“Build a community.” The words of advice given to many a budding founder after they ask how to best take their product to market.
It’s great advice that is true for almost every business, company, startup, founder, and everything in between. The hard part, though, is actually doing it in a lasting and meaningful way, especially in a world where community has almost become a currency itself and community management — and those who are exceptional at it — can make all the difference in the growth trajectory of a company.
Culture Amp. Canva. Salesforce. Slack. These are all companies that you’ve likely heard of; and in some circles, they’ve become somewhat of a household name. One thing they all have in common is they’ve taken a community-led approach to growth, building a cult-like following around their brand along the way.
How’d they do it?
Canva is one of Perth’s — and Australia’s — biggest success stories and it’s hard to find someone who hasn’t heard of them. How has Canva become an international powerhouse? Their dedication to building supportive teacher and student communities surely played a part.
What about Culture Amp? How have they become such a standout name in their industry? Undoubtedly their dedicated advocates from the People Geek community have something to do with it.
And it translates across all industries, especially consumer brands. Take iconic makeup brand Sephora as an example. One of the keys to them establishing such a strong brand presence has been the 200k+ members in their Beauty Insider Community. Imaging having 200k+ brand ambassadors talking about your product? From a marketing standpoint, that has more impact than anything you can say and any advertising campaign you could ever run.
And if you want the biggest example of all, take a look at the cultlike following that Taylor Swift has created around her personal music brand resulting in an entire empire of ‘Swifties’ travelling around the world to experience ‘The Eras Tour’. Her community has literally grown to the point where it can fundamentally change the strength of a country’s entire economy.
An essential skill of the future
Given the importance of community building, it’s rapidly becoming an in-demand and essential skill for the future. But how do you learn it as a skill. Formal tertiary education hasn’t made it into this area yet and it likely isn’t an academic endeavour, rather a skill learned by doing and leveraging the know-how of others who have done it before.
One such person who’s been there and done that is Paz Pisarski and she’s turned it into a program to help grow a tribe of community builders who are making waves across some of the biggest companies in Australia.
Pisarski founded The Community Collective and launched their first eight-week Community Cohort in August 2022 with 36 members across four countries.
They’ve now had four cohorts progress through the program representing 220 members from a multitude of countries who are now out there building communities for some very well-known brands including Tractor Ventures, Airtree, KPMG, CSIRO, Canva, The University of Melbourne, MYOB, Blackbird Ventures, Eucalyptus, and affix.
The next cohort
“Our 8-week cohort is where community builders, operators, and founders come together to level up and build impactful communities,” says Paz Pisarski, Co-Founder at The Community Collective. “With a program tailored to develop actionable strategies and foster real connections, our members emerge equipped to navigate the challenges of community building with confidence and clarity. It’s not just about joining a program, it’s about learning alongside those who are also deep in this work.”
The Community Collective is currently open for applications to what will be Cohort #5. Applications close on August 23rd so if you want to know the best way to build a community, apply now.
Main image: Jess Walker, Paz Pisarski, and Liz van Zyl from the Community Collective