In this episode, we talk about why building a solid community is so important as we transition to Web 3.0. We talk about those who are doing it well and how you can take steps yourself to create a community of people who share your values.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
World of Women – https://www.worldofwomen.art/
Bored Ape Yacht Club – https://boredapeyachtclub.com/#/

PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Gary Vaynerchuk – https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/
Rory Sutherland – https://twitter.com/rorysutherland

EPISODES TO RESEARCH
What is a DAO? – https://www.womenofthemetaverse.co.uk/what-is-a-dao/

We hope you enjoyed the show and it helped you to understand more why communities are so important in Web 3.0. We also hoped you gained some ideas as to how you can build yours.

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IMPORTANT NOTICE
This podcast is for entertainment and education purposes only. We do not give any investment or financial advice and we strongly recommend you always DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.

 

Episode Transcription

Cheryl00:03

Welcome to Women of the Metaverse. I am Cheryl Laidlaw.

Angela00:08

I am Angela Harkness. We have been and are still on a journey to discover the Metaverse with 3.0 NFTs and anything that we are required to know to join this world

Cheryl00:20

On this podcast, we will help you to unlock how the manifest is going to impact your brand.

Your business and even your personal life.

Angela00:31

Join us as we take the mystery out of this new digital universe.

Cheryl00:38

Welcome to Women of the Metaphor. In this episode, we are talking about the importance of community. In Web 3.0, we are discussing why it is essential to build and join communities around NFT collections, and why it is so important to build and join communities as you enter the meta. Why is essential to build and join communities as the evolution of the internet and websites progress into Web 3.0?

So Angela, do you want to dive in?

Angela01:11

I do. Okay. Communities are not new. We grew up always being part of community, Really whether we wanted to be or not. So whether that was within our neighbourhoods, In. Schools, whether you were part of the Brownies or guides if you were in the UK?

Cheryl01:31

Definitely both of those.

Angela01:32

I didn’t do guides. I did brownies, but I did. I didn’t really like the brownies though. I’ve got, It was bit bity. I like doing the badges though. Whether you’ve got hobbies, whether you are a part of religious communities or work communities, or even communities as you build a business. So as you know, Cheryll and I have taught many, many times that we met at a business club called Sister sn, which is an incredibly powerful community of female entrepreneurs.

So with social media, though, the need and power of community was. Social media took off in a way that no one ever expected, and we didn’t seem quite ready for it. I remember a time when it was a competition to see how many friends you had on Facebook, and it was almost a badge of honour if you reached the friend limit.

I used to get so excited about a new brand. Really? I’m excited. I didn’t

Cheryl02:30

remember Facebook, but I remember frantically trying to get Twitter followers.

Angela02:34

Oh, Twitter as well, , and I was, I was obsessed with Twitter. If I were, There was this habit where you would follow someone, they would follow back or they would follow you, and then a few days later they would unfollow you and I would be constantly checking my Twitter numbers.

So they’d gone down to see, to see unfollowed me, and then I would immediately unfollow them. I mean, it was, Who’s your most famous? Wasn’t, Who’s your most famous follow? Oh, I can’t remember. There’s, there is an actor that, that follows you, Follows me though. My, my most

Cheryl03:07

famous follower is Jonathan Ross

Angela03:11

. Oh really?

Wow. Sorry. Yeah. You see, you get digressed that Well, you, I know you get really excited about a b tip. Honestly. Follow. You believe that you followed me back. Oh, I know. It’s so, But now it just seems really pathetic, doesn’t it? So, so as we were saying, you get frustrated with Twitter. It just social media just like made this whole community thing just very weird, I think.

And today, even today, although I’m less bothered about the followers and the, you know, who unfollows, I, I still use it as a measure. So if somebody to me is claiming to be an expert, especially if they’re claiming to be a social media expert, I still will look at how many followers they have. So, yeah, it’s just one of those things I’m trying to, that trying

Cheryl03:57

to grow Instagram follow.

Back in 2017, it, I posted every single day. And you did.

Angela04:05

It’s, I remember a period where I was posting six or seven images a day, and also I would go through in the morning and like, like, like, like, like all these images to see if I could get, you know, if that helped my following. And then they changed the algorithm and then that didn’t work anymore.

And you just need to just calm it down. I think you learn that over time anyway. You Right. So do you wanna talk about communities today, Cheryl?

Cheryl04:34

Right. So community in the current social media setup is, is to build a massive following and then create income off the back of that. If you think of it in extreme, the Kardashians have built most of their wealth around their millions of followers.

