Build an engaged Discord community: understand the platform step-by-step

By Saumya Gupta

The human race started off with individuals who went on to make communities for their own needs. From their survival patterns, the importance of having people around was very visible. Over the course of time, we came up with festivals and social gatherings. People met, chatted, played games, showed off their achievements, and counted their failures.

When the internet was launched, it wasn’t as perfect as it is considered to be today. It was only known for basic chatting and other networking features. As it evolved, gamers entered the virtual world and found it difficult to communicate while playing multiplayer games. As some say, they used archaic software like Ventrillo or Team Speak to engage in real-time voice chat. This was done to coordinate with team members while gamers went on their expeditions to save civilizations or defeat unwanted creatures in the virtual world. So, to relieve them of this dilemma, Discord was launched in 2015 for creating their community.

What is Discord, you might ask?

Discord is an online platform known for building communities virtually, i.e. over the internet. Users have the option to chat on Discord through Text Messages, Voice and Video Chat. The platform supports various types of media, like files, emojis, photos, audio, and videos. These can be sent privately or on a channel that has thousands of members. Yes, you read it right. One of the features that make the discord app unique is its capacity to hold thousands of members on its server. On top of this, discord doesn’t slow down if there’s heavy activity. Turns out that its creators Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy have worked for years to make this platform as simple and fast for its users as possible.

Image Source: Discord

How to build a server on Discord?

It’s easy to build your own server on discord. We’ll take baby steps, and we’ll show the way:-

1. Download the app

Yes, the first step is to know from where you can access the platform. And when you’d click on those links, that search would be automatically over for you. That’s how we do things at Hobo.Video. We make sure that anyone who visits our website is able to find things easily. Hobo gets the research part over for you.

2. Make an account

Easy and fast. All you need is an E-mail ID for backup. Fill in the information and you’ve got yourself an account on Discord.

Build an engaged community on Discord: understand the platform step-by-step
Image Source: Discord

3. Create your Server

Press the ‘+’ button on the right side of the discord app (if you’re using it on your mobile). When using discord web, look for the ‘+’ button on the left side of the page.

Build an engaged community on Discord: understand the platform step-by-step
Image Source: Discord

4. Invite people, expand your Discord community

A community requires people, be it a small one or as big as a gamer’s hub. Once you make the server, you can share the code anywhere. Invite your family and friends, or business partners, or complete strangers. It’s all up to you. Once you have your server, you can make it private or public. When you make your server public, anyone can search for it on discord. That’s not the case with a private discord server. A private server is invite-only.

5. Promote the server

If you’re a brand that’s looking to create a community and promote its products, then use discord to advertise. Share the invite across different platforms, asking people to join. And how would you ask them to join? Introduce special giveaways for those who join your discord server. Or you can give special discounts to them. Other ideas include shoutouts to influencers and pre-sale opportunities to your members. Use such marketing strategies, and expand the member count on your server.

6. Create channels and organize them

Another feature that makes discord unique is its ability to make many discord channels within a server. Now, why do you make channels within a server? To divide interest and activities on the server. For instance, you have a brand promotion server on discord. You can create channels for marketers, influencers, web content creators, graphic designers, and much more. These channels can be text as well as voice channels. Apart from brands, gamers create such channels to communicate on different levels whenever required. Some popular gaming servers are dedicated to Among Us, Call of Duty, and  PUBG.

7. Assign roles

When a server becomes responsible for thousands of members, it might and will complicate its maintenance for the creator. But the discord app has a solution for this too. The creator here is able to create user tiers with different access to channels. They can also choose moderators and assign them certain responsibilities. If you have a set of rules, moderators can help implement those across channels. They can also remove content that does not obey community standards. In addition, they can ban users from entering the server in the future. It releases pressure from one person. This also helps to maintain the positive environment of the server, which in turn impacts user experience and gives a greater sense of community to discord users.

8. Make your server happening!

If networking stops at any point, people would either leave the server or forget that it ever existed. So, to keep things alive, one needs to introduce interesting activities. Members can be involved in Q/A sessions, weekly gaming events, competitions, and much more. The bottom line is to socialize, so do it in whichever way possible. It helps to keep the server running, and no one gets bored.

Discord and its popularity with Gen Z

Online chatrooms and forums have been there for a very long time. Apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and other similar ones focused on connecting with people one already knows. Then platforms like Reddit were set up to interact with strangers. But we all know that didn’t work well.

So, when Discord entered the market, its founders worked on making this platform a safe and interactive space for everyone. There’s no follower count since thousands of people can join the server. Discord focuses on building a community and connecting people. And why is it so popular with Gen Z? Because this generation practically grew up on the internet. It’s known as the social media age.

Build an engaged community on Discord: understand the platform step-by-step
Image Source: Discord

Discord application attracts influencers and creators from all over the world. Likewise, the platform has become a major hub to connect with people. If you’re looking to promote your brand, you might as well use this application. It lets brands connect with their audience on a direct and personal level. This leads to brand popularity, paid subscriptions, and product demand all at once.

Is Discord good for brand promotion?

Gen Z is the social media age. On top of it, the COVID-19 pandemic forced things to go online. This proved beneficial for Discord as it recorded its highest peak of 10.6 million concurrent users in October 2020. And along with Gen Z, Millennials too have found Discord to be a space where an engaged community can grow.

It’s a great place to promote the brand using real values and exclusive sales. A brand that builds its server might announce giveaways and prizes to those who join the server, maybe within 1 day of their announcement. People get excited, and an active community establishes over time.

The platform is also capable of handling many more unique things. Discord bots can be created on any server. These bots act like moderators and ease the process in the long run.

Build an engaged community on Discord: understand the platform step-by-step
Image Source: Droplr

Conclusion

It’s understandable how a simple discord login can turn out to be an adventurous experience for anyone. With the capacity to hold members in such large numbers, this app is looking at more such future engagements. Discord servers and channels organize the whole process. Discord bots moderate these channels by maintaining the server and making it a safe space. Creating an account is easy, and using this app is interesting. For brands, it’s an opportunity they wouldn’t want to miss. With everyone using the Discord app, there’s a chance that social media engagement here can prove to be very beneficial.

Hobo.Video brings blogs to its readers and keeps them updated at all times! We encourage you to check out our platform. Hobo is a community-driven Social Marketplace. We work for Gen Z and millennials to make online video shopping easier for them. And since we know how community building is important these days, we work on the same strategy. On Hobo.Video, you get to be a part of the larger community. A community that works on brand collaborations and influencer marketing strategy. We have communities that are dedicated to specific topics such as beauty and lifestyle, health and fitness, travel blogging, and much more. Visit our website and explore!

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