Launching a token without a community in 2025 is like launching a restaurant without a menu or a waiter. You may have the best food but if no one is talking about it, sharing it, or standing behind it you are invisible. IDO participants look at not only the tech, but the vibe of the project. It’s in your Discord and Telegram, where energy is real, roles mean something, and momentum is built one comment at a time.
Why Announcements Alone Don’t Cut It Anymore
Those are the launch strategies of Web2: press releases, tweet storms, Medium blogs. In Web3, investors want to be a part of the conversation. I think they want to ask questions, they want to know how people are reacting to it, be involved early. Where is that place? In real-time chats, in reaction emojis, in public direct messages (DMs) to mods on Discord or Telegram.
Failures That Could’ve Been Prevented
We’ve seen so many projects die during IDO, not because the product is bad but because their discord is dead or their telegram is filled with bots. In 2024, one Solana-based project raised 1.2M and dumped immediately after IDO. The reason is because it never cultivated a loyal community. Another Ethereum IDO project died on the day of launch because their Telegram group was bombarded with spam, with no moderation. These cases show that without participation and moderation, even good technology cannot succeed.
This Is Where Your Target Audience Hangs Out
The Gen Z people and Web3 native your actual investors live in chat rooms, not mailing lists or quarterly earnings reports. They’re in your Discord roles? They’re grinding their way into whitelists. They’re waging meme warfare in your Telegram. They’re shilling your token reply threads on Twitter. If you’re not there, you’re missing the launchpad. Community-first projects raised more and had holders longer than either of these projects.
Choosing the Right Platform Mix for Your IDO
Discord vs. Telegram: Which Does What Best?
Discord: Built for Structure, Depth, and Community Roles
Discord gives your project a place to breathe. It’s not a linear Telegram chat, so you can build a real structure with channels for dev updates, discussions, memes, support, governance and more. Roles can be OGs, the first users, moderators and token holders, which means you are not just recruiting users. You’re doing segmentation and nurturing. For IDOs expected to be long-term, the loyalty tends to be in Discord.
Telegram: The Hype Machine You Can’t Ignore
When the noise shows up on Telegram, it’s sometimes exactly what you need, though. It is mobile-first, easy to join, and built for velocity. This benefits announcements, airdrop reminders, fast news, and KOL-driven hype cycles. Additionally, it is easier to moderate in real-time and can be used for large scale campaigns.
Best Practice: Use Both, But Assign Clear Roles
Telegram is the on-ramp where new people look in, get curious, get excited, and then they click through. Discord is the highway. That’s where passionate users spend their time and eventually become contributors and help you build long-term momentum. The best projects out there don’t pick one or the other but guide users through both.
When to Use Only One Platform (and When Not To)
Go Telegram-Only If You’re Tight on Time and Resources
Setting up Telegram groups is simpler and easier to scale. From the perspective of an early startup with little time or a team to spare, or simply a group that wants to test their IDO narrative, a well-run Telegram group is preferable over a half-baked Discord server. Moderation, onboarding, and sentiment tracking bots such as Combot or Chainfuel can help alleviate the need for a large moderation team.
Go Discord-First If You’re Launching a DAO or NFT Utility Token
Some IDOs don’t just involve token sales, but the creation of a decentralized network or NFT ecosystem. Discord can provide flexibility through gated channels, bots for rewards, and community voting/dev feedback mechanisms. It could then become your base of operations rather than just a chat.
Choose Based on Your Funnel and Goals
- Engagement Depth: For deep discussions and builder participation, choose Discord.
- Growth Speed: If you’re building for hype, viral loops on Telegram grow faster.
- Tech Stack & Automation: Discord enables complex bots and role-based logic, while Telegram is easier to set up.
- User behavior: Web3 traders and airdrop hunters tend to use Telegram, while DAO participants and long-term holders prefer Discord.
Building From Zero: Setting Up Before the World Sees You
Design Your Server Like a Launchpad, Not a Chatroom
Your Discord or Telegram shouldn’t be dismissed so easily. It should feel like your ecosystem’s start.
Structure Creates Stickiness
Establish categories regarding particular needs like “#announcements,” “#how-to-buy,” “#roadmap,” and “#support.” General chat requires another distinct category. Use pinned messages with embedding your tokenomics together with FAQs right inside the platform. Put your documents there as well. To value early users, for automated onboarding on Discord, deploy bots such as MEE6 or Dyno, and create custom roles such as “Genesis Supporter” or “Whitelist Qualified”.
Design With Conversion in Mind
In just about the first 30 seconds, every new user should know just what to do. On Discord, a #start-here guide can be set up to walk them through your vision, token access, and community participation. On Telegram, pin a short, clear intro message with clickable links to your DEX listing. Include your whitepaper too. These details cause lurkers to be changed into participants.