It is not a bad thing. It is a business model and one that works really well, but it can also be one that creates a system over volume, over quality and people pushing out products for

Angela05:03

the sake of it. You know, when this started to really, I, I was always get, I was getting to this point, but Clubhouse, if anybody went on Clubhouse when I first started to go on Clubhouse, there used to.

What would be really kind of popular? More coaches, I would say people who were putting out a lot of business coaching type content, and they would have these rooms on Clubhouse that would last for days, days and days and days. They would record it.

Cheryl05:35

24 hour podcast, then it would go on all week. Oh, not podcast.

Oh, we would just go on and on and.

Angela05:43

Yeah, and there were these like popular coaches that would drop in and out. That would be, I don’t, can’t remember even what they’re called now, but the people that can just speak on Clubhouse. And I remember listening to them and partly they all said the same thing.

There were very few people that went on there and said something original, uh, innovative. And Clubhouse had all only just started. And all of them would be when they started to speak, Well, if you sign up for my 10 ways to build a clubhouse, follow in, or If you sign up for this, or if you sign up for that, I was say, Oh, none of you are saying anything original.

None of you are saying anything different. All you are trying to do is just sell me something. Sell me something, sell me something. And there were just so few people that went on there and said something original. And that’s where I really started to. A problem with this following, like just building this massive following.

Yeah. Well it, this kind of model, it creates that

Cheryl06:41

whole worship of the church. Well, I know that you like that phrase, don’t you? Where Yeah, there is definitely a leader at the head of it all and whether it be an influencer such as the Kardashian or a Pacific type of influence of a, say beauty or fashion or business, um, there’s Ella.

She was an early adopter and she created a massive following. Um, we talk about Gary v Gary Varo, huge, huge. They huge. They have all built masses, masses of communities, um, and they’re all at the hierarchy. They’re also the other side of it, which. Those that fill the opposite and that will troll and write horrible content, um, about these influences.

So as for many people who love and adore the Kardashians and Gary D, there are many, many people that dislike them too and fill the need to

Angela07:37

troll them. Yeah, just be plain horrible. There’s that situation at the moment as we record. There is a beauty influencer called McKayla. I don’t know her surname and I can’t say it, but people will know who she was and she made a video.

If this was even last year, it wasn’t even recent, and. She made a, like a throwaway comment saying, Oh, you should try being an influencer one day. It’s really difficult and people have come for this poor woman, like she has, I don’t know, threatened to do something as if she said the worst thing in the world.

But then now also what’s happening is people are being, people are going on there defending her cuz she’s

Cheryl08:19

lovely. She’s lovely. She, Oh, I mean, I followed her and not sweet and I thought she’s fabulous.

Angela08:23

Yeah, she’s just lovely as sweet. But now what people are doing, Is really then being really horrible to the people that were horrible about McKayla.

It’s just this ever increasing circle of people just being as follows as she got the worst of themselves. Like 8.0 million.

Cheryl08:37

8 million or something.

Angela08:38

It’s, it’s, I think it might be higher now Show. Absolutely. Think it’s higher. Astonishing,

Cheryl08:43

incredible. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah. Andrew, do you wanna talk about Web three communities?

Angela08:49

Okay, so this is where it starts to change. So in Web three point, As we have discussed in and explained in many episodes, it comes on the basis of decentralization. There is no central authority and the way in which communities are seeking to form, it’s based on shared values, and you get your rewards through the tokens.

So communities are built through decentralization on your own terms. You’re not forced into a channel because an algorithm is dictating what you do and don’t see, and then it’s influencing your opinions. Communities are built around agreements, so to like. Sometimes I’m watching TikTok. You watch one video on TikTok and then that’s all you start to see on your four, Your Fyb.

Yeah. I’m like, Why am I seeing this? Why do I keep seeing this ? And it’s just all the algorithm just pushing the content that, Oh, you’ve watched it once. You must wanna watch it 300 times now. So when we talk about decentralization, think of the Board APR Club or World of Women that we’d done episodes on both of these and they looked to build a community as soon as they envisioned their collections.

As we spoke about it in the Board APE York Club episode, they started conversations on Twitter and built a community before any NFT was even sold. And if you go to the World of Women website, they actually have a community page on the website that talks about why their community is so important to them and what they want to achieve from it.

Being part of a community in the NFT space means you join a group of people, whether it be on Twitter or disor. You purchase an NFT and you get to be part of the membership club. You can also create your income and rewards by how you choose to grow a brand from your nft. So you are part of that whole business model almost, but you are also part of discussions and treated as such, not part of a following.

