Building and Tracking Communities: Lessons from Amplitude and Substack

Building and Tracking Communities: Lessons from Amplitude and Substack

Introduction:
Building and tracking communities is essential for the success of any platform or product. In this article, we will explore two different examples - Amplitude, a user tracking platform, and Substack, a community-driven publishing platform. Despite their differences, both platforms have valuable insights to offer when it comes to engaging and nurturing a community. From tracking unique users to targeting specific demographics, we will uncover the common threads that connect these two platforms and provide actionable advice for community building.

Tracking Unique Users: Amplitude's Approach
Amplitude utilizes a system of three different IDs - device ID, user ID, and Amplitude ID - to track users effectively. The device ID, set as a randomly-generated UUID by default, persists unless a user clears their browser cookies or browses in private mode. The user ID, configured by the user, should remain constant to ensure Amplitude recognizes them as a unique user. Merging users becomes a challenge when an anonymous user with only a device ID is identified as a recognized user with an Amplitude ID. To solve this, Amplitude cross-references its list of Amplitude IDs with an internal mapping of merged IDs. However, user IDs cannot be merged, so creating a new user ID for an existing user will result in Amplitude considering them as different unique users.

Seeding a Community: Substack's Strategy
Substack's early success in building a community of writers can be attributed to their laser focus on targeting professional writers as their initial allies. They recognized that professional writers faced challenges in traditional publishing and sought a more independent and flexible platform. By specifically catering to professional writers, Substack provided a tool stack that supported writers in going independent, offering features such as payment, blog/email publishing, analytics, and community tools. They identified influential figures like Ben Thompson, who ran a popular one-man publishing operation called Stratechery, as their target audience. To kickstart their community, Substack extended invites to creators with existing free newsletters and writers who had recently been laid off from major publications. This personalized outreach played a crucial role in attracting the right individuals to join the platform.

Lessons for Community Building:

1. Be Specific: When building a community, it is essential to have a clear target audience in mind. By identifying people who align with your platform's goals and values, you can create a community that is passionate and engaged. Don't underestimate the power of specificity in attracting the right individuals.

2. Personal Outreach: Personalized outreach can have a significant impact when inviting the first people to join a new community. Taking the time to send personal emails or messages shows that you value their involvement and can help foster stronger connections. Don't underestimate the potency of personal outreach in building a community from scratch.

3. Collaboration and Best Practices: Building a community goes beyond attracting members; it also involves nurturing collaboration and knowledge-sharing among community members. Substack's approach of treating writers as essential collaborators and facilitating connections between publishers has been instrumental in their success. By observing and speaking with writers, they have learned valuable insights, such as the importance of making the best piece of writing free to convert more subscribers, publishing prolifically, covering niche topics, and writing in long-form.

Conclusion:
Building and tracking communities requires a thoughtful approach that considers user tracking and targeted outreach. Amplitude's system of tracking unique users demonstrates the importance of differentiating between device IDs, user IDs, and platform-specific IDs. On the other hand, Substack's success in sparking a community highlights the power of identifying and targeting a specific group of passionate individuals. By incorporating actionable advice such as being specific, using personal outreach, and fostering collaboration, platforms can create thriving communities that benefit both users and the platform itself. By understanding the commonalities between these two platforms, we can gain valuable insights into effective community building strategies.