Hi there Femstreet community! I’m Kim Johnson - the Head of Community at Geneva, an all-in-one communication app for groups and communities of all shapes and sizes. Before joining the team at Geneva this past October, I led Community at Glossier for five years. In my time helping two high-growth companies build their community efforts (and chatting with some incredible community leaders along the way), I’ve been lucky to see the unique value that investing in your relationships brings to the business you build and, ultimately, the products (physical or digital!) that you deliver.
Community is quite literally everything for us at Geneva. In my work, I get to support and watch a diverse range of communities and groups (we have every kind of group from school clubs and sororities to professional networks and virtual conferences on Geneva) come together, grow, and thrive digitally.
In my experience, there are always a few existential questions that community leaders face: ‘How do I build community in a truly authentic way?’and ‘How do I get people bought in?’.
My thoughts on this are always the same, no matter what kind of community you’re building:
Get to know your people—who they are, what matters to them, and why they care about what you’re building. It’s essential. Getting on the phone, understanding the different pockets of people and how they relate to and differ from each other—spending that time will allow you to build something that meets people where they are, instead of asking them to meet you.
Invest in the behind-the-scenes. One of the things that often catches people as they grow and scale community efforts is not having the infrastructure to continue to thoughtfully build and manage relationships. It’s the less sexy part, for sure, but building this as you go makes life so much easier in the long term.
Take your time (in community and all life things!). Community literally cannot be built in a day. Build a foundation and continue to water it and build as you go.
There’s so much more to building with a community-first mindset and I’m excited to chat with you all about it!
Hi Laura! I believe the best way is to find the people who are already excited about and/or engaged in what you're doing and start with those people first and foremost. In the early days, you don't have to worry about having a massive group. Start with the people who you know will rally around what you're doing and work with them to become a megaphone for you! That early authentic network effect is really invaluable.
Hey Kim, three questions😁 1) Which do you think a new brand should focus more on: audience or building a community? 2) How do you distinguish between the two? 3) What are your top go-to metrics for measuring engagement / health of your community?
RT! Hearing a lot of conversations (on Clubhouse to be fair) where people are using community as a synonym for audience. Creating an engaged audience ≠ cultivating a robust community. Both are important, but not one in the same.
I learned that audience is "talking to" which social media does and community is "talking with" which is creating groups or online communities to talk to each other and members talk to one another as well.
Love this thank you all! Completely agree that audience and community are not the same. They're both important, but can't be conflated. Jennifer and Alexa said it really well. I would add: your audience members are the people who you create storytelling for. Your community members are the people who you create conversation with. When done well I think the community you build and the conversations that happen amongst that community can actually become a part of the stories that you tell to your audience. They serve each other in that way.
In terms of metrics I would say: 1. how often are people engaging in the space, 2. how often do people take part in the events, programming, or opportunities you share with them 3. how much are people talking about the community/getting other people interested in taking part!
Second question - how can you build a community for three defined (but different) target audiences? Ie. we're talking about sleep - markets are new mamas, insomniacs, and shift workers. Everyone thinks very differently (specifically moms vs. the rest) - but we don't want to split folks out. Any tips on how to be inclusive and cross these segmentation gaps? Any examples of other brands doing this would be amazing, if you have them!
Hey Kim, if you are just starting out with an intention to build a paid community, have you got any best practices from a market research perspective? e.g number of conversations, questions about intent vs past behaviour, extracting problems to solve? Thanks!
Hi Ellen! Great question. Honestly, I think best practices depend a lot more on the kind of community and offering than whether or not it's paid. Would love to hear more about what you're building though! Feel free to send me a note: kim@genevachat.com!
We asked people if they wanted to join our community before we had launched the platform for it. We're about ready now, so sending out our little email invites very soon. What do you recommend including in this? What gets people interested after a short gap of time? Any content ideas or insights would be amazing! Thanks
Can you please share some strategies that glossier used to make the community such an integral part of the business? Where it almost feels like marketing is community led completely.
Hi Aditi! Honestly, I would say this starts from the top. A true belief in community from the leaders will make community an integral part of the business organically. In the early days though it was really about making Glossier the facilitator of beauty conversation and not the focus. We would create venues and experiences that weren't just focused on the brand, they were focused on bringing people together around beauty and building true connection from there.
How would you go about seeding a community with people that'll keep conversations going? What would attract them, how would you access them, what do you look for?
