Community ≠ Marketing: Why We Need Go-to-Community, Not Just Go-to-Market
Community is the “new” moat (or so some have said), and it’s true: Having a community helps protect against competitor companies or products entering your territory. Whether that community is a group of power users, open source contributors, creators, or even just a brand (or franchise)’s super fans, it lends greater brand awareness, higher switching... Read More
Moats & Drawbridges - augment
In a world obsessed with moats, the open social web drops drawbridges
When Community Becomes Your Competitive Advantage
If a company can transition from simply delivering a product to building a community, they can unlock extraordinary competitive advantages and create a superior business model. In fact, strong communities help support the ideal business model. Specifically: • Enthusiastic members help acquire new members, resulting in lower customer acquisition costs and a tight viral loop. • Members of a community are loath to abandon it, resulting in increased member retention and therefore improved lifetime value. • Members of a community support other members in that community, resulting in high gross margins due to a lower cost of service. The result of this are very real network effects: as engagement grows, the community gets smarter, faster to respond, more globally available, and generates more value.
What Good Is ‘Community’ When Someone Else Makes All the Rules? (Published 2018)
Life online can offer us a sense of belonging in any number of virtual villages. But the power to control those spaces isn’t very communal at all.
The future of the internet is likely smaller communities, with a focus on curated experiences
As brands look to hold onto the internet of the past, the term “community” will become a loaded word.
Composable Trust, Part 3: 1 Community, 3 Sovereigns, No Landlords - Eclectic Corvine Muses
An architectural model to yield members, Rosters, and Venues sovereignty over their own domains, and none over each other’s.
Composable Trust, Part 3: 1 Community, 3 Sovereigns, No Landlords - Eclectic Corvine Muses
An architectural model to yield members, Rosters, and Venues sovereignty over their own domains, and none over each other’s.
Storming Reddit's Moat
A Guide to Reddit, Its Key Competitive Advantages, and How to Unbundle It
Communities are not fungible
There's a default assumption baked into how Silicon Valley builds products, and it tracks against how urban planners redesign neighbourhoods: that communities are interchangeable, and if you "lose" one, you can manufacture a replacement; that the value of a group of people who share space and history can be captured
"we're building rainforests, not skyscrapers" diverse ecosystems with lots of different life forms and symbiotic relationships and growth! @schlage.town got me feeling hopeful, talking about building an Atmospheric (sub) stack
Maybe the real moats are the drawbridges we'll build along the way? In my latest augment piece, I re-think "moats" for the open social web by seeing what @standard.site, @blackskyweb.xyz's Acorn, and bridges like @ap.brid.gy + @wafrn.net have done for the ecosystem.
Moats & Drawbridges
www.augment.inkI’m not sure aptroto and funding quite mix Traditional apps have easy moats (data/users), atproto apps don’t have moat unless it’s via features Vc funding pushes us towards are current world (few huge players that have “won”) A world where atproto has won is one of many small businesses
dietrich
🚨 the ecosystem is delicate #atmosphereconf there's a LOT of enthusiasm + talent, but: - no magical investor monies - grant options are THIN - many first time founders - many don't want investment - few other options - scary macro env it's a collective challenge we can just pay for things?