If you look to how quickly these collections sold out, it shows you how much work. They put in upfront to build a dedicated community. This is really, And they’re

Cheryl11:02

very good at it. Yeah, It’s very interesting actually, because if McKayla moving forward and anyone for this, for this instance, could build their web free community, then it would hopefully lock out patrols because at least she could get rid of them out of the community or anyone for that matter.

Angela11:19

Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s interesting one, how it’s kind of evolving and it’d be interesting to see. People will transition into that.

Cheryl11:29

Yes. I’m waiting for the first influencer to release their roadmap on their future in web free. I’m sure there is one already that, Again, we’ll get to that,

Angela11:40

but I think it’s, It’s what you would then define as an influencer, because there are avatar influencers, aren’t there?

There are people who are not real. Yes. Or in the metaverse. So that whole transition will be interesting. Mm-hmm. . But anyway. Blake, do you wanna explain a bit more Yeah. About the decentralized element to it?

Cheryl12:00

So also look how people show that they are members of communities, even by the simple move of changing their profile picture to the NFTs that they have purchased.

You will see this a lot on Twitter, and Andrew and I, , we have our avatars out that we’ve bought. Yeah. Yeah. As these really popular NFT collections grow in order to maintain fairness and values, they create dows, which is discussed in episode 15. Dows help with the governance around the roadmap and how the profits are going to be spent.

If you looked into NFT collections that have failed, a lot of that can be blamed on the fact that they did not try and build a community and they lack creativity in the utilities that form part of the smart

Angela12:49

contracts. I found an article on this and I’m kicking myself cuz I can’t find it again. And there were quite a few famous people that have released NFTs that have really failed.

Yeah. Because they didn’t do the, I think they were using the old business model of, I’m an influencer or I’m famous, therefore if I put this out, you’re just gonna buy it. And they didn’t actually build that community element around it first. And they failed that Bill

Cheryl13:15

Murray, Is it Bill Murray? The Ghostbuster guy, he, he brought out a collection and it, and it flunk funk funked, but I dunno why.

Angela13:23

Yeah. There were quite a few famous names on this list. I’m really gonna try and see if I can find it. If I do, I’ll po I’ll post it. But it was interesting. Maybe

Cheryl13:30

that’s an episode, but then it’s very negative, the failings of the piece world. Yeah. When it comes to the metaphor, look how brands have entered into this world.

The successor ones have not just transferred their brands into the digital. They’ve had to find ways to engage and enable a community feel. So whether they do this through gamification or they create environments where people can meet up in a community G Town created the community. Kef Horizon world enables you to meet up with other avatars.

Then de Strata enables gamification to build a community in the Stratos. So, Question, How do you futureproof your community? We are now in our 23rd episode, and in a large percentage of those episodes, we talk about community and we give examples of brands of how they have managed to create a lot of community.

Angela14:30

The big subject, whatever you read, they, it, it all

Cheryl14:33

comes back to community every time. Always. Yeah. So what’s a good way to start,

Angela14:38

Angela? Okay. There’s, there’s so many different ways. Some people are just natural at this, but we have done a lot of research and I think a good way to start is to see how other people are doing it.

So explore topics on Twitter more, especially for the Nst Metaverse Web 3.0 Twitter communities, because Twitter seems to really have a bit of a resurgence in that area. And in our last episode we did about decentralized social media. We talk about some of the new platforms that are set up to be decentralized.

So go and have a play in particular Discord. You can join different servers for subjects and brands that interest you. But also I really think it’s a good idea to look outside of your interests. What subjects in industries are there that create big communities? Cuz you can learn a lot from there. And what you are looking for is communities, not followings.

I watch a lot of football videos, which I know people from this history

Cheryl15:44

. It surprises me still, and I’ve known this for a long time,

Angela15:48

I know, and I worked a lot on YouTube and some of my favorite YouTube channels. They actually favor live videos. Some of the, they record stuff, but mainly live. And some of these channels they, you either have these channels that discuss the whole Premier League, but some of them are fan sites, so they talk about particular clubs they support, but they push out a huge amount of content.

And one particular channel that I actually watch quite a lot because I like what they’re doing. Depending on what’s going on during a football season, they can sometimes push, put out two or three live videos a day. But by doing the live streams, they include their audience. So even those that aren’t saying favorable things.

