Membership in a community “is the feeling of belonging or sharing a sense of personal relatedness” and “that one has invested part of oneself to become a member and has a right to belong”. Boundaries of membership, one of its attributes, are markers, such as language, dress (and accessories), or rituals, that indicate who belongs and who does not – who is in and who is out. Boundaries thus provide the structure and physical/emotional security that protect group intimacy.
Groups use boundaries to reject or isolate those who do not belong, and vice versa, find outliers to establish boundaries. In that sense, membership in a community can be just as much about what makes someone a member as what makes her not. Just think of a kid ridiculed for not having a certain brand of sneakers, or the feeling a PC laptop owner may get in a coffee shop full of MacBook latte sippers.
If you’re a sustainable marketer, your first order of business should be to ensure that your customers consider ownership of a product or use of a service a marker of membership in your brand community. Ownership or use is just a necessary condition, however. It’s important to ensure your customers think and feel, ‘If I own this product or use this service, I will belong to a group of people who are like me and who appreciate me for who I am’. Similarly, make sure the customer community as a whole recognizes and acknowledges that their fellow customers are part of their community and what makes them so.
Tips for using boundaries to create Sense of Community:
- Build your brand community around customers’ identity. If you’ve narrowly defined your niche and gained an understanding of their pains, needs and wants, you know what your target group’s aspirations are. Gear your messaging to appeal to your audiences’ identity. Humans are social animals, we like to be part of an in-group. Creating a platform for your customers to connect and share their experiences with others like them will help form groups marked by ties to your brand.
- Make it easy to opt in and out of your brand community. Every purchase must be a simple, seamless, and pleasant experience. Your company’s customer service and support must make your customers feel they’re special (think repeat business and referrals). Product returns/refunds, unsubscribes, or cancellations should also be made as easy as possible; they are also an opportunity to listen to your customer’s feedback, appreciate their business and sharing, and improve their future experience.
- Lower the wall around your brand community. You’ve made it easy to get in, but it’s a long way there. Make information about your brand community readily available. Be inviting. Encourage participation by offering a preview of what membership means, what identity rewards it offers (see below). Samples, trials, money-back guarantees, or freebies are some of the more straightforward tools. Customer or user recommendations, reviews, and comments will help your audiences decide on the value of membership. Ask your existing customers for referrals and reward them for making referrals.
Quotes: McMillan and Chavis, “Sense of Community: A Definition and Theory”, Journal of Community Psychology, Vol. 14, 1986.
This post is part of Creating Sense of Community series.
