Why would it not be okay to have personal relationships where people just have to stick with you, but it’d be okay to have these dynamics with customers?

——

Bringing people together can mean a lot of things. It can happen as part of an event — that’s one time. It can happen as a club — that’s recurring. Eventually, it can become a community, which probably is more than a club.

Much like my other pieces, I’m talking today about the future of business. The new business model. It’s not something that’s common today but I think due to how connected we’ve become, it will be more and more.

The takeaway for you? Managing/creating/enhancing a community as a company leads to one thing: winning. Those who do that today win and will keep on winning.

I’ve talked before about how to convert a free user to a premium user this way. About how word of mouth works or about what’s more important than revenue (see them all in my top written pieces).

Today is about this: if you’d have people who stick with you (literally you, the person) just because they have to, that would suck.

When I say just because they have to, it could be for instance that they don’t have any other choice, you provide a lot of value to them and they got locked-in or they don’t know any better — however, they’re with you.

My point is: the same situation applies when to a company.

As this new business model will take shape, it will be more and more widely known (and true). To put things into perspective, today’s kids who are growing up with these practices won’t know any different than relationships between them and the companies they’re using — much like we’ve grown to not know any different than free shipping in e-commerce.

We’ve grown so comfortable with free shipping in so many places that when we see £2.99 extra to our order’s total, we wince and we might go as far as cancelling the order. However, once those £2.99 are included in the order, we keep on going happily.

How to bring people together

I’ve started the article with talking about events, club and then communities. I think brands can bring people together as well. How can that happen?

I believe once a very targeted audience is selected, things go uphill. The reason for that is that focus brings impact.

Much like a previous article, when we’re talking about strong impact on a certain group of people, the happy consequence is that your message waterfalls into these people’s adjacent groups. It’s the thesis of the said article about how word of mouth works.

Which brings everything to the concept that’s at the centre of every piece I put out: experiences. Companies who create experiences bring people together. It’s almost as if it’s a must — they must do something for a certain very-targeted community in order to build an experience.

Why? Because there’s no one-size fits all experience. There are experiences who fit a lot of people but that can only be done at a very high level. See: biggest tech companies like Facebook, Amazon or Apple (no wonder they’re so highly valuated since they do this).

The bottom line

So what’s the takeaway for today? On top of the usual “How Many People Are You Saying No To Through Your Speech?”, once you choose that focus, a community is either created or enhanced. There are so many untapped communities out there that it’s easier to conquer a blue ocean.

The caveat to this idea I’ve presented today? It takes longer than the “follow the money route” — but it pays off: you’ll have a stronger foundation.

On the “follow the money” route, once a company falls it’s usually done for good. Overnight success and one-time-hit-wonders happen and they make or break a company.

On the other hand, the long-term shot means an overnight break will enhance what you do to your community but it won’t decide the fate of your company — you’ll do good even if there will never be an overnight spike.

About Ch Daniel

I run Chagency_, an experiences design agency that specialises on helping tech CEOs reduce user churn. We believe experiences are not only the reason why users choose not to leave but also what generates word of mouth. We’re building a credo around this belief.

If I’ve brought you any kind of value, follow me and get in touch here: LinkedIn | Twitter | Email | Quora | YouTube (same content but in video)

I’ve also created an infinitely-valuable app for sneaker/fashion enthusiasts called Legit Check that impacted hundreds of thousands over millions of times – check it out at chdaniel.com/app

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Illustration Credits: Ricardo Mendes, This group of people