We don’t need to tell you that growing your community from 0 to 1,000 members is hard. But after you’ve done that, it’s not time to celebrate and relax just yet—because scaling from 1,000 to 100,000 members is a lot harder.
One of the ways some of the most successful communities scaled was by leveraging passion. Just look at TED and HuffPo as examples. They’ve learned how to tap into people’s passions, fears, pain points and thirst for knowledge to rapidly scale to success. And while we all know scaling a passionate community is hard work, it doesn’t always require a lot of time. Product Hunt went from 40,000 members to 400,000 in just 4 months.
But you’ll quickly discover that tactics and strategies change when you’re talking 100,000 members.
When your community grows, your team needs to grow along with it so you can maintain the high quality of the community you’ve worked so hard to create. In other words, both your community and your team are changing and growing in tandem.
Get inspired by companies that have already scaled their thriving communities, and learn how they continue to sustain their success.
Case Studies
How The Product School Community Grew from One to One Million in Six Years
Learn how Product School scaled using a strategic combination of content, community and events.
Tapping into a passionate base can be one of the most effective ways to drive engagement and scale your community.
How We Leveraged Community to Grow Product Hunt from 40,000 to 400,000 Users in 4 Months
Scaling and growing your community requires bringing the right people to your platform and engaging with them to grow your community exponentially.
The 6 Key Tactics Campus Is Using to Build the World’s Largest Community Housing Network
For those who dream of fostering an offline community of creative, driven, giving people, this innovative housing platform is certainly an idea we can all get behind.
Scaling Two-Sided Markets: How the Pros at Etsy, Lyft, and Udemy Build and Scale Community
All three of these marketplaces have found success because they invested in the supply-side without hesitation. The seller community holds the key to the castle. They are not only users of your platform, but they are also important partners and stakeholders in your business’s success.
An Inside Look at Foursquare’s Strategy for Building a 40,000-Member Superuser Community
Foursquare uses a super-user community primarily to meet support goals. The big takeaway here: pick one business case for your community, and start there.
How Edcamp Scaled Up 1,500 Community Events Connecting Educators All Over the World
Scale your community quickly by keeping your model simple and encouraging participants to engage in conversations.
From the Blog
Want to Hire an Online Community Manager? Better Answer These Questions First
Asking these five questions can help guide your interviews for a community manager to find the right candidate for the job.
48 Training Resources for New Community Management Hires
Onboard your community management hires with best practices and resources to build an engaged and loyal community from the ground up.
CMX Summit
CMX Summit is the premier conference for community professionals, founders, and organizations. Join us and hundreds of your fellow community builders for community-focused sessions and opportunities to connect with community-driven professionals.
CMX Summit brings together experts and pragmatic approaches to community for business success. Our conference seeks to expand the discussions, techniques, and tactics applied to community building and support communities and their builders at scale. We want to show businesses practical ways to invest in their communities.
