"Psychology tells us that if you can get someone to buy into something, they’re much more likely to stick with it. It’s all about avoiding cognitive dissonance!"

"4) Get your members to buy in."

"remember that more people = more noise. Find a way to suss out who will be a positive contributor to the community — and who just wants to promote their content or tap into your audience for their own gain."

"the most valuable communities are often curated groups of people who are active and engaged. A huge community with no activity (or worse, tons of spam) isn’t fun for anyone, and will lead to high churn."

"there’s a “Dunbar’s number” for communities, and it’s probably 2 or 3. We don’t have the time or cognitive load to meaningfully engage with more than a couple of communities on an ongoing basis. And with thousands of online communities, you need a strong value prop to break through the noise!"

"many of these are “zombie communities”: Slack or Discord groups with hundreds or thousands of people and no meaningful engagement."

"Building a community is incredibly hard! You can’t just drop your audience into a digital space and expect a healthy community to form — it will quickly spiral out of control if you don’t actively manage it. And finding ways to spark meaningful discussions and connections is challenging."

"1) Start with “why.”"

"How do you know if your audience needs a community? The best signal is when they start hacking it together without you."

"2) Focus on quality, not quantity."

"3) Invest in onboarding."

"Joining a community can be overwhelming, particularly if it’s not clear how to introduce yourself and get involved. Every community leader I’ve talked to agrees that designing a thoughtful onboarding process is one of the most important things you do."

"5) Find new ways to add value."

"To engage and retain members, you need to both (1) add value on a daily basis, and (2) create “magical” moments that illustrate the value of the community and create an emotional connection"

"Start by figuring out why people are coming to your community, and then find the best channel(s) to deliver this value."

"we believe that today’s environment is an ideal launching ground for the next group of billion-dollar consumer companies: vertical social networks."

"with growing fatigue around swiping and liking static content, many users are looking for more curated and meaningful connections and digital experiences based on their online and offline interests."

"New social networks should enable users to share content that they can’t post elsewhere, which is where vertical-focused platforms can shine!"

"Even if a platform isn’t the first or only place to post a certain type of content, it may win by providing the best tools."

"Give them a way to enhance their status within their existing network."

"Even for platforms that don’t target Gen Zers, the chance to build a following (either personally or professionally) is often a strong incentive to join a new network."

"It holds all the important data related to your profile and interactions within the community. This encourages frequent engagement on the platform, and also makes it harder to churn."

"New devices often expand the amount of time and the ways in which we can be “present” on social products, creating an opportunity for new networks."

"New devices or step changes in functionality can also enable new types of content, which can be the launching point for a new social network. AR filters were arguably a big part of Snap’s success, especially as it expanded outside the initial user base of high school students."

"YouTube has to serve all types of content, there is a significant opportunity to “unbundle” it by building products with killer features for specific categories"

"Snapchat+ has strong start. One month ago, Snap launched Snapchat+ - a paid subscription to access features like seeing who rewatched a Story and “pinning” a BFF in your chats."

"Early data now suggests that Snapchat+ brought in $5M in revenue in its first month. We’re not sure exactly how many people subscribed (a monthly subscription is $3.99/mo, but there are also six and 12-month plans), but it’s an interesting data point for social apps studying the viability of paid subscriptions."

"Proactive - the IG team has strong conviction that the future of social media is short-form video, delivered algorithmically."

"Reactive - IG is moving towards this new iteration because the old product has stopped working."

"Making the Feed more crowded made it harder to see your friends’ content. As a result, your friends got less engagement on their posts, and may have stopped posting as frequently - which forced Instagram to rely on more algorithmic content to fill your Feed."

"A competing theory is that Instagram is simply going out of style - and this would have happened with or without the algorithm."

"AI art is “soulless.”"

"The creator provides guidance around the content and style of the image, but isn’t actually creating it."

"Proponents of this argument often say that what imbues meaning in art is the countless little decisions made by a human in the process of designing a piece - their emotions and motivation are critical."

"AI art steals from “real” artists."

"In this way, AI is democratizing access to art, and the result will be more art in the world and more people who can feel fulfilled as artists."

"Even in the real world, artists play off of or imitate each others’ work."

"High-end art, where the value comes from the identity of the artist and the provenance of the work as well as the piece itself, may be relatively insulated from any AI “threat”."

"Will AI artists be able to build brands?"

"Can AI art have a provenance?"

"TikTok launched the pilot version of Resumes, a new feature that allows users to apply for jobs via “video resume.”"

"Resumes takes advantage of Gen Z’s desire to be authentic in all aspects of life, including work."

"Many of the TikTok resumes I’ve come across, like this one from an aspiring PM (& Cal student), are awesome - and much more dynamic than a paper resume. Videos allow a candidate to showcase energy and creativity that is hard to communicate in a cover letter."

"Despite these benefits, I haven’t seen many people use the Resumes feature yet!"

"First, while candidates submit a link to their resume video, employers can click to their profiles to see what else they’ve published. Do you want employers going through your TikTok?"

"Making and editing a video resume may also be intimidating, especially for candidates who aren’t used to appearing on camera."