A Vibrant Community Is The Best Growth Strategy
If you work in a creative field, and you’re putting cool stuff out into the world for your fans to enjoy (and hopefully buy), how do you measure success?
For Creators, What Is Real Success?
One way to evaluate whether you’re successful is to do the math. Here are some common Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for creators:
As a creator myself, one KPI that I track is the number of downloads of my podcast. My show, “Silicon Carne,” has 20,000+ downloads per month. Now don’t get me wrong, that’s a fantastic stat that I’m proud of. Yet sometimes I wonder if big download numbers really mean that my podcast is successful ...
Indeed, over the years I’ve become convinced that success is not solely a numbers game. If you think about it, statistics are impersonal. Even revenue (which of course we love) is kind of clinical.
The success metric that I believe is more important for creators is one word: Community.
Community is more about feelings, shared passions, and common objectives. It’s about believing in the value of communication and fairness. Those characteristics aren’t based on numbers, and yet they’re a truer maker of success than anything else I can think of. To me, community is the Most Important Key, so to speak, of all Key Performance Indicators.
Yep, I said it, community is the MIK of KPIs!
What if We Focus on Community First?
I’m sorry if this comes across as bragging ... but, as a podcaster, I consider myself successful. Why? Because around my podcast, we’ve built up an active and inclusive group of like-minded individuals.
In recent episodes, our podcast has explored super-interesting ideas, such as:
User-generated Metaverse.
Crypto panic.
Infatuation with Web3.
The new face of venture capitalism.
Earlier this year, my podcast team and I also launched a bunch of dazzling Silicon Carne NFTs—all of which our community quickly snapped up.
What big topics are we going to explore in our next season? And what gorgeous NFTs are we going to mint?
With Season 4 of “Silicon Carne,” Fans Will Become Co-producers
The next season of our podcast will be co-produced by our community.
We’re going to achieve this by minting an electrifying set of NFTs that will allow our community to play a unique role in “Silicon Carne,” including:
Having a say in the main idea or topic of each episode.
Suggesting podcast guests.
Generating ideas for future NFTs.
Helping promote the show.
Importantly, with NFTs as our foundation, we’re also embarking on an ambitious revenue-sharing scheme.
Why? Because we firmly believe that ...
Sharing Revenue With Your Community = Deeper Levels Of Engagement = Community Growth
It’s a virtuous circle!
All of our dreams of fans co-producing our shows, and sharing podcast-related revenues, will be accomplished via four groups of NFTs.
Each group of NFTs comes with varying co-producing powers and different percentages of revenue-sharing. Without getting bogged down in specifics, token holders of the “higher” groups have more co-producing input and a bigger slice of the revenue pie, whereas token holders in the “lower” groups have less co-producing input and a smaller slice of the revenue pie.
If you’re a creator, is this sparking any ideas about whatever cool stuff you create, and how you can foster deeper ties with your community?
Ready to Make Co-ownership and Revenue-sharing the Future?
My podcast team and I genuinely believe that we’re creating a new model of community creation that frees itself from central platforms and traditional intermediaries. For far too long, those IT powerhouses have imprisoned the value created by creators like you, and the data related to your fans.
Yes, you can still be on those platforms (course platforms like Udemy, publishing platforms like Substack, live streaming services like Twitch, etc.), yet if those are the only digital playgrounds you’re playing in, you’re missing out.
We’re convinced that if we can demonstrate that co-ownership and revenue-sharing in a decentralized mode is possible, many other creators will adopt it, then start sharing the value they create with their community.
If you’re a creator, what would your future look like if you could directly interact with your true fans without intermediaries, if you could collaborate with them on projects, and if you could share revenue with them?
Learn more about how creators like you can build NFT-membership communities at Uncut.fm and join our Discord community of like-minded creators.