Launching Your Business To A Community With Jasmine Garnsworthy
In 2023, building a strong community around your brand is essential. Female Founder World creator Jasmine Garnsworthy is spilling the tea on all things community—how to create one for your business, what it really means, what your role is when you create community, and what platform you should be using for your community building.
Your role as a community-builder: Connecting the dots
As a community builder, picture yourself as the ultimate matchmaker. Your job is to bring people together, make introductions (if someone has a question, connect them with the person with the answer!), and make sure everyone feels like they're part of something cool.
Community vs. audience: Depth vs breadth
An audience is not a community. Community is not a bunch of people consuming your content on TikTok, it’s people speaking to each other and extracting and creating value through connection and relationships.
What’s your mission?
Your community should be like a rally cry, bringing people together around a common cause or mission. The purpose of your community cannot just be to build a loyal customer base—it needs to be something that will bind people together. Babba Rivera built a community ahead of launching her around Latinx haircare brand, Ceremonia, with the shared mission of celebrating Latinx beauty and culture. Within 100 days of launching, the biz made $100,000.
Exclude to include: Gate your community
To have a winning community, you need to bring together people with shared experiences, values, or missions and excluding those who don't align with your community's purpose or who will dilute the conversation or experience. Ask questions when people apply to join the community to figure out who’s the right fit.
Attract community members through programming
Programming like online events and workshops, virtual coffee chats, and planned content like case studies or memes need to be tailored specifically to what adds value to your ideal community member. Host this content within your community hub to attract people to sign up.
Choose a platform based upon your purpose
Common community platforms include Geneva, Facebook Groups and Mighty Networks. Facebook Groups is a hit among Gen X and Boomers, while Geneva is a better fit for Gen Z and Millennials. Platforms like Mighty Networks and Circle allow a more personalized experience, but have drawbacks, too. Listen to the podcast for more.
