Purpose, not platform: Building the foundation for your community

The first and arguably most important step in your community journey is identifying the purpose or outcomes you’re trying to achieve. As Brian Oblinger recently described in a session of Community Learning Labs, your vision is a clear perspective about how community will improve your customer’s experience and deliver positive outcomes for the business.

Online communities come in many shapes and sizes, some working towards similar and some towards different goals. When considering the purpose of your community, think about what business challenge you’re trying to solve- this will help fuel your strategy later. Here are some examples of outcomes that you can achieve with a community:

• Feedback and insights: Engaging users for product improvements and crowdsourced innovation while providing a goldmine of first-party data.

• Improved customer support: Creating a space for customers to self-serve and get peer support, reducing the load on traditional channels.

• Brand advocacy engine: Nurturing your most loyal customers to amplify your brand and help drive down customer acquisition costs for new customers.

• Knowledge base or hub: Creating a centralized knowledge hub for internal or external groups to easily access information.

Don’t forget to consider your audience when developing the goals for your community. For your community to be thriving, it should meet their needs and offer them an online experience they can’t access elsewhere. 

So let’s start with the audiences you will focus on. Who is your audience? Most likely, you’ll have overlapping audiences you'd like to serve, so you need to know how they're different or the same and which to prioritize. You might be building a community for product users, where people share feedback, troubleshoot issues, and learn how to use your product effectively. Or, you could target brand advocates, who are passionate about amplifying your message and fostering deeper loyalty. Maybe you’re engaging with developers in a technical community, collaborating on projects, and learning together. In each of these scenarios, they could also be customers. 

Each audience brings unique needs and motivations, shaping your community's structure and strategy. Understanding who they are and how they will gain value from your community is the key to aligning your vision with their needs. If you don’t already know their needs, do your homework. As Brian described it in the second session of Community Learning Labs, “Just ask them. Do surveys, get on the phone, have conversations, and talk to them about what they care about, what drives their motivation, and their mindset. They'll tell you what they want to need.”

Here are some questions to ask when considering your audience:

• Why would my community exist, what makes it different, and what are the desired outcomes for members?

• How will this community help the business grow long-term?

• What role will the community play in your broader business goals?

Once you’ve crafted your vision statement, you must align it with your company's mission and values. This helps foster internal and external support and ensures long-term sustainability, as employees and customers can recognize that the community is following the business's north star.

Here are a couple of examples of a community vision rooted in the company’s mission and values:

• LogicMonitor’s mission is to simplify technology management for the benefit of all people, so its community vision focuses on building an integrated community that acts as a central hub for everyone, from seasoned customers to new customers. This simplifies the process for customers to get help and help one another.

• When Canon U.S.A. reimagined its community, its team led with its company philosophy of Kyosei—"all people, regardless of race, religion, or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future." Their community now focuses on connecting like-minded people, building meaningful relationships, and empowering customers to find solutions efficiently.

Now that you’ve defined your community’s purpose, you can start to form the objectives you intend to accomplish with your community.

Suppose your community exists to boost customer retention. In that case, your objectives might include increasing engagement with long-term customers by creating opportunities for them to interact with your brand and other users. For self-service communities, your goal could be to reduce customer service inquiries by creating a space where members can answer each other’s questions. On the other hand, brand loyalty communities may focus on turning casual customers into enthusiastic advocates, nurturing deep emotional connections with your brand.

The next step aligns those objectives with measurable KPIs that can be tracked and used to show a tangible impact on the community.

• Customer Retention: number of repeat purchases, customer lifetime value, or churn rate

• Self-service communities: reduced customer support tickets, the average response time within the community, or the number of resolved questions

• Brand loyalty: number of referrals, user-generated content, or participation in advocacy programs

These KPIs enable you to quantify the community’s success and show its tangible impact on your company’s bottom line.

In building a successful community, it’s essential to consider the member experience and journey. What kind of value do you want them to gain from being part of the community? Over time, you’ll want to design a path that moves members from newcomers to core advocates, offering increasing engagement and recognition. This could involve structured onboarding, access to exclusive content or events, and opportunities to become community leaders.

It’s essential to keep in mind that your strategy should not be static. Regularly review your community’s performance against your KPIs so you can evolve your plan over time based on changing member needs and business objectives. Staying agile and responsive to shifts in member expectations will ensure that your community remains relevant, providing long-term value to your members and your business.

While it’s easy to get caught up in the features and capabilities of various platforms, the real value of a community lies in its purpose. The technology you select should serve as a tool that facilitates your goals—whether that’s driving engagement, fostering brand loyalty, or creating a self-service support space—but it should never define your direction or restrict your potential.

To marry your technology with your strategy, you must identify the core activities and interactions to help your community thrive. To create a customer support community, you’ll want a platform that allows for easy discussion threads, peer-to-peer help, and robust search functionality. For those looking to foster a brand advocacy program, you’ll need gamification features, leaderboards, or exclusive content spaces. Before getting caught up in the newest and flashy features, focus on the elements that will help you enhance the member experience while delivering on your business goals. 

Take those key pillars and requirements for your community into your evaluation processas you look for the right partner to support your long-term vision. This could mean looking at those who offer options to scale as your community grows, integrate with your existing CRM or tech stack, or provide strategic guidance, expertise, and support. A strong technology partner will collaborate in your journey, helping you to evolve and grow as needs change.

The foundation for your future community should start with a solid vision and strategy. Go from purpose to execution with these steps:

1. Clarify your community’s purpose and vision based on your audience

2. Set measurable goals that align with business objectives

3. Outline the member experience journey

4. Plan for a feedback loop to adjust strategy based on member and business needs

5. Choose the right technology only after defining the strategy

By aligning your community’s purpose with measurable business goals, you can create a thoughtful member journey and set the stage for a thriving community. Don’t miss out on our Online community vision worksheet to help you with the process. And remember, the technology you choose to support your vision is just a tool—focus on your purpose, and the right platform will naturally follow.