How to Build Community in the Bear Market

Bear Season Bare Essentials

1. Harvest the wisdom of the crowd.
2. Have the patience to iterate & re-iterate until success.

Photo by Hans-Jurgen Mager on Unsplash

Are you one of the communities that have flourished during the first quarter of the year have been finding it increasingly difficult to retain engagement after the bull?

Maybe you’ve managed to build momentum and get a good number of people excited about your project only to find them slowly fading away into the sidelines.

If you’ve been hearing the crickets around your online community, we’ve found that these may be the reasons why:

1. As the pandemic and travel restrictions have fallen away (or in some places they’re close to none), more people are getting more and more comfortable emerging out of their caves. Because of this, their lives are getting busier around shifting priorities.
2. The bear market has been taking over the bull. We are seeing a long spanning recession coming around and your community members are also struggling to prepare.
3. People have gotten burned by public opinion. Online communities have been getting a bad rep from the communities that overpromise and under deliver. People have been buying into gated communities and memberships that just weren’t getting the returns that they wanted.

How can we turn the tables on this?

1. Utility: Find out what need or desire your members are looking to address inside your community. Form your solutions around addressing those needs and satisfying those desires.
2. Feedback: Always, always listen for feedback. Make it well-rounded. Ask them what they feel is missing. This takes out all the guesswork for your team and makes your solutions better suited for your members. Always forming your thoughts, words, and strategies around what your members suggest, want, and need re-assures them that you prioritize having their best interests in mind.

If you feel like you’re doing most of the talking, you probably are. As hosts of the community, you don’t have to give in to the pressure of filling the silence all the time. But what will help fill out the gaps is for you to pass on the mic and spotlight to your members. You might just be surprised at what you find! As hosts, your ability to ask the relevant questions are often more powerful than any statements you might write.

We’re only getting started. There is time to build slowly. Have faith that the strongest foundations are built around adversity.