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In this chapter, the author emphasizes the importance of building a culture within a community and outlines four key areas to focus on: understanding the ten culture cores, building a growth strategy, building an engagement strategy, and observing, hypothesizing, and experimenting.
The author begins by stating that cultures are hard to understand and build, but they are formed from a set of norms that are repeated and adopted by the broader group. In order to build an effective culture, the author introduces the concept of ten culture cores, including being open, being pragmatic, being positive, and being collaborative. These cores serve as values and guidelines to make the community a kind, compassionate, and engaging place.
Next, the author discusses the importance of building a growth strategy for the community. The author suggests launching the community with fanfare and excitement, rather than silently releasing it. The launch should include infrastructure and content finalization, an early adopter program, teaser promotions, an announcement of a launch event, and the actual launch day. The author provides a timeline template to guide the launch process.
After the launch, the author emphasizes the need for an engagement strategy to maintain the growth and enthusiasm of community members. The author introduces the Community Participation Framework, which consists of three phases: Casual, Regulars, and Core. The author suggests that engagement should focus on providing responsive and helpful interactions, validating and celebrating members’ efforts, building personal relationships, and helping members find opportunities to make an impact.
Finally, the author emphasizes the importance of observation, hypothesis development, and experimentation in community building. By monitoring data, developing hypotheses, designing experiments, reviewing results, and determining next steps, community managers can continuously refine and optimize their strategies.
Throughout the chapter, the author emphasizes the importance of creativity and momentum in community building. The author encourages community managers to think outside the box, involve more brains in the process, and come up with ideas that surprise and intrigue their audience.
Overall, this chapter provides a comprehensive guide to building a community culture, growth strategy, engagement strategy, and the importance of observation and experimentation. The author emphasizes the need for creativity and momentum in community building.
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