Community is the marketing buzzword of 2025. Everyone and (probably) their mom is talking about it. But, if you’ve been paying attention, we’ve been shifting (back) to a community driven social economy for a few years now.
After more than 15 years of modern social networking, the way we interact with it has changed time and time again. We’re tired. The constant change is fatiguing, we’re over seeing just random brand posts and a lot of us just want to see our friends or make new friends on the internet.
I personally think we’re dividing the internet into two factions:
Faction 1: The endless scroll
Think TikTok, the Reels tab on Instagram, Pinterest, etc. These are the places we go to be inspired, to laugh, to be entertained, to learn. We’re not bothered about if we know them or not, we just want to see something interesting to us – be it fashion, cars, lizard memes, hot takes about good jeans, you name it.
This is where we get meme culture, viral moments, influencers, etc. The whole point of this corner of the internet is for us to sit and scrooooooll. And that’s totally fine! We want this weird little section of space to not have to worry and just let our brains turn off.
Faction 2: The community
This is the complete opposite. Think group chats, Instagram DM’s, TikTok following tab, a fair amount of LinkedIn, the OG Instagram before brands hopped on board. These are the places we go to connect.
This is where we get community. The part of the internet that is actually good for our brains (if that’s possible), where we get a lot less passive and are actively participating. Active participation should be the goal of every single brand, but, as the endless scroll begins to take over more, asking individuals to actively participate with you becomes much harder.
Community to Silo
While social media used to be entirely about the social and connection between people, no matter where they live, now, it’s much more in line with how we view television. In the endless scroll faction, we binge. We don’t thoughtfully consume as much as we used to. For instance, pre-internet, we would sit and watch a weekly television show with our families, or read a book with them (at least my family did – gotta love a teacher mom). I can even reference listening to a radio show here, although I haven’t had the pleasure of doing that organically with my family before.
The social consumption of media used to be just that, social. It was almost unheard of for you to be doing something like that on your own, especially since the radio or television was probably in the living room for all to use.
Now though, our consumption of media is almost the opposite. We have these silos of the internet that we can claim as our own. You dictate to the algorithm what you like and it dictates what you see.
Making active participation much more difficult to cultivate within ourselves and within each other. Our internet feels different from everyone else’s, it’s why we share things with our best friends, our partners, our family. We want them to be able to see this little corner of the internet that we love so much.
The Participation Problem
But, how can we cultivate active participation again? When you actually cut through and connect with someone as a brand, that’s where the magic happens. Content cannot inspire passive attention as much as it once did. Now, we, as marketers and brand side communicators have to do the hardest thing of all and innovate to the point of sparking care.
And not just spark care, brands have to create a level of care that is much more passionate and interested than ever before. When we find a new brand, that brand has about 3-5 SECONDS to convince us that they fit within our internet silo. When they do fit, you know that they’re something special.
In the past, that little bit of care was enough. We had the metrics to back it up – followers, engagement metrics, newsletter subscribers. But, those metrics aren’t tracking connection, they’re tracking ATTENTION.
From Attention to Connection
Over the last 5 years, we’ve begun to see a shift from the attention economy we were living in to a connection economy. After the chaos of Covid, with us all being so far and isolated from one another, we have all craved connection with each other.
It’s why we’re seeing group activities skyrocket in popularity. I’m sure you’ll have seen something about padel, a coffee shop run club, maybe even hopped on board the irl book club train.
The smartest brands are hopping on this, and hard – Coffee Raves for the sober curious by coffee brands or non-alc drink brands, Run Clubs for the girlies by workout clothing companies, the smart ones are tapping into where these people already are. But, they’re not doing it for themselves and their brand alone, which is the key difference. They are hitting up existing communities and letting them take the reins, not forcing a connection that doesn’t need to be there.
This natural connection is what will actually drive brand loyalty. With the amount of brand partnerships and sponsorships over the last 10 years, consumers can see RIGHT through the inauthentic partnerships and will immediately call it out, as they should.
But, if you can nail this true and genuine partnership that puts the community at the center, people will see it and will praise it. Just look at GAP vs American Eagle, people cottoned on to the difference literally immediately.
Community isn’t just these one off events though. You need to keep showing up for your community. Remember, attention isn’t connection, just as audience isn’t community. If your 40k followers are just silently watching, you’ve built reach, not connection.
I know I keep banging on about it here, but that deep connection really is key to long term survival.
Back to Brand Building
That connection isn’t driven by reach, it IS however, driven by brand. You need to have a brand that actually says something. Why are you here? What’re you trying to achieve? If it’s just sales, come on dude, you’re definitely not that shallow. Yes sales matter, but there’s a reason your thing was built, made, developed, etc. You just need to rediscover it.
Now, now, don’t roll your eyes at me. These are actually the things that matter. If you have a broader thing to be talking about, it means your customer can align with it instead of just like, “hey look, i made a cool t-shirt.” So have 50 other companies, why should they care about yours? That extra little fluff is the thing that makes people realize they do care about your brand and your specific cool little t-shirt.
Just look at Patagonia, their whole thing is hardly about the clothes they make (although they are good). Everything they do centers around two things: getting out into the world and trying to save the planet. I mean, their brand purpose is: “We’re in business to save our home planet.”
From the second you begin interacting with them, you step into their universe, they instantly immerse you in their goal and what they are trying to do. From billboards, social posts, stories, etc, everything comes back to their one, clear purpose.
By harnessing that purpose in such a deep and frankly, honest, way they build that connection in a real, human way. If you think about the brands that you tend to see on socials (and elsewhere, but mainly on socials), why do you connect with them? Why would you choose to see them often vs not?
The human-ness is the thing that a lot of brands will drop or forget to include. The connection comes from humanity. It’s why we’ve seen a rise of founders on socials, thought leaders, brands having local accounts – people want to see the people behind the brand. I mean, I can quote the old adage here, people buy from people.
Real Life Examples
While the world has changed a ton since that was first said, the sentiment is still entirely true. The trick is making brands feel like people and centering the people that make the brand. There are a few ways we’re seeing brands tackle it:
The Co-Creation
Odd Muse does this super well, not only are they creating content, but they work WITH their audience to co-create everything from products, posts, campaigns, you name it. They begin their process by asking their community to get involved. Their bridal collection is a prime example of this – it’s something the community asked for, helped give feedback on and then when it came to promote it, they used only real life brides in their community, no models. The direct influence that the community can have on the brand means that they are super engaged and play an active role in the creation and direction of the brand.
The Spotlight
REFY over the last few years have centralized their community in their strategy – even going so far as to bring purchasers on a brand trip. They utilize their broadcast channel as a giant group chat between the girlies. They’re sharing their content on main, creating compilation videos of “You in” insert product, and generally putting their community at the forefront. While the sharing of user generated content has been the norm for years, they do take it one step further with the brand trips and ensuring that they are actively listening to their community.
The Employees
Curry’s is one of many brands taking the employee approach on. They showcase the actual, real life, day to day experience of being an employee at Curry’s. Now, it’s worth mentioning that this is all done off of the backs of employees who WANT to be doing it and are not forced into doing extra work. But, they’ve really leaned into the fun, meme, jokey culture that TikTok has bred, and it works. They post stuff that they would want to be watching, from memes about dogs licking feet, to throwback posts, it’s all silly and fun, which is key.
By now, I’m sure you’ve gotten the message – pay attention to your community. If you don’t have one, build it. It’s shaping up to be the key way brands can cut through the noise and actually make a difference. Being a part of the endless scroll might get you seen, but community is what makes you matter.
