Embracing Community over Audience: A Strategic Shift for Brands

In today’s rapidly evolving attention economy, media brands face the challenge of not just attracting but also engaging and retaining their target audiences. In order to compete against Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok for user attention, brands need to shift their focus from audience acquisition and start building active and loyal communities that attract creatives, collaborators and connectors. This shift, which Brian Morrissey has dubbed depth over breadth, is crucial for fostering deeper connections, enhancing engagement, and ultimately driving greater revenue and retention.

From Passive Audiences to Active Communities

Traditional brand content experiences often result in passive and fleeting audience engagement. These audiences are largely disengaged and unmotivated, offering limited value to brands. In contrast, communities are characterized by active participation, collaboration, creativity, and a strong sense of connection and loyalty. As community-building expert Greg Isenberg notes, building such communities involves several key elements:

Togetherness: Providing spaces for collective interaction.
Rituals: Establishing regular activities that foster a sense of routine.
Identity: Cultivating a shared sense of purpose among members.
Belonging: Creating a feeling of being part of something larger.
Engagement: Encouraging ongoing contribution and interaction independent of direct brand involvement.

The Viafoura Digital Experience Platform: Enabling Community Building

Viafoura’s Digital Experience Platform (DXP) is at the forefront of this transformation, offering a comprehensive suite of tools designed to enhance user engagement, personalization and data utilization. Trusted by over 800 global media brands, Viafoura’s DXP empowers brands to create dynamic, interactive communities through features such as:

Engagement Suite: Facilitates real-time interactions with conversations, live Q&A sessions, and polls.
Moderation Tools: Combines AI and human moderation to maintain respectful and relevant discourse.
Personalization: Delivers tailored content recommendations and personalized feeds.
Data Insights: Leverages first-party data for deep user behavior insights, driving targeted engagement strategies.

The Transformative Impact of Community Members

Community members significantly outperform standard audiences in terms of engagement and revenue generation. According to Viafoura’s data:

Community members have a 5.3x higher increase in dwell time compared to regular audiences.
They are 45x more likely to subscribe.
They drive 3x more site visits.

These statistics highlight the outsized impact that engaged community members can have on a brand’s success. By focusing on building and nurturing communities, brands can achieve higher levels of engagement, loyalty, and ultimately, profitability.

Practical Steps for Building Robust Communities

To build thriving communities, brands should consider the following steps:

Define Your Community’s Purpose: Clearly communicate the community’s goals and values to attract like-minded individuals.
Create Valuable Content: Consistently provide content that is relevant, informative, and engaging. This will keep members interested and active within the community.
Encourage Interaction: Use interactive tools like real-time comments, live chats, Q&A sessions, and polls to facilitate real-time interaction among members.
Recognize and Reward Contributions: Acknowledge active members and reward their contributions. This can be done through shout-outs, badges, or exclusive content.
Leverage Data: Use first-party data to understand your members better and tailor your engagement strategies accordingly.

Conclusion

The shift from an audience-centric to a community-focused strategy is imperative for success in today’s attention economy. Viafoura’s digital experience platform provides the tools necessary to make this transition, enabling brands to create engaging, personalized, and data-driven experiences. By fostering a sense of togetherness, establishing rituals, and encouraging ongoing engagement, brands can build loyal communities that drive substantial value.