In early 2024, Haliey Welch appeared on a street interview, and HawkTuah girl was born. Over the next year she built an empire launching a podcast, dating app, and eventually even lent her name to a branded cryptocurrency. However when that was characterized as a pump and dump scheme, Welch lost the support of her community overnight.
Stories like Welch’s are all too common. A meme rises to quick fame, people get caught up in the glamour of virality and forget who got them there. It’s easy to be an influencer for a year; it is incredibly difficult to be a successful career creator. The difference between who succeeds and who fades away is how effectively that creator can build, empower and involve their community.
Luck creates viral moments; communities build careers.
How do creators build a community?
Communities are built as a result of common interests, opinions and goals; to build a community means to know who you are, what you believe in and what you want to achieve. When mentoring newer creators, I have them start with a simple exercise. I ask them two questions:
- What’s the one thing you want to help the world with?
- Why is this important to you?
I have found creators are more likely to find success if they ask themselves: What does the world need that I can offer? When I launched my accounts, I felt the world needed to see someone who looked like me, who wasn’t perfectly polished, do big things. I wanted them to see someone doing the things others might have told them were inaccessible to them.
When you focus on the needs of your audience, you not only create content people want to consume, but you also establish trust. Trust is the cornerstone to loyalty and creates a fairly modern reality: someone who is both widely recognized and accessible. That accessibility is what makes digital relationships so powerful. A good creator is building living discussions and spaces for people to connect and thrive.
My entire career has been built on community. As a young, ambitious kid working in the tech field, I got my first big career break as a result of relationships I built on Twitter (now X). I was interested in Web analytics, reached out to one of the experts at the time and became friends. Soon I was attending (and then eventually running) events with seasoned experts in the field. When people ask me the power of empowering community in social media I often think about this part of my own history. Social media has made connecting with our experts and idols achievable. Your favorite creator is just a DM away.
This connection is essential to empowering a community. You have to engage with them. You have to talk with them, not at them.
How can creators involve their community?
There are small and large ways to meet with your community. One time a group of dads came up to me at an amusement park and asked for a photo. Soon after I watched these dads go back to a gaggle of nervous teenage girls and declare, “If we can ask her for a photo, you can too.” I burst out laughing, walked up to the girls myself and I asked them if I could take a photo with them. We made each others’ day
When you regularly engage with your community, a funny thing starts to happen: You begin to see just how talented, interesting and genuinely awesome they are. Some of my best friends I have met through engaging with people who followed me.
When floods struck parts of Texas, I was able to leverage one of my restaurant brand relationships to organize a meet and eat. People could come get a meal, with a portion of proceeds donated to charity, and hang out with me; additionally, I would match the funds raised. I particularly loved this experience because it created a way for us to connect around a cause. What was also amazing about this experience is how my community got involved to increase the event’s impact. People who followed me online and were not able to attend stepped up to triple the match, proving we are strongest when we worked together, offline and online.
And when the freeze hit Austin we worked together to raise funds for a local women’s shelter roof repair. We’ve helped fulfill teachers’ wishlists. We’ve helped sponsor a trunk or treat for kids in need. I didn’t do those things alone – we did them.
When you involve your community in the causes you care about you have the power to create real change together. My life is better and more full because I’ve connected with my community offline and involved them in the things I create.