Honestly, in my experience, there isn't a way to shortcut this. It takes time. Everything from: who is engaging most with your social content and getting connected with them to build a relationship to see if they're a good fit for helping you seed a community to people who are extremely active in other spaces (outside of yours) related to the community who you can build connections with and can become some of your first voices.
How do you move from a community being between your brand and individuals to being something that is self sustaining between members of the community without your direction?
Hey Sophie! Great question. Honestly I think this is all about hosting conversations regularly that aren't just about the brand. When I was at Glossier we hosted a lot of beauty conversations that weren't focused on the brand but were focused on people's experiences with beauty. And similarly, at Geneva, we're working on experiences that are about community building as opposed to being directly about Geneva. What that does is it allows people to see the community you've built as a space for that conversation broadly (beauty/community building) as opposed to just the company itself.
Love this! I feel like on Mighty Networks you can do that because you don't have to be on the platform for conversations to start amongst members and it would be nice to start a personal experiences talk for our WellMiss. Thanks!
Hi Dana! Thanks for this question :) In terms of engaging and building community I use Geneva! In terms of managing members behind the scenes and operations of Community I love Airtable for the flexibility and Notion for planning and organizing the team around what we're building.
Books: Get Together by People & Co and The Culting of Brands by Douglas Atkin!
Kim, would you recommend Mighty Networks for engaging and building community? And for the behind the scenes, how are you managing members in Airtable, what are you documenting there?
Thanks so much! And how can you leverage community insight in regards to data and analytics when talking to investors and applying to accelerators? How can you let them know your CPG beauty wellness brand is bigger than products but also scalable via community and data?
Hi Kim, thanks for your time on this topic of conversation. I think some of us at the beginning were definitely thrown off course with the event format, proving how programmed we are into our behaviours of consuming content at the moment. Was it purposeful/specific to this topic that you chose a written Q&A session, and why did you decide on this format, which is probably more time-consuming? I enjoy these types of formats, as we are then not 'context switching' and we also can remain slightly anonymous if we want to.
Hi Jennifer! In your group (or Home, as we call them) on Geneva you can have spaces for chat conversation, post conversation/sharing, audio calls, and video convos (and more coming soon!). We're really building an all-in-one space for people to host their communities online in the ways that make the most sense for them! If you're interested in chatting more feel free to send me an email! kim@genevachat.com
Thanks, I will contact you to learn more. We haven't committed to a community platform yet so before we bring people away from Instagram, I want to be certain of where we will build our community platform.
Oof I find defining community so hard, but ultimately I would say it is a group of people who connect with each other around shared experiences, beliefs, or interests. I see Geneva as a community of communities which is probably how it differs most from Glossier. Glossier is a community around beauty at its core. At Geneva, we see so many different kinds of communities come to life (beauty, sports, environmental activism, motherhood, etc).
Hi Kim and Team @ Femstreet, This is a very smart and interesting way to host the 'event' and build SEO at the same time👏! I am a Community Builder, I work with startups and small businesses to develop and implement their community strategies. What top 5 tips can you share for community building on a shoestring budget?
Hi Serena! Thank you so much for this! A few thoughts here:
1. start with a tight group and grow from there
2. surprise and delight people. you don't need to promise a ton of swag and product upfront if that's not feasible. it's so much more delightful for people to not expect a ton and get surprised by a product or item from you :)
3. host small groups. if you're hosting virtual get togethers or roundtables make them small and intimate. this probably means more of them, but will facilitate better connections early on
4. spend time in the community. nothing takes the place of the community leader taking part in conversation and showing up with people in the way they want people to show up
5. make it casual and fun! don't let the business side of things make you forget that community is supposed to be fun! a way to think about this is to think to yourself: if i were in my community members shoes what pieces of this would I love? And build on those as much as possible
How long would you work on buiding community before launching products to them? And how do you get your community involved in co-creating and testing out your products with you? Similar to what Glossier did?
Hi Kim! I am interested to know your opinion concerning how to create a community that talks about (female) tabus - how to build a trust environment where women are open and feel confortable to share and talk? And related to this first question: do you think there are barriers towards an open community on this subject?
Love this! Thank you for the question, Maria. I think there are a few pieces to this:
1. set a really thoughtful foundation for the community space that you're creating. don't start with a ton of people. Start with people who can help set the tone and build from there
2. create opportunities for people to connect "IRL" (over video). While we cant get together in person, I do think that the ability to connect with someone physically even if it is just seeing their face over a Zoom (and in a small group) is really important to break down barriers and walls.
