Tribes have been around since the dawn of mankind. One of the basic human needs is the need for belonging. When you combine both of these elements, you have a premise for the community.
If you attend networking or community events, you will notice that you are the unknown figure wandering the venue, either by yourself or with a friend. You could be among potential clients and may not even know. Often times the setup of the event may prevent you from having an in-depth conversation with new acquaintances. At the end of the evening, everyone leaves without a good understanding of the people they had just met.
As a salesperson attending an event or function, typically you are not trying to sell anyone anything. Easier said than done. I see it happen all the time. It usually leaves a sour taste in the mouth of people having to listen to your canned pitch. By merely being a participant in an event, you are not in a space where genuine interactions can take place. The exception to this is if you become a regular member of an association or other organization, which has regular events for members and guests to mingle and connect.
That being said, you are better off creating your own community for which members can bond over. There are a few important advantages that you have to your advantage when you are the leader of a community.
1. You Are Seen As An Authority
Unless you are a very well-known thought leader or celebrity in your space, it’s unlikely you will be seen as an authority as a participant of an event. When you are the one bringing people together this dynamic completely changes. As the community leader, you are empowered to draw in high-quality individuals, often those doing much better than you. That is because you are the curator and the facilitator for making the event happen. In an instant, you gain authority and credibility with everyone present, something that would prove difficult or near impossible to establish otherwise.
2. You Are The Event Host
As the host, you carry a lot of responsibilities. You need to organize the event, book the venue, recruit the participants, collect money, and a list of other tasks. At the same time, there is a special place as a host. You have the ability to get in touch all the participants ahead of time. That allows you to get some information on each people attending. You get to curate your event in a way that attracts a certain kind of individual that matches the community and could have the potential to become a customer. As the host, it is very easy for you to network as well as connect others. All you need to do, knowing a bit about each person beforehand, is to link them up with each other. People will thank you for that as they are getting value from meeting likeminded people and also breaking the ice for them.
3. You Are In A Position To Reverse The Sales Process
Building on the previous two points, by being a leader of the community, you hold the responsibility for creating as much value for the community as possible. This is not limited to physical events or functions, it could also come in the form of knowledge sharing. If the community consists of potential clients, you can come in as a form of teacher, educating your audience on your expertise and highlighting some of the problems that they could be facing in their organization and how to solve it. In this way, you do not need to push products to anyone, and more likely than not, people will approach you to inquire for more. You have effectively flipped the selling dynamic in which you are not selling, rather prospects are selling you on working with them.
Now that you know the benefits of starting a community, how could you get started?
The first step is to establish the target audience and theme that you want the community to be centered around. Ideally, this is a niche community. Niche communities hold a lot more weight because if your community is just for business people or sports enthusiasts to congregate there is not a lot of value you could bring to the table that other communities or organizations have not accessed.
Communities come in all shapes and forms. It really depends on what kind of people you want to attract.
When I moved to Hong Kong, I was looking for people to play golf. I realized that most of the expats have left their clubs in the corner of their apartments simply because they couldn’t find other people to play with. All the other golf communities in the area were targeted towards people over 40. Therefore, I decided to start a Meetup group (meetup.com) for working professionals in their prime or under 40. By narrowing down my audience, our organization was able to appeal to people that shared a similar interest (golf) with a similar problem (no like-minded people to play with).
A lot of what goes into running a community comes from experience by doing it. The biggest mistake is not taking advantage of the opportunity we have with social media as an extension of our reach to start a community that will boost our credibility, authority, and expertise in our industry or field.
