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The Business of Belonging: How to Build Communities That Grow the Bottom Line
Your business problems are community problems. Solve them and scale with help from the leader in the field.The world's most successful businesses leaders understand that creating a shared social identity around their products and services is the most efficient path to scaling revenue, differentiating products, promoting customer success and retention, and seizing category ownership. The Business of How to Build Communities that Grow the Bottom Line is the definitive playbook for doing just that. CMX founder David Spinks offers step-by-step advice for creating community strategy, aligning it with your business objectives, and launching and managing a community of end users that will be your best marketer, salesperson, customer service provider, and evangelist.Building Customer Communities tackles topics The SPACES and the six key drivers of community Support, Product, Acquisition, Contribution, Engagement and Success. How to measure the ROI of community initiatives and outcomes The anatomy, lifecycle, and member journey of a business community Designing, facilitating, and moderating shared spaces for your community members For leaders driving the bottom line and community professionals alike, The Business of Belonging is the definitive resource for making community a priority.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 3, 2021
185 people are currently reading
1,084 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
September 12, 2021
Haven't given a 5 star in a while, if you are leading a business, school, non-profit, HOA or in any type of leadership this is a must-read. I loved learning about the systematic approach to building engaged communities. This book should be studied in school. I am excited to take stuff that I learned and apply to things that I am involved with.
Read
March 31, 2024The second half contains concrete tips on how to think about communities.
January 29, 2022
Essential reading for the community professional.
MY GRADE: B to B plus.
MY GRADE: B to B plus.
Read
May 13, 2022Communities, both online and off, hold amazing potential for businesses if they’re managed right. They can help you improve your product, spread the word about it, and drive customer satisfaction in a major way. As community members get more involved, they cycle through the repeating stages of identification, participation, and validation – and a business’s job is to make that cycle as smooth and rewarding as possible.
And here’s a final tip:
Bring on the crickets.
There’s nothing worse than a post that bombs. You craft some beautifully honed post, and . . . nobody responds. Terrible. Embarrassing. Right? But if you want to succeed in building a community, you’ve got to stare the risk of crickets straight in the face – especially at the beginning. It happens! And it isn’t actually as embarrassing as you think it is.
Social media platforms are generally optimized to spread only the most successful content. That means if a post doesn’t attract interest, its reach will likely be limited; far fewer people will see it than you might suspect. So don’t let the fear of radio silence prevent you from getting your community off the ground. Just continue showing up.
---
Every truly effective community has a well-defined purpose.
We’ve learned that communities can be great. So every company should just set up an online forum and sit back as the savings mount up, right?
Not exactly. Community for the sake of community is no use – if a community doesn’t have a purpose, it’s not worth your business’s time. A good community will justify its existence in terms of return on investment.
What exactly is a community’s role then? It’s not always just users discussing products in a forum. In fact, there are six basic business outcomes that a community can drive. There’s an acronym for those six possible purposes: SPACES. The letters stand for support, product, acquisition, contribution, engagement, and success. Let’s look at them one by one.
Support is the classic use case. It’s the ubiquitous support forum, just like the Apple user group from all those years ago. Most major tech companies, from WordPress to Spotify to Google, use community in this way – to let users help each other out.
Product-based communities are about product development, and they typically involve a smaller group of representatives. The company Lyft, for instance, has a Driver Advisory Council comprising a selection of its drivers across the US. They act as ambassadors for the wider driver community and help steer the direction of the company.
Acquisition is about spreading the word, and it often occurs offline too. Clothing brand Lululemon has an official program in which ambassadors organize events. They essentially become company representatives in their local area, which helps attract new customers.
Contribution means community members providing the content themselves – like with Airbnb, Wikipedia, or Android app development. If even a small percentage of the total users create content themselves, they can drive your entire business.
Engagement is for customer retention. Duolingo is a great example; it uses its huge community of language learners to spur each other on. There are also thousands of Duolingo language-learning events organized every month, which deepen users’ commitment to the brand.
The final purpose of community is success. Success is like customer support but on a higher level. We mentioned Salesforce’s Trailblazer community earlier – it’s not just about troubleshooting, but also training, mentorship, and generally anything that allows users to get more out of the product.
Your business is unlikely to need a community for all six of these aims. But chances are, investing in at least one of them could be hugely beneficial. You just need to think about which one would provide the highest returns.
The next question is obvious: How does it work? How do users become engaged enough in a community to benefit your business? Well, you’re in luck because that’s what we’re looking at next!
