A strong brand community can:
Through commitment, engagement and support, companies can cultivate brand communities that deliver powerful returns. When community is done right, the benefits are irrefutable.
Communities can have multiple goals but one goal should take precedence—creating value for the organisation. For example, “Increasing loyalty” or “getting more web traffic" do not necessarily create value. We need to uncover what happens if customers are more loyal or generate more web traffic. Does it result in better retention rates, advocacy, or increased sales? If yes, then the brand has met its goal.
The goal of community is the outcome of member behaviour, not the behaviour itself.
Members solve problems for one another to create successful outcomes.
Perhaps the most widely known community building practice is the Customer Support Forum. Here, members are encouraged to pose their product questions to other more seasoned members of community, creating a valuable exchange for both.
CASE STUDIES:
Apple:
Originally, Apple attempted to answer to customers’ questions through a FAQs section on its website. But it found that its consumers were posing and responding to questions more quickly on other platforms than it could publish on its own knowledge base. By developing a Customer Support Forum, Apple created a place for its brand ambassadors to connect with new customers.
Visit their community page here.
Udemy:
“Teachers had a lot of questions and didn’t always know how to get started with the platform. This is the problem they set out to solve with a community.” So Udemy developed Facebook groups, giving new and existing instructors the opportunity to learn from one another. Instructors use the group to develop courses and share best practices. “Each month, about 10,000 new instructors start the process of creating a course,” says Eliza Davidson, Udemy’s Instructor Community Manager. “Out of those, only about 1000 publish, and then, of those 700 are approved into the marketplace.”
Read more about their successful community building here.
Members share ideas and feedback in a community driving innovation and product improvements.
By bringing their users or customers together online (and sometimes offline), companies leverage collective insights for new features and product improvements.
CASE STUDIES:
Lego:
In 2008, LEGO launched the LEGO Ideas platform, inviting fans to submit new concepts for LEGO sets. Proposals are voted on by other fans and top vote-getters are reviewed by LEGO staff. Winning selections are turned into sets for sale with the fan designer receiving 1% of the royalties. The community has grown to over 1M users with more than more than 26,000 product submissions, and twenty-eight sets produced, including a Women of NASA set and playable LEGO piano. With LEGO Ideas, the 87-year-old company has successfully transitioned from a toy builder to an engaged community builder.
Visit their Ideas page here.
Creating a network of ambassadors and advocates who drive awareness and growth for the business.
Sure, a company can encourage people to buy their product. But when a community member advocates or promotes a product or experience, the effect is more powerful. And by connecting these advocates to one another, companies create even more loyalty and drive massive growth.
CASE STUDIES:
Twitch:
Twitch Ambassadors positively contribute to the Twitch community. As role models within the community, they establish new content genres and empower others through their inspirational stories. These creators embody what it means to #BleedPurple.
Read more about how they build community here. and visit their ambassadors page here
TED:
Before launching TEDx, the team at TED Headquarters organised conferences from idea to inception. But they knew that their impact would be greater if they could expand to farther locations and broader audiences. By entrusting individual communities to curate their own events and cater to their own regional audiences, they were able to spread ideas at a remarkable scale. In just over 10 years, more than 30,000 TEDx events have been held across the globe with less than 20 staff members on board.
Visit their communities page here.
Building a community of the people who are contributing the content that makes up the product or other assets.
Distributed models are changing the way businesses function. From collaborative consumption, crowdfunding and user-generated content, to marketplaces and open source… these are all examples of distributed models where the value is created by the masses, and the business is just creating the platform. A community strategy is critical for all of these kinds of businesses, which explains why all successful companies in these spaces (Airbnb, Kickstarter, Product Hunt, Lyft, Mozilla, to name a few) all have community teams, some with hundreds of community pros on their team and a VP at the top.
CASE STUDY:
Duolingo:
Duolingo wanted to expand their language course offerings but had too small a work force. Their initial on-boarding process was laborious and far from scalable. But by reaching out to existing teachers in the broad community and inviting them to join the “Incubator”, they scaled their entire course-creation engine exponentially.
Read about their massive growth here. and visit their Incubator page here
Building a community around common interests related to or focused on the brand or product.
Identifying common interests among target customers, brands can build community around shared passions, leading to increased loyalty, advocacy and ultimately, sales. Community bonds are powerful, they give people a sense of identity and belonging. If a brand can help create this sense belonging, it often doesn’t matter if the community focuses on the product or not, members will feel a stronger connection to the brand.
CASE STUDIES:
Nike:
Nike+ is a members only site that has played a strong role in Nike’s branding strategy as it provides members with a variety of apps and resources to encourage motivation, fitness and commitment to a healthy lifestyle. Nike has always been extremely effective in its branding, from its distinctive swoosh logo to its iconic slogan “Just Do It.” With Nike+, the company has brings customers into a growing community where people can track their progress, motivate one another and engage in friendly competition.
Visit Nike+ page here.
Sephora:
Sephora has seen big increases in customer spending by fostering community -- featuring ambassadors, encouraging product feedback in online community forums, and more. According to Lithium, the platform that runs Sephora’s forums, “super-fans spend 10x more than community members who spend 2x more than their average customer.”
Visit Sephora page here.