Should you build a Discord community?
After coming back from ethDenver and talking to a lot of founders about their challenges in building our Discord, we’ve decided to write up a quick-to-read, no-brainer guide on lean community management. Over the next couple weeks, we will go over various topics on how to grow from 0 to 10k. We will also refer to blog links if you are interested in learning more.
Discord has evolved beyond its initial purpose as a platform primarily for gamers to chat and discuss strategies. Today, it has transformed into a hub for various communities, where users can discuss everything from cooking to web3.
Gen-Z's Expectations
While you might be familiar with Discord in Web3, the biggest demographic user group is actually Gen-Z.
Gen-Z, the digital natives, seek authenticity and active participation in brand communities. They crave more than just transactions; they want to be part of the narrative, to feel a genuine connection with the brand. Discord, with its real-time chat and voice channels, allows for this level of interaction. It creates a space for brands to establish and cultivate a community that goes beyond the traditional transactional relationship.
Usage of App by Gen-Z in 2023
A Business Case for Discord
10X User Retention
On Discord, brands can build niche communities and even leverage volunteer moderators for sustainable engagement. This strategy helps in retaining users, as they develop a sense of belonging to the community. Brands can create various channels to cater to the different interests of their users, ensuring that their Discord server remains a vibrant and engaging space.
Low New User Acquisition Cost
Consider this scenario: you want users to use a product, but the user is not in the market to buy right now. Rather than losing touch with these users, you can invite them to join your Discord server. Here, you can offer them additional benefits related to your product, such as exclusive theme-based events. This way, you have semi-acquired the users, keeping them within your reach until they are ready to make a purchase.
Hype Creation
If you are minting NFTs or launching a cryptocurrency, you need hype. Without sufficient buzz, your members may flood the market with secondary items, destroying your floor price. Web3 product launches share many similarities with IPOs, and Discord is the best platform for people to witness and participate in the hype.
Who Should Have a Discord?
Consumer-Driven Businesses
If your target audience tends to be younger or more web3 oriented, Discord is an essential platform. It allows you to create a space for your customers to interact, discuss, and share their experiences with your brand or product. This is also the preferred way for Gen-Z to interact with their brands
Technical Communities
Many engineers have migrated from Slack to Discord, making it a popular platform for technical communities. It offers a more relaxed environment, making it perfect for brainstorming and collaboration.
Support Nature Businesses
If you have a retail product and want to provide some form of community-driven support, Discord is the ideal platform. An excellent case study for this is the open-source community, where users help each other troubleshoot issues and share tips. One of our users runs a BMW Tuning shop. He uses Discord to update members on the latest inventories, ticket status and most importantly, allows members to share secrets on better maintenance to lower cost of support.
Learning-Driven Communities
If your product requires users to learn how to use it, Discord can be a place for users to get inspiration. For instance, Japanese-learning Discord servers are very popular. Users exchange ideas, tips, and showcase what they've learned.
Discord as a Platform
Discord's Unique Features
Discord's many-to-many relationship model, customization options with bots, live streams, and gated content make it a unique platform. These features allow for a level of interaction and engagement that's hard to replicate on other platforms.
Discord vs Twitter
While Twitter is great for discovery and external collaborations, Discord is more suited for building and nurturing communities. In general, you should treat Twitter, IG, Facebook etc as a growth funnel. For example, Twitter Spaces is excellent for hosting live discussions with new audiences that might have never heard about you, but Discord stage is great at connecting fellow existing members and hence, increasing your user retention rate.
Discord vs Telegram
Telegram is less flexible compared to Discord. It lacks bots, gated content, and sufficient anti-spam measures, making large telegram groups hard to manage (that’s why a lot of them are READ-ONLY). On the other hand, Discord can be a bit more complicated to set up initially, but it offers more flexibility over the long term, especially around live events and server gamification. Go with telegram if you are strictly crypto and don’t expect intensive member’s participation.
More reads from our blogs:
Why is Discord a great platform?
Why should brands use Discord?
Next Steps
Now that you know the benefits of having a Discord and who it's best suited for, Before we talk about how to create your server, we need to learn a new concept: lean community management.