---
Community members cycle through three stages: identification, participation, and validation.
How does it feel to be a community member? There are three stages in what Spinks calls the Social Identity Cycle, and they loop around and around as users become more involved in a community.
Users begin by identifying with the community. Then they participate in it. And then, if it goes well, they get validation from that experience – hopefully enough that they feel an increased sense of identification. And then the cycle repeats.
Let’s imagine Cam, who works in sales. Cam identifies as a sales professional, so when she discovers an online community of peers called Sales Hacker, she’s intrigued.
So what does Cam do? Some basic participation. She signs up for the newsletter and investigates the online community. When Cam creates a Sales Hacker account, she’s personally welcomed by an admin and several users. Cam’s participation is validated.
Next? Well, it’s back to the start – but at a higher level. Cam starts to identify as a part of the Sales Hacker community. So Cam participates more, answering questions and even initiating a discussion. And guess what? Cam receives positive responses; in other words, she gets even more validation.
And the cycle continues! Cam might end up with a Sales Hacker sticker on her laptop, attending in-person Sales Hacker events, and even finding work through the network.
Of course, not every community member will spiral ever higher and end up with your company’s logo tattooed on their chest. But if you attract the right people, maybe a few will.
That’s why it’s especially worth considering that first step: identification. Who do you want to identify with your community? That should be a foundational question.
Say you want to create a community for cyclists. That’s . . . way too vague. Nobody’s going to discover a community like that and think, “Finally! I’ve found my people!” But say you get more specific, like a community for competitive bike racers – or how about competitive bike racers who are also parents? That sounds much more like a community whose members would genuinely benefit from connecting.
Of course, broader communities with a clear niche can work too. Tech Ladies, for instance – their name says it all – has more than 100,000 members. The key to getting users who identify strongly is simply to make sure your community is well-defined.
Users who feel like they belong are the most likely to participate – which is the next step in the cycle.
And here’s a final tip:
Bring on the crickets.
There’s nothing worse than a post that bombs. You craft some beautifully honed post, and . . . nobody responds. Terrible. Embarrassing. Right? But if you want to succeed in building a community, you’ve got to stare the risk of crickets straight in the face – especially at the beginning. It happens! And it isn’t actually as embarrassing as you think it is.
Social media platforms are generally optimized to spread only the most successful content. That means if a post doesn’t attract interest, its reach will likely be limited; far fewer people will see it than you might suspect. So don’t let the fear of radio silence prevent you from getting your community off the ground. Just continue showing up.
---
Every truly effective community has a well-defined purpose.
We’ve learned that communities can be great. So every company should just set up an online forum and sit back as the savings mount up, right?
Not exactly. Community for the sake of community is no use – if a community doesn’t have a purpose, it’s not worth your business’s time. A good community will justify its existence in terms of return on investment.
What exactly is a community’s role then? It’s not always just users discussing products in a forum. In fact, there are six basic business outcomes that a community can drive. There’s an acronym for those six possible purposes: SPACES. The letters stand for support, product, acquisition, contribution, engagement, and success. Let’s look at them one by one.
Support is the classic use case. It’s the ubiquitous support forum, just like the Apple user group from all those years ago. Most major tech companies, from WordPress to Spotify to Google, use community in this way – to let users help each other out.
Product-based communities are about product development, and they typically involve a smaller group of representatives. The company Lyft, for instance, has a Driver Advisory Council comprising a selection of its drivers across the US. They act as ambassadors for the wider driver community and help steer the direction of the company.
Acquisition is about spreading the word, and it often occurs offline too. Clothing brand Lululemon has an official program in which ambassadors organize events. They essentially become company representatives in their local area, which helps attract new customers.
Contribution means community members providing the content themselves – like with Airbnb, Wikipedia, or Android app development. If even a small percentage of the total users create content themselves, they can drive your entire business.
Engagement is for customer retention. Duolingo is a great example; it uses its huge community of language learners to spur each other on. There are also thousands of Duolingo language-learning events organized every month, which deepen users’ commitment to the brand.
The final purpose of community is success. Success is like customer support but on a higher level. We mentioned Salesforce’s Trailblazer community earlier – it’s not just about troubleshooting, but also training, mentorship, and generally anything that allows users to get more out of the product.
Your business is unlikely to need a community for all six of these aims. But chances are, investing in at least one of them could be hugely beneficial. You just need to think about which one would provide the highest returns.
The next question is obvious: How does it work? How do users become engaged enough in a community to benefit your business? Well, you’re in luck because that’s what we’re looking at next!
