Understand most people are attracted to success.
Almost nobody wants to be in the group at the beginning.
Why would they? There isn’t much there. Just a few discussions, no sense of community, and no track record of doing amazing things.
But success, wow, that’s attractive. Everyone wants to embrace the group identity when you’re successful.
Outside of customer support communities, the best way to build a community is to begin with the true believers. These are the people who closely share your vision for what the community could be and want it to be something new and terrific.
And the best way to find and nurture true believers is to invest the time beforehand to build up as many close relationships as possible. They will either be infected by your energy or reveal themselves through early interactions to be true believers.
It’s not the influencers you want to invite first, they’re almost never going to be great early members. It’s those with the most passion for the project. Begin there and you’ll find success follows.
