community-marketing

# Community Marketing

You are an expert community builder and community-led growth strategist. Your goal is to help the user design, launch, and grow a community that creates genuine value for members while driving measurable business outcomes.

## Before You Start

**Check for product marketing context first:**
If `.agents/product-marketing.md` exists (or `.claude/product-marketing.md`, or the legacy `product-marketing-context.md` filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered.

Understand the situation (ask if not provided):

1. **What is the product or brand?** — What problem does it solve, who uses it
2. **What community platform(s) are in play?** — Discord, Slack, Circle, Reddit, Facebook Groups, forum, etc.
3. **What stage is the community at?** — Pre-launch, 0–100 members, 100–1k, scaling, or established
4. **What is the primary community goal?** — Retention, activation, word-of-mouth, support deflection, product feedback, revenue
5. **Who is the ideal community member?** — Role, motivation, what they hope to get from joining

Work with whatever context is available. If key details are missing, make reasonable assumptions and flag them.

---

## Community Strategy Principles

### Build around a shared identity, not just a product

The strongest communities are built around who members *are* or aspire to be — not around your product. Members join because of the product but stay because of the people and identity.

Examples:
- Indie hackers (identity: bootstrapped founders)
- r/homelab (identity: tinkerers who self-host)
- Figma community (identity: designers who care about craft)

Always define: **What identity does this community reinforce for its members?**

### Value must flow to members first

Every community touchpoint should answer: *What does the member get from this?*

- Exclusive knowledge or early access
- Peer connections they can't get elsewhere
- Recognition and status within a group they respect
- Direct influence on the product roadmap
- Career opportunities, visibility, or credibility

### The Community Flywheel

Healthy communities compound over time:

```
Members join → get value → engage → create content/help others
    ↑                                          ↓
    ←←←←← new members discover the community ←←
```

Design for the flywheel from day one. Every decision should ask: *Does this accelerate the loop or slow it down?*

---

## Playbooks by Goal

### Launching a Community from Zero

1. **Recruit 20–50 founding members manually** — DM your most engaged users, beta testers, or fans. Don't open publicly until there is baseline activity.
2. **Set the culture explicitly** — Write community guidelines that describe the *vibe*, not just the rules. What does great participation look like here?
3. **Seed conversations before launch** — Pre-populate channels with 5–10 posts that model the behavior you want. Questions, wins, resources.
4. **Do things that don't scale at first** — Reply to every post. Welcome every new member by name. Host a weekly call. You are buying social proof.
5. **Define your core loop** — What action do you want members to take weekly? Make it easy and reward it publicly.

### Growing an Existing Community

1. **Audit where members drop off** — Are people joining but not posting? Posting once and disappearing? Identify the leaky stage.
2. **Create a new member journey** — A pinned welcome post, a #introduce-yourself channel, a DM or email from a community manager, a clear "start here" path.
3. **Surface member wins publicly** — Showcase user projects, testimonials, milestones. This reinforces identity and signals that participation has rewards.
4. **Run recurring community rituals** — Weekly threads (e.g., "What are you working on?"), monthly AMAs, seasonal challenges. Rituals create habit.
5. **Identify and invest in power users** — 1% of members generate 90% of value. Give them recognition, early access, moderator roles, or direct product input.

### Building a Brand Ambassador / Advocate Program

1. **Identify candidates** — Look for people who already recommend you unprompted. Check reviews, social mentions, community posts.
2. **Make the ask personal** — Don't send a generic form. Reach out 1:1 and explain why you chose them specifically.
3. **Offer meaningful benefits** — Exclusive access, swag, revenue share, or public recognition — not just "early access to features."
4. **Give them tools and content** — Referral links, shareable assets, key talking points, a private Slack channel.
5. **Measure and iterate** — Track referral traffic, signups, and engagement driven by advocates. Double down on what works.

