Beyond Numbers: The Essence of Building a Genuine Web3 Community
Beyond Numbers: The Essence of Building a Genuine Web3 Community
This week was packed with several web3 events and I had a chance to finally reconnect with many people I knew in the space (+ meet new ones). On top of that it’s an amazing sunny summer weather here in London that would be a shame to miss. So apologies for this issue of the newsletter coming to you a bit late!
This time it won’t be a story (I just started the research for the new one). Today I wanna speak to you about one of the common misconceptions about communities and community building.
“Community” has become one of the most overused (should I say “misused") words in the web3 space. Everybody keeps telling you how important the “community” is and web3 founders keep telling how they truly care about their communities. At this point it’s become a broken record, a learnt by heart narrative everyone is obliged to tell…
But do web3 founders actually know what it means and do they truly mean what they say?
Well, some do. And many don’t.
As a CMO, marketing consultant/advisor and a passionate advocate of communities I have fought more than one battle with founders. The challenge here is that most of what’s truly meaningful and important often can’t be put into numbers… but founders love looking at charts and data and often they prefer to spend more time focusing on the product or the code instead.
My personal view though is:
if you as a web3 brand are able to build a genuine community of die hard fans of USERS - you will reach the ultimate level where whether it’s a bear or bull market won’t matter at all!
THAT alone should be a good enough reason to at least try to do it right.
Often founders chase digital numbers with the hope that those numbers will prove how awesome they and their project are…
They are chasing more followers on Twitter, are obsessed with their website traffic and the number of people who are in their Discord server. And all that is good - but those not necessary are the numbers of your community…
How many of those actually care about your brand?
How many are even coming back to your Discord after joining it because you “bribed” them?
How many of those followers even see your tweets (the algo’s reach is so low these days).
You can focus on those numbers as much as you want - and you can also keep pushing your CMO to increase those numbers too - but that might be useless.
Why?
Because
1. Those are not the numbers of your community but rather of your audience
2. Those numbers can easily be faked/manipulated (and your marketing person may be tempted to do so if they think that’s what will be defining their performance and your appreciation for their work)
Many keep focusing on SEO, traffic, the length of the content, social media images, etc. and very few only realize that those alone won’t help much.
When founders focus on all that data and numbers and charts, they forget one simple truth.
Those numbers represent people. They are human beings who breathe, feel and think.
And what you should focus on is building relationships with your community and strengthening their emotional connection to your brand!
And you can’t do that with keywords, backlinks and other “tricks” but rather with the story you tell and the way you make them feel.
I am not saying it may be easy. I am not saying you will see results right away. All I am saying is: if you as a founder spend so much time and effort make sure you spend it on the right stuff.
It all comes down to one simple thing - building a genuine community through relationships: true, sincere and honest human relationships…
Yes, it does not happen overnight.
Yes, it is a long and slow process.
And yes, it’s absolutely worth it!
And it will happen faster when you change your mindset and realise that
It’s not about you… it’s about them.
And honestly, so many in the web3 space are doing it wrong… All those “founders” giving promises they don’t keep, misleading people, and taking advantage of their “community” using them as exit liquidity.
Copying each other, using the same blueprint that works back in the ICO days, then DeFi summer days, then NFT days and now meme coin days…
Seems like the expectations these days aren’t THAT high at all: just don’t be a scammer 🙂
On a serious note though if I have to extremely simplify everything I’d say - all you need to do is care: genuinely care about your community.
Think about it.
Is the cash grab worth the reputation?
Do you want a one-time token buyer, who will later walk around the cryptoverse disappointed and bitter and complain about you?
Wouldn’t having a loyal community, who sticks around and supports and encourages what you do be better?
I think the choice is obvious. At least it should be so.
Will leave you with this.
Have a great week end!
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