Building a community is vital for the success of any web3 project.

Decentralization, innovation, and web3 development are only possible through people, and in order to make that happen, there must be a united community that fights for the initiative tooth and nail.

On the other hand, the credibility of web3 projects is still negatively affected as a result of countless fraudulent schemes that persist in continuing and tainting an otherwise promising concept. Building a community not only benefits the project but also earns it more authority.

It does come with its own set of challenges, though.

Creating, managing, and growing a community is time-consuming and requires effort, but don’t let that discourage you - in this guide, we’ll show you everything you need to know to build a web3 community from the ground up.

KYC - Know Your Community 👀

The playful adaptation of the KYC acronym (know your customer) is pretty self-explanatory. And it is, perhaps, the most important step of all. Knowing your community, even before having a relevant dimension, entails going in search of the right community in the right places.

Seek developers if you want their expertise. Look for holders, investors, and crypto aficionados if the project is economic in nature. If you want to focus on content creators, make sure they are expressive in your community, and so on. Otherwise, you risk listening to the wrong groups and stalling your growth.

The Best Social Media And Communication Channels For Web3 Communities 👋

Telegram, Discord, and Twitter are, unsurprisingly, the three most popular social networks among web3 communities. Nonetheless, we will mention a few more below so that nothing is overlooked:

• Reddit

• YouTube

• Instagram

  
  

You don't have to be present in all of them at the same time; instead, focus on the ones where your target audience is and expand from there. Choosing one of them to launch your web3 community is also a viable option, but you can bet on both Discord and Telegram, as they complement each other:

• On Discord, it’s simple to create and boost servers to focus on specific themes, and it is also versatile (text-only and voice-only channels can be created) and multiplatform. Discord also allows you to broadcast transmissions and its feature list keeps improving regularly. It's one of the most complete platforms available.

  
  

• Telegram, unlike competitors such as WhatsApp, has no limit on the number of members in its broadcast lists and allows users to send files up to 2GB in size. It is also possible to use the app to send notifications and sticky notes to your web3 community.

  
  

On the other hand, when creating a web3 community, it is critical not to overlook one of the social media platforms with the most technology-centric user base: Twitter.

Explore Twitter's advanced search for web3 discussions and begin following and conversing with influencers in your niche. You will most likely find a diverse group of people on this social network who are interested in becoming a part of your community.

Discord and Telegram are amazing tools to engage and manage your community, but Twitter is a much bigger field of play. All these platforms complement each other and work great as a whole.

Web3 Community Goals 🎯

More than just establishing a web3 community, you must establish a primary goal. Of course, you can have secondary goals, but one of them should be your top priority.

Working side by side with some internal and external stakeholders, conducting good research (asking and listening to get to know your audience well), and collaborating may help to clarify the business's most pressing needs that the community can assist with.

It is critical at this point to align your community goals with your project goals.

Let's look at an example. If you are building a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), it is important to bring people closer and, as a result, some of them may turn into brand advocates, in addition to investing in your DAO.

Attracting brand ambassadors could be a goal for your new web3 community and the reason for its creation, with a secondary goal of attracting investment to the DAO. Other possible objectives include increasing sales, improving retention rates, earning investment, finding business partners, improving employee abilities, and so on.

Since you have an end goal in mind, you could direct community behavior around it by considering what actions and debates you want the members to be involved in.

Calling out your team on opening topics related to your goals is a smart way to do this. Expanding on topics raised by others is also a good practice.

Remember, as well, that creating surveys is a way to engage and orient the web3 community debate. Keep in mind that you must also be transparent. As a result, discovering and communicating your goals to the community is also a good practice.

How Can You Measure The "Health" And Growth of a Community? 🚀

It’s up for debate, but we believe it’s preferable to have a smaller web3 community with a high level of engagement, rather than thousands of members with a low one.

Web3 communities with thousands of members but no discussion are merely a vanity metric, and worse, they put out the idea that the project is dead.

As a result, in order to measure your web3 community, your KPIs (key performance indicators) must be aligned with your goals.

Metrics to Consider When Launching

When you're just starting out, you will need to closely monitor some operational metrics.

At this stage, every new member joining your server or channel will feel like a victory.

More than the metrics themselves, understanding where the members came from, why they are joining, and measuring the impact they have on the project are the extremely relevant insights to have early on.

It’s also important to track the number of posts and engagements, which include comments, reactions, and determining whether or not a topic has evolved into a productive debate.

As the community grows, you will face the challenge of maintaining high levels of engagement, so now is the time to measure the health of your base. In other words, keep an eye on the ratio of active and contributing members to total membership. It's known as the "vibrancy metric."

Observing The Maturity

Tangible goals are really put to the test at this point in the analytics because you need to know if you've met your primary goals now more than ever. When your web3 community is becoming mature, after solid growth, you should be prepared for a drop in numbers. So, never take your gaze away from your engagement.

