Table of Contents
- What is a Community
- What is a brand community?
- Why is bringing your competitor to your community helpful ?
- Community, Brand Community and why connect competitors to your community concluding comments
What is a Community
Community The word has a meaning it also resonates a strong emotion. An emotion that is associated with warmth and positivity. Here we are discussing, community, what is a brand community and why it is a good idea to collaborate with someone who is a competitor.
Although communities are traditionally understood as bonding in a relatively small group, personal social ties keep members together. “Community” may also refer to large group affiliations such as national, international communities, and virtual communities.
The majority of effort in the digital medium has started to focus on quality associations, and actions that help further the interest of its members. Community is an operative word that has been established to have an impact on our happiness than money and health.
Celebrated Author, historian, philosopher Prof. Yuval Noah Harari in his best-seller book Sapiens describes the genesis and importance of communities. He writes:
Ants and bees can also work together in huge numbers, but they do so in a very rigid manner and only with close relatives. Wolves and chimpanzees cooperate far more flexibly than ants, but they can do so only with small numbers of other individuals that they know intimately. Sapiens can cooperate in extremely flexible ways with countless numbers of strangers. That’s why Sapiens rule the world, whereas ants eat our leftovers and chimps are locked up in zoos and research laboratories.”
It is well established that one of the strongest factors that support human and humanity are the ability to trust and cooperate. We also find reference to the importance of communities in works by Dr Raghuram Rajan. He uses examples from recent times to drive home the point. He calls community the third pillar. He titles his book The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind.
Raghuram G. Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, is Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business writes: “The ‘third pillar’ is the community we live in. Economists all too often understand their field as the relationship between markets and the state, and they leave squishy social issues for other people. That’s not just myopic, Rajan argues; it’s dangerous. All economics is actually socioeconomics – all markets are embedded in a web of human relations, values and norms”.
A word that has its origins in the Latin language with words that describe public spirit. It is a simple emotion that finds mention in many languages. The fact that we note its literal translations in some of the oldest languages, shows that this is an emotion that is deeply rooted in us all.
Two authors from 2 very different fields of study, conclude the importance and relevance of community. It shows why a lot of effort in the visual world is moving towards building communities and specifically brand communities.
What is a brand community?
Brand community :
connected by need and emotion
We have established a community by that logic a brand community gets built when you have people who align to a product and interest. Products are a result of a need that is being served. The target audiences will always have choices, brands aim to build an emotional connection. Brand communities are thus a group connected by need and emotion.
Brand Community ..they are essential to your presence on the internet.
The digital world is a busy place. Brands need to make an effort to be heard, they need to work extra hard to ensure that their message is not lost. Mailing lists, subscribers to your YouTube channel, members of groups, micro-communities are manifestations of your brand communities. They are people who show interest in your product and relate to the personality the brand presents. Matrices add the empirical measure to how the world is receiving and reacting to your message.
Traditionally brands stand for products. Personal brands are extinction. The virtual world offers an opportunity to showcase skill with a web presence. Personal brands help curate and establish authority. I write more about how personal branding is helpful, Read more here.
A brand community is a measure
A brand community is a measure of if the message was received. For long traditional marketing has relied on hysterics to measure the impact. Open rates, subscribers, log-in to a utility, members of micro-communities propagated by a brand help understand if the message was received. A call to action is a measure that was acted upon. A subjective aspect to the same is discussed in greater detail at http://web-presence.net/personal-branding-visible-valuable-web-presence/
Brand communities amplify energy
Energy: a latent effect that people experience. It is understood as a combination of a person’s past, influences, attitude, dominant thoughts. Brand community brings people together and binds them for interest. A conglomeration of interest thus helps amplify energy and brand message.
Understand your competitor as your community.
Durable relations that extend beyond immediate genealogical ties. They establish identity, define practices, and roles of social institutions such as families, companies and brand both products and personal brands.
Competitors offer the same service or product. They are competitors and eat out of the same pie. As competitors eat from the same pie, when it comes to the internet, it is not that you yourself get any less. When it comes to the internet, understanding your competitor as your community is recommended. Your competitor is in your corner, and it is not necessary that they are standing on your toes. Let us understand the many ways coming together as a community is helpful to your web presence.
Why is bringing your competitor to your community helpful ?
- When drafting content and conveying thoughts your community is helping build and improve how you convey your message. What is written on the post and how was it received. Feedback is critical to succes with web presence. Communities help with market research and improve beta versions. Who can give better advice than some who operates in the same space as you. Your competitors are already in your corner.
- Write a blog and let someone else finish it off. If you are a subject matter expert, there will always be enough to say. It is prudent to offer a holistic approach and refer to resources outside.
- Competitors aid Branding by association
- You cannot be everything to everyone, you are not a potato, we do not know who is investing in what and how. Investing in your competitor by liking and showing support in the virtual medium get you a friend indeed.
- SEO – backlinks domain authority. The technical terms and empirical evidence to why it is important to have your competitors in your community. You can read more about SEO and Back links at Sanjay Shenoy.
- People are investing in brands. The internet is a very large pool of people. The only way forward is to invest in your own brand. An investor who does not relate to your brand is not your customer. They are better redirected to competition and gain a friend indeed.
Community, Brand Community and why connect competitors to your community concluding comments
We have to realize that help is on the other side of the screen… reach out. “Community” may also refer to large group affiliations such as national, international communities, and virtual communities. The majority of effort in the digital medium has started to focus on quality associations. After all communities have been critical to the evolution of humans and humanity. There is subjective and empirical evidence to how competitors help so bring them to your community and create a legacy.