Hi Jem! Love your prof photo :) To be honest, I'm not the biggest podcast listener, but the ones I have listened to and would absolutely vouch for (both because the podcasts are great and the hosts are also amazing) are: Get Together and Means of Creation (second one is less community focused, but a really interesting space for conversations around culture and the internet)
Oooh I love this question. Thank you Ali! Ultimately I think when you're building a brand or a community you're creating something that is bigger than the products you sell. You're building something that (ideally) people want to take part in and that they believe in. Building in a way that is "people-first" is pretty core to both of those things I think.
Yes, yes, yes!! I have been trying to get people around me to understand we are a community first and what we stand for is bigger than our products. Products support our WellMiss wellness and self-care journey but we are community and education first.
Hi Antoinette! Sorry for the delay! I would say: identify your most engaged IG followers first and get connected to them. Bring them closer in to what you're building and foster a space that allows them to connect with each other. That will mean that when you're launching products you've got a super excited and engaged group who will not only celebrate the products but probably also be a megaphone for that launch!
Hi Christina! Thanks for this question. I quite literally do the old fashioned way. Cold outreach to our most engaged and try to get on a Zoom with them and chat and learn more about them and how they show up. Not scalable but in the early days I think that's ok and important. Always love a survey too :)
I was told to take our most engaged and newcomers and jump on one on one Zooms with them and casually ask them questions that will help me with customer insight and build an authentic repo.
I have learned a survey is good to use to help you streamline who you want to take the next level with on personal one on one engagement. A survey is first and weeds out those you want to ask more in-depth questions to while one on one but surveys are not the end-all.
Well Salesforce is definitely an OG classic example. I would add though, Notion (not directly B2B but somewhat) does a great job and Figma as well off the top of my head. Curious if others have examples!
Hey Kim, Thank you for taking the time out to chat with us!
What are some of the ways Glossier uses to facilitate conversations with their community? Also virtual alternatives since IRL will be difficult for a while! Thank you :)
Has anyone else here tried Diem? They are building community spaces for women, I've been able to find and build one there around menstrual care which has been cool.
How do you think about one-to-many content/platforms vs. many-to-many (i.e., community interacting with each other)? How do you ensure trust & safety in many-to-many communities?
Hi Kim! I love Glossier and Geneva. Thank you for doing this. I have a few questions.
How do you keep engagement and make sure you are constantly providing value to the members of the community?
What's the best way to ensure growth?
What's your opinion on the different platforms out there to build a community on? How do you choose which is one is best? (Slack, Geneva, FB Groups, Clubhouse, Substack, and so on)
Could you share some strategies that have worked for you and that anyone could apply for starting a new community that would lead to possibly creating and launching a product?
In terms of constantly providing value — create touchpoints and rituals that are engrained in the space and people know to expect. That kind of consistency is key.
On growth: early on, be really intentional about who is there. Invite people wh you know will be thoughtful members, from there have those members help you find more people. If done well you will actually start to see people who are coming to you to take part instead of you coming to them!
On platforms: I'm biased but I would of course say Geneva :) Honestly, reason being is we're building an all-in-one space for communities and groups first and foremost. Because we're bringing together all of the ways people communicate (chatting, posting, P2P audio, P2P video & more soon), the power is in the hands of the group leader to determine how their members engage.
On starting a new community: start with a really clear focus and grow from there!
Hi Jen - curious if you could expand on the differences between Geneva vs Slack. Trying to assess the best platform for our community without creating too much friction for our members. Thank you!
Hi Kim, thanks so much for taking the time to share your advice! My name is Roslyn and I'm a co-founder of The GIST, which is a female-led sports media platform. We create sports content in a fun and refreshing female voice and perspective for all types of sports fans. I would love to hear more about the infrastructure you put in place, or in the early days, what existing platforms you leveraged to to build community. At The GIST, many of our channels are more one-to-many (like email, podcast) and socials aren't perfect for building community. But I can definitely feel there's a desire with our audience to have more of a community element, so would love your advice on platform/infrastructure for getting started!
Okay just checked out Geneva in the meantime and it looks awesome for what we're looking for. Follow up question then would be, would you recommend investing in a full-time community manager to manage all the activity on the platform?