---
Community members cycle through three stages: identification, participation, and validation.
How does it feel to be a community member? There are three stages in what Spinks calls the Social Identity Cycle, and they loop around and around as users become more involved in a community.
Users begin by identifying with the community. Then they participate in it. And then, if it goes well, they get validation from that experience – hopefully enough that they feel an increased sense of identification. And then the cycle repeats.
Let’s imagine Cam, who works in sales. Cam identifies as a sales professional, so when she discovers an online community of peers called Sales Hacker, she’s intrigued.
So what does Cam do? Some basic participation. She signs up for the newsletter and investigates the online community. When Cam creates a Sales Hacker account, she’s personally welcomed by an admin and several users. Cam’s participation is validated.
Next? Well, it’s back to the start – but at a higher level. Cam starts to identify as a part of the Sales Hacker community. So Cam participates more, answering questions and even initiating a discussion. And guess what? Cam receives positive responses; in other words, she gets even more validation.
And the cycle continues! Cam might end up with a Sales Hacker sticker on her laptop, attending in-person Sales Hacker events, and even finding work through the network.
Of course, not every community member will spiral ever higher and end up with your company’s logo tattooed on their chest. But if you attract the right people, maybe a few will.
That’s why it’s especially worth considering that first step: identification. Who do you want to identify with your community? That should be a foundational question.
Say you want to create a community for cyclists. That’s . . . way too vague. Nobody’s going to discover a community like that and think, “Finally! I’ve found my people!” But say you get more specific, like a community for competitive bike racers – or how about competitive bike racers who are also parents? That sounds much more like a community whose members would genuinely benefit from connecting.
Of course, broader communities with a clear niche can work too. Tech Ladies, for instance – their name says it all – has more than 100,000 members. The key to getting users who identify strongly is simply to make sure your community is well-defined.
Users who feel like they belong are the most likely to participate – which is the next step in the cycle.
December 3, 2022
Essential reading for community builders - and uplifting too.
February 23, 2025
This was the first book I read on the topic of community building, and it served as a foundational knowledge base. True story, I used the content in this book to build my presentation while I was interviewing for my current job as Community Manager. I got the job!
I am grateful for David's wisdom!
I am grateful for David's wisdom!
April 27, 2021
Extremely practical, no fluff, has lots of helpful examples.
It feels like David knows about all my struggles and desires as a community builder. He has written one of those rare actionable books that I have put to work right away. My work email is filled with Kindle notes and highlights I sent from this book to myself.
It is no overstatement to say that this book has changed the tragectory of my career as a community professional.
Like a lot of other community professionals, I got into it almost accidently. I was hired as a Community Manager for my company right out of college due to a cold email I sent to the CEO. Great first job but 6 months in and I was already planning my move to the marketing or product dept.
But now, I spend my time thinking how our community can be the competitive advantage for our business.
I've had multiple conversations with the CEO and various directors of our company where I confidently present ambitious strategies involving the community. In doing so, I often refer back to David's 3 Levels of Community Strategy and his SPACES model.
Often they ask me if I know of any other companies that have done something like this with their community. The idea of using community to provide business value is still nascent. Therefore, people are rationally skeptical. They need real examples before they make an investment. David knows this. Therefore, he has been careful in providing examples of real communities whenever he proposes something novel.
I, now, aspire to create and lead the community team. I've also started a community for my side hustle startup idea. That's because David showed me in this book how communities can change the world.
I'm confident I'll get to lead a community team soon. And when I do get to do so, I'll be sure to give a copy of this book to every new community person that I hire!
Thanks David!
It feels like David knows about all my struggles and desires as a community builder. He has written one of those rare actionable books that I have put to work right away. My work email is filled with Kindle notes and highlights I sent from this book to myself.
It is no overstatement to say that this book has changed the tragectory of my career as a community professional.
Like a lot of other community professionals, I got into it almost accidently. I was hired as a Community Manager for my company right out of college due to a cold email I sent to the CEO. Great first job but 6 months in and I was already planning my move to the marketing or product dept.
But now, I spend my time thinking how our community can be the competitive advantage for our business.
I've had multiple conversations with the CEO and various directors of our company where I confidently present ambitious strategies involving the community. In doing so, I often refer back to David's 3 Levels of Community Strategy and his SPACES model.
Often they ask me if I know of any other companies that have done something like this with their community. The idea of using community to provide business value is still nascent. Therefore, people are rationally skeptical. They need real examples before they make an investment. David knows this. Therefore, he has been careful in providing examples of real communities whenever he proposes something novel.