Launch With a Core Crew: How to Seed Community Culture
Invite-Only Genesis Phase
Seed your server among trusted early supporters before it hits public radar. Founders, advisors, early community members, and micro-influencers comprise these supporters. Establish the mood for conduct and atmosphere, maintain confidentiality, and allow channel trials. These “signal carriers” will ensure quality when noise enters afterward.
Give Early Roles, Start Early Rituals
Call these initial participants “Genesis Members” or “Founding Whales” for building initial engagement. Run lightweight rituals like “Drop your meme,” “Ask of us anything,” or “Pitch of your shill strategy” threads. New users tend to follow in that suit if that early culture sets such a noisy, a spammy trajectory. You build quality from day one, if it’s playful and smart. Clarity in addition helps you to build quality.
Activating Growth: Funnels That Actually Drive Quality Members
Twitter → Telegram → Discord: The Community Funnel That Works
You Can’t Just Wait for People to Find You
Even the best community setup needs a traffic engine. For most successful IDOs, awareness starts on Twitter/X through a multi-channel funnel sending users to Telegram regarding fast updates. Then the funnel filters the users who have high intent into Discord in which the actual ecosystem lives.
Breakdown of a Proven Funnel Strategy
- Twitter/X: You should announce your campaign through Twitter/X then drop the teaser content and then run explainers. “Join the Telegram for early access” is what to say.
- Telegram: Conduct promotions using offers such as “first 500 get whitelist access” or “airdrop quests go live in 24 hours.” CTA: “Finish the Discord task to qualify.”
- Discord: For the verified wallets, funnel the active users into the token-gated areas or into the specific channels like #proof-of-contribution or #whitelist-tasks.
The channels feed into each other. This layered approach does let you capture those curious lurkers there on Twitter and convert all of them into group members there on Telegram. It also transforms all of these members into contributors for the long term on Discord.
Bonus Tactic: Integrate Galxe or Zealy With Discord
Launch into interactive campaigns which reward the users whenever they complete these social tasks, engage within community threads, or invite other users. Discord bots such as Collab, Zealy, or Grape Protocol. Land allow for you to issue roles and distribute quests. Land can even verify wallet holdings which in turn makes engagement into eligibility for airdrops or whitelist tiers.
Airdrop Design That Doesn’t Attract Freeloaders
Not All Airdrops Are Equal
Airdrops that someone executes in a bad way bring in users and they disappear at the moment they claim tokens. But when designers design them just right, airdrops can activate and then refer to and engage communities stickily that builds actual IDO momentum.
Tiered Airdrop Framework That Works
- Tier 1: Basic rewards are for users who follow Twitter as well as join Telegram.
- Tier 2: Contributors can earn multipliers when they invite others or engage in Discord or complete Zealy/Galxe quests.
- Tier 3: Core Builders , Token holders get exclusive NFT badges or long-term staking rewards for making meaningful contributions such as memes, dev help, or mod support.
Community-Based Eligibility Filters
Discord’s role-based gating makes sure that the top-tier rewards are going only to true contributors. Tools like Collab. By Land and Vulcan, wallet roles can automatically be verified. On Telegram, Shieldy or Combot, bots filter spam for real engagement rewards. This keeps your campaign aligned with value, clean, also scalable.
Pro Tip: Gamify the Airdrop Journey
In order to make the process feel like a community game, show leaderboard rankings, give time-based streak bonuses, or allow for “level-ups” in Discord rather than a free-for-all giveaway. When users compete and engage, a self-feeding loop is created.
Want to Build a High-Impact Community for Your IDO?
Live IDO Phase: Managing Chaos Without Losing Trust
Setup for Launch Day: Channels, Bots, and Real-Time Handoff
Launch Day Is Game Day You Need a Playbook
An IDO day isn’t just about launching that token. It’s about handling the pressure, the questions and the hype coming in from hundreds (or thousands) of investors. When community flow is gone, confusion creeps in. And confusion kills confidence.
Launch Infrastructure Must-Haves
- Discord: Create a channel for #live-launch, mute all others, and assign mods to answer common questions.
- Telegram: Pin the key messages with price, vesting, contract address, and update as questions come in.
- Bots & Autoresponders: Discord bots will be preloaded with replies to common questions such as “How to buy” / “When unlock” / “Is this the official token?”
Don’t Forget Internal Communication
If you have a private mod room or team-only Telegram, you can make a quick call on things like moderating spam or an announcement to prevent a wrong message from going out at the wrong time.
Add-on Tip: Activate ‘Launch Ambassadors’
Recruit 5-10 trusted early users to answer common questions, welcome new users, and post updates alongside the mods until you are seen as legitimate, preventing panics.
