Community

What is community?

Not that kind….

Community is...

A feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of

sharing common attitudes, interests, and

goals.

Why do people join a

community?

Motivations of...

● The Tribe - Social rewards like empathy, acceptance,

connection, cooperation, competition.

● The Hunt - Search for resources: information, novelty,

money, and entertainment.

● The Self - Intrinsic motivators like mastery, curiosity,

completion, competence, recognition, and control.

How do people form

communities?

Communities of...

● Location

● Interest

● Organization

How do we evaluate and

compare communities?

● Size - MUUs, # Active Users, Reach

● Longevity - History, Time

● Engagement - Revisit Rate, Posts/User/Month

● Growth - Growth Rate, Virality, K Factor

● Impact - Advocacy Score, Influence, $, Stories

Criteria and Metrics

Community Case Studies

● Onlineo Product Hunt

o Reddit

● Offlineo AA

● Competitorso NextDoor

o Houzz

Case Study 1: Product Hunt

● Started by Ryan Hoover in

November 2013 as a daily email

digest.

● 10k products have been posted.

● 509k comments.

● Driven 15 million views to

products.

Why does Product Hunt work?

Tribe - Threading comments on products builds connection, cooperation, and

empathy. Gamification of upvotes spurs competition between products.

Collections and user tagging features enable an even deeper level of

connection based on more granular interests.

Hunt - New content daily plays on our desire for novelty. Products also can

give me a means to accumulate more resources (money and information).

Self - Find new products to share with friends to receive recognition. Upvoting

feature is a very efficient mechanism for surfacing the most engaging content

and instills a sense of control of the experience.

Case Study 2: Reddit

● Founded by Alexis Ohanian and

Steve Huffman in June 2005, 1st

Ycombinator class.

● 71.25 billion page views in 2014

● 54.9 million posts in 2014.

● 535 million comments in 2014.

● 3.73 billion upvotes in 2014.

Why does Reddit work?Tribe - Comments on Reddits builds connection, acceptance, empathy, and

cooperation. Gamification of upvotes spurs competition and provides validation

for content producers. Sub-Reddits enable an even deeper level of connection

based on more granular interests.

Hunt - New content plays on our desire for novelty. Content provided can be

inside information that helps users make more money, get more power.

Self - User account gives people an identity in the community. Finding

interesting content to share with friends to give users recognition. Upvoting

feature is a very efficient mechanism for surfacing the most engaging content

and instills a sense of control of the experience.

Case Study 3: Alcoholics Anonymous

● Started in 1935.

● Over 2 million members.

● 115k groups.

● In over 170 countries worldwide

Why does AA work?

Tribe - First step of the program is admittance which builds acceptance among

the group. The sponsor model builds connection and cooperation toward a

common goal. Weekly meetings build connection and camaraderie.

Hunt - Steps 8-10 of 12 step program are focused on continual self-

improvement. This drives members to continually look for more information and

engagement with the community.

Self - Gamification of achievement through the 12 steps yields intrinsic feelings

of control and completion. The coins awarded for annual sobriety, reflect the

desire to be recognized for an achievement.

Case Study 4: NextDoor

● Founded in 2010 by Nirav Tolia.

● Started with Bay Area

neighborhoods.

● 53k active neighborhoods in

2015.

● 5 million daily messages in 2015.

● Partnered with 647 public

agencies as of 2015.

Why does NextDoor work?

● Tribe - Organization of the network around neighborhood builds

commonality and connection amongst the group. By commenting on posts,

“welcoming” new members, and “thanking” people for content, users are

given a method to cooperate and connect with one another.

● Hunt - Continuously updated newsfeed provides variety and variable

reward every time you log into your profile. Users can scroll through the

feed, click into categories, or explore other neighborhoods for the search

for new and interesting information.

● Self - Comments and “thank” buttons allow the contributing user to feel

recognized for posting a great piece of content. Top inviter list allows

neighborhood recognition for inviters. Completion step guide that includes

inviting others to join NextDoor.

What’s broken with NextDoor?

● Interest based community is poorly executed. NextDoor cannot

become a consumer internet destination without surfacing content that

relieves our itch to not be bored.

● Location community is limited to personal and surrounding

neighborhoods. User’s identity is tied to a neighborhood and they are

unable to connect with people on a larger scale. This is not only a

customer experience problem, but a scaling problem as well.

● Service provider engagement is difficult and unclear. It’s not easy to

actually get problems solved and needs met which is why people are

always asking the forum for advice.

Case Study 5: Houzz

● Founded in 2009 by Aki Tatarko

● 25 million MUUs in 2014

● 500k professionals in 2014

● 4 million images in 2014.

● 12 million app downloads.

● 35% of users are outside US.

Why does Houzz work?

● Tribe - Ideabooks help build connection between the pros who have

uploaded the photo and the homeowner who has added it to their

ideabook. Commenting allows users to interact with each other which

helps build credibility amongst the community as well as connection.

● Hunt - Constant barrage of beautiful photos let users discover new

content.

● Self - Users get a sense of control and mastery when building their own

idea books. If you see something you like, you can buy it. There is a

feeling of completion from being able to satisfy your need to have

something you want.

What’s broken with Houzz?

● Houzz is not a network. The connection between content producers and

content consumers only goes one way. Pros upload photos and

homeowners view, comment, and add them to an ideabook. There is no

engaging homeowner to homeowner experience.

● Houzz is uni-platform. They’ve done a tremendous job accumulating

images, however they do not provide written or video content that is useful,

relevant, and interesting. A picture is worth a thousand words, but videos

tell stories and bloggers produce engaging thousand word pieces in their

sleep.

● Houzz is a place for inspiration, it is not inspirational. Photos on

Houzz give people a dream, but the community isn’t empowered to make

these dreams reality.

Tactics

How to actually build community

● Non scalable practices that over invest in

delight and personalization early.

● Drive WOM growth from initial set of users.

● Influencer to get to a tipping point.

● Build features to scale the ability to connect.

What does community on

Porch look and feel like?