Communities Grow By Retention

It's not joining ... it's staying!

In the last few weeks I’ve been in some pretty heated conversations about how communities grow. Mind you, these weren’t arguments. They were just conversations about how communities as a whole grow.

My premise is that Communities Grow By Retention. (Click2Tweet)

Communities have a lot in common with some sales scenarios – where long term sales engagement requires a long term plan. The same is true for a community. In order to be truly be successful they need to continue delivering value.

The Three Core Elements of a Community

I have read and written a lot about communities. I have shared some of the links below.

One of my favorite community builders is Sarah Robinson, she is the CEO of Fierce Loyalty. She has a great model of what it takes to kick off, engage, and drive retention in a community. It should come as no surprise that the keys are related to delivering value … at all stages.

I have boiled my thinking over the years into three big buckets. Each bucket (if that metaphor works for you) has multiple steps, stages and pitfalls. When done right they can create amazing, engaged and successful communities.

Therein lies the rub. It takes work, planning, and execution to insure each step continues along … sometimes almost as autonomous units, but eventually they all need to come back together to define and align with the goals of the community.

• Attract
• Recruit
• Retain

Of course, every organization needs to continue adding members. But, that old sales adage of … “it’s 7 times more expensive to gain a new customer than it is to keep an existing customer” is true for communities too.

 It is seven times more expensive to attract a new customer than it is to retain an existing one.

The same principle applies to communities. And, like customer retention it’s Word of Mouth by community members (and customers) that keep the community vibrant, growing and strong.

What do you think?

• How have you seen communities grow?
• Can communities only grow by adding new members?
• What are the best retention ideas you’ve seen or used?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I’d like to get a dialogue going with you. Either here in the comments of contact me via any of the options below.

If there is enough interest I’ll write companion posts for each of the three buckets.

Here are a few posts I’ve written about community:

• FTA's, Mentors and Millennials– Secrets to Trade Show Success 

• Community Happens Everywhere --- Even in Redmond

• I can’t tell you how energizing it is to see this community grow

image and trademark credits: Sarah Robinson and Fierce Loyalty.

Jeff is an expert in the Enterprise Content Management industry. He brings over 20 years of Channel Sales, Partner Marketing and Alliance expertise to audiences around the world in speaking engagements and via his writing. He has worked for Microsoft, Kodak, and K2. He is currently the consulting with Microsoft and partners to drive Community Engagement and Alliances.

Tweet him @jshuey or connect on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google+ He is active in the Microsoft Partner Community and is the co-founder and President of the IAMCP Seattle chapter.

He is a contributing author to Entrepreneur, Elite Daily, Yahoo, US News and to the Personal Branding Blog.