When I first launched this site, I wrote a short post about the topic I’m sharing today. It has resonated with me, and to be honest, I think it’s always been a part of how I’ve built my own communities, even as far back as 2010 when I started Bob WP. The fact is, we all do it in some way. We build some kind of community for Woo builders, keeping it on the business side of things. It might be a community of your customers, your clients, or a community within a business you work at, or perhaps colleagues of yours. You may build communities around your brand or business on your site, on social media, on Slack—you name it.
We all know there are community experts out there that will give you advice. There are also social media consultants that will do the same thing. The problem is that one size doesn’t fit all. Often, when seeking advice on building your own community, you’ll discover various opinions. You have to collate them together and figure out what works and what doesn’t for you.
I’ve been building community long before I got into the WordPress space, which was in 2006. With our other business, there were ways we built our community, some of which were long before we did anything online. I don’t proclaim to be an expert on community building, but I thought I’d share my own experiences and what has worked for me. I’m not promising to deliver the perfect piece of advice for your specific needs, but I hope to give you a different perspective and something to think about.
There was one question I kept getting when I started building Do the Woo. I talked about this in a previous post as I touched on my thought process when I began to formulate this Woo builder community. But I’m revisiting it for this show because, as I spoke to people about my idea before it launched or even before I started working on it, there was one piece of the conversation that happened over and over again. When I explained that I was going to build this community, almost immediately, I’d get questions like, “So are you going to have a Facebook group?” or “Will you have a group on Slack, a channel on Slack?” “Are you building a private forum?”
To be honest, these and other similar questions were answered by me with a simple “no.” I did explain why I said no, but I feel a community does not need a bunch of noise. Understand that this is how it has worked for me, and by no means am I saying it’s the right way or the only way. I just feel that a lot of people never think about other options when building a community. They tend to jump on the bandwagon of engagement and active conversation as the only way to build any community. Engage or die, community and social media experts say. You must engage, or else why do it? Your community will not thrive without this engagement.
However, engagement isn’t really defined well. It’s rammed down your throat: engage your audience. It’s not defined, and sometimes it comes across as a constant need to reply to comments and add your own opinion, advise, and be a part of the conversation. In fact, I’ve seen a lot of social media experts take what they call engagement to a new and disturbing level. They constantly drop into conversations with replies like, “Nice,” “That’s great,” “Cool,” “Yeah.” To me, if this is considered engagement, count me out. I think engagement should mean bringing value to a conversation, not just dropping in meaningless replies to build up metrics.
Also, everyone seems to have an opinion. This is the beauty of being part of the human race—free speech and all that. We can freely express our opinions, but sometimes it’s just added noise. How often do you see a threaded conversation where it appears that 75% of the people never read what others have said, and many people appear to never have read the original comment thoroughly? So, this opinion ends up being all about you and what you said. Sometimes, it’s like a big room of people just shouting out their thoughts, often leading to debates or arguments that go off on tangents.
Now, with both engagement and these kinds of conversations, it’s not cut and dry, and neither of them should be totally dismissed. Depending on the goal of your own community, you may just ignore the advice I’ve given you so far. But the reason I bring this up is I want to give you another thought to ponder as you build your own community, and that is the art of listening. These days, I often question if the art of listening is dying. This may be exaggerated, but with all the noise and conversations, I do wonder if anyone is really listening.
Myself, I listen a lot. By listening, I mean also reading conversations without feeling the need to add my two cents. Often, when I join a group online, I listen. Sure, I’ll add to the chat if I have something worthy to say, but most of the time, I listen. When meeting someone online or in person, I make sure I’m listening to what they say. The crazy thing is, in all this listening, I’ve learned to think smarter and have a more diverse outlook. Of course, there are times I tune out conversations that are too wild, but I’m saying that often nobody really spends the time listening.
If we look at how I started and how I built this community, it revolves around listening to a lot of people individually and in groups, both online and offline. I put builders on the stage via our podcast so others can listen to their stories. Occasionally, I come in and do things like this, but more importantly, it’s their expertise, insights, and perspectives that I feel are important. Every piece of Do the Woo that I’ve built out revolves around elevating voices that need to be heard. These are conversations with hosts too, so it’s not one-sided. In a nutshell, I’m building a community with engagement and conversation, but without the noise.
So, as a builder, think about this when you’re growing your own community. Have a voice, but make sure you listen. It might be a good idea to step back and let others share their thoughts. Before you open your mouth, digest those thoughts. In what many call an “all about me” world, it may take practice. Trust me, working on the art of listening within your community is never going to be the wrong thing to do, no matter how it plays out in your life and work.
So that’s it—Community Without Noise. Take it or leave it.
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