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The Best Brands Are The Ones That Build "Belonging"
A Crisis of "Belonging"
In previous eras, people used to gather around a faith group, neighborhood association, or trade union.
However, the crisis of social isolation has created a vacuum that commercial, for-profit brands are stepping in to fill.
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Key Ideas
A Crisis of "Belonging"
In previous eras, people used to gather around a faith group, neighborhood association, or trade union.
However, the crisis of social isolation has created a vacuum that commercial, for-profit brands are stepping in to fill.
Connected But Alone
Social isolation may be the leading problem of our era.
- 89% of people used a cell phone during their last social interaction. 82% felt it degraded the conversation.
- 40% of Americans identify as lonely; up from 1 in 10 in the 1970s.
- One in four Americans have no trusted confidante; up from 1 in 10 in 1985.
- Less than half of American kids live in a traditional family home.
- There’s been a 40% decline in standard measures of empathy since the 1990s.
- There’s been a 24% rise in suicides between 1999 and 2014.
- Only about half of Americans trust their neighbors.
Tribal Connections
Technology is part of the problem of disconnection, as we're replacing deep, emotion-driving in-person relationships with superficial online relationships.
Another cause is the decline of participation in organized religions that were traditionally responsible for weaving social fabric. Reweaving the social fabric is vital to the individual as well as collectively.
How We Gather
Some for-profit brands are identifying the opportunity for stepping into the cultural need and market opportunity for more in-depth, real-world person-to-person connections.
Those companies that help us forge meaningful connections will win deep loyalty. If belonging can be built around apparel and technology companies, surely it can be built around learning, parenthood, food, and health.
How Brands Can Build Belonging
Most brand-led community building focuses on people loosely aggregated around a brand, where the brand is the hero, and the people mostly interact with the brand.
What is needed are initiatives that enhance belonging with real connection. Brands should create spaces, experiences, products, and services that deliberately foster the conditions for diverse people coming together in respectful environments for shared experiences.
Principles of building belonging
- Make contact with people you disagree with.
- Share collective joy and pain.
- Speak up politely when you disagree.
- Embrace the paradox. Those with a strong sense of belonging often demonstrate a mix of traits, such as the courage to stand alone, while also being engaged in a group.
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Community Engagement Cycle
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Why People Sign Up To A Community
- The community aligns with their identity.
- They trust that the community will bring them value.
- They know how to participate.
- There is a reward (intrinsic or extrinsic) for their participation.
Build the Foundation of Community
- Form the a community’s Identity: Carefully choose 10 potential members who fit the community identity you envision. They’ll set the standard of quality and the tone for everyone else.
- Earn Trust: The members can’t trust a community that doesn’t yet exist, but they can trust you. Connect with them, bring them value and ask for feedback.
- Fuel Participation: Start to build trust between the members. Their trust in you will translate to trust in each other, and in the group as a whole.
- Reward: Ask if the experience was valuable and if members felt rewarded for their participation. This gives them extra validation and lets you know what to fix if you need to retry.
- Repeat Steps 1-4: Invite new members and give existing members the opportunity to invite someone new. As the base of the group begins to settle it creates a sense of belonging and makes people more likely to invite others who will fit the group.
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Everyone At Home
In the age of pandemic, with lockdowns all over the globe, people have isolated themselves away from friends, relatives and communities, not by choice, but by the forces of fear, peer pressure and ...
Flatten The Curve
There is an urgent need to socially distance ourselves as early as possible to slow the spread of the virus and flatten the curve.
This becomes more and more important as infected people are showing mild (or zero) symptoms, while still being able to pass on the infection to others. This makes being close to any person a potentially lethal mistake.
Virtual Communities
In these times of uncertainty, when the whole world is in uncharted territory, we need to be psychologically and emotionally together in spite of being physically apart.
With unclear instructions, ambiguous information and a possible lack of resources, it is easy to feel helpless, and therefore crucial to activate the collective healing capabilities of our communities.
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