Audiences versus communities
New podcast episode is out with world-class writers, Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole. This is what my editor Arie said of the episode. I made her proud.
You’ll come out of the episode with tactical tips about building audiences.
Listen —> Apple, Spotify and YouTube.
Today, I’ll discuss the difference between an audience and a community and why that matters if you want to build an unstoppable business.
But first, a framework that you won’t be able to get out of your head.
The ATM framework (how to get “lucky” building products people love)
Step 1: build a niche audience→ to earn Attention
Step 2: convert that audience to a community → to earn Trust
Step 3: build a product for that community → to earn Money
A common question I get: what’s the difference between an audience and a community?
Doing Things Media is a business you’ve probably never heard of that owns Instagram accounts you’ve probably heard of (and follow) like Sh*itheadSteve and MiddleClassFancy. Doing Things has a total of 70M+ followers, 2B+ impressions/year, profitable and brings in 8 figures in revenue.
I’m fascinated by their model and it’s worth studying. They are a holding company that acquires other audiences in the form of meme pages. Last week, they acquired Overheard, Instagram accounts which share memes of overheard conversations in cities like NYC and LA. It’s the quintessential example of an audience.
They understand the power of audiences and where it could lead. I bet they are going to move their audiences through the ATM framework, moving their audiences to communities and then towards monetization. That’s what I’d be doing…
How to test if you have an audience
If OverheardLA stops posting memes for a year, everything stops. The engagement will be deafening, the account will become a zombie.
Point: no content, no audience.
And that’s one of the reasons, moving from an audience to a community is so valuable. Because the best communities are like a boulder rolling down an infinite hill — once you get them rolling, they will never stop.
“I’m a Volvo guy, I’m an St George’s student, I’m a product designer in Miami”. It goes deeper than a meme page for everyone, it’s who I am as a person. It’s my core.
The Late Checkout team and I came up with the T.R.I.B.E. test to figure out if you’re building a community:
Togetherness — people have a space to be together
Rituals — people can participate in routines
Identity — people feel like they are with like-minded people
Belonging — people feel apart of something bigger than themselves
Engagement — people consistently adding to the conversation without need for the brand
Takeaways
If you stop broadcasting your message, will the conversations continue?
An audience packs their things and goes home, or continues swiping through their feed.
A community spends the entire ride home continuing the conversation.
T.R.I.B.E. fosters trust and affinity. Audiences foster attention. Very different.
Forget being everything to everyone and be something to someone.
Be well,
Greg Isenberg
If this post gave you an ounce of value:
Diggin’ ATM and TRIBE. Strong frameworks to reinforce concepts that community professionals have pushed for years, minus the noise and boring bits.
I just received the same advice from an ex-Madison Ave advertising exec who is advising me.