So glad you checked us out Roslyn! Feel free to email me (kim@genevachat.com) if you want help getting The GIST started :)
On to your question... hmm I think it depends on your team set up. If you have someone who owns customer experience on your team already it could be an extension of their work. That being said, I don't know that you need to fully hire someone if you and your team are thoughtful about 1. building the space and creating rituals for people that allow them to take part and 2. showing up yourselves in authentic ways that allow people to get connected with you!
Thanks! Think I got the hang after seeing everyone asking the same thing so have put in some questions -- hope that's ok! Really excited to get some answers!
Thank you all so much for your questions and thoughts! I loved this! I may have missed a few questions so if I didn't get to you, you have a follow on question, or you just want to chat community things feel free to email me: kim@genevachat.com !
Hi Daniella! Oof — honestly I've always been pretty tight about budget so I can tell you it doesn't require a ton haha. I actually don't think that you need to spend a lot of money on content creation for community. For social, definitely, but for your community space the content is the conversation that you are facilitating! On moderation, I think the need here grows as the community grows. In the early days it may be you and another team member, and as you grow you will probably have to scale that.
With Clubhouse being the main talk of the town atm, it’s becoming clear that any effort to build Community must have a clear focus.
When utilising technology, what is your recommendation for how a Community-builder can best prioritise to define a community; a) with boundaries, and b) in a way that honours and ideally even promotes diversity?
Totally agree re focus. It's super important. If you cant clearly identify why you're bringing people together then what's the point?!
I would say:
1. start narrow and expand. Don't try to create a digital community that facilitates conversation about a ton of different things to start. Focus on the topic that you know people are there for and expand as you go (this should happen anyways because as relationships are formed the conversations will expand).
2. Be extremely intentional about who you bring in to start. Bring together people who may all be passionate about the topic but in totally different ways. My belief is that the thing you're bringing people together around should be the through-line and from there you should try to reach all ends of the spectrum of experience and identity.
How can you leverage community insight in regards to data and analytics when talking to investors and applying to accelerators? How can you let them know your CPG beauty wellness brand is bigger than products but also scalable via community and data?
Hi Jasmine! I think there is a complete range on community monetization. For instance, a brand will probably lean towards a free community whereas a content creator or podcaster for instance might make their space paid. It all depends on 1. what your relationship with the community is already (are they already paying for access to what you create in some way?) and 2. what are you providing here. Feel free to send me an email if you would like to discuss more! kim@genevachat.com. I'm always curious to hear more about paid communities people are building :)
Hi - me again! Do you have a checklist of things members of a community need to see upon joining that gets them really engaged? Would love to know what elements you think are the most important. Thank you!
Thank you for hosting this AMA. I run a professional network for female entrepreneurs (www.dreamersdoers.com), Geneva is one of the platforms we’re keeping an eye on.
Are custom profile fields (ie being a able to customize member profiles/ask custom questions etc that would be searchable in the directory) something that’s on the roadmap? Similarly, is a shared newsfeed that displays posts from all groups a member is part of something that’s available or that is planned? If not, is there a way to set up daily or weekly email digests (ie a summary email for all groups one is a part of)?
Apologies if this is outside of the scope of this AMA, I can totally send this to someone else on the team in email format.
Thank you so much for building such a fantastic product!
Hi Gesche! Thank you for this question :) We're definitely thinking about both :) Feel free to send me a note, kim@genevachat.com! Would love to chat more about it!
What's the best way to launch and start a community?
Hi Laura! I believe the best way is to find the people who are already excited about and/or engaged in what you're doing and start with those people first and foremost. In the early days, you don't have to worry about having a massive group. Start with the people who you know will rally around what you're doing and work with them to become a megaphone for you! That early authentic network effect is really invaluable.
Hey Kim, three questions😁 1) Which do you think a new brand should focus more on: audience or building a community? 2) How do you distinguish between the two? 3) What are your top go-to metrics for measuring engagement / health of your community?
RT! Hearing a lot of conversations (on Clubhouse to be fair) where people are using community as a synonym for audience. Creating an engaged audience ≠ cultivating a robust community. Both are important, but not one in the same.
I learned that audience is "talking to" which social media does and community is "talking with" which is creating groups or online communities to talk to each other and members talk to one another as well.
Love this thank you all! Completely agree that audience and community are not the same. They're both important, but can't be conflated. Jennifer and Alexa said it really well. I would add: your audience members are the people who you create storytelling for. Your community members are the people who you create conversation with. When done well I think the community you build and the conversations that happen amongst that community can actually become a part of the stories that you tell to your audience. They serve each other in that way.
