on community

Content is the heart of every successful B2B community.

Nearly 80% of founders reported building a community of users as important to their business, with 28% describing it as their moat and critical to their success.

I think often now of Tara Raghuveer speaking about her experience organizing the KC Tenants Union:

“It feels so electric to be in a tenant meeting where people feel powerful for the first time ever. I think about so many instances of tenants saying to me: ‘I have never felt power in my body before this moment, before taking this collective action

... See more

Community-driven growth creates a flywheel effect:

1. You create value for the community.


2. The community drives engagement and insight.


3. That engagement fuels product improvement, advocacy, and new business.


4. New members join, and the flywheel spins faster.

This is not a one-off campaign. It’s a system for sustained scalable growth .

In micro-communities, content acts as currency. Members consume it for immediate value and share it to enhance their reputation as thought leaders.

The Orbit Model Community Engagement Framework (2024) defines four engagement levels:

1. Observer (passive consumption of content)


2. Participant (occasional interaction and feedback)


3. Contributor (regular active participation)


4. Advocate (proactive engagement and community leadership)

A volunteer finds their onboarding confusing and makes a handbook so others can more easily navigate their own journeys.

An attendee sees a bottleneck happening at the event’s doors and jumps in to help folks navigate.

An artist wants to collaborate with others who share their identity or lived experience and curates a showcase of bands or visual... See more

The art lies in creating conversation starters that generate peer-to-peer discussions rather than promotional responses.