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In Web3, Community, Not Content, Is King

by Emmanuel AjalaDecember 28th, 2023

Too Long; Didn't Read

What’s a web3 community and how do you build a successful one? If want to learn something about building one, read on.

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featured image - In Web3, Community, Not Content, Is King

Community is King.

Yes! You read that right. Community—not content—is king in web3.

Web3 has come to disrupt every status quo in web2. This new iteration of the internet has changed how we interact and make rules. It has changed everything about the community, both online and offline.

In web2, for instance, communities are built around products or services. A community is formed after a product or service is launched. For example, people with similar knowledge on Facebook, Twitter (now X), Microsoft Office suites, etc. came together after the products were created.

This is not true for web3. You form a community first and then build a product around it. Although Vitalik Buterin and other co-founders, for example, had a faint idea of what they wanted—a decentralized internet. A community of like-minded people formed different goal-oriented communities to bring the dream to reality.

Let me ask you a few questions:

Without a dedicated community of Bitcoin maximalists in the early days, do you think Bitcoin can survive this long?

What about Ethereum? UniSwap? And all the other web3 products and services?

Simply put, without a goal-oriented community, your web3 products won’t survive. Web3 may be nascent, but it has created this new path.

Do you want to build a goal-, not money-, oriented web3 community? Let me walk you through the process.

What is a Web3 Community?

A web3 community is a decentralized virtual community where people with shared interests and a common goal congregate to drive innovation, growth, and tech development necessary for the growth of web3.

These communities bring together different people (tech enthusiasts, investors, developers, degens, and so on) to exchange ideas and share crucial information that will shape the future of the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.

In a traditional web2 community like subreddits and Facebook groups, power rests solely on the group of individuals that created the group. These individuals decide what’s right or wrong, who should be part of the group, and the rules of engagement.

But in a web3 community, everything is decentralized. The community is member-owned; the decisions are made consensually; and the rules of engagement are voted on democratically.

In a web3 community, everything is decentralized. The community is member-owned; the decisions are made consensually; and the rules of engagement are voted on democratically.

Moreover, community members are not just part of the community because they have a shared interest or a common goal. They also have stakes in the community.

They’re more like co-founders in a tech startup. They invest their quotas in the growth of the community. And if they like to leave, they can sell their stakes and cash out their investments.

Why is Building a Web3 Community Important?

We’ve just discussed how a web3 community is different from a web2 community. Let me show you why a Web3 community is important.

1. Web3 Community is Critical for Growth and Development

Unlike web2, where the community revolves around products and services, the opposite is true for web3 — products and services revolve around the community.

Growth, development, and adoption rate in web3 depends on the community. A goal-oriented community is a fertile ground for cultivating great ideas, fostering a positive environment for growth, and supporting developers working for the greater good.

So, if you have a web3 product or service in mind, building a community is crucial. A web3 community encourages idea sharing, active participation, and valuable feedback.

2. Web3 Community Members Represent Your Target Audience.

When you build a goal-oriented web3 community, you bring together people who want to solve a common problem. These goal-oriented members will also represent your target audience.

So, bringing them together will encourage information and idea exchange. They’ll also be involved in idea sharing through solution building, which provides support for the developers and provides valuable feedback to improve the product.

Here is an example.

At inception, Ethereum co-founders only had an idea to build a decentralized world computer for DApps and nothing more. Through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), they brought together people who don't like the centralized web2 model.

Over the years, this community of goal-oriented Ethereum believers has grown the blockchain from just a vague idea to something that solves real-world problems through idea sharing and information exchange.

These would never be possible if the community had different goals.

3. Web3 Community Drives Adoption and Project Scaling

Let me ask you these questions again:

Without the dedicated Bitcoin community in the early days of cryptocurrency, will Bitcoin survive?

What about Ethereum? UniSwap? And all the known web3 products and services?

The success of the mentioned web3 projects and others was because of the contribution of their community members.

Bitcoin was worthless at its inception. So, the project would have failed if there were no goal-oriented people who believed in Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision. And so were Ethereum, UniSwap, and others.

So, a goal-oriented web3 community will work to amplify the project, maintain the network, and increase network effects. And this will effectively drive adoption and evolve the ecosystem.

Moreover, since they believe they are working for the common good, community members are usually passionate, becoming ambassadors for the project.