In terms of metrics I would say: 1. how often are people engaging in the space, 2. how often do people take part in the events, programming, or opportunities you share with them 3. how much are people talking about the community/getting other people interested in taking part!
Super thanks Kim, Jennifer and Alexa great to hear we're all thinking / approaching the thinking, distinctions and engagement the same way!🙏🏾
i thought it was VIDEO...
... realized, it's just a CHAT.
... i think?
Second question - how can you build a community for three defined (but different) target audiences? Ie. we're talking about sleep - markets are new mamas, insomniacs, and shift workers. Everyone thinks very differently (specifically moms vs. the rest) - but we don't want to split folks out. Any tips on how to be inclusive and cross these segmentation gaps? Any examples of other brands doing this would be amazing, if you have them!
Hey Kim, if you are just starting out with an intention to build a paid community, have you got any best practices from a market research perspective? e.g number of conversations, questions about intent vs past behaviour, extracting problems to solve? Thanks!
Hi Ellen! Great question. Honestly, I think best practices depend a lot more on the kind of community and offering than whether or not it's paid. Would love to hear more about what you're building though! Feel free to send me a note: kim@genevachat.com!
We asked people if they wanted to join our community before we had launched the platform for it. We're about ready now, so sending out our little email invites very soon. What do you recommend including in this? What gets people interested after a short gap of time? Any content ideas or insights would be amazing! Thanks
Hey Jem - we're in the same stage! Want to connect? Would love to brainstorm w you!
Love this connection moment <3
To answer your question Jem, I would add a few things:
- give them a preview of what to expect in the community
- personalize, personalize, personalize: make it clear how excited you are for each person to be a part of this!
- host something virtual in the first 2 weeks! give people a "moment" to lead up to/get excited about
Thank you so much, this is super helpful!
Would love this! How can I best contact you?
Yay! Shoot me an email - hannah@trysleepout.com!
Can you please share some strategies that glossier used to make the community such an integral part of the business? Where it almost feels like marketing is community led completely.
Hi Aditi! Honestly, I would say this starts from the top. A true belief in community from the leaders will make community an integral part of the business organically. In the early days though it was really about making Glossier the facilitator of beauty conversation and not the focus. We would create venues and experiences that weren't just focused on the brand, they were focused on bringing people together around beauty and building true connection from there.
How can we create this same experience with everything being virtual?
How would you go about seeding a community with people that'll keep conversations going? What would attract them, how would you access them, what do you look for?
Honestly, in my experience, there isn't a way to shortcut this. It takes time. Everything from: who is engaging most with your social content and getting connected with them to build a relationship to see if they're a good fit for helping you seed a community to people who are extremely active in other spaces (outside of yours) related to the community who you can build connections with and can become some of your first voices.
How do you move from a community being between your brand and individuals to being something that is self sustaining between members of the community without your direction?
Hey Sophie! Great question. Honestly I think this is all about hosting conversations regularly that aren't just about the brand. When I was at Glossier we hosted a lot of beauty conversations that weren't focused on the brand but were focused on people's experiences with beauty. And similarly, at Geneva, we're working on experiences that are about community building as opposed to being directly about Geneva. What that does is it allows people to see the community you've built as a space for that conversation broadly (beauty/community building) as opposed to just the company itself.
Love this! I feel like on Mighty Networks you can do that because you don't have to be on the platform for conversations to start amongst members and it would be nice to start a personal experiences talk for our WellMiss. Thanks!
What are some of the tools you use to manage communities? Also favourite books/ podcasts related to community management
Curious about this also
Hi Dana! Thanks for this question :) In terms of engaging and building community I use Geneva! In terms of managing members behind the scenes and operations of Community I love Airtable for the flexibility and Notion for planning and organizing the team around what we're building.
Books: Get Together by People & Co and The Culting of Brands by Douglas Atkin!
Kim, would you recommend Mighty Networks for engaging and building community? And for the behind the scenes, how are you managing members in Airtable, what are you documenting there?
Hi Jennifer! I use Airtable for the operational stuff (addresses and such)
Thanks so much! And how can you leverage community insight in regards to data and analytics when talking to investors and applying to accelerators? How can you let them know your CPG beauty wellness brand is bigger than products but also scalable via community and data?
