Warning for Marketers: Community Must Be More Than a Buzzword this Year [INFOGRAPHIC]
We piloted a landmark study, the Big Online Brand Community Study, with more than 4,900 consumers to discover what consumers want in an online community experience and how they feel about brands embracing Community Powered Marketing efforts. Read on to discover brand-new community marketing findings.Community marketing has been generating all the buzz lately - McKinsey even named “community” the big idea of marketing in the 2020's. And it's no surprise given that online communities are rapidly on the rise. 56% of consumers said their involvement in online communities has increased in the past 3 years. And 36% say they anticipate their involvement in online communities will continue to increase in 2023. These insights are key for strategic marketers as ecommerce demands continue to evolve, third-party cookies become obsolete, and concerns around privacy heighten. Online communities present a massive opportunity for brands to forge direct connections with consumers amidst the sweeping changes of the next three to five years.And while community is worth all the noise, it's important that marketers be warned not to only use community as a buzzword. Today's consumers expect online communities from brands, and the failure to meet their expectations could result in a loss of trust and brand loyalty. Eight in ten consumers already feel that brands are making this mistake by misusing the word community. And 68% of consumers said they would feel more negatively about a brand that fails to deliver a true community experience. Meeting these consumer expectations for community are critical. Get the full picture by downloading the infographic here.
