How To Build A Community Around Your Brand

There’s a way to build your market without spending a fortune on advertising and marketing — and it’s called community building. Here’s why this should be the cornerstone of your growth strategy.

- Greg Tinkler

IN THEIR FIRST three years of business, social media management tool Hootsuite grew from zero to three million users. It’s an impressive feat for any company, but what’s even more notable is that they did so with virtually no advertising or marketing budget.

Instead, they grew through community building. A team of 18 staff members and 100 influencers grew the company in a grassroots manner — all thanks to community engagement, according to their CEO Ryan Holmes.

Below are five steps that you can use to grow your brand or company using community building as a key strategic tactic.

1 Define what your brand is and what it stands for

Before you can build a community around your brand, you have to know what that brand is.

Do you have a mission statement? Do you know exactly who your target audience and community is? Do you have the content ready and armed to engage this community each and every day?

Here’s a classic example: The colour pink doesn’t try to make itself greener, hoping to appeal to everybody who loves both. Pink is pink, and you either like it or you don’t. There are no apologies and no justifications.

So, what’s your ‘pink’? What do you stand for that nobody else does? What type of people do you want in your community and, more importantly, who don’t you want to include?