Hi Kim, thanks for your time on this topic of conversation. I think some of us at the beginning were definitely thrown off course with the event format, proving how programmed we are into our behaviours of consuming content at the moment. Was it purposeful/specific to this topic that you chose a written Q&A session, and why did you decide on this format, which is probably more time-consuming? I enjoy these types of formats, as we are then not 'context switching' and we also can remain slightly anonymous if we want to.
Hi Amy! I think the Femstreet team could speak to this better, but this is actually a Substack Q&A series that they do pretty regularly in this format
Is Geneva fully messaging-based? Can you host Zoom and live video events on there?
Hi Jennifer! In your group (or Home, as we call them) on Geneva you can have spaces for chat conversation, post conversation/sharing, audio calls, and video convos (and more coming soon!). We're really building an all-in-one space for people to host their communities online in the ways that make the most sense for them! If you're interested in chatting more feel free to send me an email! kim@genevachat.com
Thanks, I will contact you to learn more. We haven't committed to a community platform yet so before we bring people away from Instagram, I want to be certain of where we will build our community platform.
Hi Kim! What is your definition of community, and how does that differ at a brand like Glossier (DTC) vs. Geneva (B2B2C?)?
Zoe!! So happy to see you here :)
Oof I find defining community so hard, but ultimately I would say it is a group of people who connect with each other around shared experiences, beliefs, or interests. I see Geneva as a community of communities which is probably how it differs most from Glossier. Glossier is a community around beauty at its core. At Geneva, we see so many different kinds of communities come to life (beauty, sports, environmental activism, motherhood, etc).
Hi Kim and Team @ Femstreet, This is a very smart and interesting way to host the 'event' and build SEO at the same time👏! I am a Community Builder, I work with startups and small businesses to develop and implement their community strategies. What top 5 tips can you share for community building on a shoestring budget?
Hi Serena! Thank you so much for this! A few thoughts here:
1. start with a tight group and grow from there
2. surprise and delight people. you don't need to promise a ton of swag and product upfront if that's not feasible. it's so much more delightful for people to not expect a ton and get surprised by a product or item from you :)
3. host small groups. if you're hosting virtual get togethers or roundtables make them small and intimate. this probably means more of them, but will facilitate better connections early on
4. spend time in the community. nothing takes the place of the community leader taking part in conversation and showing up with people in the way they want people to show up
5. make it casual and fun! don't let the business side of things make you forget that community is supposed to be fun! a way to think about this is to think to yourself: if i were in my community members shoes what pieces of this would I love? And build on those as much as possible
Hi Kim, These are super! Thank you for the great tips.
How long would you work on buiding community before launching products to them? And how do you get your community involved in co-creating and testing out your products with you? Similar to what Glossier did?
Hi Kim! I am interested to know your opinion concerning how to create a community that talks about (female) tabus - how to build a trust environment where women are open and feel confortable to share and talk? And related to this first question: do you think there are barriers towards an open community on this subject?
Love this! Thank you for the question, Maria. I think there are a few pieces to this:
1. set a really thoughtful foundation for the community space that you're creating. don't start with a ton of people. Start with people who can help set the tone and build from there
2. create opportunities for people to connect "IRL" (over video). While we cant get together in person, I do think that the ability to connect with someone physically even if it is just seeing their face over a Zoom (and in a small group) is really important to break down barriers and walls.
Yeah agree, I'm also really interested to hear your thoughts on trust and creating a sense of safe space! Thank you!
Hi Kim, what platform for early-stage startups do you recommend for hosting a community in? The target audience is young, 20s mostly.
Hi Nikos! I would love to introduce you to what we're building at Geneva! Feel free to send me an email: kim@genevachat.com :)
What podcasts would you recommend to learn more?
Hi Jem! Love your prof photo :) To be honest, I'm not the biggest podcast listener, but the ones I have listened to and would absolutely vouch for (both because the podcasts are great and the hosts are also amazing) are: Get Together and Means of Creation (second one is less community focused, but a really interesting space for conversations around culture and the internet)
Thanks so much!
What do you see as the major similarities and differences between brand building and community building?
Oooh I love this question. Thank you Ali! Ultimately I think when you're building a brand or a community you're creating something that is bigger than the products you sell. You're building something that (ideally) people want to take part in and that they believe in. Building in a way that is "people-first" is pretty core to both of those things I think.
Yes, yes, yes!! I have been trying to get people around me to understand we are a community first and what we stand for is bigger than our products. Products support our WellMiss wellness and self-care journey but we are community and education first.
