How to Build a Strong NFT Community This new investment vehicle uniquely requires the support of an associated community: the keys to creating one that's vigorous and loyal.
By Julien van Dorland Edited by Matt Scanlon
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Particularly because it's such a new form of investment, communities of enthusiasm and support play a significant role in the NFT space. Each community has its unique set of qualities, of course (such as exclusivity), but what defines a truly strong one and how to create a successful NFT community yourself?
Set a vision and goals
It's vital to have a vision and a plan for what you hope to accomplish with your NFT project. This is its foundation, so identify your niche to make a project and its concepts stand out from the crowd. Its size will depend on the scope of the project, but there can be no community unless people believe in your ideas. Successful NFT projects go beyond the art: They are about catering to a specific audience and evoking a specific emotion.
Choose your platform
The majority of the NFT community is active on two platforms — Twitter and Discord — and its critical to understand their differences. Twitter is used for public communication with members of the community as well as outsiders who may be interested in joining. Consider it a channel for encouraging people to interact with your content and experience what it's like to be a member. The language used is more informal and memes play a big part in NFT Twitter. The more people engage, the better, and there are several strategies you can use to make them more involved with content, including giveaways, events and puzzles. People express themselves publicly here, and it's also easy to grab the attention of key influencers. Use both qualities to your advantage.
Related: 3 Tips for Creatives Looking to Break Into the NFT Industry
Discord is used to communicate directly with your community — a real-time platform to convey information to its members, as well as a location where the community itself is formed. A good Discord community provides a seamless onboarding experience with quick access to important project and team information, and every one should have at least a "Welcome," "Official Links," "Announcements", and "FAQ" channel.
People may also have additional questions regarding your project, so it's a great idea to set up a channel or a ticketing system using a Discord bot to assist them. But keep in mind that having too many channels might be exhausting, so keep them relevant. Less is more.
Additionally, consider thinking outside the box to explore what matches your vision and project objectives. Having an Instagram or Snapchat account to offer short updates or behind-the-scenes content from the team building the project is an excellent option. Both platforms provide great and unique AR capabilities as well, for developing and creating immersive experiences that can be integrated into your marketing and communication plan.
Create engaging events
Events play an important role in building a strong NFT community. The idea is for individuals to interact in enjoyable ways with one another, because everyone wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Twitter Spaces is a great platform for hosting events such as weekly AMAs, and Discord also features a stage where you can host events.
To build an even stronger community of like-minded people, consider organizing a gaming competition or a movie night.
An additional incentive to attend an event, one that's growing in use and application, is a Proof of Attendance Protocol, or POAP. A new way of keeping a record of life experiences, these are unique badges that are supported by a cryptographic record, and are also NFTs. You can give them away to those who attended events, and they are completely free to create.
AR experiences can both propel and transform your community's digital experience, and could fit neatly into your marketing strategies as well. You can make digital puzzles for community members and perhaps give them an NFT or other gift as a reward for solving them. You have the opportunity to create a whole new environment for members to explore.
Using Discord bots to create interesting activities is another option, and free bots have been created by developers all around the world, so take advantage of this. Moderation, leveling, trivia and other features are available based on the bots you add to your community server.
Related: Learn How to Create and Sell Your Own NFTs
Enhance trust
Building a solid team and foundation around your NFT project and community is very important. You cannot predict everything that will occur, of course, and to develop trust, you must communicate effectively with its members. They want you to be available to them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and it's beneficial to have community managers and moderators to assist you with this.
You cannot postpone your releases by weeks while working on your NFT project: This will decrease trust. If a delay occurs, explain in full detail and openness to members what exactly went wrong. (The majority of the time, people will understand.) Also, be open to feedback and pay attention to what others have to say. Communicate at all times, even when worst-case scenarios happen.
We've seen a number of Discord communities compromised using social engineering, so it's critical that you implement security measures for your community and have Discord permissions set up correctly. Don't grant people admin privileges, and make your members and moderators aware of any frauds. No one can be trusted.
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Here are a few additional security tips to consider:
• Be cautious while clicking on unexpected links. If you leave Discord by clicking on a link that takes you to an external site, the website may have access to your personal information.
• You can decrease the frequency with which you are exposed to harmful links and phishing attempts by closing your direct messages (and even friendship requests).
• Avoid downloading unfamiliar files from someone you don't directly know or trust. Never run .SCR or .EXE files.
• Be cautious in disclosing personal information.
• Employees of Discord or other platforms will never ask you for your password or any other personal information over text or voice chat.
• Be on the lookout for impersonation frauds. Always double-check the Discord Token ID (a string of letters and numbers used as an authorization code to get access to your account) of the person you're speaking with. You can get to this by enabling Developer mode in your Discord profile settings.
