Community Acquisition Channels: Beyond "Build It and They Will Come"

News and Events Blog

AI-generated summary

mae argues that successful community growth requires a deliberate acquisition strategy, debunking the “Field of Dreams” myth that users will naturally join a built platform. Key points include:

  • Strategic Planning: Identify an “ideal member profile” based on values and motivations, not just demographics.
  • Content for Participation: Shift from attracting readers to attracting participants by fostering conversation and belonging.
  • Team Effort: Growth involves marketing, product, and community managers working together, not silos.
  • Culture First: Avoid growth strategies that erode trust or shared purpose.
  • Evolution: Early acquisition relies on personal invites; scaling requires systematic loops and integrations.

Community members engage with the post:

  • melody_maker asks about Facebook usage. mae clarifies that the ideal platform depends on where members already are, noting Facebook works well for hobby/local communities.
  • satonotdead praises the article’s long-term perspective. When mae asks for future content ideas, satonotdead suggests topics on niche/self-hosted community growth, AI for retention (summaries, semantic search), real-world small community case studies, and insights into Discourse’s internal team structures.

HAWK confirms Discourse is happy to share internal workflows, and mae welcomes the suggestions, offering to contact satonotdead to create a case study from their experience.

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Too many communities are launched with the “if you build it, they will come” mindset, only to find empty discussion boards and disengaged members. Successful community growth doesn’t happen by accident. You need a deliberate acquisition strategy that goes beyond vanity numbers and focuses on attracting the right people. 

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://blog.discourse.org/2025/10/community-acquisition-channels-beyond-build-it-and-they-will-come
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Blog posts would be nicer if authored by an identifiable person
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Good article. I am interested in using social media to promote my forum. I could use LinkedIn. I noticed you didn’t mention Facebook. Is there any reason why?

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Thanks!

No particular reason. The key is to go where your ideal members already spend their time, and for many communities (especially hobby and local ones) that’s Facebook.

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I understand and agree with everything that has been published. It takes time to internalize it, but in the end, it is the only thing that yields positive results for community and sustainable development.

Thank you for publishing and sharing this. It is always a pleasure to learn about perspectives from marketing teams at companies like Discourse.

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Thank you! Are there any other topics or types of content you’d like to see from the Discourse team?

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Good question, Mae. A few things I’d love to see:

  • Growth for niche and self-hosted communities: acquisition when we can’t rely on big social platforms, or our audience deliberately avoids them.
  • Using Discourse AI for retention, not just moderation: daily summaries, translations into minority languages, semantic search over community knowledge. Custom integrations.
  • Real case studies from small communities: what worked, what didn’t, with live cases and numbers.
  • How your own teams work: how they’re organized and where they connect day to day (marketing, product, community, engineering). Honestly, I’m curious about this one, and I completely understand if that’s internal by design.

I’ve been running and customizing a community on Discourse for a while, and I’m happy to share our experience if it’s ever useful.

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It’s not—we’re very happy to share. :slight_smile:

I like these ideas. I’m sure Mae will move things forward.

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These are all great and super helpful! I’ll keep them in mind for our upcoming content planning.

Amazing! I’ll send you a DM to get started on a case study.

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