Every charity has dreamed of persuading 40 billionaires to donate at least half their fortune to charity. Only a billionaire, Bill Gates, could make this happen. Only a billionaire has the trust and respect of other billionaires. Only a billionaire can engender a sense of community amongst other billionaires.
If you were trying to create an online community for billionaires, you need to know Bill Gates (or another billionaire). You need to know him well enough to ask him to introduce you to a few other billionaires. You need his help to bring a few of them together and start an exclusive place for them to converse. That would be the start of a fledgling community.
Obviously this isn’t a post about how to create a community for billionaires (it really isn’t possible, don’t try) it’s a post about creating exclusive online communities for the most important people in your field. There is huge value here and it’s easier than going for billionaires.
The steps are simple:
- Either, spend the time to become as important as they are or spend the time networking until you have a strong relationship with one of these people. Introductions from friends helps here.
- Ask that person to bring several others together to discuss creating an exclusive community. If this fails, repeat 1.
- Develop a community that extends beyond the internet. Expensive retreats, exclusive access to companies, speaking roles at events, arrange press interviews,
Much of the future of online communities is about developing closed, exclusive, communities for the elite members in the topic/sector. If you can do this well, you will never be out of work.
Be sure to read The Alan Weiss approach and the secret of the Roush effect for some examples.
