Community Strategy Reboot

Community Strategy Reboot: Lessons Learned from the Last Bull Run

The world of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) has recently witnessed a series of seismic shifts. The most recent bull run saw an explosion of PFP (Profile Picture) projects, each vying to ride the wave of initial mint sales and build up a storm of hype. However, when the bear market eventually arrived, projects that had nurtured strong communities and offered tangible utility demonstrated their true resilience.

Far from being a crisis, the bursting of the NFT bubble signifies the start of an exciting new era. For creators committed to establishing a genuine audience and delivering real value, it presents an invaluable opportunity. As the frenzy of the bull run recedes, community building strategy has become a vital ingredient for success in the evolving NFT landscape. In this post, we will delve into the lessons learned from the last bull run and lay out a roadmap for building and nurturing a robust community in the contemporary NFT space.

Understand Your Community: Start With Why

Finding your 'why' is a crucial step in any endeavour, and it's no different in the NFT space. Here are a few exercises that can help you gain clarity:

Write a Mission Statement
This should succinctly encapsulate what your project stands for and its larger goal. Ask yourself, why does my project exist, and what do I want to accomplish?

Identify your Ideal Community Member
Describe their interests, values, and the reason they would be attracted to your project. This helps in designing community strategies that appeal to the right audience.

Reflect on Your Passion
What drives you in this space? What aspect of your project truly excites you? Genuine passion is contagious and can significantly bolster your community.

SWOT Analysis
Identify your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This introspective exercise can provide a clear picture of where you stand and where you need to go.

Create Quality Content: Substance Over Hype

Building an audience requires creating content that's not just engaging, but also meaningful, and delivers value to the types of people you are trying to connect with. A Threads calendar filled with 30 days of content that doesn’t resonate with your target community members is a waste of your own time and resources — and may actually land you further from your audience than when you started. Instead of thinking about content in terms of quantity, reframe the assignment to be about creating quality content pieces. 

Not dissimilar to building a new friendship, building a community requires thought about what others like, how you can help them, and where to find commonality to build a relationship on. 

Here's a few steps to help get the wheels turning on what type of content creation may support your community-building goals: 

Identify Your Unique Value Proposition

What can you offer that others can't? This can be a unique style, a novel concept, or a fresh perspective.

A good value proposition formula is something that clearly defines your unique offering. Here's an example of how you can construct it:

[Your Project's Name] provides [key distinctive benefit or feature] for [your target community] who [have a specific need or desire]. Unlike [key competition], we [do something differently or better].

Filling out this formula can help guide you in clearly defining what your NFT project offers that sets it apart from others. Here's a hypothetical example for an NFT art project:

"Virtual Visionaries unites people across the world affected by sensorineural hearing loss and conductive hearing loss. 

By curating a collection of NFTs which symbolize shared experiences and stories, we aim to create a global community centered around understanding, support, and advocating for more accessible content in Web3.

We aren't just about creating digital collectibles, but about creating spaces where the loudest voice doesn’t speak for us all.”

Plan, Release and Optimize Your Content

Now that you've defined your "why" and value proposition, it's time to start creating and sharing content that resonates with your audience. Here's a step-by-step roadmap to guide you:

Ideate: Leverage your value proposition to brainstorm content ideas. Ask yourself what sort of content can best support your mission and connect with your community.

Create: Turn your ideas into reality. This might mean creating unique NFTs, writing informative blog posts, or making engaging video content.

Share & Engage: Release your content into the world, but don't stop there. Make sure you are engaging with your audience on a regular basis. This could mean responding to comments, posing questions, or hosting live discussions.

Solicit Feedback: A key part of creating content that truly resonates with your audience is to actively seek their feedback. You can achieve this in a few ways:

• Surveys and Polls:
  Use digital tools to create quick and easy surveys or polls. You can ask your community specific questions about what they liked or disliked about a piece of content, or what they'd like to see more of in the future.
• Open Forums:
  Host regular AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions or open forum discussions where community members can share their thoughts and feedback about your content.
• Social Listening:
  Pay attention to what your community members are saying on social media and in discussion forums. These conversations can provide valuable insights about how your content is being received.

Iterate: Take the feedback you've gathered and use it to refine your content creation process. Remember, it's all about delivering value to your audience, so don't be afraid to pivot or change direction based on what your community tells you they want.

