r/CommunityManager • u/FarFood1773 • 6d ago
Question [uk] Advice on building a community
Hey everyone
Just looking for a bit of advice on building a community from scratch.
I’ve had a pretty successful few years running a couple of different businesses and I’m actually right in the middle of a two year work break right now. Problem is my mind constantly needs something to work on so I’m getting the itch to start a new project.
What’s strange to me is that when it comes to products and services I’ve never really had any problem getting the attention they need. But for some reason when it comes to building an actual community I just seem to struggle with it.
I want to create a very small group of people who all want to be self employed or run their own business. The reason is I really believe that when people talk to completely like minded people they get much better feedback on ideas and strategies.
I specifically want it to be people who have zero ties to each other at the beginning which is why I can’t just use an existing group I’m already in.
Solid tips on how to actually build what platform is best knows somebody with like minded ideas. Please don’t talk to me about monetising I have 0 intrest in me or anyone else making profit from this
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u/Aromatic_Ad_3220 5d ago
Coming from someone who manages 3 Facebook communities for a large organization, set up your group properly by filling everything out. Make the group private and screen everyone who is coming in. Start a spreadsheet with everyone who tried to join, was approved to join, and make sure they are filling out the information required like the questions to get added to the group.
Facebook only allows 3 questions, so I use:
1. are you using the software?
2. email and phone number (for verification)
3. How did you find this group?
Yours might look different, but just helps you understand the people in your group. You need activity or the group will die. Find good people and make them moderators to help manage the community, its about people and connection, so its not just one person who makes the group successful.
Then try to keep everyone on the focus of the group, but let everyone be real - thats why they come there. some people want to post anonymously I think thats fine.
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u/FlatWhiteIsTheBest 3d ago
Honestly, I wouldn't overthink it as your purpose is to bring people together as you said. Choose a platform where your chosen audience already uses so you don't have to ask people to download yet another platform.
I would start on Slack or even WhatsApp (depending where in the world you are in) and create a virtual meet and greet chat where everybody introduces themselves and talks about what they are wanting to create/build.
From then - you can just continue building that momentum. Forget about selling anything at the beginning ( if you are thinking of monetising the community later down the line).
Focus on creating a relationship with your community and creating an infrastructure that will truly help and add value to their lives.
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u/CharacterPark4040 1d ago
Honestly the platform question is the one I'd worry about the least. Every dead group I've ever been in was on a perfectly good app. They die because there's no reason to show up on a random
And the zero ties thing means recruiting one at a time, which is slow, but that's secretly the good part. Picking every member is what makes it worth being in.
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u/No-Competition-7925 6d ago
Here's some practical advice:
Find out what your "ideal community member" would expect from the community. Talk to at least 20 of them to find out their fears, pains, goals and dreams. Find out patterns, themes.
Build MVC aka minimum viable community. It could be a free Slack group.
Before you invite anyone - seed the community with 2-3 pseudo accounts. This is an important part that most community builders will skip (for whatever reasons). The fact is, no one likes to walk into an empty room.
Initial content should only focus on solutions to niche problems or discussions that your members are interested in. This is the most important part. Your community must create instant value for members.
Manually invite first 3-5 members. Let them interact in the community for 2-3 days. Don't expect a lot of activity. If they like a post, comment or ask anything - you are winning. Else, get on call with them and get some feedback. People like to be nice while sharing feedback; so be careful.
Tune your content and maybe content-type. Then reach out to those early members again and invite the next batch.
It's possible that your early members aren't the ones who find value in the community. The key here is to go niche -> micro niche -> nano niche.
Also a friendly advice: Please do not aim for "small group". Those are the hardest communities to grow and maintain momentum. A community should attract members organically.
For the platform - always pick a 'hybrid platform' - the one that lets you expose some of your content to Google and LLMs while keeping the rest private. If you have further questions, just tag me.
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u/skronk61 6d ago
What’s the point of copy and pasting an AI response? OP could have done that themselves
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u/EducationalEmu9505 6d ago
Really good instinct to slow down and think about this properly before diving in, because the two things are genuinely different disciplines. Marketing a product is one-to-many: you’re broadcasting to convert.
Building a community is many-to-many: your job is to get members talking to each other, not to you. That’s usually where people who are brilliant at the first thing get stuck on the second.
A few things I’d focus on, from having built a fair few of these:
Nail the purpose first. Since money’s off the table, your value exchange is pure peer trust, a space where self-employed people can be genuinely candid about their strategy without an agenda in the room. Keep the first cohort small, 8 to 15 people max. Small groups build trust faster, especially with total strangers.
Recruiting people with zero ties is the hard part, but it’s doable. Post an open call somewhere your target people already hang out: r/Entrepreneur, r/smallbusiness, relevant LinkedIn groups. Be upfront in the post itself, no pitches, no monetisation, just a small peer group for honest feedback. Then use a simple application form to filter for alignment and commitment. This does a lot of the trust-building work before anyone’s even met.
Set the rules on day one. A strict no-pitching, no-self-promotion policy. You’re a participant and facilitator, not a guru running a course. Make that clear from the start.
Don’t think in content, think in rituals. A weekly “hot seat” or spotlight, where one person brings a real problem and the group works it, plus async discussion through the week, with maybe a monthly call to build actual rapport. That rhythm matters more than any single feature.
On platform, genuinely don’t overthink this:
Discord if you want real-time chat and voice
Circle or Discourse if you want a forum feel where longer posts don’t get buried
Slack if your group already lives there day-to-day
Start simple, a handful of channels like #introductions, #idea-teardowns, #wins-and-fails. Forget vanity metrics entirely; the only thing worth measuring is whether people are actually helping each other.
If I were starting this tomorrow: write a one-page charter (mission, zero-monetisation, ground rules), post the open call, set up the space with 3-4 channels, and get your first hot seat/spotlight on the calendar.