This results in them spreading awareness about the project through various channels, nurturing and converting newcomers into advocates, and ensuring the conversations focus on the project and community development.

4. Harness Collective Strength

There is this famous saying: “Two is better than one."

In a literary sense, this is the strength of the web3 community.

A web3 community helps you harness a collective strength. Bringing together tens of thousands of passionate, dedicated, and creative people to focus on a common goal increases the odds of success.

So, a web3 community is a powerhouse of expertise and passion — two significant skills needed for growth and innovation. If your community is well-established (i.e. goal-oriented and not money-focused), it’ll become a breeding ground for ideas that will challenge the status quo.

What Drives Community Growth in Web3?

Building a web3 community is one thing; turning it into a world-class one is another. Successful web3 projects don’t just stop at starting a community — they strive to grow their community into a household name.

The goal is not just to build a community but to increase reach.

Here is what drives growth in web3 communities.

1. Sense of Community

A proven way to grow your community is to turn community members into ambassadors. One way to do this is through inclusivity and diversity: turning them into advocates by letting them get their hands dirty.

To build inclusivity and diversity, be transparent with governance, decision-making, and reward distribution. The level of visibility into the operation and decision-making process of the community will help build intimacy among community members.

2. Engagement and Contribution

The more active your community, the more people will want to join. So encourage discussions, idea sharing, and mutual assistance to foster passion and community closeness.

When the benefit of being part of a community is more than the stakes, people will always want to be part of it. And not being part of it alone, they’ll also invite their friends to join them.

Make your community engaging by organizing calls and chats with thought leaders and influencers, developing educational resources, creating awareness about the web3 project, and incentivizing engagement and contribution. Also, organize AMA (Ask Me Anything) sections to increase transparency. With this, people will find it interesting to be part of your community.

When incentivizing community members for engagement and contribution, take caution against manipulation. Ensure the rewards are toward project involvement/development, skill development, and problem-solving.

3. Shared Interest

Web3 community is a congregation of people with shared interests and common goals. Because it’s decentralized doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be a sense of purpose and direction.

See the Ethereum community.

The members were working towards a common goal -- a decentralized internet where no central cooperation controls anything. Even though the goal is still far away, they continue to work towards it and don't care about where they are.

Your community members should have like minds. Make sure you have a clear description of your purpose, vision, and goal from inception. With this, you attract only those who want to solve the same problem as you into the community.

Moreover, people with common interests and goals will invest their time and money to achieve them. A community that consists of people with common goals and interests will feel accomplished when they reach it.

4. Moderation (Leadership and Community Management)

Moderation is crucial for maintaining an active and thriving community. To grow your community, you need to keep the community safe and welcoming to others. A positive environment encourages participation, which, in turn, leads to growth.

So, a community should have a moderator that ensures discussions are based on the community's purpose, goals, and interests. There should be rules, and proactive moderation to prevent bad actors from destroying the community.

A community manager should also be proactive. Engage with members, moderate discussion, and provide tech support to resolve issues immediately.

How to Grow a Web3 Community

Web3 community has changed marketing. Community growth has become core to many business marketing strategies. Projects with a large, engaged, and goal-oriented community are the most likely to win.

Why? Because community is king.

So, if you need to build a thriving community but don’t know how to go about it, here is how.

1. Understand the Web3 Culture

Building a web3 community requires you to understand what web3 entails. Unless you’ve been a part of a web3 community, you might not be able to get along in this industry. Web3 culture is different. And to get by, you need to understand what works here.

So, learn the fundamentals of web3 communities. Understand the lexicons and know the nuances of the industry. This sector is a tech-heavy sector. Memes are important here, which means to attract like-minded web3-focused individuals, you must lean toward what they want and understand.

Add a personal touch and sense of humor, and be creative. If you are confused about what to do, peep into what other well-known communities are doing and learn from them. With this, you can build a community of like-minded people who become evangelists and do whatever it takes to grow the web3 brand.

2. Your Goal and Objectives

Building a web3 community is like starting a new business: you need a goal and objectives.

Do you want to develop an advanced cross-chain protocol? Are you working on an enhanced security for web3? Are you building a Dapp or working to expand the ecosystem? Whatever you’re working on, let your community members know from inception.

Be transparent about everything. Let your community know what you have and what you’re doing. Craft a community-focused mission statement. Develop a measurable goal. Implement a collaborative and decentralized approach to your project. Emphasis should be placed on transparency, trust, and active participation.

