Wow! We've reached the final day of our deep dive into the 'T' of BATON - Tribe.

Today, we're capping it off with the ultimate tribe-building tool: community.

Let’s get started:

Community: The Optional Power-Up

First things first: having a membership community is not required.

It's an add-on, a power-up for your Tribe-building efforts. But damn, is it powerful when done right.

There are a few specific advantages of having a community that you don’t get elsewhere.

1. Distraction-Free Zone: It's a space for you to share your content (posts, videos, newsletters) without the noise of social media. Your tribe, your content, your rules. It’s even more effective than the email inbox.

2. Many-to-Many Magic: Previous Audience and Tribe activity has been one-to-many. You talking to other people. Here we can shift from one-to-many to many-to-many.

Your tribe members can talk to each other, help each other out, and build value beyond just you. But you're still the host of this party, so all that goodwill reflects back on you. Nice.

3. Launchpad: When it's time to sell, you've got a direct line to your most engaged followers. You can run webinars and other live formats directly in the community and make your Offer.

Choosing Your Community Platform

Here’s the boring question that everyone asks!

What platform to use for your community.

Here's the thing: that's the wrong question to start with.

Instead, start with this: What's most valuable for your tribe? What content, interaction, spirit, and community are you fostering here? The technical platform needs to facilitate all of that. So start there and then work out the best actual platform for your needs.

Personally, I use Circle. That’s an affiliate link by the way - prefer to skip it google Circle .so and it’ll pop up. I've used many platforms, both for clients and my own businesses, and Circle comes out on top for me. But do your own research and combine findings with what your Tribe will need!

A lot of people ask me about Skool, the new kid on the block. Not personally a fan - it's too bare-bones for me, and they've stated they're not interested in growing out the features but instead keeping it streamlined. I respect that approach, but it's not for me.

Other options to consider:

• Mighty Networks, Kajabi, and Thinkific: These are great if you want a hybrid of learning management system (LMS) and community. All solid Circle alternatives that I’ve built with previously.

• Slack, Discord, and WhatsApp groups: These work well as "live" communities, but be prepared for more active moderation. They are more chat focused. Definitely works for some communities but not my personal preference!

Remember, the platform is just a tool. It's what you do with it that counts.

Getting People Into Your Community

So you've got your community set up. Now what?

Well, link it to the other Tribe building methods we’ve talked about in this Playbook. For instance:

1. Connect it to your lead magnets: Gumroad has a direct integration with Circle, which is nice. That's where I recommend hosting lead magnets, so sending a Circle invite becomes nice and simple. If using different tools there will be similar ways to hook them up, probably using Zapier.

2. Link it to your email newsletter sign-up: Use Zapier to connect your newsletter's new subscriber event to Circle and send out an automatic invitation. Again - you’ll be able to do this with whatever community platform you roll with.

3. Make it part of joining the tribe: Mention it in your welcome emails. Add the join link! You want to be everywhere and accessible to new Tribe members so make sure they know about the community.

The key is to make joining your community feel like a natural part of becoming a Tribe member.

Got the lead magnet, the welcome emails, the newsletter? Check, check, check. The community is the natural next step for your leads.

Content for Your Community

Now that you've got people in, what do you give them?

1. Simplest approach: Put your audience content into the community. Not everyone wants to go to YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, or your blog to watch and read, so bring it all into one space for them. Easy peasy.

2. Exclusive content: Think about doing live sessions, "Ask Me Anything" events, community talks, etc. Once a week, show your face and provide value. These can also double as webinars to move people towards a sale (hello, Offer stage!).

Let’s use a quick prompt here to get the creative juices flowing.

You are an AI assistant specialising in community building and content strategy. Your task is to help the user develop a content plan for their online community. Follow these steps:

1. Ask the user to provide the following information:
   a. List 3-5 main problems or challenges their customers face
   b. Identify their top 3 most popular pieces of content from their audience-building efforts (e.g., blog posts, videos, social media posts)
   c. Name their 2-3 most successful lead magnets

2. Analye the provided information to identify common themes, topics, and formats that resonate with the user's audience.

3. Based on this analysis, suggest a diverse content plan for the community. Include the following:

   a. 5-7 content topics that address the identified customer problems and align with successful existing content

   b. For each topic, suggest 2-3 different content formats. Be creative and consider various options such as:
      - Live Q&A sessions
      - Webinars or workshops
      - Mini-consultations
      - Expert interviews
      - Case study breakdowns
      - Interactive challenges or contests
      - Member spotlight features
      - Collaborative problem-solving threads
      - Video tutorials or demos
      - Audio content (podcasts, guided meditations, etc.)
      - Infographics or visual guides
      - Quizzes or assessments
      - Virtual co-working sessions
      - Book club or resource discussions
      - "Day in the life" content from successful members
      - Behind-the-scenes looks at the user's business or processes
      - AMAs (Ask Me Anything) with industry experts
      - Micro-courses or learning pathways
      - Virtual networking events
      - Polls and surveys with result analysis

   c. For each content suggestion, provide a brief explanation of why it would be valuable to the community and how it relates to the identified customer problems or successful existing content.

4. Suggest a content calendar or frequency for these different types of content (e.g., weekly live sessions, monthly expert interviews, daily member challenges).

5. Provide 2-3 ideas for exclusive community-only content that could incentivise more people to join and participate actively.

6. Offer suggestions for encouraging user-generated content and fostering discussions among community members.

7. Conclude with tips on how to gather feedback from the community to continuously improve and tailor the content to their needs.

Present your response in a clear, easy-to-follow format with appropriate headings and bullet points. Encourage the user to adapt and refine the content plan based on their community's engagement and feedback.

I’ve fed a bunch of format ideas into that already but feel free to add more to the prompt!

Remember, at all times your community is a value-add for your Tribe. Make it worth their while to be there. But also remember why we are doing this - to move people closer and closer to becoming customers. We first give, then receive.

Moderation: Keeping the Peace

One challenge with communities is keeping everything in check and making sure no one gets out of line. It's a huge topic, but here are some quick tips:

1. Post-based over chat: I personally recommend post-based communities over real-time chat. Chat is high-velocity and casual, like WhatsApp or Discord groups. It adds a lot of moderation overhead. Post-based communities are more like forums - more ordered, and people are less likely to misbehave because of that structure.

2. Use built-in tools: Good community platforms have moderation tools built-in. Things like profanity filters or watchwords for certain content. Circle is good for this. These tools can help lighten the load.

3. Get help: Ideally, have more than just yourself as a moderator. You could hire moderators or give moderator powers to trusted community members. It's a nice way to work more closely with top tribe members, and people will want to help if they like what you're doing!

Remember, Your Mileage May Vary

Again, it bears repeating communities aren't a required final step. They're a capstone, but they won't be right for every business. Think carefully before setting one up. It's a commitment, both in terms of time and energy.

If you read the above and thought “goodness, no thank you!” then…trust that! You probably won’t enjoy running the community and if that’s the case you won’t be able to provide the value the members need. Don’t force it!

But if the ideas above excite you then definitely cap off your Tribe building with a community.