The Business of Belonging: How to Make Community your Competitive Advantage

Like a person, a community will have a personality, and the right people will feel drawn to that personality.

Keep your community guidelines simple, visible, and easily accessible.

Communities thrive when they can own a topic in people’s minds and become the most efficient and trusted place to get an answer.

Community programs should focus on creating value and belonging for members, while also creating value and results for the business. A good way to structure and measure your community strategy involves three levels: business, community, and tactical. Each of these will have distinct goals and measures for tracking success.

Your community is not your software platform. Your community is your people.

The 7 Ps of community design: people, purpose, place, participation, policy, promotion, performance.

Measure your community health with surveys that ask questions about identity, feeling welcome, onboarding, and achieving goals.

Create a compelling onboarding experience by knowing and translating your vision to new members, making them feel welcome, and being clear about what you want them to know.

Communities work best when members are intrinsically motivated, but external rewards can be effective when used wisely.