If you’re building a web3 community, you can’t just develop a goal and objective in private and expect everybody to accept your decision. The web3 community will never agree with a one-man decision.

If you’re building a web3 community, you can’t just develop a goal and objective in private and expect everybody to accept your decision. The web3 community will never agree with a one-man decision.

Ensure you emphasize transparency, community decision-making, and trust. Align your community goal with your product goal. Set SMART (simple, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely) goals. And have KPIs to measure your growth.

3. Create Presence and Impression by Building in Public

Transparency is important. Web3 is not like web2.

Web3 projects are usually open-source projects. The faster you embrace this, the better it will be for your community. You don’t just communicate your progress to your community. You create presence and impression — you build in public.

Share your roadmap and communicate your milestones from time to time. Apart from establishing trust in your community, building in public holds your developers accountable.

Moreover, when you build in public, your community feels involved in the project even if they didn’t contribute to the developmental processes. Just sharing feedback and seeing their feedback implemented will motivate them to get involved.

So, when building in public, share regular updates, reports, developmental milestones, and important news. Communication shouldn’t be one-way, so create feedback mechanisms (such as AMA (Ask Me Anything) sections, virtual meetups, hackathons, conferences, and polls) to foster relationships and give members a sense of involvement.

Don’t just ask for feedback; implement the feedback. And if you can’t implement the feedback, tell them the reason.

Finally, just because you’re told to build in public doesn’t mean you should give out your competitive advantage. Communicate, but don’t over-communicate.

4. Attract and Retain Members

Building a perfect web3 community is great but not enough. You need to attract and retain new members to your community. One way to do this is by increasing your activity levels.

Collaboration is significant here. When you’re just starting, you need credibility. One way to do this is by collaborating with established communities, influencers, and projects.

This type of strategic collaboration amplifies your reach to an appropriate audience. Remember! Building in public is crucial here. Maintain an active presence on social media. Participate in relevant discussions, share updates often, curate and share engaging content, and organize events. Overall, generate excitement and buzz around your community and project with strategic marketing campaigns.

Finally, let your audience be part of your team. Provide personalized experiences based on members' preferences. Your community should be a member-led initiatives. With this, you can foster a positive and inclusive culture. And build a strong sense of shared values.

5. Define Your Web3 Community’s Communication Channels, Tools, and Strategy

A web3 community is global, i.e., it’s a 24/7, 365-day online community.

Plus, it consists of people from different time zones. So, always remember that whenever you’re planning your web3 communication strategy. You won’t want to provide support for a particular time zone and leave others out. Or have your dev team log off because of a national holiday in a country.

You want to be inclusive and include all your community members from different time zones in your strategy for proper communication and inclusivity.

There are three popular communication channels in web3: X(Twitter), Discord, and Telegram. The social media you choose as your primary communication channel depends on your communication strategy and what you want to achieve. Consider which channel will work for your communication and where you want your community members to congregate.

When creating your communication strategy:

Prioritize navigation and ease of use
Create pinned chats and layer out your communications
Create subgroups based on vital communication in the channels
Create specific interest groups and let your members be able to find what they’re looking for with ease
Overall, make sure your onboarding process is easy; and the community channel is well-organized

6. Sustain your web3 community

Building and retaining community members is insufficient to make your web3 community successful — you need to sustain the community.

One way to do this is by incentivizing your community. Distribute incentives to dedicated and active community members to motivate them to do more.

But note that incentives are two-edged swords. They can both sustain and ruin your community. If done right, your community will organically grow at a faster rate. And if done wrong, it is quicker to destroy a community than a virus.

Provide a proper token distribution strategy to incentivize early adopters and project contributors. Proper tokenomics will improve community-building initiatives. And when done wrong, it could attract grifters who would game the system.

Make sure your token distribution works to sustain your community. Implement governance mechanisms that encourage sustainability. Introduce features, events, and initiatives that enhance the experience of your community members and motivate long-term sustainability.

When designing your tokenomics, consider token distribution, inflation, and mechanisms to fend off grifters and reward loyal and early community members. Use vesting schedules and token locking to prevent those who are in for quick bucks.

Map out and anticipate your token needs in two to five years. You don’t want to burn through all your token supply in your first year. Overall, your token distribution should work for your community.