Also, be aware that mature communities reward brand advocates. You can look for ambassadors on social media platforms like Twitter and find those who would help you as a community manager by rewarding them with exclusive content or even starting a brand ambassador program (we cover ambassador programs later in this article).

Moderation 🚨

Once you have a web3 community, make sure the rules are clear while maintaining a positive and light atmosphere. Moderation is necessary to ensure that debates flow as smoothly as possible while remaining relevant. It also ensures that all members feel comfortable participating on an equal footing.

Web3 Community Policy

A good way to do so is to draft a web3 community policy that includes the following provisions:

• Make it clear who you are and why you are promoting the community.

• Focus themes that people can explore to avoid distortions. In general, a web3 community will discuss topics such as blockchain, DeFi, gaming, rewards, cryptocurrency, tokens, and so on.

• Create policies that prohibit discrimination, investigate culture and social norms, and promote diversity in expression.

• Clarify that moderators do not favor one group or an individual over another.

• Set language policies to help you avoid a house fire.

• Indicate whether or not some posts that violate community guidelines will be deleted.

• If someone violates the community rules, make it clear what kind of sanctions will be imposed and how many violations are permitted before suspending or banning someone.

  
  

Here’s an example of GitHub community guidelines.

Managing The Community

To begin, keep in mind that moderating a group on Discord, Facebook, Telegram, or Slack is a unique experience. So, at the very least, it should be appropriate to focus on one or two channels (we recommend Discord and Telegram) before expanding your community to other platforms.

This is also necessary in order to properly greet visitors. Make sure everyone is introduced with a few words of welcome. Everyone feels at ease with this attitude.

You want to keep the house in order as a good moderator. You must be patient and understanding. Avoiding judgment while consistently providing feedback to users, encouraging positive interactions, and removing any inappropriate comments will ensure that everyone has the opportunity to express themselves.

Primary Concerns to be Aware of

• Spam/fake-news
• Strong language
• Unrelated topics
• Foreign languages
• Self-promotion
• Demand for updates
• Personal disrespect
• Information leaks

Bring Your Team

Make sure that as many of your team members as possible embrace your web3 community and join it (& enjoy it!). It is also important to bring your team to the debate in order to facilitate, mediate, and keep the community focused.

After all, you won't be able to keep up with the debate all the time, and having the team help as moderators may make it easier to distinguish between trolls, haters, spam, and people who don't know how to express themselves properly.

Begin and Respond to Conversations

Another reason to have more than one moderator is that your team may initiate new discussions.

The most important thing you can do to help your community come to life is to ask good questions that make people think and engage in debate.

Keep an eye out for what people are asking. It is critical to respond to and comment on genuine topics, even if they appear to be a little silly.

Communities normally have a necessity for reassurance, and that’s totally expected. Members often want to have status updates, and learn more about the team and the work in progress. Reassuring them often of what’s happening is important to keep a healthy community and clear rumors.

Mod Admission

Community managers are usually long-term supporters, available during significant time periods, who have particular skills or insights, either about the project itself, or social tools, in general. Also, a great moderator is a light tempered one, used to type and react quickly, fluent in day-to-day English and with improved soft skills and a sense of accountability.

You should identify these members because as the community grows, you may require more moderators to assist you. Active members who respond to conversations proactively and have a habit of helping other members are the best candidates for a new moderator role.

This sense of collaboration is one of the most important abilities for moderators, but there are other skills required as a community manager:

• Being a leader;

• Always being courteous to other members;

• Possessing exceptional interpersonal and communication skills;

• Flexible and willing to work on a part-time basis;

• Being able to deal with unforeseeable community situations;

• Analytic, creative, proactive and multitasking.

  
  

If you notice these skills in one or more members of your web3 community, don't waste time and speak with them privately. We are confident that they will be flattered, and there is an advantage here: they are already well-known members of the community.

Another possibility is to create a formal position for a community manager. In this case, you could promote a hiring challenge with TAIKAI, for example. It’s a way of validating profiles and rewarding community members with crypto.

👉 Hiring remotely? This remote hiring tips can help you find the best talent online.

Aside from that, there's no need to be embarrassed if you don't have a budget and the position is unpaid. You should, however, properly reward them. This could be accomplished through benefits such as free and exclusive access to content, beta testing positions, merchandising, and other non-financial perks. And, of course, you can always reward them with your own crypto token.

Leading Duties of Community Moderators

• General coordination of a community management team, accounting for their needs, schedules, and reports.
• Regular attention to an open teamwork environment.
• Cross-platform moderation
• Reviewing content based on the community standards, and general good conduct on the web
• Overall understanding of the product/project
• Daily maintenance (chat groups, channels, or bots)
• Updating the management team on good standards and best practices
• Focus on technical assistance and user experience
• Case-by-case troubleshooting of user issues
• Responding to potential misdemeanors/violations

Community Feedback 🗣️

As important as providing feedback to community members – answering questions, participating, praising, and being alert if someone breaks the rules – you should also listen to members and value the community.

