The Telegram community might have fewer users than WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, but its influence isn’t something to be overlooked. It’s been a favored marketing tool across the business world for years, with many blockchain projects preferring it over more traditional social media platforms.
Unlike Twitter and other public channels where people can tune in 24/7, Telegram allows marketers to add subscribers one by one over weeks or months, making Telegram groups highly effective when it comes to building a loyal community around a product or project.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the four steps that can turn a group of Telegram users into an engaged and active community.
Steps in Making an Engaged Telegram Community
Step 1: Choose Your Goals Wisely
If you don’t define your goals before you begin building your Telegram community, you have no one but yourself to blame if things go wrong. So let’s start by figuring out what exactly it is that will make your community so effective in the first place. Here are four good reasons why people should join your group:
- Updates: Eager fans want to get notified whenever there’s something new and exciting going on with the project.
- Contests: Exclusive giveaway, anyone? Sweeping participation-based contests are a great way of getting people involved while ensuring that they see your posts regularly.
- Answers: Users who can’t find an answer to their question in FAQs would like some assistance from Telegram chat admins (TAs).
- News: A well-curated news feed serves as a great resource for those who need to get up-to-date on all project developments.
- Communication: If your business model depends on customer feedback, communication is key. Try creating polls and chats where people can voice their opinions about different aspects of the project, share their suggestions and ideas with the team, etc.
Step 2: Identify the Right People in Your Audience
What is it about the Telegram community as a whole that makes them more engaged? Is it their interests, or maybe demographics? Having analyzed hundreds of Telegram community over the past year or so, we’ve noticed that people join and engage in chats based on two types of criteria: interest and social identity.
Step 3: Create Your Group & Make Sure It’s Discoverable
Pretty much every chat you’ll join on a Telegram community will have a similar structure: an introduction message from the creator, the list of rules, and instructions on how to participate in the group. This is what it should look like:
But that’s only half of it. If your goal is to build a thriving community — you’ll also need people to find out about it. There are two main ways (that we know of) for growing your audience on Telegram: word-of-mouth recommendations/invites from existing members, and ad campaigns in relevant channels.
Step 4: Take Advantage Of Unique Capabilities Provided By The Platform
One notable advantage that the Telegram community has over the competition is its open platform and the flexibility that it provides to chat creators. The core idea here is to take a concept that defines your community and build an app for it, especially if there isn’t one already available on the market.
For example, you can create a bot-powered contest with a Leaderboard feature instead of just posting leaderboards in each group thread (which would turn into spam if done repeatedly). And you can have Telegram notify members whenever they are assigned a rank in any of these contests!
Strategies in Building an Engaged Telegram Community
By now, you should have a pretty good understanding of the long-term value that Telegram can provide to your chat. So let’s talk about some strategies for building and maintaining an engaged community on social media!
Become Part Of The Community — Join A Channel Related To Your Interest
A great way to kickstart your Telegram experience is to find channels dedicated to topics that are relevant to the interests and needs of your audience (e.g., if you run a crypto exchange, join groups with other members in the crypto space).
Give Back To The Community With Exclusive Content And Special Offers
While we’re not sure exactly how things work behind closed doors at Telegram HQ (if you are an employee there and you’re reading this please send us a DM) — it seems like official groups are gaining a lot of weight here.
Control The Conversation With Moderation Tools And Auto-moderation Bots
By now, you should have a pretty good idea about what your target audience wants and expects from you. That being said — it’s time to consider different tools that will help with moderating the overall experience and making sure that people are coming back for more (and sending updates your way).