Today, entrepreneurship is no longer limited to selling a product or a service.
Brands that score are brands that unite. Create a community around your activity, it's about building much more than an audience: it's about building lasting relationships with customers, partners, ambassadors... and even future associates.
But How do you move from a business to an active and committed community?
Here are the key steps to take.
Why create a community when you are starting a business?
Whether you are a freelancer, startup founder or small business manager, building a community has many advantages:
- Boosting visibility Of Your Business Without Expensive Advertising
- Retain your customers And Make Them Trustworthy Relays
- Access field feedback To Adjust Your Offer
- Create a network effect (word-of-mouth, recommendations...)
- Surrounding Yourself with an Ecosystem Caring and Proactive
An engaged community is better than 1,000 silent followers.
Where do you start? The First Steps
- Define your community positioning
- Who are you talking to?
- What are the shared values?
- What do you bring to your community (and vice versa)?
- Choosing the right channels
- Newsletter, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, WhatsApp, Instagram, LinkedIn...
- The important thing is not to be everywhere, but to be where your audience is active.
- Create useful and engaging content
- Customer stories, behind the scenes of your business, business advice, resources to share...
- This content should Create Value, not just getting attention.
- Promote interaction and mutual aid
- Ask questions, organize live or Q&A sessions, encourage exchanges between members.
Examples of successful communities
- Independents who are setting up a Interprofessional collective
- Entrepreneurs who launch a Podcast or a sectoral newsletter
- Brands that create a Private Client Club With Exclusive Events and Benefits
- Banking platforms like Klark, which incorporates a Direct Community Dimension in Their Offers, facilitating the connection between customers, the sharing of tools, or the establishment of pro-pro relationships.
Tools to animate your community
- Circle, Discord, Mighty Networks, Slack : discussion platforms
- Notion, Airtable : shared resource bases
- Tally, Typeform : surveys and feedback
- Collaborative tools : monitoring contributions, payments between members, group purchases... Some professional services, such as Klark, go in this direction.
Beware of the Pitfalls
Creating a community is not the goal. It is not a short-term strategy.
- Be patient : Trust Takes Time
- Don't Force Interactions
- Don't Forget the Human : behind each email or message, there is a real person
It's better to have 50 active members than a ghost group of 5,000.
In summary
Creating a community around your activity is a A Powerful Asset for Any Entrepreneur.
It is a way to anchor your project in a collective dynamic, to strengthen your credibility and to co-build with your customers.
