How to build the best Discord community?
Building engaging discord servers often takes time, money, and energy. Suppose you have unlimited resources to make anything happen, what would be the 10/10 perfect Discord experience? Building an ideal community server is about creating an environment where new users feel welcome, existing members feel valued, and everyone enjoys engaging content. In today's blog, we are gonna show you some guiding principles on how to attempt to build the perfect discord servers
The perfect 11/10 discord servers
Imagine a new member joins your server. Within minutes, they are warmly greeted by several active members who send him some really cool memes. Shortly after, community moderators or the community manager (CM) personally chat the newcomer and invites them to an upcoming, exciting event, such as a gaming night.
While the new user chats with existing members, he made a discovery that he and one of the member were fans of the same characters in a game. They've made an instant connection at that point and decide to setup a date to play games together.
This is the hallmark of a thriving community: instant inclusion, continuous engagement and magical “you too?!” moments that turns strangers into friends
On the management side, you have a proactive, attentive team that is working constantly. Your moderators are experts at initiating conversations and forging friendships, while your CM spends their days tuned into the community's pulse, ready to capitalize on trends from Reddit or Twitter that might resonate with your members. The CM's day might include brainstorming engagement strategies, figuring our which games he/she should host on the servers, crafting unique content, or spontaneously launching events that galvanize the community.
Building a thriving discord server require constantly new ideas. Members need to constantly discover something new in their servers for them to keep coming back. You can build the community, if you have a $10k/month budget and a ton of luck that you've met the right people. However, here are some principles that you can use even if it only gets you 7/10 there.
For large public discord servers, how you get there matters.
From large collaborations (web2)
If your server growth stems from a shared interest, such as a collaboration that attracts like-minded individuals, leverage this by organizing large-scale events that cater to these interests. For gaming communities, this might mean hosting tournaments on your discord server that not only spur competition but also facilitate discussions and friendships.
Onboarding After Incentives (web3)
For discord servers that grow through airdrops or rewards, the real challenge begins with transforming these members into engaged, loyal fans. The initial experience should be entertaining and socially engaging, encouraging members to transition from passive participants to active community contributors.
Principals to design a better community server
Meaningful Contributions
Encourage activities that contribute positively to your community server. Simple check-ins or perfunctory greetings like "good morning/good night" don't foster meaningful interaction because it doesn't increase the chance that the new members will talk to the community. Instead, prompt members to share personal stories or achievements, which can create relatable "you too??!!" moments.
Daily Interactions on your Discord server
Design small, daily tasks that are fun and easy to complete. These could range from answering unanswered community questions to sharing themed personal experiences. Another example could be question of the day. Such daily wins keep the engagement high and give members a reason to log in to your Discord server regularly.
Graduated Engagement
Structure tasks to increase in complexity over time, similar to a well-designed game on your discord server. Start with simple introductions, hop on to voice channel and listen to some music, trivial events and gradually unlock more involved tasks, such as hosting an event for servers as members become more integrated into the community.
Natural Group Dynamics and YouToo??!!
Facilitate natural group formations based on shared preferences or responses to fun polls (e.g., "Pizza vs. Burger") in your Discord. Use these groupings to organize team activities that aren't forced but feel like a natural extension of members' interests. The goal is to create a space where members can find commonality so that people can connect and have a “YouToo??!!” moment.
Inclusivity in Contributions to Your Discord
For discord communities with steep learning curves, like open-source projects, create varied tasks that cater to different skill levels. When new members join your servers, it is best to assume that the members do not know anything about this community. Hence, you should create easy tasks so that they can explore further while feeling accomplished. For example, instead of asking all members to contribute code, some could write blog posts or help with documentation, making it easier for everyone to contribute.
Creating the perfect community experience involves a mixture of strategic planning, engaging content, and continuous adaptation to members' interests and needs. By focusing on fun, friendship, and meaningful interaction, you can transform a simple online group into a vibrant community where every member feels valued and engaged.