Why Buy a Product When You Can Buy a Community?
In August 1988, a Finnish scientist named Jarkko Oikarinen created a software tool. The goal of the tool was for people to write real-time messages to each other over the internet. The tool's name was Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
Many reading this probably aren't familiar with IRC, but it created the framework for tools such as AIM, ICQ and now Slack. The primary goal of IRC was to bring communities together. Thirty years later, software tools are still trying to figure out how to do that.
Communities have lived in different places on the internet. Some times it's a website like All Recipes, a community for cooking. Other times, it's forums such as a subreddit. Lately, it's a revisit to the days of IRC, real-time chat 2.0. There is something appealing about the idea of being able to connect with your communities in real time. Many of them take place in Slack.
One Slack community I'm in is, the Cleveland Tech Slack. It's a great community, but Slack limits the potential of the group. It's arbitrary rules such as limited messaging capabilities mean I can't search for old messages. It's a complicated product with so many features. And for obvious reasons, it's a tool for employer communication, not a tool for community building.
However, companies and creators want to build communities. As such we've seen tools such as Geneva and Circle being built to "disrupt" Slack. In reality, Slack doesn't care if it gets disrupted for this use case. It's not their primary audience.
Communities are product differentiatiors. The logic says you aren't just buying a product, but an identity. Ana Andjelic, a thought leader in brand strategy, writes:
"In Veblen’s view, status comes only from display of wealth through consumption. But status today is not expressed in economic terms only. Rather, it’s linked to culture, wellness, ethics, spirituality, social influence, and environmentalism. Greta Thunberg, a teenager whose cause and moral conviction puts the rest of us to shame, enjoys elite status."
Being in a group is a status symbol. I proposed that influencers such as Kim Kardashian should use private groups to strengthen her customer's loyalty to her products:
"Companies will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for sponsoring her social posts. Her brand, KKW Beauty, has a valuation of $1B.
It suffices to say she has a loyal following. What if she told her fans that they could join her "private club"? Once a week, her most dedicated fans would hear her talk. It's fleeting, authentic and epitomizes FOMO. How much would a fan pay to say, "I'm part of Kim's club?"
A lot!"
We've seen newer creators use communities to build an identity. Take Jack Butcher, founder of Visualize Value. He could have written a few books on design and sold a number of digital products. Instead he sold his customers an identity. The idea of being part of something bigger than them. They don't just want another book on design, but would prefer to grow and build with a community.
Another creator, David Perell, takes the same method. David, founder of Write of Passage, a writing course, isn't just building your usual writing course. He leverages the power of community to grow. Alumni of his course put Write of Passage in their Twitter bio. Would you rather be in just any writing course or an alumni of Write of Passage? The obvious answer is the latter.
So why is this important for your brand? It's harder than ever to break through on social media. Twitter, Instagram and other networks are more crowded than ever. Communities are an opportunity for your customers and "fans" to be open and connected. You make them feel like it's more than just about money. It's about building a community with them. Making them feel special. It's not about building the largest customer base anymore. Don’t just find customers, find fans.