Guest post: Petri Kajander & is your business a community?
Is your business a community?
"Excitement drives loyalty. Loyalty comes from emotional connection and trust. They need to be earned."
- Petri Kajander
Building something people are excited about means you have hit some nerve in people's needs, desires, or wants. You're solving some problems that are important and so valuable your customers are willing to pay to solve them.
Best solutions provide more than the utility. They move people. Some of your customers become your fans, advocates, and aficionados. They are willing to do a lot more than just consume your solution. They want to participate because they care enough.
If you're addressing a more significant cause than your company, people can easily relate to your mission. They can connect with the story you're telling and the reasons why you're building your solutions and solving issues that are close to you.
Are you building with your customers?
Building something together with your customers is empowering. You are inclusive and part of the community, solving issues with them, not for them. You're not just solving something in isolation and communicating one-way. You're a member of the community.
This takes dedication, commitment, and resources. The results may not be immediate if you're just starting to build your community. The whole approach to the business is different. Inclusivity requires trust and giving up some inherent control.
For some businesses, the community is the business. For others, the business has a community element to it. There's no one way to build or utilise a community in your business.
Community = business
The best communities are treated as businesses, as David Spink's mentions in his latest book The Business of Belonging. They need to have their mission, resources, and execution plan. Seldom things just happen. For longevity and self-sustenance, communities need to serve their members' core needs and generate enough financial resources to thrive.
If a business builds a community around its mission, the community needs to be linked to the business goals. Otherwise, it's hard to justify the existence and resource allocation for community purposes in the long term.
Communities can be a clear competitive advantage. They create switching costs and additional benefits that are hard, if not impossible, to replicate. Features can be copied, but how do you copy community experiences and bonds people build over shared values and themes?
Mr. Petri Kajander (petrikajander.com) is passionate about building the future with growth companies. He has founded several and coached even more. He has a humane touch with sharp business acumen. In the year 2020, Petri studied online communities and what is of utmost importance in building them. He currently lives in Tallinn but operates internationally with his ventures.