A Fluff-free Guide to Web3 Community Building For Aspiring Founders
If you’ve been in the Web3 space for some time, the word community shouldn’t be new. It’s especially important if you’re a Web3 founder. I say Web3 because everyone uses the term interchangeably with crypto nowadays.
But yes, community. It’s kind of the bread and butter of a Web3 project.
However, I feel like the word has lost its meaning among all the noise over the years. So, I’m writing this blog post for those of you who are aspiring to be Web3 founders. And while this is not investment advice, it might also help those of you who are new to the crypto space in general.
I will also try to keep this as fluff-free as possible.
Let’s start with the misconceptions.
Firstly, a big social media following isn’t a community. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great if you have a lot of followers. Especially in the short term, or if you’re aiming for a small presale launch. It could get some eyeballs on your project.
But those people are not part of your community. They are just a bunch of traders who want to buy your tokens and sell them when they see a pump. When they do sell, they won’t care about how innovative your project is or what the next 5 years look like for your startup. And you better believe that they will sell hard. Even if it means cleaning out your entire liquidity pool.
Unless Elon Musk Tweets about you. That could get you some leverage.
Jokes apart, your social media is very important. It is, how you can build your community. But it’s much better for a project or startup to build a great brand than just aim for the numbers. What you actually need is a group of people that really believe in your Idea. This way, even if you find hurdles along the way, your community can help you, support you, and give you a very important advantage. Feedback!
Build a real community
I like to think of a community as a group of people who are willing to communicate with you, the team, and other community members for the growth of the project. Essentially, you should start building your community early on. I’m not talking about creating a social media account and churning out content right away. But once you have an idea you believe is good, and you’ve worked on your idea to a point where you think you have something really solid on your hands, you can start your community-building process.
Networking
Reddit, Telegram, Discord
I’ve put it in this order because I think Reddit can be really useful in getting your idea validated and holding discussions around it. Although, I don’t recommend that you start a community space on Reddit right away. It might be better to start with a private Telegram or Discord in case you want to be the first mover in your particular niche.
Don’t keep it under wraps for too long because Web3 is constantly evolving and others can beat you to the curve. But, no need to stress out. You can still make your project succeed even if anyone does it before you. Web3 is NOT a zero-sum game. If you can execute your idea well, people will like it.
But in the initial months of building a project around your idea or technology, you can start by creating a private Telegram Group or Discord server and starting conversations with people.
Finding People
You could take multiple routes with this. It’s always a good idea to join existing Web3 communities on Reddit, Telegram, or Discord. I don’t mean another project’s official group but communities where you can find like-minded people who love Web3.
Reddit is a good place to start. Lots of Web3 people with real experience engage in discussions on the platform. And a lot of them are a part of low-key groups on Telegram and Discord. When you find these communities, don’t be shy to strike up a conversation. You’d be amazed at how helpful these communities can be because nobody is there to “Get” anything from you. Other than knowledge of course. You will encounter a few Gem Hunters along the way but that just helps put your project out there. I don’t wanna say Whales but you get the point.
However, there is a much faster way to find people.
Crypto Events
I’ve found that Web3 conferences are by far the best and easiest path to finding great people to talk to. Now, some of these events are expensive but some are also free. ETH Hackathons for example are free and you can get a lot of value out of attending these events. If you have the money for some of the more expensive meetups, don’t miss out on them. To be honest, crypto meetups are really fun.
Keep in mind that not all meetups are created equal. An expensive entry ticket does not guarantee that your experience will be good. Even at some of the most expensive crypto events, people are just there to Shill you their tokens. Always check online for past experiences of attendees before swiping your credit card.
You can attend the Shillfests once your project grows a little bit. If you pick right, you may even end up finding some private investors looking to get in early on projects.