Establish a feedback routine that includes directly asking members for feedback and promoting polls and satisfaction surveys. We guarantee that you will be surprised by the members' various emotions.

This may ensure the success of the web3 community because feedback reveals what your audience is interested in. In addition, according to a Microsoft study, when brands invite and accept genuine feedback, 77 percent of consumers view them favorably.

Aside from that, community feedback assists in activating brand ambassadors for your business and improving not only the web3 community but also what you could do better on your web3 services and your business model.

A SurveyMonkey study demonstrates this perfectly. It was discovered that 91 percent of consumers believe that companies that solicit feedback improve their innovation. Moreover, community interactions can sometimes replace feedback from service interactions while also increasing engagement.

Managing Side Communities 🌱

As the community grows, smaller organizations focused on certain aspects of the project will emerge. It is critical to manage and monitor these micro-communities in order to keep the overall community health and to stay informed of what is discussed outside the official forums.

Trading

Discussion and speculation on price action are recurrently wished for by most token-specific communities. It's important to be clear about member rules, as healthy price talks are generally centered on technical analysis and updated market specs.

Media

Web3 is an ongoing development of how we experience the web. Many members become eager to contribute to the project they're supporting by producing content and media they share with other community members.

General

Any big enough online community, at some point, comes to life on its own, as long as members find an open place for free interaction. An off-topic chatroom for general conversation is always great to keep members interacting more often and more positively.

Unofficial

Many online communities rapidly evolve to a point where longtime members wish to create their own unofficial outlets. It's good to be aware of these and to keep a direct open relationship with those in ownership.

Unofficial channels are usually a great sign of community/project growth, but they can backfire if their nature is malicious. Spammers, scammers and anti-project users may try to deceive healthy community members, so make sure to keep posted about these groups.

Main Do's & Don't's

• Always make sure the online community is aware of all the official community outlets;
• Be concise, it's important to have clean permanent general rules, as well as a single narrative for public information;
• Be friendly, it's the internet - an easy way to keep it cool & play it nice;
• Be there so you may be sure each online moderator's needs are met!
• Be verbal, not responsive - even experienced members deserve elaborate answers; also, other passive members might need more information;
• Be personal, keep a clean chatroom, and always ask members to send you a private message in order to elaborate more directly;
• Do not treat different members unevenly, it's healthier to have the same standard for every occasion;
• Do not overreact, strong arguments or long statements sometimes get easily sorted with a generic answer or a short warning - things should never escalate from your end;
• Do not over-interact, members with a funny temper get triggered when interrupted or answered immediately after;
• Be aware of new members, after all, it's the internet - people are capable of conveying any kind of abuse.

Invest in a brand ambassador program

Once your web3 project is established and your community is growing steadily, it’s time to assess the importance of creating an ambassador program.

A brand ambassador is someone who will promote and advocate for your brand. Their role is to embody and defend your company's values, ethics, and identity through thick and thin.

Typically, a small percentage of your community will be deeply invested in your project and the ambassador program keeps these members engaged, while also rewarding them for their efforts and dedication.

At Bepro Network, we developed the Bepromoter Ambassador Program for community enthusiasts who want to play an active role in the growth of the Bepro Network's ecosystem.

This topic is so massive that it deserves its own article, but we can share a very barebone program structure:

• Community members apply to your program. Usually, there are pre-established roles for members to choose from. For example, content creators and translators are two popular roles.
• The jury then selects the members that will join the program. This can be done in several ways, but we suggest mixing both data-driven and open-ended questions in your application process to have a better understanding of each ambassador.
• You assign tasks to ambassadors and reward them upon completion.
• There are endless possibilities for ambassador programs, such as gamification. leaderboards, referral codes, and so on.

Web3 Community Management: Best Practices ✍️

• Begin by conducting research to learn about your community and developing personas that you want to target.
• Define specific objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs). In other words, specify the level of participation you anticipate from your community.
• Segment active topics
• Manage the community properly: having more than one moderator is critical to the success of the community.
• Establish a community policy.
• To avoid distortions, promote topics based on focus themes that people can explore.
• Determine which members are the most active and consider appointing them as community managers.
• Consider developing an ambassador program and rewarding members to increase engagement.

Final Thoughts 💬

Communities have always shown to be a successful way of engaging customers and audiences. When it comes to web3, communities have gained even more leverage: they are the pivotal element in the development of a web3 project.

Above all, you must plan before building your own web3 community. Find the community that your project will benefit, define Metrics, moderate and engage members, and have relevant discussions.

With dedication and consistency, your web3 community will grow, as will your project.

Looking to Take Your Web3 Project to the Next Level?

Hosting a hackathon is a great way to engage your community and get developers to test and use your protocol or EVM. TAIKAI is a virtual hackathon platform that makes an online hackathon event much easier to host.

Grow your network today with us. Request a Demo or launch your hackathon.