Saved by Belongfluencers?

What have a lot of: creators, brands, influencers.

What we need more of: communities, connections, relationships.

What if the former is a path to the latter?

If there's one thing those creator folks are doing, it's building audiences—followings of people who all share at least something in common.

What if more of those creators encouraged and empowered their followings to turn to one another to keep the discussions around their mutual interests going?

I've seen it up close at my two previous roles: at Pat Flynn's SPI Pro and at Mighty Networks.

Turning a big audience into a robust support network

With SPI Pro, Pat Flynn offers his massive following a private, application-only member network. It makes a lot of sense—everyone listening to his podcast (or reading his posts, watching his videos, etc) has something important in common: they're running or thinking of starting businesses.

Even better, they already have a shared language as a starting point: listeners know some of the lingo that's come up along Flynn's journey. When fans can use relatively obscure references in a room full of people who get it, they're on a great track to feel like they belong.

Adding community to a creator's toolkit

At Mighty Networks, everyone we worked with was someone who was interested in building a community around their brand. It's home to many, many thousands of people who run free and paid online communities (and, in some cases, offline communities) that compliment their other work (like video content creation, courses, blog posts, etc).

I've heard countless stories from people who have benefitted from these communities—because they're finding people who they share an interest with, they're connecting over that, and they're—importantly—supporting each other in their efforts to grow.

Side hustlers helping side hustlers. Meditators helping meditators. Slow runners helping slow runners.

And, for the creators and brands, benefits abound: direct and indirect income streams, increased brand loyalty, social capital, and more.

What if?

We're in an era where the personalities and brands we follow have become a big part of our collective identities.

What if there was a lot more of that? What if more brands, big and small, decided to bring their people together in community?

I wonder what Mr. Beast's team is thinking about this. I wonder what Nike is thinking about this. I wonder what my favorite Twitter accounts think about this. I wonder what my local cafe owner is thinking about this.

If you're wondering about this, let's chat.