE to them on a regular basis.  

 

A worthy side note: when it comes to consistency, please know that your consistency can evolve.  When I first launched the Biz Women Rock podcast, my episodes aired three times each week.  After not sleeping for three months (seriously, I think I slept less in those three months than I did during the first three months of my daughter’s life!), I decided that I needed to shift to a twice a week schedule.  That lasted about a year and then I decided to release a show only once per week.  Changing up your schedule and your consistency is okay, as long as you’re keeping your community in the loop and as long as you keep showing up!

 

My good friend and fellow podcaster Natalie Eckdahl of the Biz Chix podcast had a similar story.  What began as a 5 day a week podcast (OMG!) has slowly evolved into a series-driven show that releases weekly for as long as the series lasts.  Then there’s a break until her new series releases.  

 

And even if your platform completely changes, you can still be consistent.  My husband Chris launched his podcast Story Jam Theatre thinking he would release one show each week.  Because his show – which is a compilation of short stories told in front of a live audience – requires big event productions in order to create the content, he not only shifted to a series based schedule, but he started showing up consistently in another way…through related projects that he’s passionate about – Podfest Multi Media Expo and The Messengers Podcast Documentary.  

 

So, yes, be consistent.  But be consistent as you let yourself evolve.

 

GREAT CONTENT

 

I cannot stress this enough.  You MUST deliver GREAT content.  As the platforms to deliver content like blogs, podcasts, ebooks and videos have become more and more accessible to everyone, the barrier to entry is low.  Which is wonderful in the sense that it’s easy for you to get going and utilize them.  BUT…it also means that everyone and their mother, grandmother and cousin can do it too.  Which means there’s a lot of crap out there for content consumers to sift through.  And in a sea of mediocre content, the GREAT content is the cream that rises to the top.

 

Content is KING!  Or Queen in our case.

 

I know we hear this a lot, but what does “great content” actually mean?  

 

It means that the information you are delivering – the articles you’re writing, the podcast episodes you’re producing, the ebook you’re writing and the videos you’re creating are actually filled with information that is relevant, usable and helpful to your avatar.  It means that the information you’re delivering are valuable.  

 

Here’s a quick comparison:

 

Crap content: a blog article that is written mostly for the purpose of SEO, filled with lots of keywords and links and all sorts of stuff that Google bots will love.  But the information doesn’t necessarily flow very well.  And it’s boring.  It’s just a list of information that’s been read a million different times, repurposed to fit your SEO needs.  

 

Great content: a blog article that is written from your heart, with your knowledge and IN YOUR VOICE.  You write the article for the purpose of sharing helpful information with your community and thus, don’t really pay attention to keywords…you just write great stuff.  (But you know that writing great stuff will produce the accurate keywords you need…but you don’t laden the dang thing with them just for the sake of SEO).  

 

Here’s the kicker.  Crap content may actually get more “attention” in the beginning, because of its ability to play the Google game.  But, great content ALWAYS wins!  

 

It wins because your community continues to see you as an intelligent person who loves to share what you know.  And because they come to you to get something that they can’t get anywhere else!  

 

Some of the best content producers I know – podcasters, vloggers and bloggers – launched their platforms with just a few people consuming it.  Their content far surpassed other shows that were getting tons more of attention.  But over time, as they showed up consistently to their platforms, committing to produce great content over and over again, they attracted more and more of their ideal listener, subscriber or reader.  

 

***

 

You might be asking yourself, how am I actually supposed to do this?

 

 

How do you actually commit to producing great content consistently?

 

JUST DO IT.

 

Tony Robbins has an incredible saying about deciding.  He says that deciding is you cutting the ropes from your boats that have landed on a new island when you have no idea how or if you can survive on it.  But, you decide to cut the ropes and let the boats loose.  Because you’ve decided you’re going to survive…you have no other option!  And then…all that’s left is action.

 

“A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action.  If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.” ~ Tony Robbins

 

Step 3 knows no drama.  It doesn’t accept excuses.  It doesn’t understand “I’m too tired” or “I’m on vacation” (I write this as I’m on vacation right now).  It just knows ACTION.

 

Here are a few quick hacks on how to JUST DO IT.

 

 

• Block the time in your calendar.  Blocking time on your calendar means that you create a “meeting” for you to do the work of producing your content (example: from 12pm – 3pm on Tuesdays, I write so I can produce both blog articles and podcast segments.  This sounds simple, but there are a few key elements to implement that will make this actually work for you.  

 

1. Block times congruent with the appropriate energy needed.  I started out blocking writing time on Mondays, but I soon realized that Mondays weren’t ideal “creative” days for me…they were “get shit organized and done” days.  So, Mondays became my administrative days (checking emails, organizing my weekly priorities, etc) and Tuesdays became my writing days.  

2. Commit to sticking to it for 21 days.  Twenty one days make a habit, right?  So, commit to strictly sticking to the schedule you’ve created for 3 weeks to practice this new way of life.  It’s so easy to schedule stuff over these time blocks, but don’t do it!  Adjust the times and days if you need to, but keep your meetings!

 

• Get an accountability partner.  Check in with an accountability partner once each week so you can report what you’ve done.  Take this seriously!  Knowing that someone else is checking in on you will help you do what you need to do.

• Communicate your commitment to your community.  Now you have to do what you said you were going to do when you said you were going to do it.  Your reputation depends on it!

 
I’ve gone so deep into Step 3 because it is THE deciding factor whether you build a successful community or you became “that girl” who did “that show” or wrote “that blog” for awhile.  While community is so much more than just this step, you cannot have one without committing to consistently producing great content.  

 

***

 

This concludes Part 2 of our series on How to Build Community!

Click HERE to listen to Part 1