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.
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
Online communities and social communities: a primer
What are online communities and for what goals can they be used? A primer with plenty of community marketing and management tips.
Get Together: How to Build a Community with Your People
A practical and heartfelt guide to cultivating a community, online or IRL.Although communities feel magical, they don’t come together by magic. Get Together is a practical and heartfelt guide to cultivating a community. Whether starting a run crew, connecting with fans online, or sparking a movement of K–12 teachers, the secret to getting people together is this: build your community with people, not for them.In Get Together, Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh, and Kai Elmer Sotto of People & Company share true stories of everyday people who have created thriving communities, both in person and online. They provide clear steps to untangle the challenge of getting passionate people together, helping individuals and organizations navigate the intricacies of leading a community, including: - How to rally the first people - How to get people talking - How to attract new, authentic folks - How to develop leaders and expand globally.The People & Company team reminds us that we each hold the potential to spark a community. Get Together shows readers that if we join forces—as company and customers, artist and fans, organizer and advocates—we’ll do more together than we ever could alone.
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.
Where Tech Companies Build Communities
The customizable, scalable community platform powering over 22,000 communities. Create knowledge through conversation.
How to Build a Community: Starting with "why?".
To build a successful community, you have to be aligned on the why behind it. Turns out, there's a lot of wrong answers to this question!
Building Welcoming Communities
Building a community that encourages people to use, contribute to, and evangelize your project.
Thoughts on Communities | unDraw Blog
Even with the best intentions and people eager to join, most attempts to create communities fail and will continue to do so.
Strengthening Online Communities | Rise Against Big Tech Powerbase
Come for the Network, Pay for the Tool
Paid groups, bespoke social networks, and the meaning of community for internet-native businesses.
The CMX Social Identity Cycle: How to Build Thriving Communities
The CMX Social Identity Cycle is a simple model that leverages community psychology to design truly engaging community experiences.
Who wants to be in the Denim community? | FeverBee
In this post we look at why a traditional community just isn’t suited to most companies. But elements of the community can be used in many different ways to drive positive outcomes.
The evolution of expert communities
A look at how online forums grow, thrive, and then decay.
Community Imbalance Theory
This is my best effort to summarize the last 4 years of community building, governance, and general open source sustainability work I’ve…
