Web3 Community Growth Strategies: The Ultimate Guide for Success

Web3 is a substantially different arena than Web2 when it comes to marketing. For starters it comes with an increased emphasis on community building in a backdrop of suspicion and cynicism. It’s a sad reality that there’s been far too many rugpulls and exit scams in the space and that naturally makes everyone’s “scam alert” trigger fingers itchy.

In what I hope will be a helpful guide, we’ll explore the essential strategies for fostering a thriving Web3 community. From engaging with direct messaging to leveraging influencer marketing, the tactics below are crucial for the long-term success of any web3 project. Let’s dive in and uncover the best practices for Web3 community growth.

Understanding Web3 Communities

The shift from Web2 to Web3 has led to a radical change in how communities function. Decentralization and community-centric foundations are at the core of Web3, aligning incentives between members and stakeholders. As a result, Web3 communities play a crucial role in the development and growth of any web3 projects, but particularly the decentralized ones.

To over-simplify, what were users in Web2 are now community members in Web3!

One of the key things to remember in relation to community development is rooted in the alignment of incentives.

The Importance of Community in Web3

Now it’s; Community is King!

Successful Web3 projects rely on the support and engagement of their communities. A strong community can provide valuable feedback, drive adoption, promote the project, and foster collaboration. In short, the community is the backbone of any Web3 initiative, and its growth is vital for long-term success.

In fact you could accurately say Community Growth = Long Term Success.

Community Building in Web3

Community building in Web3 involves creating a number of Discord or Telegram spaces where like-minded individuals can connect, share ideas, and feel a sense of belonging.

People come for the “Wen Moon” but stay for the Craic.

This includes engaging with technical and non-technical community members, providing educational resources, and fostering a sense of belonging.

Most web3 communities are comprised of speculators (at least initially). Having a token may very well have been how they found your project so this is to be expected. Often times however this speculator profile of community member does not match up with your “ideal buyer persona”.

This disconnect is one of the major challenges in Web3 marketing, and it’s very important to do everything you can to ensure your community HQ whether on Discord or Telegram is closely monitored to ensure the conversations and behaviour in that HQ is about your project/product and how it’s going to change the world, and not about the price of your token.

Top tip: set up a separate price action chat if you have a token, make sure it’s being run by a loyal community member (but not one of your team)

Creating an Epic Community Where People Belong

One of the first steps in growing a Web3 community is to create an environment where members feel a sense of belonging. Below is a list of all the things you can do to expediate the creation of an epic community:

• Being welcoming, inclusive and fun
• Being transparent and treating everyone as though they are part of the project
• Being highly active and engaged
• Creating different spaces for different types of interaction
• Organizing offline meetups and events
• Attending industry meetups and events
• Organizing community only AMAs or other virtual events
• Running community events with incentives for participation
• Encourage collaboration amongst your community
• Providing great information through documentation and have mods who are quick to respond and knowledgeable
• Create opportunities for the community to contribute towards the projects success or even better their own success as part of the project
• Recognize and reward member contributions

Putting your Community Growth on Steroids

Okay so now that you’ve created a space that people will want to hang around and participate in, it’s time to grow it’s size.

Depending on the nature of your business you will have a number of (top of funnel) social channels open to you but one of them will always be Twitter. Another suitable for most projects is YouTube. Whatever channels you chose to use, it’s important to grow your audiences there as large as possible as quickly as possible.

The universe rewards momentum with success so to that end it’s better to focus on one or two key channels and go hard on those than spread yourself to thin by sinking countless hours into constantly sinking hours into non performing channels.

The goal of your Top of Funnel channels is to drive the number of people in your HQ, whether that’s Discord or Telegram.

Here are some high growth tactics:

Run a Craic Campaign

Craic campaigns are something we at Craic Digital have developed. Essentially they are about fun and storytelling and can take many forms. We’ve run NFT hunts, competitions, giveaways and a number of other types of gamified custom campaigns designed to build buzz and hype in a community that draws new participants in.

These campaigns can be highly successful however they require an enormous amount of energy and time to run.

If you’d like to see if it’s a suitable campaign initiative for your project, reach out to us here: https://craic.digital/

Executing Airdrops

Airdrops are an effective way to raise awareness and generate interest in your project. You will get a very high volume, low quality audience in response to airdrops, however that is not to say they are not worth doing.

On airdrop campaigns I’ve worked on in the past we saw 500% (approx) improvement on engagement stats across social channels.

This spray and pray type of campaign can be effective at generating buzz but it needs to be executed with care as mismanagement can lead to bad press and a dip in community sentiment (not to mention token price!).

Assuming the plan is not to essentially buy an instant community with a token launch airdrop where you’re giving away a huge chunk of the overall circulating supply of your token, then tread very carefully here.

There are so many ways to do this badly we don’t recommend it in most cases.

Crypto Influencers

Some say Narrative + Hype = Success in crypto marketing. Whether you like it or not, it’s hard to argue the point.

Crypto influencers, (while being expensive and an enormous amount of work to manage), can help bring visibility and credibility to your project at speed that would otherwise not be possible.

Outside of this there are a number of challenges working with influencers, for example the fact that you don’t already have a relationship with them, and also the current market cycle.

And yet, collaborating with these influencers who have already got a large audience who trusts them can help drive traffic and attract new members to your community.

The key to success with Influencers is to work with them over a longer time period, as part of a larger multi-part campaign. Most importantly don’t wait until you need them to start that relationship.

Referrals and Word-of-Mouth

Referrals and word-of-mouth marketing are invaluable tools for growing a Web3 community. Encourage members to refer friends and share information about your project through social media or other channels. This can help build trust, attract new members, and create a loyal and engaged community, and is something we always build into our Craic Campaigns and other marketing.

In conclusion, Web3 community growth is crucial for the long-term success of your project. By fostering a sense of belonging, being inclusive, encouraging participation, and utilizing various growth/promotional tactics, you can create a strong and vibrant Web3 community.

These strategies will not only help your project thrive but also contribute to the overall growth and development of the Web3 ecosystem. Yay!

If you want to have a chat about upgrading your community and it’s growth, you can reach me here or here or even here