So even those that might be, you know, if you are talking about Man City and somebody’s coming in as a man United band and just. I don’t know, really kicking them. They, they include them. They have a bit of a laugh and have a bit of a banter backwards and forwards, but it, what it’s created is a very community driven channel.

And through this channel, they have then created an inner community because they’ve set up a membership. So you then get special content and you get to be part of the Discord server, and it just seems very natural. They get to know their members, they talk to their audience, and it’s almost like they’re sat in a pub having a conversation.

I’m fascinated by it. I just watch it all the time because I’m just fascinated with what they’re doing. So if you actually decide what you want your community to be, don’t be afraid to put your values out there. When we, Sharon and I have this conversation a lot, and we have very specific values about supporting women within the Met first, and it’s why we set up this podcast.

And our goal is simple and it’s set to help women find a voice in this space. And that drives everything we do and how we respond to the community we are building. But I think also you need to go and look cuz sometimes you might find communities that you don’t like very much. So I’m, I’m, I like

Cheryl17:54

experience with the brownies too.

Cliquey. Yeah.

Angela17:58

Not a good community. Not a good community. But I, I think also people that don’t follow the crowd. So Barsol is a massive company that, that was born out of one guy, Dave Portnoy, who really loved sports and he lived in Boston. And he created this, um, like newspaper, almost like a sports bar type newspaper, but he has grown this into really almost like a billion dollar company.

And they have a very, very kind of, I don’t say strange community, but it’s, it’s. It’s a community that some people get, some people don’t. A lot of people don’t like Dave Point Port. I think he’s smart. I like what he’s done with Barsol, but it’s a massive, massive community the way they’ve built it. So even if you don’t like the person or don’t like the community, it’s you.

You can learn a lot from what they’ve done and how they build it. I think that’s important to do. To look,

Cheryl18:57

Yeah, even if you’re looking just to see what other people doing.

Angela19:00

Exactly. Exactly.

Cheryl19:02

Again, coming back down to the values bit, it’s so important. Yeah. And sometimes you have to go back to basics. Even if you’ve been in business two years, three years, four years, 10 years.

Right. I need to revalue it because how, how we feel and, you know, our goals changes before is it just changes all the time. Yeah. So we sort would say, put it out there, put it on your website. You can even do it. Like the world of women do and talk about community in your social media. Find like-minded people who have shared those values too.

And you can do this in old school ways. We have a Facebook community, but our aim is to work with that and transition them on to our discord

Angela19:48

server. Yeah. But one important thing to remember with all of this is to be. What do you truly want? What type of people do you truly wanna be part of your community?

And as a business coach, I actually want to say to people sometimes stop following the formula and be true and do things in a way that you want to do them. And that truth creates better community. So I talked about that with Clubhouse. It would, I just would give me the rage every time I listened to it.

And I was listening to, um, Rory Sutherland, the other. Who is a genius marketer. If you’ve never listened to Roy Sutherland, you’ve got to go incredible to Google him and you’ll be impressed. Oh, so fascinating. And he has been in the world of marketing. Before the word was even used, he was probably in what they would call advertising rather than marketing.

Yeah. And he was talking about great experiences with brands, and he was saying sometimes the opposite can work. And he gave an example. He was talking about how about hotels and the experience of being able to check in. And he was saying for some people, if you have a hotel check in where you walk straight to your room and scan a code to unlock the door without having to speak to another human.

Is this cool to some people as if you go to the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong. Where they check you in, someone will take you up to your room and make you a cup of tea whilst you fill in your checking card. And he was saying those two diametrically opposed experiences are meaningful. It’s the ones, the way you sit in the middle.

That people don’t remember. So what we are saying with your community, if you be yourself, if you wanna do it in oldschool way, do it old school way. If you wanna try and use the latest technology, do it that way. But just don’t try and avoid these kind of formulaic, you know, sign up for my thing and I’ll should give you 10 ways on how to build a community today.

I’m not a fan of those, cuz I think it makes you middle of the road and it makes you not be yourself. So that’s, that’s one of the things we would say with. So

Cheryl22:02

Angela, you are so right. It is so important to build a community that you want and not following the crowd, but our advice would be to start now because a dedicated community will grow with you.

We hope you enjoyed this episode, and join us next week as we continue our journey into the manifest by for now. Bye.

Angela22:29

Thank you for listening to this episode of Women of the Metaverse.

Cheryl22:34

You can find all information, links and people we talked about in the show notes on our website.

Angela22:40

If you have enjoyed this podcast, please comment and subscribe.

Cheryl22:44

Join us again in the next episode as we continue this exciting metaverse journey.