Tips for starting groups
Why start a community group? Types of groups. Roles & being a group leader. Getting members and launching the group. Incorporating and formalizing a group.
Last updated
Why start a community group? Types of groups. Roles & being a group leader. Getting members and launching the group. Incorporating and formalizing a group.
Last updated
Recommended Resource COMMUNITY CANVAS
A framework that will help you build and run a new community, or analyze and improve an existing community. Poses questions through a 1-page canvas worksheet (full, shortened), guidebook, and worksheet doc. It is available in multiple languages.
Leading a group is hard work! It’s not easy, but it can be incredibly rewarding: personally & professionally. It is a unique and powerful experience.
Know who you are and what you're creating. It is important to be very clear on why YOU want to do this.
Be as specific as you can, but some general reasons may include:
Professional Benefits
Practicing & demonstrating leadership
Creating job or project opportunities
Networking
Learning: keeping your skills sharp & current
Stay up to date with leading practices from other companies and individuals
Personal Benefits
Making friends
Staying interested by geeking out with others
Bigger Picture
Industry innovation, impact, and movement-building
Build a sense of community
As you're reflecting on this - talk with a lot of people to see what resonates with them.
Having no clear guiding purpose can stifle growth or, worse, lead to failure. See Group Mission & Vision.
The name of your group is important.
See some branding guidelines from Autodesk if you're starting a group.
Physical groups/ local groups/ meetup groups - Meeting physically and synchronously for conversations and connection is the core. Focus is often deeper personal connections and in-depth topics.
Online Groups - Meeting online and often asyncronously for chatting, Q&A, and sharing is the core. Focus is often quicker knowledge sharing.
Company Practice Groups - All members are within a company, seeking to improve practices within the firm.
Have there been similar groups in the past in this area? What happened to them?
Are there current groups doing what you want to do? Should you join or partner with them?
Can you talk with current and past leaders of these other groups to get insight?
Leaders of the group set the tone, and healthy groups come from healthy leadership relationships. Define your group's leadership structure, even if it's informal.
Find another leader to do this with you?
It’s more fun and rewarding to work with others.
It's risky and less resilient if groups are too heavily dependent on one person.
Some groups run on "do-ocracy" - If you have time & interest to do something, just do it and enroll people along the way.
People may work themselves into specific niches based on interest and proficiency
High functioning leadership teams share responsibility and are able to distribute tasks over time.
Some groups formalize roles, though it's common that one person wears many hats.
President
Treasurer
Secretary
Vice President
Partnerships manager
Membership manager
A marketing person is crucial for every group to help drive engagement and awareness with group activities (on social media, etc)
Meet & communicate as a leadership team
Make time commitments and time availability clear and explicit.
Leadership is a support system for each other
Have a culture of accountability
Have fun together
When groups are very young, they're in a fragile state when the first leader is the decision-maker, executes most tasks, and establishes group norms.
As that first leader: take care with the tone you set, and seek to enroll others and get support.
"A group does not belong to whoever starts it, it belongs to everyone involved." - Adam Reilly, Austin CADD User Group
See more in community management and tips for running groups.
You may need to set-up some infrastructure for the group when you start.
A website
A social media account
A way to accept payment or sell tickets
Group chat
An email account
An email newsletter or list-serve
A shared file storage drive
Start simple and see what works. See more in the Tools for Groups guide.
Investing in good group documentation can pay off if and as the group grows.
This can be as simple as a shared cloud storage drive (e.g. Google Drive) and good meeting minutes.
Not all groups require financial backing, but this is definitely a consideration to discuss as you’re starting your group. Leaders should communicate openly, honestly, and in-good-faith about money.
Often individual group leaders pay for up-front costs and seek to recoup those costs - but this can be financially risky. It also might lead to leadership disagreements and power imbalances if communication is not good.
What do you need money for and where will it come from?
Will you sell tickets?
Will you need to front money?
Will you find sponsors?
Will there be membership costs?*
* Note that groups in the Autodesk Group Network must have a free and public membership option (as of June 2020).
Many new group leaders ask how to promote and get momentum when they start...
The personal brand of founder & leaders matters:
If you’d like to launch a group, it is a good idea to launch your blog at first
Building a following on social media (e.g. YouTube channel)
If you don't already have that online presence, maybe your colleague has one that you could springboard from.
If you already have a strong individual presence online, an online group is likely to have rapid growth in the beginning.
Get people engaged by the purpose
Promotion through the grapevine is a good idea, especially if you’re an extrovert.
Find a group with the similar topics, on the same platform, or on a different one (If you’re on Facebook – explore LinkedIn, Telegram, vk, etc), contact the admin and ask them to promote your group. It is not dangerous for them because if they are confident and professional, they won’t lose the audience.
Talk to subject matter experts and influencers from the industry who are relevant to the group.
Ask them about their perception, what they are interested in, would they join the group, who else would they talk with and how would they promote it?
Convey "I want you to be part of the journey"... the goal is not to have everyone join the group, just to gather allies, insights, and connections.
Can these conversations improve and evolve your initial ideas? They might end up shaping the group's mission & vision - in addition to recruiting people.
Who's the audience? Don't just blindly recruit. Make sure the people you're attracting are the right people for the group's goals.
What's the main message and call-to-action? Reinforce the purpose of the group.
Do a soft-launch first with a smaller audience - play around, pre-populate conversations, create artifacts, give feedback to each other, have fun.
Get the word out by...
Writing blog posts & articles
Presenting at other events and groups
Social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc)
Being a guest on podcasts
Emails (crafted to be easily forwarded)
Have realistic expectations. If your high expectations aren't met at first launch, try to find value, keep your motivation, and kindle the flame.
Other resources on the web...
(Video) 3...2...1...Launch Day: How to Successfully Launch or Relaunch Your Community (CMX YouTube - Shana Sumers, HER App)
Do community management
Do moderation
Do enforce ground rules
Make sure people are getting what they need
Make sure the space you're hosting is healthy & welcoming
See the Running a Group guide.
Groups can be incorporated as non-profits and/or industry associations
Benefits of legally incorporating include
Creating a structure for continuity & decision-making
Limiting liability of group leaders
Holding bank accounts as a group, not as individuals
Enter into partnerships and contracts with other companies or groups
Enabling tax deductible donations (if a charity)
The incorporation process is different by country and by state, but it involves writing formal bylaws, registering with the government, nominating a board of directors, etc...
The downside of incorporating is that it adds administrative overhead.
8 Steps to a Successful User Group (JetBrains)
Starting and running a technical user group (isn’t easy) (CraigPorteus.com data blog)
How to Start a User Group (Creative Bloq)
5 Steps to Start a User Group (Atlassian blog)
(online course) Starting and Running a Successful User Group (Pluralsight)
(Book) Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us. By Seth Godin - Tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. The three steps to building a tribe are the desire to change things, the ability to connect a tribe, and the willingness to lead.
Three Takeaways from Tribes by Seth Godin (Productive & Free blog)
Book Summary of Tribes by Seth Godin (Sam T. Davis blog)
You may want to explore partnerships to help get members and/or sponsors financially.
Fill out our interest form to get support in starting a group Or, become a peer mentor
