Your audience is more than just a collection of views and likes. They’re your support, your fans, and your community. Building a superfan community means creating a space where your most loyal followers feel invested. And platforms like YouTube and Discord offer the perfect ecosystem to nurture this connection. But how do you integrate the two platforms? Let’s break it down.
The Why: Building a Superfan Community
So what is a superfan community?
It’s a dedicated group of people who not only consume your content, but also are emotionally invested in you and your brand. These are the fans that go beyond watching and liking your videos on YouTube.
These are the people who would support your channel, actively engage with it, support you financially through Memberships, buying merch, or donating on platforms like Patreon.
Having dedicated fans is not only cool, but it also cements your place as a staple creator on YouTube. So, building a superfan community is great for long-term growth.
1. Engagement Over Time
Superfans stick around. Unlike casual viewers who come and go based on trends, or brief interest in a topic you’re talking about in a video, superfans remain dedicated to you as a person. They are watching because they care about you as a creator. They are your most consistent audience.
2. Monetization Opportunities
Having a lot of fans that stick around gives you plenty of opportunities for sustainable income. It can be through YouTube Memberships (which we can help set up), Patreon, merch sales, sponsored content, because superfans are the ones most likely to financially support your content. They’ll buy the funky t-shirt, donate to your charity stream, and pay for exclusive content. They are willing to support you as a creator because they love you. And that’s an awesome feeling.
3. Word of Mouth
They’re your ambassadors. When your audience is genuinely invested in you, they’ll share your videos with their friends. World-of-mouth referrals become the most effective way to grow, especially when it comes from a trusted source. They talk about you, your videos, and introduce you to new potential followers.
What happens when a controversy strikes? They will be your support. Your superfans are your safety network.
4. Community-Driven Content
When you have a big community that genuinely cares about you, you become their leader. Superfans often make content about you (fan art, inside-jokes in a form of memes, or reactions to your videos). This way they offer insights into what’s working and what’s not in your content, helping you evolve.
Combining YouTube and Discord
Before diving straight into the how, it’s important to understand why YouTube and Discord work so well together.
YouTube is your main hub for videos and distributing content, where you pull in your audience.
Discord, on the other hand, is where the personal connection happens. That is the place where your most loyal fans can talk to you and each other. Discord offers a sense of community, where fans can share fanart, memes, or have general discussions about everything.
A lot of popular YouTubers have their own Discord servers. PewDiePie has one with over 186K members. That might not sound like much compared to his sub count, but it’s still quite a lot of people. Others who lead successful community of superfans include: Markiplier (with over 7K members), CaseOh (with over 618K members), Method (with over 35K members), penguinz0 (with over 71K members), Let Me Explain Studios (with over 177K members) and so many others.
Now onto the how:
Step 1: Create a Discord Server
Building a superfan community on Discord starts with a well-organized server (that has clear rules). The goal is to make a safe space that feels like an extension of your YouTube channel (a place where your most dedicated fans can come together and interact with you on a deeper level).
What to Do:
- Set up dedicated channels: divide your server into sections based on interest. For example: general discussion, fan art, behind-the-scenes, event planning, gameplay strategy, fan theory, etc. Organization helps in keeping conversations focused.
- Introduce custom emojis: if there’s anything certain it’s the fact that people love emojis. Customize your server with them (if your content has inside jokes, memes - turn them into emojis).
- Custom roles: discord allows you to set custom roles for the people inside your dedicated server. Give members special roles based on engagement (you can even give special roles to your Patreon members as a part of a package). Add more permissions to ‘higher’ roles.
- Mods: have dedicated people to oversee your channel. Set up clear rules and boundaries and make sure they are enforced, because oftentimes un-supervised discord communities might turn toxic.
- Make use of bots for automation: bots can help manage the server, welcome new members, assign roles, and even host fun games or polls. Automating some tasks means you can focus more on content creation and less on server management.
Step 2: Drive Traffic from YouTube to Your Discord
While Discord is great for actual interaction with your community, you need YouTube to drive that initial audience. It’s not enough to simply have a Discord server (even if it’s set to public), you need to first get your audience to care enough to join, and second - to talk about the server.
So, how do you do all that? Simple:
- Mention Discord in your videos: Seems obvious and straightforward, and it works wonders. In every video or live stream, make a point to mention your Discord server. Use a call-to-action method (talk about exclusive content, direct interaction, or just fun conversations with similar-minded people). Be sure to mention the benefits of joining: early access, for example, or behind-the-scenes content, live chats, or even special fan events like movie nights.
- Link Discord in the description: Include your Discord invite link in every video description, making it easily accessible for viewers.
- Cross-promote with YouTube Shorts: Shorts are a great way to remind them of your Discord. Share small clips of what’s going on there usually, it works wonders.
Step 3: Exclusive Content and Events
Once the structure is done, the next step is to keep your community invested. This is where YouTube Memberships and exclusive Discord content really shine. When you combine the two platforms, you create a dynamic flow of content that’s both public and private.
- Exclusive Member-Only Events: host special Discord-only events that tie back to your YouTube content. For example, if you’re releasing a big video, host a watch party in Discord where fans can react with you in real-time. You could also host Q&A sessions, game nights, or live commentary on your videos for members.
- Behind-the-scenes content: show your creative process, behind-the-scenes bloopers, or sneak peeks of upcoming projects exclusively in Discord. Give your super fans an insider look at your channel that they can’t get from YouTube.
- Member Shoutouts and Roles: highlight your top supporters or community builders in your Discord server. Create special roles or recognition for your most engaged fans, like Superfan, Top Commenter, or Event Organizer. You can take it a step further and make special channels available only after gaining some of these roles, where you can post even more unique content.
Step 4: Communication Between YouTube and Discord
To maintain a thriving, cross-platform fanbase, you need to keep up with the communication between YouTube and Discord. That is to make it easier for your fans to stay connected.
- Use Discord as a live extension of your YouTube content: for example, share exclusive content drops or announcements directly in your Discord server before they go public on YouTube.
- Host regular AMAs (Ask Me Anything): once a month or every few weeks, host an AMA in your Discord where fans can ask questions, chat with you, and provide feedback. Pair this with a YouTube live stream to maximize interaction.
Using Discord and YouTube together to build something greater is a tricky task, but it’s possible and it pays off in the long run. The effort you put in will be rewarded with a community of dedicated fans that will have great experiences within this community.
YouTube is where you meet your viewers, sure, but Discord is where you create and deepen lasting connections. If you can effectively bridge these two platforms, you’ll have something much more than just superfans. And that is worth the effort.
