Your customers are going to join your community because of benefits, not belonging. Belonging comes after someone has been a part of a community and formed relationships. What’s going to get them in the door in the first place is a clear understanding of how the community will help them solve a problem or achieve a goal.

You’re not going to be able to measure exactly how community health equates to business ROI. There are going to be a lot of things you do to build a healthy community that don’t have measurable ROI. But if your team is aligned on the belief that what’s good for your community is good for your business, and you’re measuring what you can measure,... See more

It’s a subtle but massive difference in mindset. Traditionally, businesses create all the value for the consumer. Community-driven businesses create spaces for consumers to create value for each other.

Engagement: Connect customers to each other around their common interests in order to increase customer retention. Example: Culture Amp’s Culture First

Support: Create spaces for customers to answer questions and solve problems for each other. Example: Autodesk support community

The number one thing I recommend looking for in your first community hire is a genuine curiosity for the topic that your community is built around. They don’t have to have a lot of experience in the topic of the community. I’ve seen many community professionals be successful at leading communities of engineers when they themselves weren’t... See more

Product: Create spaces for customers to share product feedback and ideas with each other and with your team. Example: Atlassian feedback section

-Vetting and implementing new technology into the community stack

Community is more than just a feeling of belonging. In the context of business, it’s a structure for creating value. A simple way to understand it is to compare “community” to an “audience.”