Engaging Community-Driven Content

B2B tech companies are addicted to getting you to subscribe to their corporate echo chamber newsletter graveyard, where they dump their latest self-love notes. It's a cesspool of "Look at us!" and "We're pleased to announce..." drivel that suffocates originality and murders interest. Each link, each event recap and each funding announcement is another shovel of dirt on the grave of what could have been engaging content. UNSUBSCRIBE What if, instead of serving up the same old reheated corporate leftovers, your content could slap your audience awake? Ego-stroking company updates are out. 1. The pain point deep dive: Start by mining the deepest anxieties, challenges and questions your audience faces. Use forums, social media, customer feedback and even direct interviews to uncover the raw nerve you're going to press. 2. The unconventional wisdom: Challenge the status quo of your industry. If everyone's zigging, you zag. This could mean debunking widely held beliefs, proposing counterintuitive strategies or sharing insights that only insiders know but don't talk about. Be the mythbuster of your domain. 3. The narrative hook: Every piece of content should tell a story, and every story needs a hook that grabs from the first sentence. Use vivid imagery, compelling questions or startling statements to make it impossible to scroll past. Your opening should be a rabbit hole inviting Alice to jump in. 4. The value payload: This is the core of your content. Each piece should deliver actionable insights, deep dives or transformative information. Give your audience something so valuable that they can't help but use, save and share it. Think tutorials, step-by-step guides or even entertaining content that delivers laughs or awe alongside insight. 5. The personal touch: Inject your personality or brand's voice into every piece. Share personal anecdotes, failures and successes. 6. The engagement spark: End with a call to action that encourages interaction. Ask a provocative question, encourage them to share their own stories or challenge them to apply what they've learned and share the results. Engagement breeds community, and community amplifies your reach. 7. The multi-platform siege: Repurpose your anchor content across platforms. Turn blog posts into podcast episodes, summaries into tweets or LinkedIn posts and key insights into Instagram stories. Each piece of content should work as a squad, covering different fronts but pushing the same message. Without impressive anchor content, you won't have anything worth a lick in your newsletter. 8. The audience dialogue: Engage directly with your audience's feedback. Respond to comments, ask for their input on future topics and even involve them in content creation through surveys or co-creation opportunities. Make your content worth spreading, and watch as your audience does the heavy lifting for you. And please stop with the corporate navel-gazing. #newsletters #b2btech #ThatAshleyAmber

If your brand doesn’t have a community, it’s just another product. People don’t want to be “sold to.” They want to belong. And that’s exactly why community-led businesses are winning in 2024. They don’t just sell, they create movements. Look at the brands that are thriving right now: ✅ Glossier → Built an empire by making customers feel like insiders. ✅ Oura Ring → Grew from a niche health product to a loyal wellness tribe. ✅ Ellevest → More than a fintech company, it's a financial movement for women. So, how exactly have they done it? - Make your customers part of the brand. Don’t just market to them, create WITH them. User-generated content, ambassador programmes and real conversations build that loyalty. - Talk like a human, not a corp. Ditch the polished, robotic messaging. Community-led brands feel personal and relatable. - Give value FIRST. Want people to engage? Teach, entertain, inspire before EVER asking for a sale. - Make customers feel seen & heard. When people feel like they matter, they stick around. Engage in DMs, respond to comments and highlight your audience in your content. Bottom line: Transactional brands die. Community-driven brands thrive. Which are you building?

