During our weekly Saturday ritual event, called Incredible Stories Of Community Entrepreneurs, we had a little chat with Prateeksha Kedia. She is the founder of 3 different parenting and kids communities namely:

• Kids Activities and Worksheets - kids community with 57k members

• Kindergarten Activities and Worksheet - kids community with 1.18 lakh members

• Parenting, Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Beyond - parenting community with 3.8k members

In this exclusive conversation with Prateeksha, we got to know:

• How did she come up with the idea of kids community?

• What are the things she keeps in mind while collaborating?

• How is she dealing with the competition in the similar niche?

So let's get reading!

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How Did She Come Up With The Idea Of Kids Community?

Prateeksha started her first kids' community in September 2020, and the other one in December 2020. She has been into community building for just a year now and has accomplished building 3 very strong communities. Two of them are educational communities for kids and the third one is a parenting community.

She comes from a legal background and after 7-8 years of experience, she had a baby girl. And so, she had to quit her job. That caused her a lot of stress. So then, she decided to share her parenting experience with people. Hence, she started a YouTube channel.

And suddenly, to get connected with more people, she started a community on Facebook, for moms. As her daughter started growing up, she thought why not create a kids community where the members could share one-to-one worksheets and activity ideas for their kids.

Inspiration is very important! And Prateeksha's child is her inspiration. Every mom, who's going through the same phase as her, can get help. This was the reason she started the community.

She started sharing strong content in her kids' community. And that's what made her reach where she is right now. She has the highest no. of members in her kids' community, i.e. 1 lakh 18 thousand.

She is helping so many parents out there while being a mother on the path of parenting and raising a child herself. She is a huge inspiration to lakhs of parents out there today!

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How Does She Deal With The Competition In The Similar Niche?

This is one of the most important things, according to Prateeksha. Because in any profession, there is competition. Even in communities, there are all kinds of communities. Some of them are very good and some are just made for the sake of making them.

She thinks that one should be extremely focused on the content of the community. She's come across a lot of community builders who just create their communities to attract brand campaigns.

However, this is a short-term goal. If you stick to your content, you don't have to run to the brands. The brands will automatically come to you.

So, this is what Prateeksha is focusing on. She sticks to the content. And, she gives people what they want from the kids' community. For instance, parenting tips, educational tips, engagement ideas for kids, etc.

It's very difficult to retain members in a community because there is a lot of competition out
there. So, retaining them is important, but so is bringing new members.

Work on your content, that is the mantra for a growing community. The core of a community is content. Focus on the content, make the best content. Understand what your community needs and work on that. Content and community go hand in hand.

Apart from that, work on the engagement too! You should be motivating and pushing your members. It's all about supporting your members in their journey and making them feel that there is support for them forever.

What Ritual Does She Enjoy Sharing With Her Kids Community Members?

Her target audience is kids, so Prateeksha has made Saturday a fun day in her kids' community. The kids come to live in the community and they can do whatever activities they want. They can dance, sing songs, recite the rhyme, or even enact a drama performance.

The kids feel appreciated when they do these things. And other members of the kids' community like and comment to encourage them. The kids can also see how many people are watching. So, she makes sure that at least a few members watch the video. This is her favorite ritual.

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How Did She Break Her First Collaboration?

It was very difficult to crack the first collaboration for Prateeksha. When it happened in December 2020, it was not a paid collaboration, but a barter system.

If we get everything in one go, people don't value it enough. So, Prateeksha was satisfied. It was a learning experience because she had just startaed her community 2-3 months ago.

The collaboration was with a baby range product brand, and the brand founder was again a lady. She was also a mother and inspired by her daughter, she started the baby product range brand, keeping in mind babies' skincare and everything.

Anyhow, Prateeksha got connected with her and they had a long discussion. She was very happy with the idea behind the kids' community that Prateeksha was running. And so, she agreed to collaborate with her.

Since the lady was running a startup, she couldn't pay Prateeksha. It was her first time so Prateeksha went ahead with the barter system. They did the campaign and the brand lady was very happy.

This is how Prateeksha makes sure that people come back to her. After 4-5 months, she came back and she even agreed to pay Prateeksha this time. This was her first break!

After that, Prateeksha has done brand collaborations with many famous companies, like Nestle, Godrej, Dell, Johnson, Explorabox, Phillips, etc.

Whether it's for sharing skills and knowledge or for networking around causes, if you are someone who wants to create their own space, then check out the LikeMinds website now!