3 Key Things to Know About Discord

The future of communities is exciting.

If your target demographic is young, tech savvy and your brand has a deeper sense of involvement through purpose or long-term investment in content marketing (e.g. Patagonia, Red Bull), it might make sense to explore being one of the first to move and create a presence on the platform.

As a platform, here are the key things to know:

⚡️ Definitions

Here are the basics:

Server: your community, like a Facebook group but with real-time chat and a tonne of customisations available.

Roles: each user would have one or more roles assigned to them on sign up. Sometimes you can pick your own, sometimes it's based on your activity, depending on what the server owner configures.

Channels: different chat rooms in the server for different topics, which some or all people can see depending on their role.

Bots: anyone can build a Discord bot that a server owner can use in their server to do things automatically like kick people if they swear, captchas on sign up, track how much people contribute in the server, track how many people you invite in – even push fun facts or Dad jokes into channels!

⚡️ It's two-way and real-time

On the social platforms you're used to, you post from a brand account and turn your attention elsewhere to let the engagement roll on in.

On Discord, it's a live chat room where people expect you to interact or guide events regularly.

⚡️ You're a person, not a brand

There aren't brand accounts as such, but usernames.

Trust and authenticity is everything so as people get to know you as a person, you'll form a longer and deeper relationship with them than you would by piggybacking current affairs for content on Twitter.

This isn't just relevant to Discord, but crypto communities as a whole.

Things are very transactional, so the best way to set out your intentions for your project is to give something in good faith. Keep giving value whether that's making your Discord useful or fun to be in, before you can expect anything back.

Ultimately, a community is more than just a Discord server. It's a place to develop ideas with people who use your product – rather than being the product itself.

It's never been easier to get feedback in real-time on something you're building or releasing, usually from the minority who are passionate.

These are the people you want to focus on and nurture.

Imagine if brands had their own real-time community of their best customers who have a vested interest in product development?

It's a real-time sounding board of your target audience.

What could be more useful?