Hiya, new subscriber here. How much weight would you put on your platform Vs readers/user demographic? For example, Facebook isn't really used by the under 25s anymore, but the aged 40+ reader is still there.
What I'm getting at here, is that I've wanted to create a place for a while but my stumbling block is the platform. FB is easy but so many folk don't want to be on there now, even if they still are. And on the flip side, a lot of people (in my experience) don't want *another* new app/platform figure out.
You are SO right that apps that people don't typically use every day have a challenging time serving as a community tool. I've seen examples of community apps that are more niche succeed, but those communities are typically paid memberships, so people are more engaged and incentivized to download the app.
My two cents: Facebook is a no-brainer if your demo is 35+ and older. Facebook doesn't seem to be going anywhere and you can optionally have people sign up for your mailing list on entry to the group (make the group private and then in the intro questions ask for people to share their email). The biggest bonus of Facebook is that it organically recommends groups for people to join. The biggest downside of Facebook is that not all your posts will be seen by everyone in the group.
If Facebook doesn’t feel like a good fit, then Discord I think is a great second option. Tons of folks have it (hundreds of millions of downloads) and use it regularly. I’m part of a number of communities there and run one for authors on that app and I’ve really enjoyed it. Since so many people already use it, there’s been no issues with getting people used to the app/community. And, it’s free!
Hiya, new subscriber here. How much weight would you put on your platform Vs readers/user demographic? For example, Facebook isn't really used by the under 25s anymore, but the aged 40+ reader is still there.
What I'm getting at here, is that I've wanted to create a place for a while but my stumbling block is the platform. FB is easy but so many folk don't want to be on there now, even if they still are. And on the flip side, a lot of people (in my experience) don't want *another* new app/platform figure out.
It's a conundrum! 🫣
You are SO right that apps that people don't typically use every day have a challenging time serving as a community tool. I've seen examples of community apps that are more niche succeed, but those communities are typically paid memberships, so people are more engaged and incentivized to download the app.
My two cents: Facebook is a no-brainer if your demo is 35+ and older. Facebook doesn't seem to be going anywhere and you can optionally have people sign up for your mailing list on entry to the group (make the group private and then in the intro questions ask for people to share their email). The biggest bonus of Facebook is that it organically recommends groups for people to join. The biggest downside of Facebook is that not all your posts will be seen by everyone in the group.
If Facebook doesn’t feel like a good fit, then Discord I think is a great second option. Tons of folks have it (hundreds of millions of downloads) and use it regularly. I’m part of a number of communities there and run one for authors on that app and I’ve really enjoyed it. Since so many people already use it, there’s been no issues with getting people used to the app/community. And, it’s free!
Thanks for your thoughts! You named the two platforms I was deciding between 😆 maybe I should just ask my audience!
I think that’s great actually. Do a little poll and see :).