Building a community is key to staying relevant online and an excellent way to build upon your awareness measures and existing marketing. But how do you build a community for your brand, and what are the benefits of having a dedicated community? Let’s dive in!

What Classifies as a Community?

Before we delve into how to build a community, it's important to define what exactly constitutes one. In the context of brands, a community is more than just a group of customers. 

It's a dedicated group of people who:

• Share an interest in a brand, product, or idea.
• Engage with each other and the brand.
• Feel a sense of belonging and connection.
• Actively participate (e.g., creating content, providing feedback, supporting each other).

These communities can exist on various platforms, including social media, forums, or dedicated servers on Discord, for example.

Examples of Strong Online Communities and Brand Fandoms

Many brands have successfully cultivated strong online communities. Here are a few examples:

The Gaming Community and Its Vast Online Subcultures 

The gaming world is a prime example of diverse and passionate online communities. Platforms like Twitch, Discord, and Reddit serve as hubs for gamers to connect, share experiences, and form subcultures around specific games, consoles, or genres. Within these subcultures, you'll find players who specialize in certain game genres, speedrunners who compete to finish games as quickly as possible, and modders who create their own content. 

Brands like PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo foster these communities through their content, online events, and direct engagement, recognizing that these communities are vital to their success. They provide platforms for players to connect, organize tournaments, and share their creations, further solidifying the community bond.

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The Fandom Behind Duolingo 

Duolingo has effectively built a vibrant community and nurtured strong user loyalty through various strategic initiatives. Their expertise in social media, represented by the engaging mascot Duo the Owl, has established a friendly and relatable brand.

Duolingo's strong loyalty programs, grounded in gamification, consistently engage users through features like streaks, virtual rewards, and competitive leaderboards. Additionally, they utilize in-app social features, such as connecting with friends and participating in collaborative quests, to encourage a feeling of community and collective learning among users.

These efforts directly translate to their online community – the r/duolingo subreddit on Reddit stands as a highly active and extensive unofficial online community catering to enthusiasts of the Duolingo language learning platform. Since its creation in December 2011, this subreddit has experienced significant growth, positioning it within the top 1% of subreddits based on its large membership, indicating a substantial and engaged community of users.

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Big “Brandoms” Like Apple

Apple has cultivated a loyal following that goes beyond simple customer loyalty. Apple users often identify strongly with the brand and its products, forming a community that shares tips, provides support, and eagerly anticipates new releases. 

This sense of identity is carefully crafted through Apple's sleek design, user-friendly products, and a sense of exclusivity. Apple's retail stores also play a significant role in fostering this community, providing spaces for users to attend workshops, get technical support, and connect with other Apple enthusiasts.

The company's annual product launches have become major community events, generating excitement and anticipation among its devoted fan base.

Apple is a prime example of a long-established brand with such a consistent vision that they have successfully aligned a strong and loyal customer base behind it. Consider other well-established brands, and you’ll notice that what they all have in common is a strong sense of vision and community. This loyalty not only reflects in sales, but also helps these brands weather the storm when one of their products does not meet the expectations of the broader customer base. Loyal “fans” will remain loyal and buy it anyway.

What are the Benefits of a Brand Community or Fandom?

A strong brand community offers numerous benefits, including:

• Increased Customer Loyalty: Community members are more likely to remain loyal to a brand, even in the face of competition.
• Enhanced Brand Advocacy: Passionate community members often become brand advocates, promoting the brand to their networks and generating organic word-of-mouth marketing.
• Valuable Feedback and Insights: Communities provide a direct channel for gathering customer feedback, identifying areas for improvement, and gaining insights into customer preferences.
• Increased Engagement and Participation: Communities offer a platform for brands to engage with customers in meaningful ways, fostering interaction and participation.
• Cost-Effective Marketing: Building a strong community can reduce reliance on paid advertising, as community members often generate content and drive engagement organically.
• Resilience During Challenges: A supportive community can help a brand weather negative events or crises, providing a buffer of goodwill and understanding.

