What is a community
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 3:19 am
Are you thinking about starting a community? It is something for the long haul and there are already many failed examples. I share useful information and a number of tips from the book Organizing communities, which will help you on your way to making the right choices.
Communities have been around for a long time. From the guilds of the past to Facebook groups. Yet, as a marketer, I am always hesitant to start a community from a company. But if you have a committed target group that embraces something out of conviction, and there is not too much competition, it can be a smart move to start one. How do you do that? I will elaborate on this using the book ' Organiseren van communities ' (aff.) by Peter Staal and Kirsten Wagenaar .
The concept of 'community' is well-known, but in light of the above-mentioned buy phone number list committed target group, it is good to look at what makes a community a good community. So that you know for sure whether starting a community has a chance of success. According to McMillan , a good community consists of the following ingredients:
Inspiration (common goal)
Trust (clear social norms)
Trade (gaining benefit from interacting with each other)
Art (collective stories that emerge from shared experiences)
We don't have to think only of online communities . In fact, offline communities often have a stronger bond, but have a limitation in scale. That strong bond is because in an offline community you are forced to 'bring' something. You can't be completely passive. Where in online communities the majority is passive. It is good to take into account that 1% makes a very active contribution. Of these, 9% will contribute every now and then and no less than 90% are passive.
Communities have been around for a long time. From the guilds of the past to Facebook groups. Yet, as a marketer, I am always hesitant to start a community from a company. But if you have a committed target group that embraces something out of conviction, and there is not too much competition, it can be a smart move to start one. How do you do that? I will elaborate on this using the book ' Organiseren van communities ' (aff.) by Peter Staal and Kirsten Wagenaar .
The concept of 'community' is well-known, but in light of the above-mentioned buy phone number list committed target group, it is good to look at what makes a community a good community. So that you know for sure whether starting a community has a chance of success. According to McMillan , a good community consists of the following ingredients:
Inspiration (common goal)
Trust (clear social norms)
Trade (gaining benefit from interacting with each other)
Art (collective stories that emerge from shared experiences)
We don't have to think only of online communities . In fact, offline communities often have a stronger bond, but have a limitation in scale. That strong bond is because in an offline community you are forced to 'bring' something. You can't be completely passive. Where in online communities the majority is passive. It is good to take into account that 1% makes a very active contribution. Of these, 9% will contribute every now and then and no less than 90% are passive.