The 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.

Table 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 Don’t Fear the Crickets 158 Talk Funny 160 How to Spark Great Debates 162 Moderation is Never Personal 164 Default to Transparency and Admit Your Mistakes 166 Use Your Authentic Voice 167 Keep Your Energy High and Positive 169 Go Forth and Build Community! 173 Bibliography 175 About the Author 177 Acknowledgments 179 Index 181