What most people have wrong about building digital communities.

Communities aren't built on tactics, they're built on trust.

The first question we always get about how to build a community is "what platform to use," but it is the last question you have to answer.

The first question you should be answering is "why?"

• Why would someone choose to spend their time and energy here vs. anywhere else?
• What is the common objective/idea/activity that the community is organized around?

The only reason Visualize Value is a strong community today is because it began as a supplementary feature to a product. The Daily Manifest provided the common objective for a community to convene around.

The nature of the product attracted like-minded people with a shared goal: Entrepreneurs, builders, and creators looking to take control of their time.

A decision about what platform to use before understanding what the community is for is a futile exercise. 

Our Community & Content Platform Stack

We've chosen Slack as our platform for real-time conversations because the vast majority of our audience already uses Slack daily. 

We've chosen Mighty Networks as our platform to host our products and content because it supports the formats in which we product content (mixed media, text, video, image, events).

Remember: Nobody cares what you can do. Everyone cares what you can do for them.

This idea applies at scale to the community you build, too:

The better you're able to qualify an individual for community fit on the front-end (by producing content and products that teach and attract people who value your perspective), the stronger your collective community will be.