We find, foster, and manage the conversations that build community and convert them into business value.
Outsourced, multi-lingual, community management that lets you scale. Perfect for forums, Discord, and Reddit.
Human, expert, multi-lingual, and built to create connection at scale. Community magic for social channels.
Design, launch, or relaunch a community your business can rely on, with expert consultancy.
The skills, confidence and expert guidance community teams need to thrive.
Design and run programs that turn engaged members into advocates, creators and local leaders.
Turn your community into an always-on, human powered focus group.
Select and setup the best community platform for your business with our expert help.
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Online communities are like nowhere else. They are joyful places filled to the brim with millions of real people, entirely fuelled by real conversation and real passion for the things that make our world turn. From ideas that could form the next ad campaign or product range, to feedback and insights that define how a brand connects with customers, online communities are hotspots of human insight and creativity. And most brands don’t even know about them.
There is an online community of hundreds of thousands of people around the world, dedicated to customising and reinventing the products of the world’s largest flatpack furniture brand. They create detailed project breakdowns with instructions, materials and troubleshooting tips, and then they teach others how to do it. And the most amazing bit? None of it is run by the brand in question.
Brands can engage with millions of real people who love what they do, all spreading the word and without a costly ad campaign. In this story, there are 140,000+ members in the flagship Reddit community, Facebook hacking groups collectively exceeding 1 million members, ~645,000+ likes on the unofficial IKEA Hackers Facebook page and hashtags on Instagram/TikTok that have been viewed tens of millions of times.
Official endorsement and support can boost brand love and open up news ways to bring an audience even closer. Brands can champion the best ideas, content and creators. They can highlight community creativity, feature the best ideas in official channels or run community-curated galleries or competitions. When customers see a brand support them it becomes personal, the community grows through word of mouth and the brand reaps considerable long-term rewards.
Brands can gather data across thousands of hacks, looking out for which tweaks appear most often; which unmet needs keep showing up; what do customers add, remove or reinvent? It means product development happens organically, in ways that aren’t always thought of internally.
When customers feel like co-creators that drives a connection that goes beyond a loyalty scheme. People love to share a great experience, and a nurturing indulgence by a brand paves the way for stories that get talked about and retold over and over. It’s a snowball effect that begins with listening and spotting an opportunity to get involved.
In 2016, long before it had gathered over 14 million customers, a new bank was being shaped by just a few hundred pioneering members of its online community. To launch, these members crowdsourced £1 million in 96 seconds, gave the bank its name, tested features, gave feedback and helped shape the bank that is still known for doing things a little differently. Still guessing which bank still builds with its online community? (It begins with M).
Brands that are community-led in their decision-making get direction and guidance which is even more valuable than feedback alone. It enables the creation of a continuous cycle of informed discussion that goes beyond one-off surveys or focus groups and makes for a tried and tested foundation for growth.
When customers see how much their opinions are valued, they connect to and invest in a brand both emotionally and financially. In banking that can translate to a lifetime of loyalty, not just with one customer, but with anyone they influence… family, friends, anyone who asks for a recommendation. It’s building a brand advantage before a competitor even gets a look in.
See what works and what doesn’t with the end-user shaping the whole discussion. This is product testing at its best with a willing audience keen to help build the products and services for the lives they lead. Communities are the testing ground for early versions, a feedback loop that keeps companies accountable and a source of genuine insight that informs product strategy.
Having customers sell your brand to each other is marketing nirvana. At a time when brands shout loudest about their ‘biggest, fastest, best‘ credentials, authentic recommendations and advocacy counts for far more, bringing belief and trust to those who need it.
One of the biggest soft drink brands in the world just proved that the art of listening can make very big things happen. They heard that one of their fans had created a song about her love of the drink and it was popular in online communities. Instead of ignoring it, they put it front and centre. They made it their official jingle for nationwide advertising and turned a moment of fun into a brand building event in the ears and eyes of millions.
Manufacturing cultural relevance can take a lot of work, insight and investment. Or it can just be a case of knowing where and how to listen. Online communities are filled with thousands of brand-fans, sharing ideas and creativity that usually stays within the community itself. Seeing and amplifying a moment of fan genius could be the next viral competitor-beating campaign.
When communities share and elevate UGC between themselves, there’s a good chance that it captures a real cultural moment that conventional research cannot predict. Brands that can spot and elevate that content, do so knowing that customers are already receptive to it, removing a level of risk and uncertainty that comes with any campaign.
Thousands of real people encouraging and competing with each other to be creative with a brand is likely to yield interesting results. But these aren’t places to tolerate and ignore. They are there to be indulged and invested in. A chance to not just amplify the content they produce, but amplify the creative community itself.
When brands elevate and champion fan creativity, they prove that they see and value them. That generosity and openness transforms the relationship, and brands can move from being ‘broadcasters of advertising’ to collaborators… celebrating a shared outlook and set of values. And it’s done with the awareness of thousands of advocates.
We call the world of online communities ‘The Human Powered Internet’. A unique place for real people to gather and it’s an untapped source of real human connection and insight. A place where brands can grow at the speed of human interaction.
This is where we operate; in the overlap between what brands do, and what people care about. We put brands at the heart of the right communities and conversations, and engage with thousands of real people on their terms, in healthy and meaningful ways that foster trust and deep connection with your business.Here’s how we do it:
Whether it’s people talking about your brand in forums, or fully fledged existing communities, we will help you find conversations about your brand online, wherever they are.
Once we’ve found your people, we will join in with conversations about your brand online to convert them into valuable, ongoing conversations.
Next we turn these conversations into flourishing communities and continue to manage the ongoing two way dialogue between your brand, your customers and your fans online.
When the communities are thriving we turn these community-based conversations into real business value that boosts your bottom line: finding customer insights, giving value exchange and providing inspiration that unlocks new value for brands.