Bonus: You might be wondering why some expensive events are not really what you are looking for. Some are just Shillfests. Projects pay a lot of money to build an image that they are “big.” Also, some event companies are really real estate companies. They sell exhibition spaces to event management agencies. These agencies divide these spaces into booth spaces a resell them to exhibitors. This isn’t a bad thing. Everyone does it. That’s how you make events profitable. Maybe you can see this as a business opportunity for your own event management agency. That’s completely alright. But when the business works like this, you can see why things could go south if all the event organizer cares about is making money. No hate to anyone in the business, a great event is always fun. But these facts are always good to know. After all, the whole point of crypto and web3 is being transparent and decentralized.
What now?
Now that you’ve found some networking opportunities, start discussing your project with people there. You don’t have to reveal everything about your project. Discuss what you can and try finding information on the problems you are trying to solve. See how you can use Blockchain and Web3 to solve these problems. Even if you’re a memecoin project you can do this. See what other community managers are doing and what works for them. Just get out there.
Be open to collaborate
Always remember that networking is a two-way street. The art of networking is about exchanging value. When you’re learning from other people, think of ways you can contribute to helping them out too. I’m not talking about monetary contributions. But knowledge and connections. If you are trying to be a founder, you are probably good at something. Maybe you’re good at writing code, try helping someone solve a problem with their code. Maybe you’re an expert in a particular industry, try to help projects in the same space understand the pain points. Maybe you know someone who could help someone else out. Once you start networking like this, you will make great connections, and that will help you in the long run.
Invite people
Once you have built some conversations with people, ask them if they want to join your community spaces. Not every person you ask will say yes but most people will. If you think about it, joining a Telegram Group or a Discord Server is not really that big a thing for most people. They are probably part of hundreds of groups and will have multiple accounts. The good thing about these in-person meetups is that you might just be able to get on their private contact list.
And guess what? At this point, you’ve already started building your community!
Use Social Media Right
Indeed, your strategy should not be sheer numbers on your project’s social media profile. But, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t grow your social media. Remember, your project needs users to succeed. And those users come from good Marketing and PR.
While networking is very important, its equally important to simultaneously have a good social media strategy.
Circling back a little, Reddit is a great way to grow your community. If you want to reach the masses, an effective Twitter strategy is still the most effective marketing channel. However, you’re probably gonna get the most active community members from Reddit.
Reddit is the front page of the internet. If you want to know what other people what you to read, you go to Google. If you want to find relevant information, you go on Reddit. The people that you really want to be a part of your community are probably Reddit users who are there to find good projects. These are people who will spend the time to understand what your project is about and want to be a part of what you are trying to accomplish.
But keep in mind that Reddit can also be very brutal. You can’t get away with bullshitting your way out of situations for too long. A lot of Reddit users are developers and people with a lot of experience in Web3. You will find token shillers too but because Reddit is so particular about the content you can post on their platform, your average Twitter shiller won’t make it very far.
Being consistent on Twitter is crucial to building your brand. Your consistency is key and equally important is posting relevant content. Be transparent with your community because good projects are built on trust. Regardless of how innovative your project is, people won’t care about what you’re doing, if they don’t trust you. Even if you are an anonymous project, sharing key information about your progress and how you plan on expanding can help build trust.
If you have all of the above boxes checked, influencer marketing might be the quickest way for you to take things forward.
Now, tread carefully. A Twitter account that has 100K+ followers doesn’t mean that those followers are real. Once you create your project’s Twitter page and send a Tweet, your DMs, and replies are gonna be flooded with shill offers. 90% of DMs you get are gonna be scammers. If you know what an SMM Panel is, you’ll know how cheap it is to buy fake followers and engagement. I’ll just leave it at that. This applies to Telegram and Discord as well. You will get hundreds of DMs from people claiming that they can bring you “Real Investors” through their call channels. 90% of these people are scammers too. If someone promises you investors and guaranteed growth, you’re probably one transaction away from being scammed.
Final Words
There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to Web3 community building. For me, these are just things I’ve learned working with different projects in the Web3 space. I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs, and I hope to share what I’ve learned through future blog posts. I really hope that this was a good read for you and be sure to share this with a Web3 founder you know, if you found this helpful.
Feel free to reach me at: Linkedin, TG @DrCryptoYoda