I, now, aspire to create and lead the community team. I've also started a community for my side hustle startup idea. That's because David showed me in this book how communities can change the world.
I'm confident I'll get to lead a community team soon. And when I do get to do so, I'll be sure to give a copy of this book to every new community person that I hire!
Thanks David!
April 2, 2023
Your business problems are community problems. It is the kind of scale that companies dream of. It can only be achieved by taking a community approach - giving your customers the opportunity to connect with and support each other. Then you can deliver exponentially more values at a fraction of the cost of traditional business tactics. Below is my takeaways from this book:
* When you buy Salesforce software, you are not just getting the tools, but get access to massively valuable social and support networks. Salesforce Trailblazer community with 3 million people to support and educate hot to better use the product.
* You don’t need to hire a community manager and expect them to run 1,000 events. You need to invest properly the right people and system to set community up to succeed
* Product - innovation, feedback and R&D. The goal is to accelerate innovation to improve your product by creating spaces for members to share their feedback and ideas.
* Contribution - collaboration and crowdsourcing - to motivate contributions of contents, products and services on your platforms.
* Engagement: Customer experience, retention, and loyalty. The goal is to increase customer retention, average contract value, and customer satisfaction by giving customers a sense of belonging and organizing engaging and valuable community experiences.
Success: Customer success and advancement. The goal is to make customers more successful at using your product, resulting in increased spend, retention, and satisfaction, by empowering them to teach each other, help each other skill up, and grow in their careers. It's absolutely critical that members feel validated and rewarded for their participation if we want them to come back and participate again.
* When you buy Salesforce software, you are not just getting the tools, but get access to massively valuable social and support networks. Salesforce Trailblazer community with 3 million people to support and educate hot to better use the product.
* You don’t need to hire a community manager and expect them to run 1,000 events. You need to invest properly the right people and system to set community up to succeed
* Product - innovation, feedback and R&D. The goal is to accelerate innovation to improve your product by creating spaces for members to share their feedback and ideas.
* Contribution - collaboration and crowdsourcing - to motivate contributions of contents, products and services on your platforms.
* Engagement: Customer experience, retention, and loyalty. The goal is to increase customer retention, average contract value, and customer satisfaction by giving customers a sense of belonging and organizing engaging and valuable community experiences.
Success: Customer success and advancement. The goal is to make customers more successful at using your product, resulting in increased spend, retention, and satisfaction, by empowering them to teach each other, help each other skill up, and grow in their careers. It's absolutely critical that members feel validated and rewarded for their participation if we want them to come back and participate again.
September 25, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed every page of The Business of Belonging by David Spinks. I’ve been facilitating communities since the early 2000s, and have also been a participating member in quite a few along the way, so while I’m not new to the realm of community, I’m always curious to know what other people who are enthusiastic about it have to say.
What I love about Spinks’ book (and Building Brand Communities by Carrie Melissa Jones which is an excellent accompaniment to this book) is the way that they take dissect powerful experiences of belonging and then pragmatically explain HOW such seemingly seamless experiences can be intentionally designed and delivered.
Spinks’ focus in this book is mostly on the effective implementation of online communities that are connected to a company —complete with various illustrative case studies you can learn from — though much of the advice could be applicable to IRL communities too.
This is the kind of book you read with a highlighter in hand. Perfect for anyone who’s just starting out in the community space, or who wants to know how to make an existing business-based community better. If you need plug-n-play frameworks for constructing effective and successful online communities, study this book.
- Kat Vellos
- Author of We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships
What I love about Spinks’ book (and Building Brand Communities by Carrie Melissa Jones which is an excellent accompaniment to this book) is the way that they take dissect powerful experiences of belonging and then pragmatically explain HOW such seemingly seamless experiences can be intentionally designed and delivered.
Spinks’ focus in this book is mostly on the effective implementation of online communities that are connected to a company —complete with various illustrative case studies you can learn from — though much of the advice could be applicable to IRL communities too.
This is the kind of book you read with a highlighter in hand. Perfect for anyone who’s just starting out in the community space, or who wants to know how to make an existing business-based community better. If you need plug-n-play frameworks for constructing effective and successful online communities, study this book.
- Kat Vellos
- Author of We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships
March 8, 2023
I was recommended “the business of belonging” by David Spinks, in the book “Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy” by Mark W. Schaefer. The “business of belonging” is a great book on how to create a community. David has extensive experience in creating communities and shares this in the book. From, why you need a community, to finding and connecting to community members, mapping the participation in the community, designing community spaces and engaging in the community. If you want to setup and run a community, you need to read this.