Hey Kim! How do you consistently convert Instagram followers into an active community that you could possibly launch a product to?
Hi Antoinette! Sorry for the delay! I would say: identify your most engaged IG followers first and get connected to them. Bring them closer in to what you're building and foster a space that allows them to connect with each other. That will mean that when you're launching products you've got a super excited and engaged group who will not only celebrate the products but probably also be a megaphone for that launch!
Hi Kim. Re: 1 *Get to know your people*: how have you been doing this? surveys, IG Lives? What has worked best for you recently?
Hi Christina! Thanks for this question. I quite literally do the old fashioned way. Cold outreach to our most engaged and try to get on a Zoom with them and chat and learn more about them and how they show up. Not scalable but in the early days I think that's ok and important. Always love a survey too :)
i like the old fashion way too eheh
I was told to take our most engaged and newcomers and jump on one on one Zooms with them and casually ask them questions that will help me with customer insight and build an authentic repo.
Thank you, makes a lot of sense. Head fo Content at Notion said the same thing earlier this week
Your welcome and thanks for confirming as well. I guess we are headed in the right direction!!
Do you both see this as complimentary to a survey or instead of? I'm in this stage too! ta
I have learned a survey is good to use to help you streamline who you want to take the next level with on personal one on one engagement. A survey is first and weeds out those you want to ask more in-depth questions to while one on one but surveys are not the end-all.
I have learned you have to go deeper. Really get to know your people in the community. Surveys are just the beginning. Whatever you do, go deep!
Hi Kim! What is are some good platforms/tools to build communities outside of social?
Hi Kim! Do you know any great examples of b2b companies that leverage community?
Hi Champ!
Well Salesforce is definitely an OG classic example. I would add though, Notion (not directly B2B but somewhat) does a great job and Figma as well off the top of my head. Curious if others have examples!
Hey Kim, Thank you for taking the time out to chat with us!
What are some of the ways Glossier uses to facilitate conversations with their community? Also virtual alternatives since IRL will be difficult for a while! Thank you :)
Has anyone else here tried Diem? They are building community spaces for women, I've been able to find and build one there around menstrual care which has been cool.
How do you think about one-to-many content/platforms vs. many-to-many (i.e., community interacting with each other)? How do you ensure trust & safety in many-to-many communities?
Hi Kim! I love Glossier and Geneva. Thank you for doing this. I have a few questions.
How do you keep engagement and make sure you are constantly providing value to the members of the community?
What's the best way to ensure growth?
What's your opinion on the different platforms out there to build a community on? How do you choose which is one is best? (Slack, Geneva, FB Groups, Clubhouse, Substack, and so on)
Could you share some strategies that have worked for you and that anyone could apply for starting a new community that would lead to possibly creating and launching a product?
Hi Karla! Thank you so much!
In terms of constantly providing value — create touchpoints and rituals that are engrained in the space and people know to expect. That kind of consistency is key.
On growth: early on, be really intentional about who is there. Invite people wh you know will be thoughtful members, from there have those members help you find more people. If done well you will actually start to see people who are coming to you to take part instead of you coming to them!
On platforms: I'm biased but I would of course say Geneva :) Honestly, reason being is we're building an all-in-one space for communities and groups first and foremost. Because we're bringing together all of the ways people communicate (chatting, posting, P2P audio, P2P video & more soon), the power is in the hands of the group leader to determine how their members engage.
On starting a new community: start with a really clear focus and grow from there!
Hi Jen - curious if you could expand on the differences between Geneva vs Slack. Trying to assess the best platform for our community without creating too much friction for our members. Thank you!
Hi Kim, thanks so much for taking the time to share your advice! My name is Roslyn and I'm a co-founder of The GIST, which is a female-led sports media platform. We create sports content in a fun and refreshing female voice and perspective for all types of sports fans. I would love to hear more about the infrastructure you put in place, or in the early days, what existing platforms you leveraged to to build community. At The GIST, many of our channels are more one-to-many (like email, podcast) and socials aren't perfect for building community. But I can definitely feel there's a desire with our audience to have more of a community element, so would love your advice on platform/infrastructure for getting started!
Okay just checked out Geneva in the meantime and it looks awesome for what we're looking for. Follow up question then would be, would you recommend investing in a full-time community manager to manage all the activity on the platform?
