Brand community is the new differentiation.

If you're in business, chances are your market is saturated. It's harder than ever to get a .com, create a category, and stand out against competitors.

What's happening now is brands are looking within to find new and interesting ways to show who they are, yet often end up still sounding the same as everyone else. Ever notice how you've come up with something that feels unique only to find, weeks later, other companies sound eerily similar?

It's not because they copied; it's that brands within an industry tend to ride the same waves in the market, see the same customer needs, follow the same trends.

What I want you to know is: you don't have to differentiate so hard. You can be successful and a commodity. You can build loyalty in a market where others are doing the same thing. People can like tacos from 3 places. There's room for us all.

To grow, focus less on yourself and more on building community with your customers. Inspire a cult-like following. Create relationships. Brands that have built community have a loyal customer base that not only repeat buys, they also moderate conversations about you online, help you acquire more customers, and give you insights on adapting your product to fit market needs.

The secret? You have to create lines of communication, care about your customers, and listen.

Two brands that are doing this well:

Gymshark

Gymshark’s chief product officer, Francis says some of his best ideas still come from talking with customers. Just a few examples of how they offer value beyond the product:

• Discord for customers to connect and chat

• UGC and Customer Influencers rule social

• Live events, documented on social

• Submit a fake, where loyal customers can report dupes or imposter sites

• Workout app that leverages creators to create content

Apollo

This startup recently raised $100 million in a Series D funding round, which nearly doubled its valuation to $1.6 billion. Apollo is a great use case for building community as a B2B company.

• The #apollopartner program to leverage LinkedIn influencers

• Mapping customer feedback data to revenue

• Constant tutorial and use case content

• Amplified personal brands for employees on TikTok and LinkedIn

Not sure where to start? Here are some quick ways to get into community building:

• UGC mining: who has tagged you? Build relationships there in the DMs

• Live Chat: get a plug in for your website to start getting feedback and open conversation loops with customers

• Surveys: routinely ask your current customers about their experience, problems, and wish lists. Then deliver on them.

• Host live events (virtual or in person) and create opportunities for people to connect with each other and participate in keynote conversations

• Create content across platforms where your customer lives. Tutorials, use cases, inspiration, and q&a's

• Use broadcast channels. Instagram has both a Live feed and broadcast channel, LinkedIn offers Live audio and video events, TikTok has live, Reddit is popular for AMA series. Just pick a topic they're into, start talking and respond to questions!

The most important thing in building community is to start where you are and be consistent. The beauty of social as it stands today is the more human, relatable, and authentic the better.

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