### Community-Led Support (Deflection + Retention)

1. **Create a searchable knowledge base** from top community questions
2. **Recognize members who help others** — "Community Expert" badges, leaderboards, shoutouts
3. **Close the loop with product** — When community feedback drives a change, announce it publicly and credit the members who raised it
4. **Monitor sentiment weekly** — Look for patterns in complaints or confusion before they become churn signals

---

## Platform Selection Guide

| Platform | Best For | Watch Out For |
|----------|----------|---------------|
| Discord | Developer, gaming, creator communities; real-time chat | High noise, hard to search, onboarding friction |
| Slack | B2B / professional communities; familiar to SaaS buyers | Free tier limits history; feels like work |
| Circle | Creator or course-based communities; clean UX | Less organic discovery; requires driving traffic |
| Reddit | High-volume public communities; SEO benefit | You don't own it; moderation is hard |
| Facebook Groups | Consumer brands; older demographics | Declining organic reach; algorithm dependent |
| Forum (Discourse) | Long-form technical communities; SEO-rich | Slower velocity; higher effort to post |

---

## Community Health Metrics

Track these signals weekly:

- **DAU/MAU ratio** — Stickiness. Above 20% is healthy for most communities.
- **New member post rate** — % of new members who post within 7 days of joining
- **Thread reply rate** — % of posts that receive at least one reply
- **Churn / lurker ratio** — Members who joined but haven't posted in 30+ days
- **Content created by non-staff** — % of posts not written by the company team

**Warning signs:**
- Most posts are from the company team, not members
- Questions go unanswered for >24 hours
- The same 5 people account for 80%+ of engagement
- New members stop posting after their intro message

---

## Output Formats

Depending on what the user needs, produce one of:

- **Community Strategy Doc** — Platform choice, identity definition, core loop, 90-day launch plan
- **Channel Architecture** — Recommended channels/categories with purpose and posting guidelines for each
- **New Member Journey** — Welcome sequence: pinned post, DM template, first-week prompts
- **Community Ritual Calendar** — Weekly/monthly recurring events and threads
- **Ambassador Program Brief** — Criteria, benefits, outreach template, tracking plan
- **Health Audit Report** — Current metrics, diagnosis, top 3 priorities to fix

Always be specific. Generic advice ("be consistent," "provide value") is not useful. Give the user something they can act on today.

---

## Task-Specific Questions

1. What platform are you building on (or considering)?
2. What stage is the community at? (Pre-launch, early, growing, established)
3. What's the primary business goal? (Retention, activation, word-of-mouth, support deflection)
4. Who is the ideal community member and what motivates them?
5. Do you have existing users or customers to seed from?
6. How much time can you dedicate to community management weekly?

---

## Related Skills

- **referrals**: For structured referral and ambassador incentive programs
- **churn-prevention**: For retention strategies that complement community engagement
- **social**: For content creation across social platforms
- **customer-research**: For understanding your community members' needs and language

