Our Favourite Community Resources
We at FML Studios often get asked what our favourite community resources are. So we are taking the opportunity to share them with you in this newsletter!
Below is our resource pack, full of our favourite community resources. This is not a long exhaustive list, but instead our highlights, a high-graded list.
Where to start? - Books on Community
We have two favourites: Get Together by Bailey Richardson and The Business of Belonging by David Spinks.
Get Together is a great book for the community beginners out there. Richardson organizes the process of building community into 3 major steps: sparking the flame, stoking the flame and passing the torch.
The steps are:
- Find your people, bring them together
- Build your identity, grow engagement, bring more people in
- Decentralizing leadership, and celebration
David Spinks’ book, Business of Belonging, is a bit more tactical, with a larger catalogue of tools and resources shared. In particular, he shares thoughts on community strategy, identity, engagement and incentives.
Our advice is to start with Get Together and then move to The Business of Belonging
The Community Canvas
One of our favourite resources is the Community Canvas. The Community Canvas is a tool similar to the business model canvas that highlights all the things you need to think about when starting your community.
It has three main parts: Identity, Experience and Structure.
Identity is all about the why and the who. What is the reason your community exists, what are the values and what success looks like.
Experience is probably the most familiar when you think of community. How do you actually connect those in the community through experiences and content? What people think about less are the rituals, roles and rules that are needed in a community, as well as onboarding and offboarding.
Lastly is Structure, sometimes an after thought of community, but the true backbone of any successful community. How do you govern, organize and finance? What channels and tools do we use, and what is our data strategy?
Community Canvas has a great Minimum Viable Community Canvas - start there!
Threads & Posts
Below are some of our favourite threads and posts on community:
First is Community Psychology by David Spinks, in which he investigates may different models and frameworks for community. We consider it a must read.
Community Psychology – David Spinks
Second, is a Community Events threads. KP shares 11 types of events that you can run in your community.
Community Events – KP
Next, is Community Structures. A simple yet strategic framework for thinking about what type of community you are building.
Community Structures – Tatiana
Onboarding is a critical component to making sure you have a successful community. Imagine walking into a party not knowing anyone and not sure what to do; building an amazing onboarding experience prevents newcomers from feeling isolated. Don’t do that and instead build an amazing onboarding experience. Maker Pad shows you how.
Community Onboarding – Maker Pad
A community charter makes sure we are all here for the same reasons. This is a foundational document when building community.
Building a Community Charter – Todd Nilson
Ongoing Learning
In Before the Lock Podcast
This is the podcast for community builders. With over 80 episodes on all the topics under the sun about community, Eric Kuhl and Brian Oblinger got you covered on any topics that you’re interested in.
They also have a great resources section as well.
Newsletters
There are four newsletters we highly recommend. Pack full of insightful content.
Rosieland – By Rosie Sherry
Rich’s Blog – Richard Millington
Tom Ross Blog – Tom Ross
Business of Community - Tatiana Figueiredo
Resource Databases
Two great resources databases. First is Community Building Resources by Bailey Richardson, which details a list of resources similar to ours, though more comprehensive.
And finally, there is also the Community Building Workflows and Frameworks, where we ourselves first discovered the canvas.
People to Follow On Twitter
Are you on twitter? Where here is the list of all the best community thought leaders to follow!
KP @thisiskp_
Tatiana Figueiredo @tatfig
Tom Ross @tomrossmedia
David Spinks @DavidSpinks
Rosie Sherry @rosiesherry
Richard Millington @RichMillington
Greg Isenberg @gregisenberg
Danielle Maveal @daniellexo
Shannon Emery @llamasayswhat
Max Rothery @maximillianroth
Max Pete @Max_Pete
Deepak Kumar @Deepak910k
Michelle Sims @MichelleSims_
Communities!
Last but surely not least is communities to join. We recommend Community Club and CMX for free large communities. Building a Community Business and Learn Community are also great paid communities to learn community.
So there you have it, our list of community resources. If you’re ever looking for a resource and can’t find it, reach out - we probably have one just for you!
Bonus
Our Founder, Zachary Novak, was recently on the LIBI Rainforest Podcast, talking about community with Brigitte Legault. Give it a listen!
