Bridging Developer Community Members Together
Building Connections: How to Bridge Your Community Members Together
Creating a vibrant community where members feel connected not only to your product but to one another is crucial for getting out of the “slack/discord is just for Q+A rut” that so many developer communities stay in. Fostering engagement and growth is a two way street, and one effective way to achieve this is by bridging members together based on their interests and roles versus just on your product. Here are some ideas for how to build meaningful connections within your community.
Step ONe! Create Dedicated Channels
Introduce a #introductions channel where members can share their background, including where they work, where they live, their role, what they’re building on your platform, industry, and what programming languages they write in. This helps members find common ground and start conversations.
Additionally, set up a #community channel where members can showcase what they’ve built using your product. This not only encourages sharing but also highlights the diverse use cases of your product to inspire others.
Identify Members
Next step is to truly understanding who your community members are and what they’re up to via:
Conducting surveys during platform sign up, Discord/Slack, or in newsletters.
During onboarding into Discord or Slack make sure to suggest members join #introductions, #community, and all other channels based on interest and product usage.
Scrap messages via Zapier from the #introductions channel to gather data on their interests, roles, and experiences.
Analyze this data to identify common personas and business sectors. Tools like Common Room can help in segmenting and understanding your community members based on this information.
Connecting Members: New Community
Now that you know who they are the next step is to find ways to connect them via:
Custom channels based on region, industry, and interest. Manually connecting them via DMs or tagging them in posts.
Watching the conversations in #community and #introductions channel and tagging them when you see connections between members or posts that you think will bring them value.
This will be manual at first but it really goes a long way in the early phases of someone joining your community.
CONNECTING MEMBERS: AT SCALE
Direct Messaging: Implement automated direct messaging systems that introduce new members to other members with similar profiles or interests. For instance, use a welcome bot to send a DM suggesting a few community members to connect with based on shared interests.
Example: “Hi [Name]! Welcome to the community! You might find it valuable to connect with [Member A], [Member B], and [Member C] who are also interested in [Interest].”
Tagging in Posts: Use automation tools to tag members in relevant posts. For example, if a new discussion on cybersecurity trends emerges, members who indicated an interest in cybersecurity during sign-up can be automatically tagged or notified.
Example: Set up a trigger that tags all members interested in cybersecurity whenever a new post is created in the #cybersecurity channel.
Systematize: Data & Automation
Conversation Analysis Tools: Utilize conversation analysis tools to monitor discussions in channels like #community and #introductions. These tools can flag relevant topics or identify patterns that indicate potential connections between members.
Example: Use natural language processing (NLP) tools to analyze conversations and suggest connections. If a member frequently discusses startup funding, the tool can recommend connecting them with others who have similar discussions.
Automated Recommendations: Develop an algorithm or use AI to recommend connections based on conversation patterns. This can help identify members who share common interests or could benefit from networking with each other.
Example: Implement a system that analyzes members’ posts and engagement history, and then suggests connections or channel memberships based on overlapping topics or keywords.
Interest Dashboard: Leverage Member Data and Analytics:
Dynamic Member Profiles: Create dynamic profiles that update as members engage with the community. This can include tracking their posts, likes, and interactions, which can then be used to suggest connections and channel memberships based on interest. All can be done again in Common Room.
Example: A dashboard that displays member’s activity and suggests connections based on similar activities or engagement patterns.
Using Customized Data for Personalized Community Engagement
Now that you’ve collected this data you can gain insights into members' expertise, motivations for joining, and their specific needs.
With this information, you can recommend relevant content and incentives, groups, and connections for each member, ensuring they derive maximum value from the community.
To facilitate tailored interactions, community managers can organize groups within the community based on various criteria such as industry, region, or specific challenges.
Now what and why do this?
Now that you know more about your community members and their interests beyond your product, you can host:
Host guest speakers and focus groups on “Generative AI in the…” Medical or Environmental sectors for example.
You can host topical based events and meetups.
Pool certain community members together in a group message to ask for specific feedback, share exclusive sneak peeks, roadmap brainstorming focus groups, or beta program involvement. For example when a PM wants to message only agency developers within “food” business sector for their next beta program.
Host industry-focused forums where members can share their unique challenges and industry-specific solutions.
Organize workshops and hands on learning using your product as a solution to an industry-specific problem.
Conclusion
By identifying interests, creating dedicated channels, and leveraging automation, you can foster deeper connections within your community.
Let me know your thoughts!