As you follow this roadmap, remember the importance of authenticity. Your community can tell when content is genuine and when it's purely promotional. Strive to create substance over hype, focusing on meaningful interactions that build trust and reinforce the value you're delivering to your community.

Regular Content Creation

Once you know what works, what’s generating meaningful engagement, and what your community wants to see more of, set a schedule for creating and releasing content, and stick to it! This can be weekly or monthly, depending on your capacity and can be scheduled using some of our favorite tools below, to make sure your Screen Time isn’t off the charts!

1. Sprout Social
2. Later
3. Hootsuite

Establish Utility: Beyond Ownership

To maximize the potential of your NFT project, it's crucial to understand the different roles within your audience and how you can engage them through utility. Primarily, we'll focus on two types of people: Collectors and Community Members.

• Collectors:
  These individuals are primarily motivated by the potential for profit. They buy your NFTs hoping that their value will appreciate over time. They may not necessarily feel a strong connection to the cause or the community, but see value in the rarity or potential future demand for the NFTs they own.

• Community Members:
  These are the people who believe in your 'why'. They're here not just for the NFTs, but for the cause and the community around it. They engage in discussions, participate in events, and often feel a sense of identity with your project.

To transform collectors into community members and turn members into advocates, utility plays a crucial role. Here's how Aspen's tools can assist:

• For Collectors:
  Use Aspen's subscription tools to provide value beyond mere ownership. Offer exclusive perks or benefits for those who hold your NFTs. This could be early access to new releases, discounts, or exclusive content. This added utility incentivizes collectors to become more engaged community members.
• For Community Members:
  Build a tiered membership program that rewards loyalty and fosters a sense of belonging. With Aspen's tools, you can offer your community exclusive access to events, special recognition, or the ability to influence the direction of your project. These rewards can help transform community members into advocates for your cause.

By leveraging Aspen's subscription tools in conjunction with the royalty reporting features, creators can gain valuable insights to make informed decisions about their tiered membership program. This consistent revenue stream allows creators to reinvest into creating a world-class utility for their members, enhancing the value and appeal of their collection.

Foster Open Dialogue: Engage and Listen

When we talk about "listening" in an online community context, we mean more than just keeping an eye out for messages or comments. It's an active process of observing, understanding, and responding to the needs, feedback, and sentiments of your community. This involves monitoring discussions on your platforms, but also looking at indirect feedback such as engagement rates, content shares, and the overall tone of conversation.

Here are few ways you can effectively "listen" online:

• Monitor Direct Feedback:
  Keep a close eye on your comments sections, direct messages, and any other platform where your community can provide direct feedback. This gives you valuable insight into their thoughts, feelings, and needs.
• Track Engagement Metrics:
  Observe which types of content are garnering the most likes, shares, and comments. High engagement is a good indicator that your content is resonating with your audience.
• Monitor Social Media Mentions:
  Use social media tools to track when and where your project is being discussed online. This can help you understand public perception and spot potential issues before they escalate.
• Conduct Regular Surveys:
  Consider conducting regular surveys to gather structured feedback from your community. This gives your community a chance to voice their thoughts and provides you with actionable data.
• Create Open Feedback Channels:
  Dedicate certain channels or times for open feedback and discussion. This can help foster a sense of transparency and involvement in your community.

From Recon to Routine

Once you've cultivated the practice of listening, you can better implement a routine of engaging your community on a weekly and monthly basis:

Weekly Basis

• Host AMA sessions:
  This can help answer community queries and foster a sense of involvement between your and your community along with building connection between your community members.
• Schedule Content Releases:
  This could be anything from a blog post to a podcast episode or a GRWM video sharing a BTS peek at how you prepare for the day as a digital content creator.

Monthly Basis

• Community Update:
  Share the progress and future plans for the project on a Discord Call, Twitter Spaces, or even through a Twitter Thread. Invite Community Members to join for a Q+A session to directly answer any questions or tie it into one of your Weekly AMAs.
• Members Spotlight:
  Showcase and appreciate active community members through a Collab Post on Instagram, coordinating an IG Live session with the member or dually hosting a Twitter Space

Consistency is Key: Keep Delivering Value

Consistency is a cornerstone of community building. A continuous stream of value-adding content not only keeps your community engaged but also strengthens the bond between you and your audience, creating a sense of reliability and trust.