How to Prevent Panic, Scams, and Rug Rumors
Clarity Is the Best Defense Against Fear
Nothing scares retail more than silence. If the gas fees are high, or your website is down, it’s always doom. The solution? Overcommunicate.
Crisis-Proofing Your Chat Strategy
- Provide updates every 15 to 30 minutes regardless of changes in status.
- Create “Info Mods” who ONLY share confirmed updates, without responses or speculation.
- Frequently warn users with messages like: “No one will DM you first” and “Only trust pinned messages.”
Guard Against Fake Token Listings and Spoof Accounts
Bots are common in IDOs. Post your contract address repeatedly across all channels. Prevent Telegram from autolinking fake token addresses by including emojis or other formatting characters. If you can, whitelist your token on listing aggregators such as DEXTools or GeckoTerminal shortly before your token launches.
Last Mile: Enable Slow Mode During Listing Moments
Use “slow mode” on busy Discord or Telegram channels. This limits how often messages are sent, and it makes discussions more manageable as new buyers are prevented from missing important information amid a flood of messages.
Sustaining the Energy: What Happens After the Token Is Live
Convert Hype Into Long-Term Engagement
An IDO Isn’t the Finish Line It’s the First Milestone
A common mistake? Teams going dark after the listing. Airdrop’s done, token’s live. Suddenly you look at Discord and it’s like a graveyard. But your community’s still there. If you don’t activate them, they drift, and investors want utility. Contributors want acknowledgment. Newcomers want clarity.
Here’s how to keep them plugged in:
- Open the #governance or #proposals channels: Let users submit feedback or vote on next steps.
- Launch staking or utility features: Share walkthroughs inside Discord and Telegram to keep holders engaged.
- Introduce weekly “State of the Token” updates: A simple 5-minute roundup from your core team posted as a pinned message can go a long way in maintaining trust.
Build Loyalty Through Recognition and Access
Tag your contributors under roles such as “OG Holder”, “Bug Hunter”, or “Ambassador”. You can also create token-gated channels or roles using Discord bots like Collab. Land, Vulcan or Grape Protocol holders can enter this flow. Incentivizing user-generated content is the fastest way to build identity-driven loyalty. You can also build it by hosting exclusive AMAs and recognizing active voices publicly in addition to money.
Upgrade Your Community Into a Product Ecosystem
A Token With No Ecosystem Gets Forgotten
If you want people to stick around, it helps to keep your Discord/Telegram servers alive. Offer things to do in them, not just announcements and notifications.
- Weekly quests including bounty hunts or content competitions requiring specific tasks follow the IDO.
- Russian, Chinese, Turkish, Spanish subgroups of your Telegram channel: you should go where your holders are.
- Include dev logs, proposals, governance dashboards, and AMAs in your Discord flow.
- Gamification of community participation through XP levels, reputation points, and unlockable roles.
Advanced Playbooks from Real-World IDO Successes
Jupiter (Solana): Controlled Chaos With Purpose
However, Jupiter didn’t just build the product, they also built the culture, with their Discord split into degens, builders and researchers, depending on the user’s skills. They introduced token-gated “alpha rooms” for short attention spans, and gave the community constant updates leading up to the airdrop. Mods were online 24/7 based on time zones, with community sentiment feeding directly into the developer’s priorities.
Dymension: Role-Gating With a Purpose
Dymension nailed role-based participation in their Discord with roles like “Builders” and “Early Believers”, and unique content, missions, and governance channels per role. Search integrations for Zealy featured live leaderboards, while during the IDO, the team utilized pre-programmed bot messages on Telegram to combat scams and improve information clarity.
WEN: Meme-First, Spam-Proof
WEN’s chaotic Telegram strategy was carefully executed: spam was kept low by a 24/7 rotation of mods, FUD was quickly countered, and hype was redirected to meme contests. They avoided over-engineering, and taught their mod squad to pivot conversations’ emotional direction in real time with humor, pinned responses and GIFs.
RealT: Discord as Support Hub
Discord chat room was particularly useful for RealT as an informal support desk, education center, and investor portal, with some users merely holding tokens and others acting as property managers. Weekly Q&As and deep dives helped reduce churn while improving comprehension of real-world asset-backed tokens. Onboarding flows, property snapshots, and KYC reminders were added to dedicated channels.
Conclusion
Successful IDOs are not just about the tokenomics or a listing on a decentralized exchange. You need a community to build trust, gather attention, and to create an environment in which your project can thrive. Discord and Telegram are the beating heart of every Web3 ecosystem. From structuring your channels and bot flows, to managing the chaos of launch day and finally helping your community to grow and engaged long after your token sale has ended, your ability to create, grow and manage these community spaces will determine your launch success. For IDO founders who want to ensure it is executed well, Blockchain App Factory provides end-to-end IDO Marketing services to help the project build high visibility communities, smart funneling, and build hype during and after the IDO.
