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What are the keys to create an on-line community?

The 3 key elements to create a movement or community are:

  1. Clear Purpose
  2. Connect
  3. Call to action.
Anti climate change movement

In terms of building an on-line community, I normally use the same elements from above and power them with some tech and social media tools. Below some tips about how to create an on-line community :

1/. Create awareness around your purpose and believes.

  • Copyright: having a well written purpose and  a set of powerful disruptive messages is extremely important.
  • Design: design is perhaps one the most important elements to create awareness. Make sure to have beautiful design to communicate your messages.
  • Video: creating good video content that captures your company's purpose in a fun way is also important.  i.e. Holstee manifesto
  • Technology: use platforms like Quora and other specialized blogs to find people that care about your cause. The more you blog, the more empathy you will gain from the community.

2/. Use a platform that can allow you to connect:

  1. Members of the movement with each other.
  2. Movement members with you (the movement admin) and vice versa.
  3. Movement with people outside of the movement and vice versa.

Here are some ideas about how to do this:

  • Make your own site: It’s very easy believe me! You can use platforms such as Strikingly or Square Space to design your own site in less than an hour.
  • Social Media: Facebook groups are extremely easy to create and everybody in on FB.  Also, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are great tools to get your word out.
  • Specialized platforms: I personally love Thunderclap and Change.org.

3/. Call to action

Have a clear call to actions that are easy to execute by any member of the community.

  • Gamification: Think as if you were creating a video game where you have different levels (easy, medium, advanced.) 
  • Also, rewards are extremely important! Movement members love to be featured for their actions.

4/. Final tips

People are not dumb, if you are going to create a community, you should be:

  • Transparent
  • Honest
  • Approachable
  • Professional

Finally but not least, Purpose and Avaaz are two of my favorite organizations on the movement building scene. I strongly suggest you to take a look of their awesome work to have clear examples of successful movements in action and well-develop methodologies.

Now go and build a movement that you care about.

The world needs you to lead us!!