How to Build a Thriving NFT Community

Introduction: How to build a thriving NFT community

The value of an NFT is often a reflection of the quality of the community it gives the holder access to. Holding an NFT from a particular collection often acts as the passkey to communities and all the perks they offer, therefore it is very important that the community makes the cost of the NFT worthwhile. You wouldn’t pay the price for a Burning Man ticket if there was no lineup!

But how do you build a community that makes your NFT collection sought after? 

In this guide, you’ll find 10 top tips to get you on your way to building a loyal community of NFT holders, along with examples from successful collections. We’ll cover:

• Brand
• Engagement
• Rewards
• Collaborations
• Events

Read on to get the inside scoop on what’s what in NFT community building.

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What is an NFT community?

An NFT community is a group of people who hold an NFT from a certain creator or collection. Some communities are more proactive and engaged than others, and it’s often the collections with thriving communities that hit the headlines, both for sensational events and for floor price. If you’ve heard of NFTs you will have heard of Bored Apes Yacht Club - and the thriving BAYC community is a big reason for this.

NFT communities will usually have a public facing Twitter account, a landing page and a Discord, where all the members hang out and connect. Sometimes the Discords are accessible to those who don’t hold an NFT collection, but there will usually be private channels and areas that only NFT holders have access to.

Big collections employ community managers to engage, support and moderate the community.

Why are NFT communities important?

The success of an NFT project depends on its popularity - if no-one wants to own an NFT its value crashes. In addition, many NFT collections have a goal to spread a message, raise awareness or create some kind of social change - so popularity is crucial. 

The community surrounding an NFT is a manifestation of that popularity.

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Types of NFT community

As we have mentioned already, NFTs are created for different purposes and as a consequence the communities take different forms. Let’s take a quick look at some examples.

We love the art

Many communities are based around a true love for the art by a certain creator. Community members want to talk about the art, recent sales and upcoming releases of new art.

We love the message

Some communities are centred around spreading a message, raising awareness or bringing together people with shared interests and beliefs. Ownership of the NFT acts like a membership card, or badge, that communicates what you care about.

These communities will often centre around discussing the shared identity, working together to overcome barriers that face the community as a whole and supporting one another.

We love the degens

These are often the most devoted communities - those who exist in a parallel metaverse, where your NFT acts as a character in a world with its own peculiarities - language, humour, traditions, taste in music, interests and styles of dressing are all things that can contribute to community identities. Members of these communities often see their community membership as a big part of their identity.

We love the impact

Many communities have a goal to fund real world ventures and transformation. The goal of these communities is to raise money for a cause they care about. Conversations and events in these communities will focus on sharing important information and raising awareness of the cause they are passionate about.
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How to build a successful NFT community

Here are ten top tips on how to build and engage your community.

1. Build a community brand

@goblintownwtf has built a wild world for off-the-wall directionless degens with a shared language, music and appetite for @McGoblinBurger

It's not for everyone, but those in the community are totally devoted.

2. Build a community based around a shared identity

@MyBFF is an NFT owners community lead by @jaimeschmidt which is aimed at increasing the participation of women and non-binary people in the web3 space. @GwynethPaltrow, Kate Hudson, Tyra Banks and Mila Kunis are founding BFFs

3. Take the community on a journey

In Wolf Game @wolfdotgame Sheep and Wolves compete for $WOOL, working in packs, stealing, taxing and playing strategic games against one another. The game has built a tight-knit community who came together for one of the best NFT NYC events

4. Reward NFT holder with Tokens

Bad Bears @badbearsmsk holders receive 100$MSK a day to spend in a closed loop economy

5. Reward community members with airdrops

In February 2022, @doodles released Pukenza - generative art based on colours of the doodle NFTs held in wallets. Immediate value for community members, and it's always nice to get a surprise gift.

6. Give community access to cross project collaborations

Recently, @Deadfellaz  holders got VIP access to the grand opening of Robopolis, hosted by @robotosNFT , which included a live performance from Claude VonStroke.

7. Member only online access

@stonercatstv is a online TV show that can only be watched by holders of the Stoner Cats NFT.

Token-gated online exclusive events can be AMAs, fireside chats and online performances.

8. Give access to real world rewards

@takashipom recently gifted exclusive t-shirts to holders of Murakami.Flower NFTs

9. Access to real world events

We all heard about ApeFest 2022 - with exclusive access for @BoredApeYC and MAYC holders and their guests… and @AmySchumer

10. Unifying movement / cause

#BlackIsBeautiful by @ndartlife is a collection depicting the “raw emotions of Black Americans”. The project donates 10% of primary sales to HBCUs and 10% of secondary sales to an HBCU impact fund.

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Tools for engaging your community

Twitter

It’s hard to engage a community without a Twitter account. This will be your go-to place for updates, announcements and news. In addition to that it is that place where you can begin to build your brand identity; the content you share, the language you use and the imagery you select all shape your community identity.

Discord

Once you have NFT owners, you need to give them a virtual clubhouse. Discord is the choice of most communities, although some use Slack.

Community Discords will have different channels for different types of conversations, for example an updates channel, a general chat, a place to share pictures of your NFT and sometimes channels in different languages, 

Metacommerce

If you want to do more than just chat with your community in Discord, you need to get set up with Metacommerce. The ORM (Ownership Relationship Management) platform gives you the perfect toolbox of equipment to reward and engage your community while saving considerable amounts of time and money.

• Track your owner-base in real-time via easy-to-use, customisable dashboards, no devs required.
• Deploy non-dilutive airdrops on ETH with minimal gas fees using cutting-edge phantom minting technology.
• Build robust, custom allowlists, with advanced functionality, in moments. You can include requirements for participants such as Discord membership, social media engagement and wallet-holdings.
• Collect additional information from wallet-owners, via Metacommerce Allowlists, and tie off-chain data to on-chain data, without the need to use multiple solutions.
• Build custom, rule-based audiences within your owner-base which update automatically as wallet-owners' information changes.
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Start engaging your community now

If you are planning to release a collection, start building it now in the Metacommerce Studio, with all the tools you need to create layer-based generative art and one-of-one collections, build allow lists and drop your collection.

If you have already dropped your first collection and need tools to manage your owner-base, sign up to the Metacommerce ORM beta here.

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