I was at Bloom Nutrition's Energy Bar pop-up in Austin today, and it felt different. This wasn’t just an influencer-driven marketing stunt. It was an experience — one where the brand didn’t just want to be seen but wanted to be felt. For years, brands poured millions into influencer campaigns, chasing clout through sponsored posts and paid shoutouts. But the smartest brands are pivoting from influencer-driven to community-first marketing. Influencer marketing isn’t fading, but it’s evolving. Brands now realize that digital buzz alone isn’t enough; they need real-world engagement. Here’s why Bloom’s pop-up worked, and why more brands need to be thinking like this: 🔥 Exclusivity without exclusion – Anyone could sign up, yet the long lines created buzz and demand. Making an event open to the public while maintaining an exclusive feel is the sweet spot for community engagement. 🎯 Hyper-localized branding – They didn’t just drop a generic activation; they spoke Austin’s language. From ATX-branded hats to signage that read “Bloom loves Austin,” the event felt personal and intentional. When brands embed themselves in local culture, they foster deeper connections. 📷 UGC at scale: Live experiences generate way more organic content than a single paid post. Instead of relying on a few big influencers, they turned every attendee into a brand ambassador. 🙌 Participation = ownership – A photobooth, a charm keychain station — small, interactive moments made attendees part of the brand experience. People don’t just want to see a brand; they want to engage with it, create with it, and share it. Your audience doesn’t just want to be marketed to — they want to be included. The future of marketing is experiential, participatory, and community-driven. If you’re not building real-world experiences that make people feel something, you’re missing out.

While everyone's chasing brand deals, the real billion-dollar brands are being built in communities. When I worked at YouTube before short-form existed, the difference between us and Vimeo wasn't features. It was community—the ability to build relationships at scale. Colin & Samir get this better than anyone. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗗𝘂𝗱𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁: Not just YouTube videos. Live shows that sell out arenas. Not just merch drops. A theatrical documentary coming this November. Not just content. A community that shows up everywhere they go. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗿 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘇𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆—𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝘁: Built their YouTube channel into creator economy HQ Started The Publish Press newsletter Created The Colin and Samir Show podcast Grew their Discord community Hosted intimate meetups Partnered on brand events Launched Press Publish NYC with 450+ creators in attendance They've been investing in community long before it was trendy. Their Dude Perfect breakdown just shows how deeply they understand what makes it work. Same week, Salish Matter's makeup launch (sincerely yours) caused mall chaos. Not because of the product. Because her community wanted to be part of the moment. My daughter asked why we didn't fly to NJ for it. That's when I knew: Creator communities aren't just changing business. They're changing how our kids see the world. I missed Press Publish NYC and I felt the FOMO as well. That's why I try to be everywhere — because the magic happens when communities gather IRL. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸: 𝗘𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀: Turn your course students into a private community. Weekly office hours become monthly meetups. 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀: Your most engaged commenters become your street team. Give them early access, let them vote on content. 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘆𝗹𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀: That DM folder full of questions? That's your first 100 community members waiting for a Discord invite. 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀: Stop ending videos with "comment below." Start ending with "join our Wednesday workshops." The magic isn't in having a community—it's in giving them a reason to show up beyond your next upload. Digital communities crave physical connection. Online loyalty translates to offline action. Creators treating community as a feature will struggle. Creators treating community as the foundation will thrive. Your move. Cheers to Colin and Samir, Dude Perfect, Jordan and Salish Matter, and every creator investing in community IRL. You're not just building audiences, you're building movements. 📸 From YouTube to Spotter to building Bay Area Creator Economy, community was always the answer #CreatorEconomy #CommunityFirst #CreatorCommunity

Building a Successful Customer Community: More Than Just a Forum A well-run customer community isn’t just a place for discussions—it’s a strategic asset that builds deeper relationships, strengthens product adoption, and creates a sense of belonging among your customers. A thriving community can: ✅ Drive retention – Customers who feel connected to a brand and their peers stay longer. ✅ Enhance product adoption – Peer-to-peer learning helps customers use your product more effectively. ✅ Create organic engagement – Customers help each other, reducing support burden and strengthening loyalty. What Makes a Customer Community Successful? 1️⃣ Clear Purpose & Value 🔹 What’s in it for customers? Whether it’s networking, product knowledge, or industry trends, a great community serves a defined purpose. 2️⃣ Strong Onboarding & Early Engagement 🔹 Communities fail when members don’t know how to participate. Structured onboarding, welcome guides, and initial engagement prompts are critical. 3️⃣ Diverse Participation Opportunities 🔹 Not all members engage the same way. Offer different ways to participate, such as: 🔸 Discussions & Q&A threads 🔸 Live virtual and in-person events & expert AMAs 🔸 Exclusive beta groups & insider content 4️⃣ Encouraging Organic Conversations 🔹 A common mistake? Over-moderation. Let members shape discussions while providing light guidance to keep engagement strong. 5️⃣ Recognition & Incentives 🔹 Gamification, ambassador programs, and member spotlights keep engagement high while rewarding contributors. 6️⃣ Measuring Community Impact 🔹 Successful communities don’t just “feel good”—they drive real business impact. Here's what you can track: 🔸 Retention & renewal rates for engaged members 🔸 Reduction in support ticket volume 🔸 Peer-led referrals & advocacy participation 🔸 Expansion growth A well-structured community provides a unique, scalable way to engage customers, making them feel valued while strengthening their connection to your brand. When customers learn, share, and grow together, everyone benefits. What’s the most valuable community you’ve been part of? What made it work? #CustomerCommunity #CommunityBuilding #CustomerEngagement #CustomerSuccess #B2BMarketing #RetentionMarketing