A well-structured content calendar can help immensely with maintaining consistency. Here are a few recommendations to ensure you keep delivering value regularly:

Weekly/Monthly Content Calendar

Plan out your content ahead of time, scheduling different types of content for different days of the week. For instance, Monday could be a day for project updates, Wednesday for community spotlight, Friday for exclusive sneak peeks into upcoming work or events, and so on. This not only helps in maintaining consistency but also gives your community something to look forward to.

Community Building Planning Days

Allocate 1-2 days per month specifically for planning your community building strategies. This can include brainstorming ideas for new content, assessing the effectiveness of previous community building efforts, identifying potential collaborations, and more.

Use Analytics Tools

In order to ensure that your efforts are actually resonating with your community, make sure to regularly check the analytics. Aspen's Royalty Reporting feature gives you a deep understanding of your earnings, allowing you to identify what works best for your audience. Additionally, social media metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and follower growth give you an idea of how well your content is performing and what your community enjoys most.

By maintaining consistency in delivering value and using tools like Aspen's Royalty Reporting, email capture, and innovative distribution strategies like QR codes and claim links, you can pave new ways to connect with your community beyond just producing more NFTs. With these strategies in place, you can keep your community engaged and invested in your work, reinforcing the bond that goes beyond a simple buyer-seller relationship.

Adapt and Evolve: Embrace Change

Communities, like individuals, are dynamic entities. They constantly evolve, shift, and respond to the changing world around them. Therefore, recognizing the ever-changing nature of your community is key to successfully maintaining and growing it. Additionally, as a creator, it is equally crucial to prioritize your own growth and learning. The digital landscape is constantly changing and being updated, and staying ahead of these changes will ensure you continue to be relevant and valuable to your audience.

By regularly adapting and evolving, you show your community that you are committed to their needs and that you are also willing to grow with them. This builds trust and strengthens your relationship, as they see you are committed to serving them at the highest level possible.

Growth-Centric Resources for Creators

One of the ways to keep up with this fast-paced industry is to invest time in continuous education and make use of online resources. Below are some platforms that you might find helpful:

• Coursera & edX:
  These platforms offer a vast array of courses for various subjects including digital marketing, data analysis, and much more. These could be helpful to boost your marketing and data interpretation skills.
• Dune Analytics:
  Dune offers a suite of analytics tools tailored specifically to the web3 industry. With these tools, you can gain a deeper understanding of on-chain data, helping you make informed decisions for your project.
• Medium & Substack:
  Both platforms are a great source of knowledge for a variety of topics, including NFTs, blockchain, and crypto trends. By following industry leaders and enthusiasts, you can stay up-to-date on the latest developments.
• Join Other Creator Communities:
  Becoming an active member in other creators' communities can give you firsthand insights into effective community engagement and growth strategies. Moreover, it can also be a source of inspiration for your own community building efforts.

Remember, continual learning and adaptation are the lifeblood of relevance in this dynamic landscape. Keep evolving and your community will evolve with you.

Lessons From the Last Bull Run

As we journey into the next wave of web3, our resilience and success hinge upon our ability to learn from the past, adapt, and build robust communities around our projects. This post is more than just a guideline; it is a roadmap designed to navigate the unpredictable terrain of the digital content landscape.

In our exploration, we've emphasized the importance of understanding your community and crafting a strong, clear mission statement. It is vital to create meaningful content that resonates with your audience and offers real value rather than just feeding into the hype. At the same time, we underscored the significance of establishing utility beyond ownership, enabling a stronger bond with both collectors and active community members.

Importantly, we touched upon the role of open dialogue. Engaging with your community and being responsive to their feedback fosters a strong sense of belonging and trust. Also, it provides a crucial lifeline for creators to adapt and evolve, keeping in line with the dynamism of their community.

Consistency in delivering value is another key pillar of community building. A well-structured content calendar and regular analysis of engagement metrics can go a long way in establishing reliability, strengthening the bond with your audience, and maintaining their interest in your project.

Finally, as we voyage further into the often-unpredictable future of the creator economy, embracing change and continuously learning is imperative. The landscape is constantly evolving, and our ability to adapt with it, using resources and tools at our disposal, is crucial to stay relevant and serve our community at the highest level.

In essence, as we reboot our community strategies, the lessons learned from the last bull run can serve as our guiding light, illuminating our path toward building a thriving, engaged, and resilient community. Each step on this roadmap represents an investment in your community, reinforcing the bond that goes beyond the transactional nature of buying and selling NFTs, towards creating a shared journey of growth, learning, and mutual success.