The Business of Belonging

Chapter 3Creating a Social Identity

So far we've discussed the business outcomes you can drive in Level 1 of your community strategy, and reviewed the specific measurable objectives that community can drive for your business.

In this chapter, we're going to move into Level 2 of your community strategy, and talk about how to build a highly engaged, healthy community.

To do this, I use a powerful tool called “the Social Identity Cycle.” It explains how a member will go from being a “lurker” to becoming deeply invested in your community. Design the right social identity, and you won't be able to stop people from joining and participating in your community.

The Social Identity Cycle

At the heart of community is identity. Humans form much of our personal identities around the shared identities of the groups we participate in. We adopt the beliefs, styles, language, symbols, rituals, and other forms of expression that exist within the groups we're a part of.

When you build community, you're essentially creating a social identity. You're creating and reinforcing a set of beliefs, expressions, and actions for members to adopt and engage in. Everything you build for your community, your forums, events, logos, playbooks, etc. all exist to reinforce that shared identity and create spaces for people who share that identity to gather.

The extent to which a person adopts the shared identity will play a big role in how strongly they feel a sense of community. More than one community builder ...