How to Create Better LinkedIn Content That Engages Your Audience Transcend simple likes and comments and create real conversations. This builds relationships, trust and creates paying clients, partners, and supporters. True engagement ultimately drives business results. My recent content strategy overhaul centered on three key pillars: ★ Relatability ★ Problem-solving ★ Collaborative spotlighting First, authenticity is paramount. To connect on a deeper level, inject human elements into your posts. 1️⃣ Share personal anecdotes that reveal your personality and values, demonstrating vulnerability and building rapport. 💁🏻♂️ For example, openly discussing my role as a single father working in IT helps build trust and creates a relatable image. This transparency fosters genuine connection, moving beyond superficial engagement. 2️⃣ Second, focus on addressing the pain points of your target audience. - Instead of solely promoting your services, offer valuable insights and solutions. - Create content that provides actionable tips, addresses common challenges, or offers informative explanations. - By positioning yourself as a resource who understands and addresses their concerns, you build credibility and establish yourself as an authority. - This type of problem-solving content attracts organic engagement and positions you as a helpful resource. 3️⃣ Finally, leverage the power of collaboration. - Actively engage with and highlight other professionals in your field. This could involve sharing insightful articles, featuring colleagues' work, or offering congratulations on achievements. - Giving credit where credit is due not only strengthens professional relationships but also demonstrates your commitment to community building. 🤜🏻💥🤛🏾 This approach enhances visibility, builds mutual respect, and builds a powerful network. In summary, my approach focuses on humanizing my brand through relatable storytelling, addressing audience needs through problem-solving content, and expanding reach through strategic collaborations. Remember, consistent application of these three pillars—relatability, problem-solving, and collaborative spotlighting—can significantly increase the quality and effectiveness of your LinkedIn presence. I'm happy to discuss this further; feel free to connect! #linkedinexpert #socialselling #linkedintips

The internet is fragmenting - here's what it means for B2B marketers 👇 Just finished reading an insightful study from The Verge and Vox Media (link in comments to the study) which indicates buyers are rapidly moving away from massive platforms toward smaller, curated, trust-based communities. I experience this every day within Pavilion, but its nice to see some data to back up what I know anecdotally. Key insights from the research: 1️⃣ Big platforms are losing trust Search engines like Google and traditional social media are seeing declining effectiveness, with 42% of buyers finding them less useful and shifting towards niche communities instead. 2️⃣ Buyers want deeper, meaningful connections 60% view social media negatively, feeling treated as numbers in algorithms. 3️⃣ Content remains critical, but authenticity wins 90% of community members value content as the core of their experience, but engagement is less about constant activity and more about quality and genuine human interactions. 4️⃣ AI is powerful, but human relationships are essential Almost half of buyers prefer communities without AI-generated content, looking instead for human-driven interactions. 5️⃣ Smaller, purpose-driven communities are the future Buyers increasingly favor intimate, trusted communities over large, impersonal networks, meaning marketing strategies need to focus on quality of engagement rather than reach alone. What does it all mean for CMOs? ✅ Reallocate resources toward niche communities: Identify and invest in highly targeted communities where genuine engagement and trust are strong. ✅ Emphasize human connection: Prioritize authenticity and human interaction in your strategy by highlighting real stories, voices, and expertise over volume or automation. ✅ Leverage AI strategically: Use AI to support curation, moderation, or operational efficiency, but keep human engagement front and center. ✅ Lead with original, insightful content: Position your brand as a trustworthy source by offering unique insights or data and driving authentic conversations. ✅ Integrate community into your brand narrative: Showcase authentic customers stories and successes to build credibility. This is top of mind for me at Pavilion where we're leaning in hard on weaving community through every element of our GTM strategy. We're bullish on AI, which supports our operations, but thinking thoughtfully about where to keep a human "in the loop". Most importantly, while we're growing, we're being deliberate about creating smaller, intimate forums where members can build trust, while also investing in events to provide them with ways to cement peer relationships through in person interactions. Is community part of your 2025 strategy? If so, what (specifically) are you focused on? #Community #CMOInsights #FutureOfMarketing #KathleenHQ

