Brands want to be more than your friend. They want community.

In a saturated market where new direct-to-consumer startups are popping up left and right, customers “want to feel that they’re getting something superior,” said Krystal Melissa Wu, a community manager at Shopify. “Community is not something you can replicate or cultivate overnight.”

Communities can naturally form in all sorts of social circumstances, but they often need a formalized structure to expand and sustain.

The promise of community begins to feel disingenuous when what’s described is little more than a euphemism for a targeted demographic of interested consumers. Is there any other reason to facilitate community if not for a business to sell more products and accrue more members? Is it possible to find real community beyond the parameters of one’s con... See more

Within such virtual spaces, “community” is a shorthand for interaction — not necessarily belonging. From a business standpoint, community is a means to harness customer loyalty.

Communities naturally drum up hype for a brand and its products; in some instances, members might even provide feedback for product development and are the first to test new... See more

the potential for “community fatigue” with the proliferation of branded micro-groups, which aren’t always invested in members’ well-being.

Historically, the relationship between consumers and companies was more transactional and direct. You would seek out an item you needed in a store. You might be put on a mailing list and sent promotional catalogs or coupons every few months, but communication remained relatively sparse. Today, the age of passive consumerism seems to be over. The ex... See more

“This is not just happening online,” he said. “If you think of the workplace as a community, the employment churn is a form of community fatigue. If you look at the rate of Americans moving to different cities or neighborhoods, that’s also community fatigue.”

Community, according to the clinical and community psychologist David McMillan, can be defined by four conditions: membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs, and shared emotional connection.

community members should “feel a sense of belonging (membership), feel like you make a difference to the group and that the group makes a difference to you (influence), feel like your needs will be met by other group members (integration and fulfillment of needs), and feel that you share history, similar experiences, time, and space together (share... See more