A close friend has been wrestling with a community that’s been trundling on for two years.
There is some activity, but it’s barely growing. There isn’t much sense of community.
We recommended two years ago to focus on a tiny slither of the audience and cater to their unique needs. But he couldn’t force himself to do it. It would’ve meant:
1) Admit you may have been wrong about the topic (to both colleagues, your boss, and your members).
2) Make major changes into what the community is about and who it is for. That involves design costs and explaining to a large group of members they were focusing on a smaller group.
3) Be sure that the change would work, or he would be left with an even smaller group now.
These are common fears. There are ways you can ease them.
You can test different concepts as webinars, Facebook groups, or private channels first.
You can check what kind of content and discussions seem successful.
The temptation is always going to keep pushing ahead with what you have now and hope things change. But it never will.
The best predictor of tomorrow is what happened today. Unless you want every day to be like today, you need to make that change. You need to work on something that at least has a chance of a big success.
If not, what are you doing with your community…and your career?
It’s never easy, but it’s definitely best to make the brutally tough decision and then work like hell to make it a success.
