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Practical Tips for Creating a Product/Brand Community with Bri Leever
Today, we’re diving into the power of building a community around a brand or product. A vibrant community can boost growth, sharpen messaging, and offer co-creation opportunities. Companies like LEGO, Starbucks, and Wyze Consumer Electronics have thrived by cultivating such communities.
Joining us to shed light on this topic is Bri Leever, a community strategist who designs and nurtures communities for various brands. Bri helped me create the Product Mastery Now Community and provided invaluable insights during the process. Her expertise can be found at Ember Consulting, and she shares analyses of public communities on YouTube through her Bri Leever channel.
Why Should Product People Care About Communities?
Communities are essential for product managers because they allow continuous engagement with customers, helping to understand how their problems evolve. Instead of solving a problem and moving on, a community fosters ongoing discussions and collaborations, keeping you in tune with customer needs and allowing you to test new solutions.
Different Types of Communities
There are various kinds of communities catering to different needs:
– Ambassador Community: Members have sales incentives to promote products.
– Customer Support Community: Focuses on troubleshooting and assistance.
– Product Community: Gathers input from top customers.
– Customer Success Community: Aims at learning, especially for technical products requiring courses.
Start small, focus on one type, and expand as you gain traction.
Great Examples of Public Communities
The LEGO IDEAS community lets members submit and vote on new LEGO set designs, which might go into production. This kind of engagement shows the power of community status when members proudly display their community badges on other social platforms.
Similarly, the Spotify community has streamlined their focus on product improvement, although they could benefit from fostering micro-communities for artists.
Practical Tips for Building a Community
1. Understand Your Customers: Engage with your top customers through phone calls or focus groups to understand their needs and connections they seek.
2. Connect Experts and Learners: Create a place where your brand facilitates learning and collaboration among members rather than just pushing out content.
3. Foster Meaningful Conversations: Avoid focusing solely on the quantity of comments. Aim for valuable interactions instead.
Choosing a Technical Platform
A dedicated space is crucial for fostering relationships among members. Rather than relying on Facebook or Slack, consider community platforms like:
– Mighty Networks: Though well-known, it has a difficult user experience.
– Circle: Ideal for conversations, events, and content, used by Product Mastery Now.
– Heartbeat: Focuses on event-centric communities.
These platforms offer templates, making it easier to set up and manage your community.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Community Design
Avoid reversing the habit formation steps—prompt, action, reward. Recognize and incentivize actions after they occur, rather than preemptively handing out rewards. Recognition is often a more powerful motivator than financial incentives.
By paying close attention to how you prompt actions and reward contributions, you can foster a thriving, engaged community.