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"Building a community around your startup can be one of the cheapest ways to create momentum for your product. A community is much more than a one-time marketing campaign, and can help you throughout your company\u2019s life cycle if you take the time to grow it right. \nHere are 10 tips for getting started.\n1. Look Before You Leap\nFirst, take stock of who is already talking about your product or industry and where they\u2019re doing it. Mike Handy, a community consultant, suggests you seek out \u201Cpockets of users who are excited about your product or service.\u201D If users are already talking about your product on Twitter, for instance, that\u2019s a good place to start building.\nSumaya Kazi, CEO of Sumazi, recommends \u201CIt's best to focus on one to two communities to begin with, and really focus your efforts to grow a community one at a time.\u201D Take stock of where your efforts will be most useful and narrow in on those areas.\n2. Get to Know Your Users\nKazi recommends you \u201Cuse Twitter search to see who is posting about your company, competitor or about a topic that is relevant to your company. You can use that to follow people, start a conversation and engage with them.\u201D This way you can start to build a relevant following from the ground up.\nDavid Spinks, director of community for Zaarly, adds \u201CStartups are always in a rush to build a community as big as possible, as quickly as possible. Slow down. Get to know all of your users one at a time.\u201D This will give you the foundation you need to eventually scale and grow your community.\n3. Leverage Any and All Connections at Your Disposal\nKazi emphasizes the value of your own friends and connections to start the community. Ask them to be a part of your community and to help you grow it. Jason Keath, CEO of Social Fresh points out that email lists are often overlooked as a chance to ask your existing community to follow you elsewhere. Social Fresh found early success by building partnerships with conferences and leveraging their audiences, so definitely think about any partners or deals you can make to help build your base. \n4. Build Social Into Your Product\nIf you want people to share, make it really easy on them. When they sign up, give them a checkbox to sign up for your newsletter. Ask them to follow you on Twitter and like you on Facebook as part of your onboarding process. Suggest opportunities for them to tweet or share with their friends. You\u2019ll be amazed how many people will take the step to follow or share just because you took the time to ask. \n5. Think in Terms of Advocates, Not Just Numbers\nGetting fifty more followers (or even 5,000) doesn\u2019t mean much in itself. Think about building a quality follower and fan base that is engaging with and sharing your content. According to a 2009 Nielsen study, 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations, while only 33% trust online ads. Your goal should be to turn your user base into advocates who help spread the word about your startup in a way you could never do on your own. \n6. Expect It to Take Time\nReal community doesn\u2019t happen overnight. Spinks advises \u201CEvery community will go through an \u2018awkward phase\u2019 where conversations feel a little forced and people aren't initiating conversations on their own. It will pass. Keep building your community one person at a time, and it will eventually begin to flow naturally.\u201D The returns on your effort increase exponentially as you grow a real community. Don\u2019t give up when your account doesn\u2019t \u201Cgo viral\u201D immediately, because unless you\u2019re the Old Spice guy, it\u2019s probably not going to happen. \n7. Connect and Help Your Community Members\nHaving Twitter followers or likes doesn\u2019t mean you have a community. Spinks emphasizes this point: \u201CIt's good to engage your users personally, but that's not scalable. That's why it's so important to connect them with each other.\u201D\nBy focusing on building a place where community members talk to each other, not just you, you\u2019re on the way to building a scalable community that can sustain itself. Make sure your community finds value from their involvement \u2014 focus on building that value and your community will not only stick around, but become a huge supporter of your company.\n8. Take Chances and Experiment\nIn some ways, a small community can be a blessing. It gives you the ability to try new things with very little fear of failure or of pissing a lot of people off. Handy suggests you \u201Crisk while the risk is low. If no one follows you, there is no where to go but up.\u201D I firmly believe you should always be trying new things, but there\u2019s no better time for your off-the-wall ideas than when you don\u2019t have much to lose. \n9. Have a Personality\nThink about some of your favorite brands online. Are they boring and dry, or do they have a distinct personality or brand voice?\nNow is the time to build your own brand voice and have fun with it. Kazi showcased her brand\u2019s personality on its landing page for beta sign ups. It included quirky messages like \"Sumazi can bake 30 minute brownies in 20 minutes flat.\u201D At the end of the signup process, users even got serenaded. They quickly exceeded the number of signups they were hoping to get because people were excited to share and be a part of what they were building.\n10. Track Everything\nPut numbers behind what you\u2019re doing and track them back to your company\u2019s goals. Note which of your efforts get the best response and try to do more like them. As Handy points out, your \u201Cdata is telling stories\u201D so make sure you\u2019re listening.\nA vibrant community helps you attract new users, keep current users engaged, and provide valuable feedback to help improve your product. At the beginning, getting any retweet or share will be a victory. If done right, however, you\u2019ll find yourself quickly and exponentially growing past those initial milestones.\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, matspersson0"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/01/25/startup-community-building/>