The most undervalued strategic asset in B2B is your community! Most businesses talk about customer-centricity, but very few actually live it. In an era of AI-generated content and automated interactions, genuine human connection has become your ultimate differentiator.    Let me break down the strategy we've used to transform our approach: ⏩ Original Content is Your True North Your community craves authentic insights. Prioritize:  ✔ Customer-driven narratives  ✔ 'Behind-the-scenes' transparency  ✔ Data-backed industry surveys  ✔ Real problem-solving content ⏩ Engagement Isn't a Metric. It's a Relationship. ❌ Don't just host events. ✔ Create experiences that make your members feel like co-creators, not just consumers. ⏩ Knowledge Becomes Your Collective Superpower ✔ When members share, everyone wins. You can literally transform customer support from a cost center to a strategic growth engine. ⏩ Community as a Customer Journey Accelerator ✔ Every interaction is an opportunity to provide value, not just collect data.   The result? A self-sustaining ecosystem that generates leads, reduces acquisition costs, and creates unprecedented loyalty. To deeper dive on how communities can drive engagement during an economic slowdown 👇   Click here: https://shorturl.at/7B4ta   #B2BMarketing #B2BCommunities #B2B #CMO #Growth 

Content curation might be one of the most underrated skills in community building right now. Real talk—your community strategy is only as strong as your content strategy. After 20+ years building programs across B2B, B2C, and nonprofits, I’ve seen this pattern again and again: thriving communities don’t just spark conversations—they curate knowledge that: • Solves real member problems • Highlights community wins (nothing builds belonging faster) • Builds credibility without being preachy • Cuts down on repetitive questions and support drain The best community pros aren’t just moderators. They’re curators. Editors. Publishers. And no, that doesn’t mean churning out endless content. It’s about knowing what to surface, when to surface it, and how to frame it so members feel more connected—and a little smarter—for being there. Curious—have you seen this in your own work? What’s one piece of content that made a noticeable shift in how your members engaged?

You're not just posting on TikTok. You're building a movement! 💡 How to Build a Loyal TikTok Community (And Why It’s Your Brand’s Secret Weapon) In the ever-evolving landscape of digital strategy, brands that win on TikTok aren’t chasing trends; they’re building tribes. 📱 TikTok isn’t just a content platform. It’s a community engine, and if you know how to activate it, you can transform passive viewers into passionate brand advocates. Here’s how I approach community-building through paid social and organic strategy on TikTok: 🔹 Start with empathy – Know what your audience cares about before you create. Authenticity always beats polish. 🔹 Think in micro-moments – Bite-sized content that reflects shared experiences can build trust faster than long-form campaigns. 🔹 Leverage UGC – Incentivize your community to co-create. The more involved they are, the more invested they become. 🔹 Engage like a human – Comment, stitch and duet with intent. Brands that act like creators win hearts (and wallets). 🔹 Use Paid Social to Amplify, 🗝️ NOT Replace – I’ve seen the best results when paid content amplifies what’s already resonating organically. 💁♀️ Paid should never feel like an interruption. 👉 If you’re still thinking of TikTok as “just another channel,” you’re missing its biggest strength: community velocity. 💬 Let’s talk: How are you using TikTok to create authentic connections, not just impressions? #DigitalMarketing #TikTokStrategy #PaidSocial #CommunityMarketing #DigitalStrategy #MarketingLeadership #CreatorEconomy