Over time, I’ve built up an eclectic collection of podcasts (okay, not so eclectic, there’s a history & economics focus). But anyway, I was going through my podcast playlist and I started listening to an episode on how to build a welcoming and engaged community and that had me thinking about the topic itself.
I’ve noticed that as Substack and Patreon become popular, “community” is becoming increasingly paywalled. And it’s not all communities – it’s mainly communities that are centred around one person (let’s call them influencers because they clearly have enough influence to convince people to join a community).
The podcast mentioned some advantages of such paywalled, influencer-led communities – the influencer gets to curate a personalised environment for the people who joined and they can set the rules to create the environment they want. I’ve no doubt that many of these communities try to be as nurturing as possible for their members.
But I also have a few questions:
- Will communities centred around one person end up extending the parasocial relationship? Or perhaps connecting people around it, as my experience tells me that the community leader has to direct the topic.
- How do we balance the exclusivity that paid communities have against the fact that not everyone may be able to afford a community?
- Even if you can afford a community, how do you know which one to join? Are we going to end up with silos?
- Between free content (with paid community) and free community (with paid content), which one is more desirable in the long run?
Also, I have a gut feeling that as more and more people try to monetise their hobbies/side hustle AND as they see subscription-based communities become popular, they are going to try to form their own community. But everyone has a finite amount of money and, more importantly, time and energy, which means that some small creators may never be able to get a community off the ground because not everyone can reach critical mass for a community to thrive.
To me, the opposite of the influencer-led community is the old-fashioned blog community. Here, entry to the community is free/minimal depending on how much you want to spend on a blog. I enjoy interacting with the same few blogs (both those whom I get recommendations from and those whose reviews I enjoy because we have different tastes) and that builds up a sense of familiarity. I’ve also seen lots of memes and tags that let people blog-hop and I also see that even if someone stops hosting a tag/meme, sometimes others step in to take up the mantle. It feels like a robust community because members come and go and they find their own niche in the blogs they follow and who follow them back. I also see this to a smaller extent in other platforms like Instagram, but I do think that the more “social” a platform is (with regards to the algorithm), the more likely we see the rise of “stars” and then influencer-led communities.
I can’t say that influencer-led communities are bad because moderating a community does take time and effort and I can see why people should be compensated for that, but I’m curious to know:
- If you think paid communities rather than paid content will be the future (or at least, will be the main selling point, since people will have to release some free content to attract new followers)
- Which type of community you prefer (the fact this is on a blog might attract biased responses but I might be surprised!)
Amazing post! I don’t have money to subscribe such paid subscription nor I think I would turn blog into patron post as I’m not sure people would like that but if someone is monetizing and are successful in it I have nothing against it. Blogs remains great big free community that i love to be part of.
Yup, if someone can make a living doing what they love, all the more power to them! It’s probably not for me but I enjoy looking at this and talking to people about it, so thank you for your comment!
I think you have a very good point in saying that more people try to monetize their hobbies/side hustles. Because life’s expensive. And time is money. Unfortunately, you’re also correct in saying that people only have so much time and money to spend. What I think we’ll end up with is a mix. High quality content by experienced and popular influencers will most likely be paid or at the very least part of it will be paid content. While new up and comers will start out free to build a community first, before monetizing on their investment. And while an audience can be pretty loyal to those already popular influencers, don’t forget that there are new people being born every day. So there will always be a potentially new audience willing to try out free content.
As for your second question, I do prefer a free community, rather an exclusive and paid community. I know, not exactly a surprise 😀
I too, prefer the free community! But I do agree with your assessment, I think we are going to move to a freemium model. I hope some content remains free, though – I saw a writer get on substack and immediately every post was locked unless you were a paid subscriber. That felt… not as welcoming. But if that was what was best for them financially, then I guess it just means their content was not meant for me.
Your comment about silos hits the mark. Like any group, online blogs have limitations and most don’t encourage discussion or topics that extend beyond the blog-limits. That being said, are they communities or just chat rooms. At the end of the day, we all get off the phone or the computer and interact with our family and friends—the community.
That’s a very good point about our friends and family being our community, Warren! You’re right that it’s our primary community, so perhaps it’s okay if blogs and chatrooms don’t provide all our socialisation needs