How to build an NFT community
Vadim Sazhniev / iStock.com
Individuals can create NFTs on their own, but it takes a digital village for blockchain-based projects to reach their true potential.
This is where the NFT communities come in.
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NFT communities can emerge around any theme or project, but they all serve the same purpose – to provide a virtual town square where like-minded players can gather.
Joining is not always easy. The most exclusive NFT communities count A-list celebrities, ultra-rich fans and crypto legends among their ranks.
The good news is that you can build your own – and who knows what it might grow into?
Investors and collectors pay big bucks for membership to the hottest communities, so they can stay up-to-date and on the cutting edge – and of course for status and bragging rights. Fortune 500 companies are partnering with communities to launch their own NFTs or to establish a presence in the new metaverse. Activists and special interest groups form NFT communities to support their pet causes.
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Whatever the mission, one thing is for sure – if you’re serious about NFTs, you can’t do it alone.
What is an NFT community?
NFT communities are online groups with limited membership. You become a member by purchasing, stamping or otherwise acquiring an NFT from the group’s collection – but these NFTs are more than just avatars or profile pictures.
According to CNET, the data in each member’s NFT acts as a digital key that can provide access to games to make money, behind-the-scenes sub-environments, invitations to stake NFTs in exchange for cryptocurrency, and exclusive investment opportunities.
The founder and CEO of NFT marketplace and brand community Fayre told Medium that in its simplest form, NFT communities are collections of NFT brands, people who bought into the brands, and the brands’ most ardent fans.
NFTs have brands?
An NFT brand can be anything from an individual NFT creator to a well-coordinated online campaign by a celebrity such as Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, Lindsay Lohan, Grimes or Eminem, all of whom are NFT players.
NFT tokens may also include:
- Athletic organizations
- Artists
- Activists
- Organizers of events
- Web3 developers
- Real estate companies
- An individual, person or organization with an identifiable style of NFTs
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What makes a great NFT community?
The following are some of the best known and most exclusive NFT communities:
- Cryptopunks
- Cool cats
- Bored Ape Yacht Club
- VeeFriends
According to Medium, the most successful NFT communities all share a few common traits, not the least of which is exclusivity. Not just anyone can join the top communities, and opportunities for membership are rare and limited.
According to CNET, it can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase an NFT to secure membership in groups like the Bored Ape Yacht Club—and the privilege is often invitation-only. The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon, for example, owns a Bored Ape NFT and is therefore a member of the community. There are only 10,000.
Another unifier is strong and consistent branding – and good communities find ways to keep their fans engaged and interested. It may include access to rare NFTs, exciting new NFT drops or special prizes. Another important ingredient is a clearly defined culture and purpose – the Women Rise community, for example, exists to support female coders, activists, researchers and artists on the blockchain.
Many of the top communities include trending influencers, early NFT adopters or successful players with unique insights, influential contacts, inside information or a reputation for identifying NFT opportunities.
Why do I need to be part of a community?
Rolling Stone claims that NFT communities have become so critical to NFT success that the community is often as important as the NFT itself.
Communities provide a platform for creators to showcase their work and allow members to exchange ideas, unite behind strategies, pitch to investors and buyers, and collaborate on projects. They also give members a way to support other members, share their creations with their own networks and help get their work in front of the right people.
According to NFT Explained, potential buyers considering purchasing an NFT project typically dive into the creator’s community as part of the evaluation process. Your NFT project might be awesome, but buyers are likely to be turned off if the tone of the community is generally negative or unsupportive.
When big brands decide to enter the NFT space, they often lean on local communities to guide them through the process. Adidas, for example, bought space in the Sandbox metaverse and collaborated with the PUNKS Comic, gmoney and Bored Ape Yacht Club communities to create their first NFT called “Adidas: Into The Metaverse”.
Where does the NFT community stand?
Like NFTs themselves, the communities that form around them exist online, although some communities—like the Bored Ape Yacht Club and its 10,000 members—have begun hosting real-life events and meetups.
General platforms like Reddit and Telegram have spawned many NFT communities, but new dedicated platforms like Fayre are also launching new clubs. They can pop up anywhere, including the metaverse, but according to Entrepreneur, NFT communities often exist on two platforms — Twitter and Discord.
So how do I build a community worth joining?
According to Entrepreneur and Medium, best practices for creating successful NFT communities share common threads with social media branding. There is no right way, but the basic skeleton includes:
- Determine your vision, goals and target audience: Are you building a community using NFTs to support artists, promote autism awareness or cheer on your local football team? Are you looking for collaborators on a money project, or will this be a place where collectors can shop? If you were starting a business, now would be the time to create a mission statement. Why are you doing this? Who do you want to bring with you? What do you hope to achieve?
- Choose a platform: Do you want to launch on a well-known platform like Twitter or Discord, or do you want to take a chance on an upstart like Fayre?
- Create a theme: Determine the look, feel, tone, and images that will represent your community. For example, no one with a passing knowledge of NFTs could mistake a Bored Ape for anything else.
- Build your brand: Announce your intentions, generate interest on social media channels and introduce your new community to potential members in your existing networks.
- Organize events: Generate interest by organizing events like AMAs or gaming contests.
- Build loyalty and legitimacy: Establish trust by following through on your projects and promises, build a respected team of collaborators, and do the hard work of delivering on the community’s core mission.
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