Identify an Issue
An issue is a singular matter of attention. Issues can only exist with a concerned audience. Without that concerned audience, there is no issue
There are a near-infinite number of issues within any given sector. A community benefits by understanding the most widely held issues within any sector and bringing these issues into the community.
There are four types of issues you want to know about within your sector.
The biggest issues at present. These can be identified by mentions in mainstream media or frequency of mentions on social media platforms.
Controversial issues. in most communities, there is usually something specific that divides members. Who or what is the lightning rod issue that divides people interested in that topic?
New issues/rising issues. What are the new issues that are gaining attention? They might not be the biggest yet, but they are new and relevant. These issues will usually be on the cusp of political, economic, societal, or technological changes.
Emotive issues. This is similar to controversy but with a range of emotions beyond the negative. They might be related to upcoming events, products, or realization of goals.
Here is the main methodology for prioritising issues:
Google Trends to identify and compare various issues into a simple ranking.
Identify the major blogs in the sector and review what they are discussing.
Visit existing communities that are relevant to their niche.
Bubble Fallacy
Many brands build communities around concepts that are entirely irrelevant to the audience they’re trying to reach. Brands (or those who work for brands) live in their own bubble. They see the brand as very important because they must: they work for it.
The majority of communities that fail right now do so because they haven’t properly conceptualized. They haven’t properly reviewed what their audience is really interested in. They build their community about themselves, and not about the audience they’re trying to reach.
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