Building an audience or a community?

Are you building a Community or audience?

As a business owner, you run in a world where everything is considered “community.” It is not surprising that you are confused. You do not know exactly what your community means. Building a community isn’t the same as making an audience. I often say that you must create an audience before forming a community. The critical difference is that you send messages to your audience, but a community talks to each other. 

Audience versus community 

Audience: People who buy from a business and communicate with them through one-directional messages.  

Community: A group of people who can communicate with each other.  

To build an audience, you create content that gets pushed to your customers or followers. You use an email list, host a podcast, or run a YouTube channel. Either way, this is a one-directional communication. What it isn’t is a community. Instead, a community is an intentional group meeting for a specific purpose. 

YouTube does have a community feature, but that is different from posting videos and seeking comments.

Social media allows people to create and share content. Still, it’s not the same as the community I help my clients build. Social media is often designed to serve a platform or business’s needs, but a community allows members to meet them.

When constructed and maintained intentionally, communities create calm. Consider the last time you logged into Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter. If you’re anything like me, the experience usually brings distraction or comparison – but not calm. 

According to Hivebrite, a community software, social media isn’t ideal for community building. They say communities built on social media offer fewer distractions and less spam. When you select a dedicated place for your community, it encourages authentic self-expression. It also fosters a feeling of belonging. Members are more to reach out to share ideas, opinions, and best practices. They also ask and answer questions and take action.

Another reason to avoid building a community on common social media platforms is the need for more control. You need greater control over the experience. When Facebook and Instagram went down for several hours in October of 2021, some business owners received a gut punch. 

“While the IG outage was mildly stressful, it confirmed some concerns. One concern is that IG rarely rewards us for the time we invest. Another concern is relying on a 3rd party to mediate our relationships with customers. This is risky business,” said Rachel Jones, founder Jonesey. 

Of course, all online communities rely on tech to work effectively. But my point is that social media can remove, copy, or take ownership of any content created on their platform. Please consider hosting a community other than social media.