Community Building

11 tips to successfully launch your community platform (1/2)

11 tips to successfully launch your community platform

Social media are great to raise awareness and grow an audience. But once you reach that stage where you start having an actual community, it comes a time when social media cannot help you anymore.

That’s when you decide to use your own community platform and request your members to follow you. Unfortunately, switching from a conventional platform to your own is a difficult step, especially for your members. In this post, we’ll try to give you a few tips and tricks we’ve experimented ourselves to make that change easier.

Sounds obvious, right? But believe us, this happened before. The first and most important lesson is: whatever your strategy, never forget to provide links to your platform in your promotions! Whether it is a mobile app, a software to install, or an online platform, make it easy for your members to reach it: use a service like http://bit.ly and create cool, easy-to-remember shortened URLs so that people remember them (including you).

2. Add Buttons to Your Blog and Website

Add buttons to your website and blog that link to your private social network. Don’t be scared of using large ones. This is a great way to inform your usual readers about your new platform. Here are a few examples of fun buttons you can use for inspiration:

For online platforms use keywords like “Sign up” and “Join us”:

Join us button
Join us button
Sign up button
Sign up button

Going mobile? Use app store buttons. Below is the unified versions we’re using for our Minsh demo app.

Google play
App store
App install buttons
App install buttons

You can also go for QR codes like the University of Cincinnati for their alumni mobile app:

UC Alumni mobile App
UC Alumni mobile App

3. Edit Your Email Signature

Whenever you’re sending an email, you can make sure people notice your new community platform by promoting it in your signature.

It can be as simple as this:

Email signature
Email signature

4. Blog About It

If you have a blog or a news page, write a post about your app or your platform. Explain why you decided to go for a private social network, what the benefits for your members are, how your’re going to bring them more value through it.
Check out the great blog post Mukund Mohan wrote the week following his app release. It got him lots of new sign ups.

Why i published a personal social network app

Mukund Mohan's post to introduce his app
Mukund Mohan's post to introduce his app

TiE Bangalore did the same a couple of days after the official announcement of their new community platform. They highlighted the 5 things you can do with our all new app.

5 things their members can do with their new app

TiE Bangalore's post to introduce their new app
TiE Bangalore's post to introduce their new app

5. Advertise it on social media

Most likely, your blog is wired to your Twitter and/or Facebook accounts. So chances are that as soon as you publish a blog post about your brand new platform, it also gets pushed on social media. You kill two birds with one stone.

But you can also take one step further by writing regular posts about your community platform on your favorite social media. Whether it is your Facebook page or group, your Twitter account, your Instagram or Pinterest account, etc. Don’t hesitate to advertise your new platform everywhere, and regularly. Also use some cool screenshots to make it more appealing.

Here’s a Facebook post by Ema, the founder of ExpatLife India, who wanted to promote her new community app:

Expatlife India's app promotion post
Expatlife India's app promotion post

6. Mention It in Your Newsletters

Highlight your new private social network in your next newsletter. If the platform is not yet released, you can tease your readers first, and then send another newsletter once it’s finally out.

Here is a first example from swissnex India. They first announced the launch of their new app with a big promo in their newsletter:

swissnex India newsletter
swissnex India newsletter

And since that announcement, they always keep the links to the app stores in the footer of their newsletters. Similarly, always keep a link to your platform in your newsletter footer or header.

Newsletter footer
Newsletter footer

Here are the first 6 tips to successfully launch your community platform. You can now head straight to the next 5 and one more bonus tip.