Are you trying to get your community off the ground? Here are some steps you can take to help develop your community and make it self sustainable.Getting StartedCheck the list of international communities to make sure your community doesn't exist already. If it does, reach out to the lead Moderator! If you know of someone who should be on the list, but isn’t, let us know.If your country doesn't have an existing community, create a thread in the @music forum introducing yourself to see if anyone else from your country is on Genius.Start adding the most popular songs from your country and post them in your thread. Make sure to tag the songs under the name of your country.The BasicsGuides: We’ve compiled a few guides that cover almost everything on Genius. These will become an invaluable reference for your budding community. Please translate them and let a staff member know if you have any questions about the content. They’re listed in order of importance:How Genius Works: This guide will help you set a precedent for the quality of annotations, it is also helpful in giving an overview of what we do here. The Ten Annotation Commandments section in the bio is very important.Genius FAQ: This guide was created by the community for the community. It contains frequently asked questions. If you can’t find the answer to something chances are it’s in here.Formatting and Markdown: This guide contains all of the formatting tricks out there. How and when to italicize, bold, make a table, etc…How to Transcribe: This guide contains tips for making your transcriptions as high quality as possible. It also contains tips that will make it easier for you to transcribe.Q & A Guidelines: The Q & A portion of a song is one of the most accessible ways to contribute. It’s a fun and easy way to make sure all vital information gets on to the song page.How To Edit Metadata: A best practices guide for all things metadata.Album release calendars: Use this as a model when you create your own: January Album Release Calendar.

Outreach: The firehose is the most powerful tool in your arsenal for building a community. Make sure to add a _____ tag to all of the songs in your community. Once they’ve been tagged, go to the firehose (click on the IQ display in the top right corner), type in the name of that tag, and press the “Slice & Dice” button. You’ll see every bit of recent activity on the tagged pages. There are other filters that can be helpful, specifically the “___ tag, content creation, unreviewed” combination, or the “___ tag, editorial, unreviewed” combination. You can use this stream of activity to recruit new users and give them some direction.

Editorial quality: The best way to set a standard for editorial quality is to make an example that everyone can see. Choose a page from your tag that gets a lot of traffic and annotate it to perfection. Make sure it’s transcribed well and all of the metadata is filled out properly. Create a structured and information rich song bio and interesting, informative, well written annotations. Make the most out of the Q & A section. When people are confused about how they should be annotating, direct them to it. Remember, you’re setting the standard for quality in your community. Eventually all song pages should look as good as this one.

Before someone can be promoted to the role of editor they have to show that they are in tune with the guidelines. If you see someone making bad edits, or accepting annotations without editing them, send them a message. Always encourage communication between contributors. Having open lines of communication helps to ensure quality by creating a system of accountability.

Once you’ve got your guides translated and a network of contributors, it’s time to step it up a notch.AdvancedBecoming a moderator: Being a moderator is a big honor. It’s reserved for users on the site who show outstanding leadership. You can achieve it by organizing and directing initiatives in your community. If you’ve played a hand in setting the foundation of your tag, chances are you’re on the fast-track to moderatorship.

Creating a forum: Once you’ve got a decent network of users working to build the tag, it’s time to organize in a forum. Send a message to any community staff member and we’ll create a forum for you.

Branding and social media: Community created projects are welcome to use Genius branding on-site. If you’re going to create Genius branded stuff for on-site projects, please use the fonts, logo, and colors outlined in this branding guide. Genius branding should not be used for any unofficial social media accounts or external video projects. For a more detailed summary of the topic, see this thread.

Mentoring other users to editorship: Here is a thread that contains good information to help you effectively mentor a new user. The goal is to get the person you’re mentoring to think critically and eventually correct their own mistakes. It’s helpful to link them the guidelines and ask to see a brand new annotation. This will allow you to gauge how skilled they are. Give them feedback on their new annotation, it should be: interesting, informative, well written, and well formatted. Always ask yourself “will the reader learn something from this?” If you have any questions about mentoring please send a message to EwokABdevito.

Verifying artists: Moderators can verify users who are adding their own music to the site. If someone wants to be verified ask them to fill out the form on this page. If a user has annotations on other music, verify them as level 1. If they are only annotating their own music, verify them as level 2. If they are a really big deal and have lots of followers then they should be verified as level 3. If you have any questions about verification reach out to @StreetlightsMaintenanceOnce you've built a bit of momentum with your community it's time to utilize your forum!Pin the Genius FAQ to the top of your forumMake threads to organize work that needs to be done in the community.Make threads highlighting cool stuff being done by contributors in your community.That's it! Did we miss anything? Send a message to a community staffer if you want to add anything here or have any questions.