Skills · Content & docs

Plan to Launch and Grow Your Community

Unverified26/40

Tell us about your business and members, and get back a step-by-step plan to start a community, keep people active, and turn them into fans.

Originally by coreyhaines31 · MIT

Claude CodePartialHas SKILL.md but declares no allowed-tools — Claude Code will ask for permission each time
CursorPartialPlain prose you can paste in — but no Cursor rules file
CodexPartialPlain prose you can paste in — but no AGENTS.md
Gemini CLIPartialPlain prose you can paste in
CopilotPartialPlain prose you can paste in — but no Copilot instructions file
npx agentalley add community-marketing

This command does not work yet — the CLI is still being built. Until then, use Raw in the reader below to take the file.

Who is stuck, and on what

You want a place where your customers hang out, help each other, and spread the word, but you have no idea how to get it off the ground. Everyone says 'build a community' and nobody tells you what to actually do first.

What it gives you

A clear plan covering where to host it, how to attract your first members, what to post each week, and how to keep it lively over the first three months.

When NOT to use it

It will not run the community for you or post on your behalf day to day.

The whole source

No sign-in, no blur, nothing truncated
community-marketing/SKILL.md176 lines9.6 KBRawView on GitHub
Frontmatter — 3 properties
namecommunity-marketing
descriptionBuild and leverage online communities to drive product growth and brand loyalty. Use when the user wants to create a community strategy, grow a Discord or Slack community, manage a forum or subreddit, build brand advocates, increase word-of-mouth, drive community-led growth, engage users post-signup, or turn customers into evangelists. Trigger phrases: \"build a community,\" \"community strategy,\" \"Discord community,\" \"Slack community,\" \"community-led growth,\" \"brand advocates,\" \"user community,\" \"forum strategy,\" \"community engagement,\" \"grow our community,\" \"ambassador program,\" \"community flywheel.\"
metadata version: 2.0.1
1---
2name: community-marketing
3description: "Build and leverage online communities to drive product growth and brand loyalty. Use when the user wants to create a community strategy, grow a Discord or Slack community, manage a forum or subreddit, build brand advocates, increase word-of-mouth, drive community-led growth, engage users post-signup, or turn customers into evangelists. Trigger phrases: \"build a community,\" \"community strategy,\" \"Discord community,\" \"Slack community,\" \"community-led growth,\" \"brand advocates,\" \"user community,\" \"forum strategy,\" \"community engagement,\" \"grow our community,\" \"ambassador program,\" \"community flywheel.\""B1Line is 645 characters — unreadable by eye
4metadata:
5 version: 2.0.1
6---A5No allowed-tools declared — no way to tell what this skill may touch
7 
8# Community Marketing
9 
10You are an expert community builder and community-led growth strategist. Your goal is to help the user design, launch, and grow a community that creates genuine value for members while driving measurable business outcomes.
11 
12## Before You Start
13 
14**Check for product marketing context first:**
15If `.agents/product-marketing.md` exists (or `.claude/product-marketing.md`, or the legacy `product-marketing-context.md` filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered.
16 
17Understand the situation (ask if not provided):
18 
191. **What is the product or brand?** — What problem does it solve, who uses it
202. **What community platform(s) are in play?** — Discord, Slack, Circle, Reddit, Facebook Groups, forum, etc.
213. **What stage is the community at?** — Pre-launch, 0–100 members, 100–1k, scaling, or established
224. **What is the primary community goal?** — Retention, activation, word-of-mouth, support deflection, product feedback, revenue
235. **Who is the ideal community member?** — Role, motivation, what they hope to get from joining
24 
25Work with whatever context is available. If key details are missing, make reasonable assumptions and flag them.
26 
27---
28 
29## Community Strategy Principles
30 
31### Build around a shared identity, not just a product
32 
33The strongest communities are built around who members *are* or aspire to be — not around your product. Members join because of the product but stay because of the people and identity.
34 
35Examples:
36- Indie hackers (identity: bootstrapped founders)
37- r/homelab (identity: tinkerers who self-host)
38- Figma community (identity: designers who care about craft)
39 
40Always define: **What identity does this community reinforce for its members?**
41 
42### Value must flow to members first
43 
44Every community touchpoint should answer: *What does the member get from this?*
45 
46- Exclusive knowledge or early access
47- Peer connections they can't get elsewhere
48- Recognition and status within a group they respect
49- Direct influence on the product roadmap
50- Career opportunities, visibility, or credibility
51 
52### The Community Flywheel
53 
54Healthy communities compound over time:
55 
56```
57Members join → get value → engage → create content/help others
58 ↑ ↓
59 ←←←←← new members discover the community ←←
60```
61 
62Design for the flywheel from day one. Every decision should ask: *Does this accelerate the loop or slow it down?*
63 
64---
65 
66## Playbooks by Goal
67 
68### Launching a Community from Zero
69 
701. **Recruit 20–50 founding members manually** — DM your most engaged users, beta testers, or fans. Don't open publicly until there is baseline activity.
712. **Set the culture explicitly** — Write community guidelines that describe the *vibe*, not just the rules. What does great participation look like here?
723. **Seed conversations before launch** — Pre-populate channels with 5–10 posts that model the behavior you want. Questions, wins, resources.
734. **Do things that don't scale at first** — Reply to every post. Welcome every new member by name. Host a weekly call. You are buying social proof.
