Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging

By: Carrie Melissa Jones, Charles Vogl

Narrated by: Caroline Miller

An authentic brand community is more than just people buying your product or working alongside one another. This audiobook articulates the critical roles of mutual concern, common values, and shared experiences in creating fiercely loyal customer and collaborator relationships.

Smart organizations know that creating communities is the key to unlocking unprecedented outcomes. But too many mistakenly rely on superficial transactional relationships as a foundation for community, when really people want something deeper. Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl argue that in an authentic and enriching community, members have mutual concern for one another, share personal values, and join together in meaningful shared experiences, whether online or off. On the deepest level, brands must help members grow into who they want to be.

Jones and Vogl present practices used by global brands like Yelp, Etsy, Twitch, Harley Davidson, Salesforce, Airbnb, Sephora, and others to connect in a meaningful way with the people critical for their success. They articulate how authentic communities can serve organizational goals in seven different areas: Innovation, talent recruitment, customer retention, marketing, customer service, building transformational movements, and creating community forums. They also reveal principles to grow a new brand community to critical mass. This is the first comprehensive guide to a crucial differentiator that gives organizations access to untapped enthusiasm and engagement.

©2020 Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles H. Vogl (P)2020 Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles H. Vogl

Great place to start with community building

Carrie shares much of her experience working with various brands and will walk you through the critical metrics for growing and building a community. There's a lot that goes on in the community that I did not know, and I recommend starting with this book!

Excelente guía para construir una comunidad

Si ya empezaste el proceso, con este libro puedes esclarecer en qué etapa del proceso vas, qué pasos corregir, y por dónde debes continuar. Definiendo qué es y qué no es un comunidad. Lo único que me hubiera gustado encontrar es ejemplos de pequeños negocios que han logrado construir una comunidad y qué han hecho para lograrlo, sin grandes presupuestos.

Helpful book but narrative is a bit dry

I took plenty of notes from this book. Overall it consolidates many valuable examples and lessons learned by other organizations. However, the tone of the book felt more like a lecture that is very informative but difficult to sit through. I will definitely use this book as a reference going forward, but probably wouldn't read/listen to it all over again.