Fierce Loyalty: Unlocking the DNA of Wildly Successful Communities

You can talk with them and empower them to help you tease out the REAL problem they need a solution for. You can tap into their imaginations. You can give them stuff you’ve thought up so they can test it and give you feedback.

this approach helps me understand the community members better: how they think, what they like, what they hate, and what they are really looking for. All of these insights make me more connected while teaching me how to deliver better and more meaningful solutions.

The Evolution of Pride. Members gain pleasure and satisfaction from their participation in their community. Community membership is a part of their identity and they are anxious to display their loyalty via t-shirts,

The Evolution of Trust. Members are confident that their community has their best interests at heart. A spirit of mutual reliance, faith and transparency dominates the community culture.

4} Create a culture of “We.” Traditionally, the relationship between an organization and its clients is based on an “us” and “them” paradigm. Over and over again, I hear “those clients,” “those customers” and “those donors.” What if we eliminated the whole idea of “us and them”? What if there was only “we”?

As tempting as it is, resist the “if we build it, they will come” mindset. Many communities fail because an organization builds the structure first and then tries to locate people to join. One of the reasons The W Club and Ikea Hackers are so successful is they were created in response to obvious but unmet needs.

Involve members as much as you can in developing the structure of the community. When I began building Escaping Mediocrity, I had some loose ideas on the structure I wanted to put in place. But because I wanted to create a real community, one that could function whether I was present or not, I encouraged people to take ownership of how

• Empowered Evangelists • A Grassroots Research and Development Team • A Hungry Client Base • Reduced Client Attrition • Happier Clients

Just because they share the common interest doesn’t necessarily mean they want to be part of your community.