A vibrant community is one that attracts new members without the need for nagging or persuasion.

Wean yourself off of high-touch manual intervention by identifying those areas in your MVP community that are essential, desirable, and acceptable.

You can automate procedures and increase the system's robustness once you've determined your top priorities.

Here, you'll learn how togrow the network while maintaining a high level of customer intimacy.

The Power of Customer Intimacy

The 1% Rule

The 90-9-1 percent rule is a common one in Internet culture when it comes to online communityparticipation.When it comes to participation in online communities, the vast majority of people don't get involved at all. Only a very small percentage of people participate or contribute at all.

After reaching a hundred members, your community's superuser percentage will begin to decline until it reaches the 90-9-1 rule.

Activate Your Power Users

It's time to turn on the super users you've found.In some cases, you may have to fake it 'till you make it.Reach out to your most influential users and ask them to contribute articles, resources.In order to make their lives a little easier, I've even written their posts for them.

When you reach a critical mass of 10 active members (not the total number of members) who are posting on a regular basis, the rest of the community will naturally follow suit.Then you don't have to nudge people anymore - it becomes a natural part of their daily routine.

Product-led Onboarding

How do you know when it's time to stop doing things that don't work out in the long run?

You'll eventually run out of room to accommodate all of the newcomers.When I say "tired" or "bored," I really mean "physically impossible."

Product-led onboarding can then automate tasks that were previously done by hand, such as showing visitors around and ensuring that every question is answered.

Codify Your Founding Principles

Make a list of all the principles you hope to uphold.They become a part of the fabric of the neighborhood.

Including this in the on boarding process ensures that new members agree to the principles you've laid out for them.Many people will not read this, but those who do serve as role models for those who do.

Just keep in mind that creating a community for everyone will lead to the creation of one that serves no one.Set a very high bar for entry into the community and exclude those who do not meet it.Long-term success depends on this.

In large communities, things begin to take off naturally.However, in order to develop new habits, you must occasionally return to the previous chapter.

In the chapters on growth, we'll cover scaling in greater detail.

Strategies To Maintain Customer Intimacy As You Grow

Conversations

There are many ways to have a conversation with customers, from informal customer support chats to more formal customer research projects.But they're rarely taken seriously unless everyone on the team, including the boss, has the customer empathy and firsthand experience to understand and act on it.

Events

People who already buy from your company can connect with each other at customer events, which is a good way to get new ones.

A customer event can come in many different shapes and sizes, but the goal is to bring customers together, let them socialize, connect, and learn from each other.It's not about you, but about "each other."

Make sure you invite your customers, but also let them bring their friends, coworkers, or even potential customers from the area.You might even want to put up a public ad on Meetup and Eventbrite.People who are already customers and people who might be customers can work together to bring in new customers who are good fits.Marc Benioffwrote a book called Behind the Cloud. In it, Salesforce said that new prospects who came to one of their city tour events were 80% more likely to buy from them.

Physical Reminders

The way to build customer intimacy isn't to "set it and forget about it."There are still important things to keep in mind when making decisions and having meetings, even if all the steps have been taken (like talking to your customers, setting a top-down priority, and so on). Otherwise, it can get lost in the day-to-day chaos.

Final Words

Making these changes can help. Some of them are aimed at everyone, some at grassroots, and some at the top.You can start with one and add more as you go along.Any small amount of customer intimacy is better than none at all. It's not a zero-sum game.

There are some things you can do even if you don't have a lot of moneyor a lot of people working for you.It's obvious that you can't keep your customers close if your company doesn't have the right kind of culture for it.There must be support from the top down and from the bottom up.It's possible to start using these strategies in your department first to show the c-suite that they work, and then make the case for them to the whole company.

In addition to better team morale and clarity, you'll also see the value in better products and features, faster innovation, and cutting through the noise.With more word of mouth, better adoption rates, less churn, and a higher NPS, you'll be able to see how it works.