Building a vibrant fan community takes a lot of great ingredients to make it happen. To see it grow, flourish and thrive is the result of many single initiatives.

For today, let’s review three of those recommended ingredients to build an amazing community.

If you consult those who have grown successful fan communities online they will give you many top ideas for building and engaging. Sharing the recommended elements for success in developing any community, no matter the focus, is our goal here at Follr Communities. To help our Community succeed and thrive.

It’s impossible to cover all of these recommended ingredients in a single post, over time we will touch on a few per post to reinforce some of the basics, often forgotten and far less glamorous ingredients to successful community building.

Time. It takes time, lots of time.
Nothing successful has ever appeared overnight, it only appears that it has to those of us on the outside. I have watched some of the top people in the social media spaces, many my friends and peers for many years, grow from new users fumbling about to Forbes top social media types, national media stars and authors in high demand to share their wisdom.

This takes many years and a large portion of that effort was the time dedicated and focused on community building. The time ingredient feeds into the second of today’s suggested ingredients.

Effort. Nothing worth doing is done without effort.
I have used the analogy before, a community is like a seed, if you don’t consistently nurture it, water it, feed it, prune it, and otherwise monitor it’s growth, you will not ever see lavish leaves or bloom of flowers.

The effort can’t be in one huge sweeping gesture, it must be dispersed over time.

Consistency is the final ingredient for today’s three.
Do it regularly, be predictable and dependable. Your community will come to rely upon this and then the habit of regularly returning to engage with the other members will be established.

Consistent effort over time (see how they tie together?) will lead to the result – a solid, engaged, dedicated and vibrant community. Making the community a priority and scheduling the time to be there, engage and nurture it is essential in the early stages. As the community begins to take shape and grow into it’s own self-sufficient organism, you will be able to pull back a bit, watching the natural leaders rise and help guide the evolution.

You will then have the opportunity to admire this vibrant and lively community, to reflect on the process, and when you are ready, set out to do it once again.