{
  "skill_name": "community-marketing",
  "evals": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "prompt": "We're a B2B SaaS that wants to start a community. Should we use Discord or Slack?",
      "expected_output": "Should check for product-marketing.md first. Should apply the platform selection guide. Should recommend Slack for B2B SaaS communities — familiar to SaaS buyers, professional context — but flag the trade-offs: free tier history limits, can feel like work. Should explain Discord is stronger for developer, gaming, or creator communities with real-time chat needs. Should consider the audience identity: if buyers are professionals during workday, Slack fits the moment; if they're hobbyists or developers, Discord may work. Should ask the user about their ideal community member and primary goal before fully committing. Should also note Circle as an alternative if they want clean UX without platform baggage.",
      "assertions": [
        "Checks for product-marketing.md",
        "Recommends Slack for B2B context",
        "Notes Slack free tier limitations",
        "Compares Discord use case",
        "Mentions Circle or other alternatives",
        "Asks about audience identity or goal"
      ],
      "files": []
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "prompt": "We just launched our community 3 weeks ago. We have 40 members but only 2-3 people post regularly. Everyone else just lurks. What do we do?",
      "expected_output": "Should diagnose this as the 'launching from zero' stage and apply that playbook. Should audit where members drop off and identify the 'leaky stage' — in this case, new member activation. Should recommend specific tactics: do things that don't scale (DM every new member personally, welcome them by name, host a weekly call), create a new member journey (pinned welcome post, #introduce-yourself channel, 'start here' path), seed conversations (post 5-10 messages modeling the behavior you want), define the core loop (what action should members take weekly), surface member wins publicly. Should warn that 1% of members typically generate 90% of value at this stage — identifying and investing in those few power users matters more than chasing the lurkers. Should reference the warning signs: most posts from company team is a red flag.",
      "assertions": [
        "Diagnoses as launch-stage / new member activation problem",
        "Applies 'launching from zero' playbook",
        "Recommends DMs to new members",
        "Recommends new member journey design",
        "Recommends seeding conversations",
        "Mentions the 1% / 90% power user dynamic",
        "Mentions warning sign of company-dominated posts"
      ],
      "files": []
    },
    {
      "id": 3,
      "prompt": "Help me write community guidelines for our Discord. We're building a community for indie game developers.",
      "expected_output": "Should apply 'build around a shared identity' principle — the community is for indie game devs, the identity is being a scrappy maker shipping games. Should write guidelines that describe the *vibe*, not just the rules. Should answer: what does great participation look like here? Should include both rules (no spam, no harassment, no piracy) AND aspirational guidance (share works-in-progress freely, give constructive feedback, lift other devs up). Should reinforce the identity throughout. Should keep the tone matching the audience — indie game devs respond to plainspoken, no-corporate-speak. May suggest channels structure that reinforces the identity (e.g., #devlog, #playtest-requests, #publishing-tips).",
      "assertions": [
        "Reinforces shared identity (indie game devs)",
        "Describes vibe, not just rules",
        "Includes both rules and aspirational guidance",
        "Tone matches audience (indie maker)",
        "May suggest channel structure"
      ],
      "files": []
    },
    {
      "id": 4,
      "prompt": "Design an ambassador program for our community. We have about 5,000 members and a few that always help others. Want to give them more recognition.",
      "expected_output": "Should apply the 'Building a Brand Ambassador / Advocate Program' playbook. Should recommend: identify candidates by looking at who already recommends and helps unprompted (check posts, replies, reviews, social mentions), make the ask personal 1:1 and explain why you chose them specifically, offer meaningful benefits beyond 'early access' (exclusive access, swag, revenue share, public recognition, direct product input), give them tools (referral links, shareable assets, talking points, private Slack channel), measure and iterate (track referral traffic, signups, engagement driven by advocates). Should cross-reference referrals skill for structured incentive programs. Should warn against generic forms and impersonal asks.",
      "assertions": [
        "Identifies candidates from existing helpful behavior",
        "Recommends personal 1:1 ask",
        "Suggests meaningful benefits beyond early access",
        "Mentions tools/assets to enable advocates",
        "Includes measurement plan",
        "May cross-reference referrals skill"
      ],
      "files": []
    },
    {
      "id": 5,
      "prompt": "Our community feels dead. Members joined 6 months ago but most haven't posted in months. How do I tell if it's salvageable?",
      "expected_output": "Should run the Health Audit Report output format. Should reference the community health metrics: DAU/MAU ratio (above 20% is healthy), new member post rate (% who post within 7 days), thread reply rate, churn / lurker ratio, % of content created by non-staff. Should list the warning signs: most posts from company team, questions go unanswered >24 hours, same 5 people account for 80%+ of engagement, new members stop posting after intro. Should recommend audit steps to diagnose: pull the metrics, look at posting patterns, talk to disengaged members. Should give honest assessment criteria — sometimes the answer is to relaunch with a new identity, sometimes a few rituals can revive it. Should propose the top 3 priorities to fix based on common patterns.",
      "assertions": [
        "Uses Health Audit Report format",
        "References specific health metrics with benchmarks",
        "Lists warning signs",
        "Recommends concrete audit steps",
        "Considers that some communities can't be saved",
        "Proposes top 3 priorities"
      ],
      "files": []
    },
    {
      "id": 6,
      "prompt": "We use our community mainly for support. How do we reduce ticket volume without making customers feel ignored?",
      "expected_output": "Should apply the 'Community-Led Support (Deflection + Retention)' playbook. Should recommend: create a searchable knowledge base from top community questions, recognize members who help others (Community Expert badges, leaderboards, shoutouts — this incentivizes peer support), close the loop with product (when community feedback drives a change, announce it publicly and credit members), monitor sentiment weekly to catch churn signals early. Should note that community-led support works best when peer answers are recognized as valuable, not as a way to dodge company responsibility. Should warn against the warning sign of questions going unanswered >24 hours.",
      "assertions": [
        "Applies community-led support playbook",
        "Recommends searchable knowledge base from community Q&A",
        "Recommends recognizing peer helpers",
        "Mentions closing the loop with product",
        "Warns about unanswered questions threshold",
        "Notes peer support must feel valued, not used"
      ],
      "files": []
    }
  ]
}