Greg - Earlier consumer space was to allow people to talk. Broadcasting technologies like FB, Twitter basically allowed people to speak and express themselves. If you give everyone a microphone it gets pretty loud. People are trying to speak over each other. It's really hard to hear.
What we are seeing now is the rise of group chats, rise of Discord groups, Fortnite world etc. Anything that is more group or community-oriented. It just so happen that these places are most fun part on the Internet. Internet was designed to be, the fun place. 2. Li - Communities and the guide to unbundling article outlines the opportunity to unbundle social platforms like Reddit, Facebook. The line "The destiny of every massive social network or marketplace is unbundling. It's not a matter of if but when". Why do you think this is this destiny?
Greg - Let's talk about Bundling. Bundling is to grow as quickly as possible when you raise VC money. The big reason for bundling is pressure to grow. FB started with virtual college network. Instagram is adding features and becoming bloated. This happened in not just social networks but also on marketplaces. The marketplace is a social network dress up differently.
In 2020 when COVID happened people literally couldn't be in physical places anymore. The idea of the community became more important than ever. It's an opportunity to create a new vertical.
Reddit for 2020/2021 - Out of all platforms that could be unbundled like LinkedIn, Zoom, McKinsey, etc. Reddit is the main leader in where communities live and it's an easy way to find out the pulse of the community. 3. Nathan - So far a lot of unbundling happened more centred around features and not topics. Facebook led to Instagram which is unbundling photo feature from Facebook. A lot of Craiglist unbundling was sort of dating became its own thing.
Greg - What we don't want people to do is basically pick FB group and create on a private network. What I'm talking about is creating a bespoke coffee shop feeling and not Starbucks feel. Communities already exist whether we like it or not. We're there to serve and bring people together. Start with a community and build software. Don't start the software and build the community. 4. Greg - Before starting a community you create an audience. How do you convert the audience to your community? People just replace the word audience with the community. Don't do that. People walking by your storefront isn't your community. Community is a shared language you have with someone. Instagram followers are not your community. That's the audience. 5. Li - The distinction between community and audience is key. Hallmark of real community is intentionality. People are seeking you out as a destination, not just consuming content. Peer to peer interaction going on and not just a brand or single creator. There needs to be an interaction between members of the community. Empower community with creating content that other people would see. The way Instagram is designed is not facilitating the community. 6. Greg - Facebook mission is to enable meaningful communities. The mission statement is really important because it's a guiding principle as to how to develop your company. The way they ship features it doesn't look like Facebook enable communities. If you look at Nike their mission is to enable movement and if you look at their products can we say are they enabling movement? Yes. 7. Li - What do you think of appropriate monetization model for communities? (FB admins on groups or Reddit Admins) works 40 hrs a week moderating posts, connecting people, etc. What are examples of successful monetization strategies for communities?
Greg - Community owners don't have enough options for monetization communities. As founders, we haven't done a good job to come up with interesting concepts to enabling community organizers.
Community organizers should fundamentally have that ability. Community organizers are doing it for love. They don't want to monetize. Communities are businesses in a lot of ways. It needs to be sustainable. How do we create sustainable communities? Popular examples are Substack, paywall around content, Live Zoom calls etc.
What worked for Islands (Social network for college) was we basically worked with a creative director who designed Bieber's clothes, The Weekend clothes, Skrillex and created merch lines that resonated with the audience. College students loved it. Students were buying $120 sweatshirts.
Li - One method of monetization communities which has worked less well is charging straight up for membership into the community. Putting a paywall gate to even accessing the community.
Why less well? Because people want to know what they are paying for and what they are getting into, the value from the community before committing to pay for something. So merch, content, events are great as they feel even deeper way to engage with the community. 8. Li - Best consumer brands are one that makes people feel like they are a member of the community that they would be proud to show off. 9. Li - Island was Slack for colleges. Thoughts on top lessons learned and What would you do differently today if you were to restart a social app?
We built a team that was going from school to school. The prevailing wisdom was If you wanna scale an app at college go to cool kids. These cool kids already had places they use to hang out and they didn't use. The most disconnected people needed the app most and not the cool kids of the college. Don't believe the prevailing wisdom. 10. Li - Any platform that is helping create a new path to economic empowerment that is helping people to create things more easily and offer them to an audience that really values is something going to experience tailwinds in the upcoming decade. Substack is one example but other types of skills that can be monetized including know-how of building communities. 11. What do strong communities unlock for societies? I believe when like-minded people come together it unlocks crazy potential. Community is in our DNA. It is a positive experience and there is nothing like it. Many people are lonely and its a terrible thing. Creating digital products to bring people together virtually is an amazing experience.
/// Rosie Sherry on building communities, creating newsletters and adding value.