Why you should create a community

Throughout my career I have always tried to create a community around each product or in general, around my brand so that I could offer something useful to complement my Web marketing strategies.

The reason is simple: selling a product and leaving people there is not very profitable - for you - and not very attractive to your customers, but create a community and keeping it active is not so easy, at least at first glance.

Over time I have structured my brand in such a way that every time someone joins my Academy, they become, as a result a member and participant of something more interesting.

What is a real community

No, don't think that community can be just a Facebook group or a forum, At least in my conception, COMMUNITY is a place where people identify, are familiar with the brand they follow and receive valuable content consistently.

Added to this, certainly, are different ways, and at different levels, of interacting with me and other members.

"From my point of view, a community should serve to: create unity, solve problems, offer new solutions, and last but not least, bring people together."

These things, when done well and put all together, create a crazy energy that only results in progress and prosperity for all.

Let's look at the various types of communities I have experienced.

1. The weekly newsletter.
   It is this one, for example, that you are reading now. It's not really a community but those who read it still feel part of something. A regular appointment where they are not sold anything and are offered (I hope) useful and interesting content.Many, shortly after reading it, reply to me privately asking for insights or just to give me a token of appreciation.
2. The Academy as a community.
   Under each and every one of my Academy videos-and there are ... 300 of them? - everyone can have their say, ask questions, respond to other comments, call me out on it. Everyone is invited to participate and everyone gets, sooner or later, a response from someone.Here the theme is specific: you comment on the content of the page, so super specialized and vertical participation.
3. The community in the Facebook group.
   I am not a big fan of Facebook groups, I admit. While I am part of many such communities, I find them extremely difficult to enjoy. Content is super messy, messy, hard to find. Those who run them then often struggle with poor content distribution for two reasons:
   • Facebook has gradually introduced its algorithm there as well, so if a community leader posts something, only a portion of the members receive a notification.
   • Facebook is a great place to go OUT OF FOCUS because every time you step foot on it you are bombarded with more information, notifications, distractions, reminders... not to mention that you are also easily spied on by your competitors.
     No thanks.
4. Dedicated community app or site.
   It is the best solution, but it is also the most difficult to take forward. While Facebook has many downsides, it has an extremely positive one: the people are all already there and know how to use the platform.A dedicated app, on the other hand, has a steeper learning curve, is definitely less intuitive, and you have to produce a lot of content that attracts users like magnets.
5. Periodic group calls.
   Perhaps my favorite formula. Every week I get together with members of my community and major programs like the Master in Social Authority, live streaming on Zoom.I give updates, offer new insights, new ideas, strategies, and introduce some new tools I've discovered. That's in part one.

   In the second part, I answer everyone's questions live and speak with audio (and those who want video), also giving others a chance to respond in turn if they can help.

The hybrid community solution I would like.

They are now in the final stages - I hope - for the study and conception of the my new community, designed in a hybrid and integrated way with everything you see above (Facebook excluded) and will adopt solutions that can please everyone, offering the best of each and every aspect I mentioned.

A place for everyone and at multiple levels of participation.
An easy and especially mobile communication system.
A solution that enables interaction, sharing and networking.

It's not easy, but I'm working on it, and there doesn't seem to be anything ready on the net, every platform I try always has its positives-which excite me-and negatives-which demoralize me.

I am currently testing different solutions: Kajabi, Tribe, MightyNetwork, Moosocial, Slack, Mobilize...

Let's do something together for my community?

Maybe this topic interests you 1,000 and you have the time and desire to test something with me. Or maybe you know of a solution, software, app or other digital deviltry that would do it for me?

If you fall into one of these cases, Comment below by telling me yours, offering me your availability as a beta tester or more simply by giving me advice from your perspective - as a community user or expert.

As always I read and respond personally to everyone.