community

The best and most lasting communities all gather around HIGHLY SPECIFIC needs. This shared context is key for bonding and it gives strangers an immediate, intimate reason to know and trust each other.

While communities generate tangible value for businesses — such as content, events, online advocacy and marketing, technology production, customer support, and education — it is the intangible value that members derive from the experience that makes these environments truly “sticky.”

We saw a hunger for taking action in the community. So we started “action teams,” which are groups of between eight to 15 neighbors that want to make a meaningful difference in their community.

We now have a housing action team, a mental health action team, a child care / youth activities action team, and an entrepreneurship action team. The idea is... See more

People are looking for more meaningful narratives and communities than brands can offer, and companies want to supply this “meaning demand”—but are structurally disincentivized to do so.

In my Midyear Macrotrend Update, I’d mentioned Offline, an agency that recently launched with the thesis that “community hosts are the new influencers.” Speaking with Amy Francombe for Vogue Business, Offline founder Andrew Roth further explains that, “ An influencer or a content creator is focused on producing content — their value is aesthetic or... See more