Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging

The guide for organizations gathering people to transform their brand and field.

Top tier organizations, whether non-profit, political, faith-based or commercial, know that meaningful connections unlock unprecedented outcomes. But too many brands mistakenly rely on superficial transactional relationships to connect with partners, employees, and customers. In this especially lonely era, people want something deeper. Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl reveal how to build authentic brand communities, where members grow mutual concern, share personal values, and gather in meaningful experiences, both online and off. Successful communities help members grow into who they want to be.

An authentic brand community is far more than a group working alongside one another or a list of customers connected to a brand on social media. Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl present practices used by global brands like Yelp, Twitch, Salesforce, Airbnb, Sephora, Patagonia and others to meaningfully connect with the people critical for their success. Building Brand Communities distills key lessons to create engaged and effective communities by growing mutual concern, expressing common values, and sharing experiences. Success can develop fiercely loyal collaborator and customer relationships.

The authors articulate how authentic communities can serve organizational goals in seven different areas: innovation, talent recruitment, customer retention, marketing, customer service, creating community forums and building transformational movements. They also reveal principles to grow a new brand community to critical mass. This is a comprehensive guide to a crucial differentiator that gives organizations access to untapped enthusiasm and engagement.

About the Authors

Carrie Melissa Jones is the founder of Gather Community Consulting and the former COO and Founding Partner of CMX. Her work has helped build communities with Google, Patreon, the American Medical Association, Coursera, and DoSomething.org. In 2016, Salesforce named her one of three experts to follow in community management.

Charles Vogl is an executive advisor and a regular guest lecturer at Yale School of Management and Yale Leadership Institute. His work is used to support operations within firms including Google, Airbnb, Twitch and Meetup. He is the author of the award-winning The Art of Community.