A Discord community can be an invaluable asset for AI startups looking to foster engagement with their audience, which can range from consumers to individual developers or companies. With the rise of AI, many successful AI companies like OpenAI, Midjourney, and Stability AI, as well as developer tools like ElevenLabs and Hugging Face or character creators such as Character AI and JanitorAI, have established thriving Discord communities. Platforms like Discord facilitate interaction, support, and collaboration, creating a vibrant ecosystem around the product. In this post, we'll explore the essential steps and strategies to build and manage a successful Discord community for AI companies.

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Why Set Up a Discord Server?

Discord offers a versatile platform for building a community that enables real-time interaction, making it ideal for AI companies seeking to connect with their users at multiple touchpoints. Here are some key reasons to set up a Discord server:

- Real-Time Communication and Engagement: Facilitate instant feedback, support, and discussions for quick iterations and improvements. Offer a direct line of communication to your team.
- Community Building: Encourage community spirit where members can share ideas, collaborate on projects, and form bonds beyond transactional interactions both with your company and each other.
- Knowledge Sharing: Share educational resources, host workshops, and foster learning among members.

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How to structure your server

Structuring your Discord server effectively ensures it's easy to navigate and keeps members engaged. Organize your server into clear categories and channels to cater to diverse interests and making it easy for community members to control notification settings and stay updated with the topics they’re interested in.

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Common Categories Include:

• Announcements: For official updates, product releases, and news.
• General: Casual discussions, introductions, and off-topic conversations.
• Technical: Deep dives into topics like prompt engineering, APIs, and model training.
• Feedback: Channels like #feature-requests and #bug-reports to gather user insights.
• Support: Dedicated help desks where members can seek assistance.
• Showcase: A space for users to showcase AI-related projects and achievements.

As a general rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to keep your channels limited, expanding them only when necessary to prevent many channels with little interaction.

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How to keep your audience engaged 

A thriving community is an engaged one. Here are some strategies to maintain active participation:

• Founder Office Hours: Schedule regular Q&A sessions with company founders to offer direct interactions.
• Educational Talks: Invite top-tier creators or developers to share insights and experiences.
• Contests and Challenges: Host competitions with enticing prizes to stimulate creativity and engagement.
• Recognitions and Perks: Offer rewards like free credits or unique roles to the most active members. These could be Discord roles, but also (paid) moderator roles. 
• Responsive Interaction: Actively respond to questions, suggestions, and feedback to foster a sense of belonging and respect.

All the leading communities incorporate at least some of these strategies. A good example is Midjourney, which frequently invites renowned digital artists to share their expertise, while also facilitating direct interactions between the founder and the community. Another exemplary strategy is the contest by AI music app Suno, which awarded $100,000 to creators of top songs using their platform. This initiative not only boosted community engagement but also organically increased sharing, achieving reach that would have likely cost more through traditional advertising.

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How to Manage the Discord Server

Effective management is crucial to maintaining a healthy and vibrant community:

• Set Clear Rules and Guidelines: Ensure all members understand the community standards and etiquette.
• Appoint Moderators: Select active members to help moderate discussions and maintain harmony.
• Regular Maintenance: Review channel activity periodically to re-organize or retire inactive spaces.
• Engagement Analytics: Use Discord analytics tools to track activity levels and member interactions, guiding strategy adjustments.
• Feedback Loop: Continually gather member feedback to refine community features and dynamics.

Need some inspiration? Check out our blog on top Discord AI servers.

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Managing Customer Support in Discord

Once you've launched your product, you'll often find that a large part of your community engagement will revolve around users having questions or issues. Ideally, you want to set up a structure where users are encouraged to ask general questions in open, public channels. This approach allows everyone to benefit from shared knowledge, and both community members and staff can contribute answers. For more private questions, setting up a dedicated ticketing system is advisable, allowing users to directly connect with your support team. Tools like Mava can help streamline this process by automating responses to public questions and integrating a ticketing system within Discord that also syncs with other communication channels like email and chat. This ensures smooth, cohesive support across platforms

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Conclusion

Building a Discord community for an AI company requires strategic planning, ongoing engagement, and effective management. By structuring your server thoughtfully and adopting diverse engagement tactics, you can create a dynamic platform that enhances innovation, collaboration, and user satisfaction. Discord not only serves as a communication tool but also as a bridge connecting AI founders, developers, and users in meaningful ways.

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