communities aren't for all brands

brand communities are all the rage right now. it’s a great way to build an engaged audience, connect with like-minded people and share ideas. but it turns out, it’s not actually the best fit for every brand or business. just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

brand communities

a friend group on a discord server, or even a whatsapp group, can be considered a community. actually, anything with a group of people is a community. but that’s not what we’re focusing on here. we’re not talking about your friend group, your family or any non-brand community.

when we talk about ‘brand communities’, we’re talking about a group of people who share a common interest in a brand or product. still, this brand could be pretty much anything - a clothing brand, a software company, a media outlet, or even a creator.

a good example of a brand community is the nike running club. it’s a group of people who like running and the nike brand. another is the harley-davidson owners group where the members often have harley-davidson ownership as a key part of their identity.

most of the time, the community is operated by the brand itself, and acts as a form of added value, marketing, or customer service. that said, it can also be a fan-run community (more on that in a later post).

anyone can do it - but should they?

online brand communities are beneficial in most cases. if you target a b2c audience, it’s a great way to build a loyal audience, get feedback on your product, and create a space for your customers to engage with each other. if you interact often with members in your community, you quickly create brand loyalty, and they’re likely to recommend it to their friends.

so if you’re a creator, brand, or business targeting a b2c audience - in 99% of cases - a community is a good idea. but if you’re a b2b brand, it’s a bit more complicated, and it really depends on what you’re selling. the problem is that the community members would be employees of your customer companies!

b2b brand communities

b2b brand communities are a bit different from b2c communities. they’re usually smaller, more focused, and have a higher barrier to entry. in b2c, you want to create a community for your end-users. and while this can work in b2b, your customer is not necessarily an active end-user.

in b2b, your paying customers are companies, and the community members are the employees of those companies. so most of them are probably only interested during working hours, and they’re not likely to engage in a community around your product. especially not if it’s a b2b product they only use once or occasionally.

if you sell sheet metal, for example, why would your customers want to engage with each other in a community? in this case, direct communication with you via email might cover their needs. you probably want to network with potential customers, but that’s not the same as creating a brand community. create relationships, network, and engage with your potential customers in other ways.

there a few types of b2b brand communities that can work, but they’re few and far between.

dev communities

the best example i can give of functional and somewhat-thriving b2b communities are dev forums and communities for specific brands. in these, the community members are developers in companies who are using the product/service of the brand. that means they often have very specific reasons for being there, as they’re trying to solve a problem, exploring new technology, or integrating a product into their own.

for example, stripe has a pretty active dev community with a focus on their payment platform API. this is one where most engagement is related to technical support, feature requests, and general discussions around the product. most of the time, it’s developers trying to integrate the API, and they’re looking for help from stripe or other developers who have done it before.

these types of dev communities often have a high rate of initial engagement, but also have a really steep drop-off rate. when members come to get help with a specific problem, they often leave once they’ve solved it. you will find certain users that get really engaged and stick around, but the average member lifecycle is often short, and the community needs a constant influx of new members to stay active.

still, stripe probably sees value in this community, as it’s a way to provide support, onboard customers, and get feedback on their product. after all, they want developers to use their API, and the support community is a way to make that happen. if this is what they set out to accomplish, they’re doing a great job and have a functional community.

another up-and-coming example, that i’m personally a fan of, is coolLabs and their discord community for their products (like coolify). this is one of the dev communities that are doing it right, and they’re seeing a lot of success with it. it’s clear they have a good feedback cycle, and can quickly iterate on their products based on the feedback they get from their community.

while they also have similar issues to stripe, with developers coming and going, they’re managing to keep the community engaged. they’ve also managed to get members to help each other, which is a great sign of a healthy community. so more and more users are sticking around, even after they’ve solved their initial problem. but the churn rate is still very high compared to thriving b2c communities.

take it with a grain of salt

there are exceptions to every rule, and there are probably some b2b brand communities that are thriving. but in most cases, it’s not the best use of resources for a b2b brand to start an organized community.

that said, it is still beneficial for a b2b business to create an audience and engage with them in other ways. you don’t need an organized community to do that. you can still create content, host webinars, and engage with your audience on social media. a social media audience (while technically a loosely-coupled community, it’s not quite organized) can be just as valuable.

if you are b2b, but a lot of your customers are indie hackers, developers, or other solopreneurs, a community might be a good idea. a lot of the ‘build-in-public’ personas have created communities around building, and often promote their products in these communities. but even then, it’s not a given that a community is the best way to engage with your audience.

don’t force a brand community where it doesn’t belong.

tl;dr:

not every brand needs a community. in b2b, it really depends on what you’re selling and who your audience is.

DO NOT start a brand community if:

1. you don’t have a clear value proposition
2. you don’t have resources to manage it
3. your customers don’t have a reason to engage with each other
4. your customers are not interested in engaging with your brand

do you know any good ones?

if you know any b2b brand communities that are doing well, please let me know. i’d love to hear about them and how they were able to succeed. reach out to me on x/twitter.