In a constantly expanding and competitive market, creating authentic connections with consumers is a tremendous challenge for all companies. Beyond having a quality product or service, the key differentiator lies in the ability to engage, listen, and empower customers—pillars that can be reinforced and sustained through building brand-owned communities, where they will have the opportunity to build mutual trust and a sense of belonging to increasingly retain buyers.
A good community is much more than a communication space where only the company sends information without exchange. It’s where customers feel part of something, contributing, interacting, and building together with the brand. It should be built on shared values, mutual trust, and a sense of belonging, with a clear purpose and reason to exist—whether it’s exchanging experiences, learning, or mutual support that delivers real value to those involved—such as exclusive content, networking, opportunities, and updates.
The idea is to encourage members to contribute, co-create, and share, not just consume what’s being posted—whether by the brand managing the community or other members—generating much richer and more consistent engagement. After all, the audience there will be genuinely interested in participating in that environment, and it’s already segmented to match the brand’s target audience.
Many compare the purpose and benefits of communities to social media, which are indeed great for attracting audiences and generating awareness for the brand. However, communities serve to deepen relationships and generate greater loyalty among the audience. This is because, while on social media we are dependent on algorithms or investments to ensure the message reaches the right audience, in communities it’s possible to deliver the message directly to the desired audience, without dependency or competition.
Moreover, engagement on social media is volatile, as it depends on many variables like format, language, and theme, while in communities it tends to be more consistent. Not to mention data—while limited to quantitative information provided by platforms, we can gather qualitative and valuable insights for the business and brand in the latter case. This was proven in a Harvard Business Review study, which found that companies investing in communities saw a 35% higher retention rate compared to those that didn’t adopt this strategy.
Any company can benefit from these community initiatives. However, some points should be analyzed beforehand to understand whether the brand is ready to take this step. Ask yourself: Does your company have a relationship culture that goes beyond sales, and is it prepared to open this channel and have its audience co-creating with it? What are your goals with this creation? Is there an existing customer base willing to collaborate and interact with the brand? And, above all, what resources do you plan to invest to keep the community active and the audience engaged, with curation and moderation?
To avoid creating an empty and irrelevant channel for your customers, the community’s purpose must go far beyond the brand itself—after all, people don’t unite around companies, but rather around causes, themes, values, or shared interests. Understand the channels where your audience prefers to communicate and stimulate engagement with dynamic content, such as challenges, polls, live streams, or behind-the-scenes content, keeping the community alive.
Members should also share the spotlight by being encouraged to give testimonials, ask questions, and even provide constructive criticism. Creating rituals and recognition through commemorative dates, rankings, or exclusive benefits are great strategies to reinforce this sense of belonging. And start by inviting the right people to this group, such as brand ambassadors, loyal customers, or experts who help set the tone for discussions.
Technologically, AI can be a powerful ally in this regard. Aside from helping build, deliver value, and scale this strategy, it can also generate content ideas based on the community’s goals and members’ interests. But, since this technology gives vast access to endless information at any moment, it’s necessary to go beyond the basics in this investment, prioritizing relevance in content creation and sharing.
To contribute to this outcome, using bots to send recurring information—such as welcome messages, group rules, and FAQs—is a highly advantageous decision. This, alongside monitoring sentiments and conversations that could trigger crises or negative perceptions, and mapping the most active members for targeted loyalty actions.
A community is a living organism. Therefore, it’s crucial to stay attentive, evolve over time, and always bring in new ideas to avoid losing relevance and causing people to abandon it. Always innovate by introducing new formats, partnerships, and experiences that maintain interest, preventing stagnation. There is an abundance of information available at all times—so find your niche and dive deep into it, being relevant and adding value to your community’s life.