So glad you checked us out Roslyn! Feel free to email me (kim@genevachat.com) if you want help getting The GIST started :)
On to your question... hmm I think it depends on your team set up. If you have someone who owns customer experience on your team already it could be an extension of their work. That being said, I don't know that you need to fully hire someone if you and your team are thoughtful about 1. building the space and creating rituals for people that allow them to take part and 2. showing up yourselves in authentic ways that allow people to get connected with you!
Thanks Kim! This is super helpful. Really appreciate it :)
Hi Kim! What do you think about Mighty Networks for building a community and getting customer insight as a new beauty wellness brand?
Hi! Is this the event here -- answering our questions on the comments? I can't see any other link...
Its a written Q&A here where you commented
Thanks! Think I got the hang after seeing everyone asking the same thing so have put in some questions -- hope that's ok! Really excited to get some answers!
Thank you all so much for your questions and thoughts! I loved this! I may have missed a few questions so if I didn't get to you, you have a follow on question, or you just want to chat community things feel free to email me: kim@genevachat.com !
Have a great weekend everyone :)
Thank you and will do!!! Enjoyed this today and thanks for the gems!
Hi Kim! How much does it cost, budget-wise to stand up to a successful community? How much should you spend on content creation, moderators etc?
Hi Daniella! Oof — honestly I've always been pretty tight about budget so I can tell you it doesn't require a ton haha. I actually don't think that you need to spend a lot of money on content creation for community. For social, definitely, but for your community space the content is the conversation that you are facilitating! On moderation, I think the need here grows as the community grows. In the early days it may be you and another team member, and as you grow you will probably have to scale that.
Hi Kim,
With Clubhouse being the main talk of the town atm, it’s becoming clear that any effort to build Community must have a clear focus.
When utilising technology, what is your recommendation for how a Community-builder can best prioritise to define a community; a) with boundaries, and b) in a way that honours and ideally even promotes diversity?
Thanks! <3
Love this question so much, Cecilia. Thank you!
Totally agree re focus. It's super important. If you cant clearly identify why you're bringing people together then what's the point?!
I would say:
1. start narrow and expand. Don't try to create a digital community that facilitates conversation about a ton of different things to start. Focus on the topic that you know people are there for and expand as you go (this should happen anyways because as relationships are formed the conversations will expand).
2. Be extremely intentional about who you bring in to start. Bring together people who may all be passionate about the topic but in totally different ways. My belief is that the thing you're bringing people together around should be the through-line and from there you should try to reach all ends of the spectrum of experience and identity.
How can you leverage community insight in regards to data and analytics when talking to investors and applying to accelerators? How can you let them know your CPG beauty wellness brand is bigger than products but also scalable via community and data?
This is really cool :) thanks so much!
what do you think about using Discord to build and grow a community of users? Been more popular mean these days.
Hi Kim! Can I reach out to you about where to host a community?
Hi Hannah! Definitely! Send me an email: kim@genevachat.com
Is a community necessarily paid? How do you decide how to monetize your community ? How should you proceed doing so ?
Hi Jasmine! I think there is a complete range on community monetization. For instance, a brand will probably lean towards a free community whereas a content creator or podcaster for instance might make their space paid. It all depends on 1. what your relationship with the community is already (are they already paying for access to what you create in some way?) and 2. what are you providing here. Feel free to send me an email if you would like to discuss more! kim@genevachat.com. I'm always curious to hear more about paid communities people are building :)
Hi - me again! Do you have a checklist of things members of a community need to see upon joining that gets them really engaged? Would love to know what elements you think are the most important. Thank you!
Thank you for hosting this AMA. I run a professional network for female entrepreneurs (www.dreamersdoers.com), Geneva is one of the platforms we’re keeping an eye on.
Are custom profile fields (ie being a able to customize member profiles/ask custom questions etc that would be searchable in the directory) something that’s on the roadmap? Similarly, is a shared newsfeed that displays posts from all groups a member is part of something that’s available or that is planned? If not, is there a way to set up daily or weekly email digests (ie a summary email for all groups one is a part of)?
Apologies if this is outside of the scope of this AMA, I can totally send this to someone else on the team in email format.
Thank you so much for building such a fantastic product!
Hi Gesche! Thank you for this question :) We're definitely thinking about both :) Feel free to send me a note, kim@genevachat.com! Would love to chat more about it!
Do we ask our questions here?
Hi Jennifer! Yes! Excited to chat here :)
Hi Kim! What do you think about Mighty Networks for building a community and getting customer insight as a new beauty wellness brand?