A (virtual) community is a must to build a brand in today’s world.

To build a high-quality engaged community, you must understand what/who makes such a community.

It all starts with people.

People make a community.

And for a high-quality community, you need kind, giving members who are eager to help.

You also need people with experience and expertise who are brilliant at what they do.

You’ll find such people inside paid communities, so when building a community, see if you can make it paid or have an application system.

There should be a sense of community, and people should find what they joined for.

If they joined for answers, they should get that. If for belonging, they should get that too.

That’s the role of a curator and community manager becomes essential. She should welcome each message personally and have a cadence of checking in at least with early members and early days.

Some people join communities to build momentum and fast track their journey, so give them that.

Always have some sort of moderation and cultivate relationships with early members so that they can become ambassadors and mod as the community grows.

I hope these ideas get you started with building a healthy community for your brand.