May 10, 2021
Community is an area of marketing with very little instruction or best practices. After working in the industry for nine years, this book gives me a clearer, more well-organized picture of just what I've been attempting to do now for almost a decade. I wish I would have had this primer at the start of my career, but it's good for anybody who wants to better unite people around an idea, brand, or movement.
October 1, 2022
There was a lot to like about this book, and it had the seeds that actually solved a huge project at work. Super grateful for that.
Also. Idk what happened but it became a real slog 30% of the way in. I got midway through the snap framework (2/3 of the way through) and had to call it. Maybe next time. But also unlikely.
Essential reading for anyone working in or interested in building a community. Real tough for anyone who gets kind of fidgety around vague terms.
Also. Idk what happened but it became a real slog 30% of the way in. I got midway through the snap framework (2/3 of the way through) and had to call it. Maybe next time. But also unlikely.
Essential reading for anyone working in or interested in building a community. Real tough for anyone who gets kind of fidgety around vague terms.
July 16, 2023
I found The Business of Belonging to be a well-written and insightful book. Book provides a strong case for the importance of belonging, and she offers practical tips that can be used to create a sense of belonging in organizations. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in creating strong community and grow business.
There will never be times when humans do not need the communities.
There will never be times when humans do not need the communities.
June 23, 2023
The go-to book for anyone building a community. Spinks has created a master resource that is so useful I had to go through it slowly, take notes and summarise it into actionable lists. Even though I'm an avid non-fiction reader it's very rare I do this, but this book was something else. Super relevant, specific and useful.
October 10, 2024
Sped read. Roughly as expected. I like these books that take 10 years of learning and condense them into ~250 pages.
Pros: Short, specific stories, frameworks.
Cons: All of the above. Definitely feels like a normal "business-y book" with stories and frameworks :)
Pros: Short, specific stories, frameworks.
Cons: All of the above. Definitely feels like a normal "business-y book" with stories and frameworks :)
July 8, 2021
A fantastic read from David Spinks that I read at just the right time at the start of my first role leading a community. Thank you for this. I loved how real and human it was.
December 28, 2021
It was a bit difficult for me to get through, there were some concepts that were explained well and overly so, but some that could've used a ton more explanation.
April 6, 2022
Think the first part of the book was over my head. The last half I loved so much more. So many things I marked and underlined. Won’t be the last time I read this or reference back.
August 6, 2022
Must read for any community builders!
March 22, 2023
It's a good book, just not for where I'm at with my business. Still found some useful things, but not a directly related.
June 20, 2023
Well written, well structured, easy to follow and imagine your business fitting into the framework!
August 8, 2023
This is a short little book that I found to be insightful and containing practical lessons in community buildung as a business.
August 31, 2023
Incredibly useful insights into building engaged communities and making them meaningful for your biz. I have a feeling I’ll be referencing this a lot!
January 3, 2024
Excellent look at the profit side of community building. Excellent for beginners, a little dull for more experienced professionals.
December 18, 2024
easy to follow.
March 28, 2024
A good primer on creating communities.
June 22, 2023
Definitely a good book - I took pages of notes. I plan to create a community in 2024-2025 so I definitely will re-read it then. Maybe there are good community books out there but this is the first that happened to cross my road. I read about open source communities, but this book here is on a totally whole new level. Of course it is written by the biggest experts on the topic, maybe this is why there is so much wisdom packed into one. It does not matter if You aim for online or offline community, this book covers all the perspectives and the inner motivation of every member, what ever level they are on. And it also applies to anyone starting a YouTube channel or what ever. And even If you do not plan to start or build a community (inside an organization as employees or outside of it as fans), You actually already ARE a member in SOME community, so it’s good to educate yourself about the way these things work and how they lead You towards their goals, not Yours ;) Although of course synergy is the key. But still, a controlled environment ;)
June 13, 2021
Great writing, practical frameworks
I picked up this book as a resource as I try to build a strong community of military-connected students at my university.
Though the book is targeted towards brands & business, anyone who’s looking to connect with others over shared values/experiences will likely find it very informative. There were a few typos, which was annoying, but overall I highly recommend this book.
I picked up this book as a resource as I try to build a strong community of military-connected students at my university.
Though the book is targeted towards brands & business, anyone who’s looking to connect with others over shared values/experiences will likely find it very informative. There were a few typos, which was annoying, but overall I highly recommend this book.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews