Business of Belonging - How to Make Community Your Competitive Advantage

"A tactical primer for any business embarking on the critical work of actively building community."--Seth Godin, Author, This is Marketing
 
"This book perfectly marries the psychology of communities, with the hard-earned secrets of someone who's done the real work over many years. David Spinks is the master of this craft."--Nir Eyal, bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable
 
The rise of the internet has brought with it an inexorable, almost shockingly persistent drive toward community. From the first social networks to the GameStop trading revolution, engaged communities have shown the ability to transform industries. Businesses need to harness that power. As business community expert David Spinks shows in The Business of Belonging: How to Make Community your Competitive Advantage, the successful brands of tomorrow will be those that create authentic connection, giving customers a sense of real belonging and unlocking unprecedented scale as a result.
 
In his career of over 10 years in the business of building community, Spinks has learned what a winning community strategy looks like. From the fundamental concepts--including how community drives measurable business value and what the appropriate metrics are--to high-level community design and practical engagement techniques, The Business of Belonging is an epic journey into the world of community building.
 
This book is for decision makers who want to better understand the value and opportunity of community, and for community professionals who want to level up their strategy. Featuring a foreword by Startup Grind and Bevy cofounder Derek Andersen, it will give you a step-by-step model for strategically planning, creating, facilitating, and measuring communities that drive business growth. Attracting and retaining community members who are also loyal customers, brand evangelists, and leaders--that's the goal for today's connected businesses, and this book is the map to getting there.

List of contents

Foreword ix
 
Introduction xiii
 
Becoming a Community Professional xv
 
Building the Community Industry xvi
 
The Community Era Has Arrived xviii
 
Notes xix
 
Chapter 1 Why Community is the New Competitive Advantage 1
 
A Customer Community is Born 1
 
The Rise of Community-Driven Business 3
 
Giving Customers a True Sense of Community 6
 
The Unrivaled Scalability of Community 8
 
Community is an Extension of Your Team 10
 
The Power of Owning a Topic in People's Minds 12
 
The One Thing They Can't Copy 13
 
Good for Business, Good for Humanity 14
 
Notes 17
 
Chapter 2 The Fundamentals of Community Strategy 19
 
The Three Levels of Community Strategy 19
 
The SPACES Model: The Six Business Outcomes of Community 22
 
Metrics and the Attribution Challenge 35
 
Finding Your Community Focus 36
 
Growth Engines vs. Cost Centers 39
 
Choosing a Measurement Framework 42
 
The Community Investment Journey 45
 
Notes 53
 
Chapter 3 Creating a Social Identity 55
 
The Social Identity Cycle 55
 
Who is Your Community Built For? 60
 
Who Doesn't Belong? 63
 
Investing in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from Day One 65
 
What is Your Community's Personality? 68
 
How Can You Make Your Members Feel "Cool"? 70
 
Should Your Community Have a Unique
 
Identity from Your Company Brand? 72
 
Finding Sub-Identities within Your Community 74
 
Defining Identity by Levels of Contribution 76
 
Notes 78
 
Chapter 4 Mapping the Community Participation Journey 79
 
The Commitment Curve 79
 
The Four Levels of Participation 81
 
How to Attract Members to Your Community 86
 
Creating Intentional Barriers to Entry 89
 
Designing a Compelling Onboarding Experience 90
 
How to Move Members Up the Commitment Curve 92
 
Activating Successful Community Leaders 94
 
Notes 96
 
Chapter 5 Validation, Rewards, and Incentives 97
 
Creating Habits with Rewards 97
 
Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivations 99
 
Avoid Replacing Social Norms with Market Norms 101
 
SNAP! A Framework for Effective Extrinsic Rewards 102
 
The Thing about Gamification 105
 
Come for the Utility, Stay for the Unity 107
 
Measuring Community Health and Engagement Using the Social Identity Cycle 108
 
Notes 114
 
Chapter 6 Designing Community Spaces and Experiences 115
 
The Two Kinds of Community Experiences 115
 
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition 117
 
The 7Ps of Community Experience Design 120
 
Curating the Right People for the Right Purpose 123
 
Aligning Size with Purpose 124
 
Choosing Community Software Platforms 126
 
Should You Host Your Community on a Free Social Network? 129
 
Designing Spaces That Make People Feel Seen 130
 
Starting with a BANG! 131
 
Creating Peak Moments 133
 
Facilitating Small-Group Discussions 135
 
Tell Your Members How to Participate 138
 
How to Get Members to Be Open and Vulnerable 140
 
Keep Your Rules Short and Simple to Start 143
 
My Three Go-To Community Rules 145
 
Using Metrics to Optimize Community Spaces and Experiences 148
 
Notes 151
 
Chapter 7 Activating Community Engagement 153
 
Engagement is a Constant Experiment 153
 
Personal Invitations and "Doing Things That Don't Scale" 154
 
Ask for Permission 157
 

About the author

David Spinks is Cofounder of CMX, a 20,000 member organization dedicated to helping community professionals thrive. David is also the VP of Community at Bevy, an enterprise software platform that powers event-driven community programs and virtual conferences, following its acquisition of CMX in 2019. David has personally advised and trained hundreds of organizations in community strategy, including Facebook, Waze, Salesforce, Airbnb, and Google.

Product details

• Authors: David Spinks
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 10.05.2021
• EAN: 9781119766124
• ISBN: 978-1-119-76612-4
• No. of pages: 208
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Business administration, companies; Social sciences, law, business > Business > Business administration; Marketing, Community, Business & management, Wirtschaft u. Management, Marketing & Sales, Marketing u. Vertrieb