Humans are inherently social. We gather together and create communities to define where we belong and where we don’t. If a community can create value by bringing people together, it has the potential for cohesion and long-term commitment.

To create real value, communities need participation and dedication from their members through traditions, behaviors, and knowledge sharing. Examples of communities such as religious groups, sports team fans, political movements and alumni groups show how unbreakable loyalty can build up over time. Companies can also be examples of communities.

Fun fact

The word “company” is derived from the Latin words ‘com’, meaning ‘together’, and ‘panis’ — meaning ‘bread’. It originally described how merchants would gather, share stories, eat together, and trade.

Exercise 1 - Company network

Every company interacts with a network of internal and external groups such as employees, customers, investors, partners, influencers etc. No company can be successful without creating strong human relationships with some, if not all, of these groups.

These groups will engage on different levels:

• Observers - Groups that have limited engagement with your business
• Participants - Groups that openly engage with your business
• Contributors - Groups that create the expertise that is shared with Participants and Observers
• Advocates - Groups that proactively promote your business to others

Mapping out how these groups currently engage with your business helps to identify where traditions, behaviors, and knowledge sharing already exist - if at all. This may highlight a potential to deepen engagement and create value by intentionally bringing groups together as a community. 

→ Create an editable copy of the worksheets

This initial exercise shows the big difference between a customer base, or an audience (Observers), and a community dedicated to value creation (Participants, Contributors, Advocates). Your company will undoubtedly share value through traditional, one-to-many channels, but a focus on building many-to-many relationships creates the opportunity for value creation at scale. To create a thriving customer community, your potential and existing customers must have a clear pathway to progress from Observer to Participant, Contributor to Advocate.

Should you create a customer community?

A customer base doesn't equal a community. A healthy email list or social audience doesn’t mean your business has a community either. If you think about all the brands you buy from or see ads from, how many do you feel a sense of belonging to? 

A customer community is a group of customers (potential or existing) with shared attributes, that connect on a regular basis either online or in a physical space. These shared attributes could be that they all have bought a specific product or service, or that they work in the same profession, or that they have shared interests.

Customer communities can be self organizing but are often founded and nurtured by the company that connects them. Other groups in your company network such as your employees or external influencers may also connect with members to nurture engagement and facilitate value creation.

Here are some examples of successful customer communities:

Hubspot Academy brings together digital marketers to develop their careers and but also learn about the benefits of their CRM Platform

Airbnb converted more hosts to join their marketplace by creating a community for hosts to share stories and tips

Figma developed an ecosystem for user generated plug-ins and templates, allowing its users to contribute to the success of the product and scaling advocacy

At Zapnito, we’ve witnessed powerful customer communities transform businesses for the better. With a thriving customer community your business could enjoy greater brand loyalty, unmatched advocacy, unmatched social proof and first-hand customer insights that improve your offer. The more value your community creates for its members, the greater the business impact.

What’s next?

If Exercise 1 highlighted an opportunity to deepen engagement and create value by bringing groups together, your journey to building a customer community has already begun. The next step is to understand the opportunities of Community-Led Growth and set your intentions moving forward.