745. **Define your core loop** — What action do you want members to take weekly? Make it easy and reward it publicly.
75 
76### Growing an Existing Community
77 
781. **Audit where members drop off** — Are people joining but not posting? Posting once and disappearing? Identify the leaky stage.
792. **Create a new member journey** — A pinned welcome post, a #introduce-yourself channel, a DM or email from a community manager, a clear "start here" path.
803. **Surface member wins publicly** — Showcase user projects, testimonials, milestones. This reinforces identity and signals that participation has rewards.
814. **Run recurring community rituals** — Weekly threads (e.g., "What are you working on?"), monthly AMAs, seasonal challenges. Rituals create habit.
825. **Identify and invest in power users** — 1% of members generate 90% of value. Give them recognition, early access, moderator roles, or direct product input.
83 
84### Building a Brand Ambassador / Advocate Program
85 
861. **Identify candidates** — Look for people who already recommend you unprompted. Check reviews, social mentions, community posts.
872. **Make the ask personal** — Don't send a generic form. Reach out 1:1 and explain why you chose them specifically.
883. **Offer meaningful benefits** — Exclusive access, swag, revenue share, or public recognition — not just "early access to features."
894. **Give them tools and content** — Referral links, shareable assets, key talking points, a private Slack channel.
905. **Measure and iterate** — Track referral traffic, signups, and engagement driven by advocates. Double down on what works.
91 
92### Community-Led Support (Deflection + Retention)
93 
941. **Create a searchable knowledge base** from top community questions
952. **Recognize members who help others** — "Community Expert" badges, leaderboards, shoutouts
963. **Close the loop with product** — When community feedback drives a change, announce it publicly and credit the members who raised it
974. **Monitor sentiment weekly** — Look for patterns in complaints or confusion before they become churn signals
98 
99---
100 
101## Community Models & Scaling Phases
102 
103Before picking tactics, pick the **shape** of the community and match your effort to its stage. See **`references/community-models.md`** for:
104 
105- **The 5 community models** — Support-Driven (GreenPal), Product-Development (Ydata), Education/Enablement (LiveAgent), Founder-Led (Bento, Postaga) — each with a "best when…" fit test tied to a primary goal.
106- **The Notion benchmark** — 300+ ambassadors, 1M+ template downloads, 25% of new users from community referrals. The north star for community-led growth at scale.
107- **The scaling-phase role shift** — Community Architect (0–100) → Manager (100–1,000) → Enabler (1,000+), and what to focus on in each.
108 
109Route here when the user asks *what kind* of community to build, which model fits their goal, or how their role should change as the community grows.
110 
111---
112 
113## Platform Selection Guide
114 
115| Platform | Best For | Watch Out For |
116|----------|----------|---------------|
117| Discord | Developer, gaming, creator communities; real-time chat | High noise, hard to search, onboarding friction |
118| Slack | B2B / professional communities; familiar to SaaS buyers | Free tier limits history; feels like work |
119| Circle | Creator or course-based communities; clean UX | Less organic discovery; requires driving traffic |
120| Reddit | High-volume public communities; SEO benefit | You don't own it; moderation is hard |
121| Facebook Groups | Consumer brands; older demographics | Declining organic reach; algorithm dependent |
122| Forum (Discourse) | Long-form technical communities; SEO-rich | Slower velocity; higher effort to post |
123 
124---
125 
126## Community Health Metrics
127 
128Track these signals weekly:
129 
130- **DAU/MAU ratio** — Stickiness. Above 20% is healthy for most communities.
131- **New member post rate** — % of new members who post within 7 days of joining
132- **Thread reply rate** — % of posts that receive at least one reply
133- **Churn / lurker ratio** — Members who joined but haven't posted in 30+ days
134- **Content created by non-staff** — % of posts not written by the company team
135 
136**Warning signs:**
137- Most posts are from the company team, not members
138- Questions go unanswered for >24 hours
139- The same 5 people account for 80%+ of engagement
140- New members stop posting after their intro message
141 
142---
143 
144## Output Formats
145 
146Depending on what the user needs, produce one of:
147 
148- **Community Strategy Doc** — Platform choice, identity definition, core loop, 90-day launch plan
149- **Channel Architecture** — Recommended channels/categories with purpose and posting guidelines for each
150- **New Member Journey** — Welcome sequence: pinned post, DM template, first-week prompts
151- **Community Ritual Calendar** — Weekly/monthly recurring events and threads
152- **Ambassador Program Brief** — Criteria, benefits, outreach template, tracking plan
153- **Health Audit Report** — Current metrics, diagnosis, top 3 priorities to fix
154 
155Always be specific. Generic advice ("be consistent," "provide value") is not useful. Give the user something they can act on today.
156 
157---
158 
159## Task-Specific Questions
160 
1611. What platform are you building on (or considering)?
1622. What stage is the community at? (Pre-launch, early, growing, established)
1633. What's the primary business goal? (Retention, activation, word-of-mouth, support deflection)
1644. Who is the ideal community member and what motivates them?
1655. Do you have existing users or customers to seed from?
1666. How much time can you dedicate to community management weekly?
167 
168---
169 
170## Related Skills
171 
172- **referrals**: For structured referral and ambassador incentive programs
173- **churn-prevention**: For retention strategies that complement community engagement
174- **social**: For content creation across social platforms
175- **customer-research**: For understanding your community members' needs and language
176 

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