A meaningful shared community-building experience by Neena Jha Choudhary :

It was 2016 and it was almost a year being a hands-on mom and I was totally overwhelmed with the challenges that it brought. I was in search of a support system with women in a similar situation and I stumbled upon the idea of creating a WhatsApp community.

I did it with full enthusiasm and started engaging actively. I assumed that once I did the initial engagement, the community would run in an auto-pilot mode.
Within a month, the group became silent, I was demotivated and it all fell flat. I blamed the members and forgot about the whole experience.

Soon after, I joined a parenting community and I somehow knew what it would be like. Cut to 2021, this community is still going strong, adding members, engaging, and providing value to its audience. Such a contrast taught me the following:

Community building and engagement could be a brilliant marketing idea for individuals and businesses, provided it has:
✓ A clear objective
✓ A superb engagement strategy that answers "what's in it for me" for its members
✓ Time and patience for bringing in the required momentum
✓ Clear rules