10 skills to make you the best community lead in your start-up?
My brief but enjoyable time with NALA ended this past November. The final moments were bittersweet. The ending was bitter, but the journey there was ripe with learning opportunities and excellent new connections.
As the company was expanding rapidly, I was hired as the community lead for the Rwandan market, even though the team size was under 35. This was both a blessing and a curse. This means I could understand what my employer needed from me, but the path forward remained unclear.
I have compiled a list of the top ten skills and experiences that make an effective community lead. These are skills and experiences that I have acquired through working alongside more seasoned colleagues and trying out new approaches to problem-solving.
What is a community lead?
In short, the role of a community lead is to build an engaged and active community to drive product adoption and usage. This can be done online, through events, or through other outreach strategies.
The top 10 abilities that a community lead needs to have:
1. Understand the Business Model: As a community lead, it’s essential to understand the business model of the company. This means understanding the core products and services, how customers use them and how the company makes money. Having a good grasp of the company’s business model will help you create and execute strategies that align with the company’s goals.
2. Develop an Engagement Strategy: A successful community lead must develop an engagement strategy to help the company build relationships with and engage its customers. This strategy should include things like making and sharing content, interacting with customers on social media, and hosting events.
3. Leverage Data and Analytics: To be an effective community lead, it’s important to leverage data and analytics to track the success of your strategies. This will help you measure engagement levels, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions that will help you improve your strategies and achieve better results.
The role of a community lead is to build an engaged and active community to drive product adoption and usage.
4. Facilitate Conversations: As a community lead, it’s essential to be able to facilitate conversations between the customers and the company. This means being able to listen to customers, ask questions, and provide solutions. Customers will be more likely to trust and stay with a company that can help them have conversations.
5. Be a Brand Advocate: As a community lead, it’s important to be a brand advocate for the company. This means being an advocate for its products and services, and actively promoting the company’s brand. Being a brand advocate will help the company build trust and gain more customers.
6. Monitor the Online Channels: As a community lead, it’s important to monitor the online channels where customers are engaging with the company. This includes social media, WhatsApp groups, and other online communities. Monitoring these channels will help you stay on top of customer feedback and identify opportunities to engage with customers.
7. Promote Customer Success: As a community lead, it’s essential to promote customer success. This means highlighting customer success stories, sharing customer feedback, and offering incentives to customers who engage with the company. Promoting customer success will help the company build trust and loyalty among its customers.
8. Identify Growth Opportunities: A successful community lead must be able to identify growth opportunities for the company. This means looking for potential markets, identifying potential partnerships, and thinking of new ways to reach customers. Identify and build relationships with influencers in the industry. Being able to identify growth opportunities will help the company expand and grow.
Bring your enthusiasm to work (or park!)
9. Develop a Knowledge Base: As a community lead, it’s important to develop a knowledge base that customers can access. This should include resources such as FAQs, user guides, and other helpful information. Having a knowledge base will help customers find answers to their questions more quickly.
10. Stay Up-to-Date: As a community lead, it’s essential to stay up-to-date on industry trends and new technologies. This will help you stay ahead of the competition and identify opportunities for the company to take advantage of. Staying up-to-date will also help you develop better strategies and create more engaging content for customers.
Conclusion:
Having a good community lead can be a great asset for a company. A community lead can help build and maintain customer relationships, brand loyalty, and customer feedback. They can also make content and participate in the community to help get the word out about the company and the services it offers. They can also work to find and create new ways for the company to grow, such as forming partnerships with other businesses or entering new markets. With a community lead, a company can benefit from increased engagement with its customers, a better understanding of their needs, and a larger community base.
