WORKSHEETS
You will find worksheets here that can be used to start a conversation with your leadership to clarify how you will suitably apply brand community principles to grow the right community for you.
Obviously there is too much diversity among organizations and goals for any static tool to serve all. You can start by reflecting on foundational ideas to ensure that you are building toward something that’s suitable for your vision.
You start a community with a foundation of only a few members.
If you already have dedicated founding members in your community but haven’t recognized them with such a title, then it’s never too late to express appreciation for their commitment.
The following sets of questions can start a conversation about how to recognize ideal founding members. You can then choose whom to invite because they closely match what you seek. (Note that the unskilled choose members first and then the criteria.)
Some groups only seek hard-core competitors. Some seek patient contemplatives. Of course you can include many kinds of personalities. Just consider what kinds of personalities you envision will fit best.
Availability is influenced by a lot of factors (e.g., caregiving, studies, and work commitments). Consider what level of availability will be required to meet member needs.
You can consider an application, an initiation meeting, volunteer activity, or anything else.
Consider these actions to convene your first founding members:
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Ensure that you follow at least these steps in connecting with prospective founding members:
To reach critical mass, you must identify and train community leaders. Look for leaders who want to serve the community (not only themselves). You’ll recognize these leaders because their actions reflect the community core values and purpose.
As communities grow and mature, new leadership must develop for community scale and enduring relevance.
The questions here can start a conversation to identify members appropriate for a training plan.
The following conditions are essential to a successful campfire experience:
With this understanding of the critical conditions, you can look at your planned campfire experiences to confirm that all the conditions are in place. If you get stuck, run a Design Sprint activity called Crazy 8s. Give each participant a pen and instruct all to fold a piece of paper into eight squares. Then read the description of campfire experiences to them (see Campfire Principle in chapter 8).
Ask all to draw eight possible answers to this question:
What campfire experiences would you like for the community?
Put on a timer for four minutes and go crazy. (Each square should take about forty seconds to draw, and stick figures are fine!) Then return to discuss the ideas you like best.
This worksheet can start a conversation to help answer core questions that influence what a brand community will look like:
Why are we building community?
How will the community enrich members?
What organizational support does it provide?
First, clarify larify the ways that community can support the organization:
Start a conversation with your team where you address these questions:
Once you have gathered responses to these questions, rank the answers on their importance in impacting your organization. The hidden purpose of your community may surface in the discussion.
Encouraging participation in the community is never as simple as giving swag, badges, and points. In fact, as we’ve discussed in this book, incentivizing with external rewards diminishes participants’ internal motivation.
Although of course you need to acknowledge, reward, and recognize member contributions every day, you also should plan formal ways to do so. The following table reviews some of the terms we’ve been using in this book.
TERM |
MEANING |
EXAMPLE |
RECOMMENDATION |
Incentive |
An external reward offered in exchange for participation |
Offer members a sticker for every post added to a platform. |
Use incentives sparingly. When you remove the incentive, you will likely lose the participation they encourage. |
Token |
An item given that represents a relationship and/or a shared value |
A member completes volunteer hours and the founder sends them a handwritten card and sticker honoring their commitment. |
Ensure the token is often given by a community elder and reserved for those who have supported in action. |
Acknowledgment |
A specific articulation of the contribution a participant makes (or has made), without judgment |
A new member writes their first article for a newsletter, and you say, “I notice you put in time to share this story. This is an important part of growing our community, and I see your commitment.” |
Use acknowledgment liberally, especially for new leaders and members, to help them feel seen. |
Recognition, gratitude, and appreciation (with judgment) |
Forms of sharing acknowledgment with a value judgment attached |
A longtime member contributes their hundredth post to the group, and you add them to a special access group that includes a badge attached to their username. |
You can recognize with higher status, privileges, responsibilities, and verbal affirmations. |
Three conditions must be in place to support internal motivation:
Answer the following questions with your team to ensure that you will encourage engagement in ways that help members feel seen and inspire them to remain connected.