What are some mistakes to avoid in community building?

Originally answered May 29, 2019

(Image from Quiip: Online community building: common mistakes)

Here are three mistakes to avoid in building communities:

1. Not having a compelling topic: The members and potential members must be passionate about the subject for collaboration, and it must be relevant to them. If potential members don’t strongly identify with the community topic, they won’t join, participate, or pay attention.
2. Not achieving a critical mass of members: You usually need at least 100 members, with 200 being a better target. If you don’t properly promote the community and attract new members, it is not likely to become or remain active.
3. Not having a committed leader: The community manager should know the subject, have energy for stimulating collaboration, have sufficient time to devote to leadership, and then regularly spend time increasing membership, lining up speakers, hosting calls and meetings, asking and answering questions, and posting information which is useful to the members. If the community manager does not have time, energy, or skills to do the job well, the community will likely fail.

See also:

• What are the most common mistakes made by community managers?
• Articles and Presentations About Communities of Practice and Community Management
• Knowledge Management Sins, Pitfalls, Mistakes, and Causes of Failure