The holy trinity of successful communities intertwines cause, experiences and value together. Create these and your community will no doubt hold a special place in peoples’ hearts.
Before we unpack this special trifecta, let’s define what success means through the lens of community building.
While success is subjective, there are a few things we can all agree on:
Communities that can consistently deliver value while also connecting people to one another will prosper.
Cause
Cause is your ‘why.’ Why does your community exist and why should anyone care to join?
It sounds obvious, but many businesses have trouble understanding who their audience is or how their community can help them.
Can you answer this?
My audience is ___________________.
An important component of cause is justifying your community’s existence. If you can define why your community helps people, you’ll see success. That may look like:
- Offering guidance
- Answering questions
- Sharing information
- Selling a product or service
A community that stands to elevate a group of peoples’ lives will eventually break the threshold from ordinary to extraordinary.
There’s a number of ways to utilize the Invision Community platform to assist with your cause.
- Create a niche forum for your members to engage with one another using our Forum application.
- Sell a digital product or physical item using our Commerce application.
- Create an event with our Calendar application.
- Share news, information and blogs using our Blogs and Pages applications.
How to create a cause: creating and nurturing your community takes a lot of hard work and determination. Having a passion to serve is a must; without it you will burn out.
If you have yet to define your community’s purpose, don’t fret – reading this blog post about how to create a successful community is a perfect starting point. However, if you’re a small or big business and ready to take that next step, start by answering the following:
My community will help people by ___________________.
Experiences
Members participating in a shared experience together is what takes your company from just a business to a community.
Your community’s cause inspires experiences.
A lively community isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it medium. While you’re consistently chucking wood into the community campfire, you’ll need time on your side. That’s a nice way of saying be patient! The compounding effect of shared group experiences is something a company or brand can’t manufacture, however it’s essential for a meaningful history. Oftentimes, a business owner expects their community to flourish in a year or two. It’s possible, but uncommon, because there likely wasn’t enough time to generate an impact across a population. Be in this for the long haul.
How to create experiences: tap into people’s emotions. Create content that takes the member on a journey of highs and lows – encourage them to follow suit when creating their own content.
My community will make a long-lasting impact because ___________________.
Value
We’ve all heard the recycled marketing adage, ‘people come for the content, but they stay for the community.’ There’s a reason content is king; it’s a vehicle to drive new audiences to your community while also making your brand more valuable. However, content is only one of several value modalities.
This is when value comes full circle with experiences. A brand does this by easily explaining its cause, creating experiences then adding value by justifying its existence through offering guidance, answering questions, sharing information or selling a product/service.
How to create value: A community platform alone won’t create value. It requires thoughtful intention, inspired action and follow up.
Offer a world class experience by consistently over-delivering:
- Offer premium, information-style content (like blog posts, YouTube videos, newsletters, social media outreach).
- Engage with your members in the community (reply to their posts, feature their content, reward them with public recognition using our Achievements system).
- Touch base outside the community with email outreach, respond to their social media posts, even monthly calls.
Creating a community is single-handedly one of the best decisions you can make for your business.
My community brings value to the world because ___________________.
We’ve helped serious hobbyists, small businesses and enterprise giants give their super fans/customers/clients the ability to create meaningful connections with one another.
Ready to bring cause, experiences and value to your company?
