How to Build an Online Community: Expert’s Tips [Infographic]

Do you have an online community that’s actually interested in your business?

Now ask yourself this: would you rather spend your time chasing strangers and trying to convince them to buy from you… or have people come looking for you because they already trust you to deliver value?

One of the smartest ways to grow a business today is to build an online community.

An online community is a group of people who know who you are, trust what you offer, and are excited to be part of what you’re creating.

The internet gives you access to incredible (and often free) marketing tools. But just launching a website or starting a Facebook page isn’t enough.

Building an online community takes more than just being present. It requires being engaged.

How to Build an Online Community

1. Show up consistently with high-quality content

People want to connect with you as a person, whether you’re building your personal brand or even representing a company.

If you want to build trust, you need to show up regularly. Post consistently, speak at virtual events, reply to comments, and be present. Consistency builds recognition, and over time, recognition builds trust.

2. Create resources that help

People join online communities because they look for support, solutions, and shared knowledge.

One of the best ways to build trust and grow your online community is by creating resources that truly help your audience.

That could mean how-to guides, checklists, templates, free trainings, or even just a simple post that answers a common question.

When you solve real problems and make people’s lives easier, they remember it and they come back for more.

Helpful resources also get shared. They attract new people into your community and position you as someone who cares, not just someone who sells.

3. Offer real value before asking for anything in return

Share useful tips and stories that matter to your audience. When you lead with value instead of pitching a product, you attract the right people.

You build loyalty and long-term connections with those who actually want what you offer.

It’s all about building relationships and creating a space where your audience feels seen and supported.

People follow those they trust.

Yes, building an online community takes work. But when done right, it becomes one of the most powerful foundations for your brand and your long-term business success.

It sounds simple, but it’s not that easy, especially if you’re just starting out.

So, how do you build an online community from scratch?

To find out, I reached out to 10 experts, people who have built their communities and businesses from the ground up. I asked each of them one key question:

If you had to start from zero, in a brand-new niche, where no one knows your name… what’s the first thing you’d do to build an online community?

Their answers are full of practical wisdom and real-world experience.

PS: Don’t forget to check out the infographic at the end that highlights their top tips. Share it with your friends and community to spread the insights!

How to Build an Online Community for Your Business

Guy Kawasaki

guykawasaki.com

Chief evangelist of Canva, author of The Art of Social Media and The Art of the Start 2.0 books.

Tip for building an online community:

Provide value to people via curation and creation on social media.

Ann Tran

ann-tran.com

Luxury travel writer, professional speaker on Social Media, Forbes Top 10, Influencer Chat co-founder ann-tran.com.

Build an online community on social media:

If I had to start all over again, I still would be Ann Tran, but without the underscore. I would secure my name across all of the social media channels right away to ensure brand consistency.

I also would have invested more time on Instagram and Facebook, as I truly enjoy photography and the one-on-one conversation with my community.

My advice to other aspiring influencers is to find a great editor who knows your voice and a pitch coach to help you craft and deliver your message.

Make sure that your brand retains its authenticity. At the same time, strive to exceed your own expectations.

When you push yourself into a zone where you’re not quite comfortable, you will be surprised at your hidden passion and talent.

Finding your own voice allows you to operate from a place of abundance, which is where true success is found. Don’t compete with others, but grow your brand in your individual style.

Share, and share some more. Of course, always keep in mind your own value. Hone in on your gut instinct about when to say no. It will save you time and energy. Always be grateful and humble, and walk away gracefully when needed.

I am grateful that through social media, I have met and worked with so many incredibly talented people. I have learned a tremendous amount about the world and myself from engaging across my social channels.

Every day, I look forward to finding new ways to give back and the new experiences that await me.

Ted Rubin

tedrubin.com

Social Marketing Strategist, Keynote Speaker, Brand Evangelist, and Acting CMO Brand Innovators

Build an online community through one-on-one communication: 

Building a digital community is the same as building any community… engage, interact, add value and show support for the group and what is important to them. And remember… IT TAKES TIME.

In today’s digital world, it’s all too easy for us as brands and individuals to let our relationship-building muscles atrophy.

We get caught up in a multitasking whirlwind of emails, social updates and text messages where it’s easy to let a connection or a conversation fall through the cracks.

We’re super-connected, yet somehow disconnected at the same time. This puts us at risk of losing the very relationships that help us prosper as companies and people.

It is time to re-build our one-on-one communication skills and muscles that we’ve forgotten in our rush to new technologies.

These skills scale via social media because most participate vicariously via the few who interact publicly.

A Network gives you Reach, but a Community gives you Power. That power solidifies Trust, and Loyalty… which leads directly to ROI for any person or organization.

Marji j Sherman

Founder of Sherman Social Media

How to build an online community by engaging with influencers:

Determine what your main industry is, and find influencers in that area and participate in their community.

Being interested in others builds trust and credibility within your industry and helps you gain exposure.

Take time to research what these influencers are doing right, and adopt those strategies in your own social media networks.

Michael Stelzner

socialmediaexaminer.com

Founder of Social Media Examiner, host of Social Media Marketing podcast

How to build an online community from scratch:

You build an online community from nothing by first engaging with any and everyone who reaches out to you, comments on your blog or interacts with you on social media. It’s done one person at a time…

Joe Pulizzi

contentmarketinginstitute.com

Founder of Content Marketing Institute and Author of Content Inc.

Build an online community by focusing on your niche:

Focus on a niche audience, helping that audience in a content area that has little competition, where you can actually become the leading expert in that area (no matter how small).

Focus on one content type (audio, video, textual), one platform (iTunes, YouTube, blog/website) and consistently deliver content over time. The heavy focus should be on building an audience of subscribers.

Once you know that audience better than anyone else, you’ll begin to see what the revenue opportunities are. This is how we built our business at Content Marketing Institute.

Ian Cleary

razorspire.com

Founder of Razor Spire, Award Winning Tech Blogger

Build an online community by differentiating yourself:

You need to start off and figure out how you are different than everyone else because that is important to stand out. Mark Schaefer recently said that he tells companies to finish the sentence beginning with ‘Only we…..’. This is very important.

You then need to create content around your niche that is better than anyone else’s and promote this content.

When you have no audience, the influencers are really important. You need to build a relationship with them so that you can ‘borrow’ some of their audience. Involve them in your content as much as possible.

Dorie Clark

dorieclark.com

Marketing strategy consultant and professional speaker.

How to stand out when you build an online community:

For folks who are starting out in a new niche, content creation is the most important step they can take.

This serves two purposes. The first is that it builds credibility because people can see for themselves that you’re knowledgeable about your subject area.

The second is that it drives reader interest in you, and if you have an interesting giveaway that you promote in the bio section of your articles (in my case, I’ve created a free 42-page workbook based on my book, Stand Out), people will sign up to download it and you can build your email list and base of readers.

This strategy has helped me more than double my email list, to nearly 27K, in the past year.

Ann Handley

annhandley.com

Best-selling author, keynote speaker, and the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs.

Tip for building an online community:

Start with identifying who you are talking to (who you are trying to reach), and create content that provides real value to the audience. Always maintain an audience-centric point of view – put their needs first, in other words.

Michael Port

michaelport.com

Bestselling Author and Speaker, has been called a “marketing guru” by The Wall Street Journal.

Stay top of mind to build an online community:

We’ve had many successes as well as failures as we’ve built communities over the years. The number one thing to remember is that we are not entitled to their attention; we have to earn it every day. Check out Tribes by Seth Godin.

How to Build an Online Community: Expert’s Tips [Infographic]

Click on the infographic to enlarge