On March 15th, 2021, Bibie Agoha and I launched the Not Enough Writers community.
On March 23rd, 2021, community member #1 joined our Telegram group. By August 2021, we had crossed 50 members. And it snowballed from there.
The community came alive.
And we didn't need to prompt folks to share resources, job opportunities, or offer support in various forms anymore. Members also gave the community a hip name — NEWville.
Today morning, the 200th community member joined the group.
While sharing the news with a friend, he asked, "how can one build an engaged community?"
At that point, I didn't have an answer. But I think I do now. And that is:
You need to do things that don't scale.
Such as:
Hosting live editing sessions to help members improve their writing
Allowing each member to share their learnings with the group
DMing every member who left to find out why and working to fix that