How Do You Build a Community Around Your Brand?

Gaming studios and publishers already recognize the benefit of building dedicated communities around their games and invest time and resources into building up and managing platforms like Discord or Reddit to have a direct line of communication to their most loyal fans.

 We think that other brands can adapt this, but building a thriving community requires a strategic and consistent effort. 

Here are some key steps:

1. Define Your Target Community: Clearly identify who you want to attract to your community. Consider their demographics, interests, values, and online behavior.
2. Choose the Right Platform(s): Select the online platforms where your target audience is most active. This could include social media, forums, or dedicated community platforms.
3. Provide Value: Offer something of value to your community members, whether it's exclusive content, helpful resources, opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals, or a platform to share their own content.
4. Foster Engagement: Encourage interaction and participation by asking questions, running polls, hosting contests, and responding to comments and messages.
5. Be Transparent: Build trust by being genuine, honest, and open in your communication.
6. Empower Community Members: Give community members a sense of ownership by recognizing their contributions, featuring their content, and providing opportunities for them to become community leaders.
7. Establish Guidelines: Create clear guidelines for community behavior to ensure a positive and respectful environment.

Building a community takes time and effort; it’s not something you can simply check off and leave to itself. You need to be consistent in your community management and engagement. However, if you manage to maintain this channel of communication with your audience, you can build from there and harness the power of your community for future marketing campaigns, new product launches, and, most importantly, as a direct pool of people eager to be involved, share their opinions, and carry your message further.

How to Connect Your Community Building with Your Marketing Efforts

That said, building your community shouldn't be separate from your marketing efforts; it should be integrated into your overall strategy. Imagine your community hub, whether on Reddit, Discord, or an Instagram broadcast channel, as an amplifier of your marketing efforts. You can share your news there first and test the waters with your loyal fans, or use it to directly ask and test different messages.

A loyal community of customers and fans is like a dedicated test bubble; if they resonate with your message, your target audience will likely do the same.

Here are some suggestions for connecting your efforts further:

• Incorporate Community Feedback into Marketing Campaigns: Use insights from your community to inform your messaging, creative content, and campaign strategy.
• Collaborate with Influencers: Partner with influencers who are already respected and trusted by your target audience to help you reach and engage with potential community members.
• Promote Your Community Through Your Marketing Channels: Use your website, social media channels, email list, and other marketing channels to promote your community and encourage people to join.
• Create Content that Resonates with Your Community: Develop content that is relevant, valuable, and engaging to your target audience, and encourage community members to share it.
• Offer Exclusive Benefits to Community Members: Provide special offers, discounts, or early access to products or services to reward community members and incentivize participation.

How to Grow Your Community Long-Term

Growing a community is an ongoing process. Ideally, you want to continue building up your community as your brand awareness and visibility grow. So you might already guess from what you’ve read so far that this is a really long-term commitment and operation. However, the reward directly reflects in your brand’s longevity and it will help you in your future marketing efforts. 

Here’s how:

• User-Generated Content: Empower community members to create and share their own content related to your brand. This not only provides fresh content but also fosters a sense of ownership and engagement.
• Events and Contests: Organize online or offline events, contests, and giveaways to attract new members and keep existing ones engaged.
• Partner with Other Communities: Collaborate with other communities that share similar interests or target audiences to cross-promote each other and reach new potential members.

Regularly assess your community-building efforts, track key metrics, and adapt your strategy based on what's working and what's not. Really take the time to invest in community management! Dedicate resources to managing your community, including moderating discussions, responding to inquiries, and creating engaging content.

Take Your Marketing One Step Further with Communities

Traditional marketing is becoming increasingly competitive. To succeed in the long run and establish a successful, lasting brand, building a loyal community is essential. By fostering a sense of belonging, providing value, and empowering your audience, you can create a strong community that drives engagement, advocacy, and growth. Influencer marketing can be an effective tool to help you reach the right audience and build that community. 

So, take your marketing one step further and invest in developing a thriving community around your brand.