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Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging
The guide for organizations gathering people to transform their brand and field.
Top tier organizations, whether non-profit, political, faith-based or commercial, know that meaningful connections unlock unprecedented outcomes. But too many brands mistakenly rely on superficial transactional relationships to connect with partners, employees, and customers. In this especially lonely era, people want something deeper. Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl reveal how to build authentic brand communities, where members grow mutual concern, share personal values, and gather in meaningful experiences, both online and off. Successful communities help members grow into who they want to be.
An authentic brand community is far more than a group working alongside one another or a list of customers connected to a brand on social media. Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl present practices used by global brands like Yelp, Twitch, Salesforce, Airbnb, Sephora, Patagonia and others to meaningfully connect with the people critical for their success. Building Brand Communities distills key lessons to create engaged and effective communities by growing mutual concern, expressing common values, and sharing experiences. Success can develop fiercely loyal collaborator and customer relationships.
The authors articulate how authentic communities can serve organizational goals in seven different areas: innovation, talent recruitment, customer retention, marketing, customer service, creating community forums and building transformational movements. They also reveal principles to grow a new brand community to critical mass. This is a comprehensive guide to a crucial differentiator that gives organizations access to untapped enthusiasm and engagement.
Top tier organizations, whether non-profit, political, faith-based or commercial, know that meaningful connections unlock unprecedented outcomes. But too many brands mistakenly rely on superficial transactional relationships to connect with partners, employees, and customers. In this especially lonely era, people want something deeper. Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl reveal how to build authentic brand communities, where members grow mutual concern, share personal values, and gather in meaningful experiences, both online and off. Successful communities help members grow into who they want to be.
An authentic brand community is far more than a group working alongside one another or a list of customers connected to a brand on social media. Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl present practices used by global brands like Yelp, Twitch, Salesforce, Airbnb, Sephora, Patagonia and others to meaningfully connect with the people critical for their success. Building Brand Communities distills key lessons to create engaged and effective communities by growing mutual concern, expressing common values, and sharing experiences. Success can develop fiercely loyal collaborator and customer relationships.
The authors articulate how authentic communities can serve organizational goals in seven different areas: innovation, talent recruitment, customer retention, marketing, customer service, creating community forums and building transformational movements. They also reveal principles to grow a new brand community to critical mass. This is a comprehensive guide to a crucial differentiator that gives organizations access to untapped enthusiasm and engagement.
- GenresBusinessNonfiction
288 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 19, 2020
111 people are currently reading
574 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 21, 2020
I'm writing a summary of this book as a guide to help those busy, or needing a quick reference. I was honored to get an advanced .pdf of this book from one of the authors (I was not compensated or asked to review).
This is a much-needed handbook/textbook/guide on building community whether it's in person or online. There wasn't one page where I wasn't learning, or adding onto what I already knew. I've researched, implemented and read about community, culture and international gathering for over a year (in addition to have degrees and 15+ years of experience in PR and Events) and I wish this book was there at the beginning of my journey. It really is a foundational text on seeing people and creating something wonderful that supports and organization/brand.
If you do events, PR, Social Media, or community management, do yourself a favor and read this book as soon as it comes out.
This is a much-needed handbook/textbook/guide on building community whether it's in person or online. There wasn't one page where I wasn't learning, or adding onto what I already knew. I've researched, implemented and read about community, culture and international gathering for over a year (in addition to have degrees and 15+ years of experience in PR and Events) and I wish this book was there at the beginning of my journey. It really is a foundational text on seeing people and creating something wonderful that supports and organization/brand.
If you do events, PR, Social Media, or community management, do yourself a favor and read this book as soon as it comes out.
June 9, 2020
In Building Brand Communities, Carrie and Charles offer not only a blueprint for how to develop communities for organizations but also delves deeply into the psychology, sociology, and morality of bringing humans together.
The book is filled with specific guidance on how to plan and operate a community and is backed by research (both primary and academic) to support their guidance. There are also a number of helpful case studies and examples throughout the book (Twitch, Asana, Harley Davidson, etc) to add real-world color.
This belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who develops and facilitates communities.
The book is filled with specific guidance on how to plan and operate a community and is backed by research (both primary and academic) to support their guidance. There are also a number of helpful case studies and examples throughout the book (Twitch, Asana, Harley Davidson, etc) to add real-world color.
This belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who develops and facilitates communities.
August 18, 2020
Book Review – Building Brand Communities
Authors: Carrie Melissa Jones & Charles H. Vogl
I’ve been told shy little girls become writers. The realization that everyone needs connection, community, and a place where they can be heard, becomes a powerful consensus for a book about building brand communities. This book strikes hard and heavy on the sense of need that allows leaders who understand this concept to build strong and lasting relationships.
The fundamental value of leadership is the ability to build relationships and grow communities that promote and expand a purpose. The implied difference between promoting and facilitating steps up at the earliest point in the book, recognizing the instructional value of leveraging relationships in the place of paid promotion. The mobilization of segments of society to act on a single concept doesn’t require, nor does it offer and option to build community.
Alarmingly, the age of social media has brought about a combination of the dynamics that create isolationism as opposed to building community. Rising rates of suicide, loneliness, and horrific deaths due to self-inflicted harm reveals this truth, as recognized in Building Brand Communities.
An era of loneliness?
In working concepts the isolationist mode of cubicles, individualism, separation of teams, and limited team interactions cajoles members of a workplace into comfort zones of self-isolation. In some books this introverted workplace solution is celebrated as optimal, and yet… Successful brand building with a community structure indicates the opposite is true.
It’s been a well-known fact that congregations who sing together, worship together, and hang out after church for casserole lunches become a strong, united family, with a cause. This kind of community building has been around for more than 2000 years and working successfully! In Building Brand Community, the authors reference such organizations as TwitchCon, and the United
Religions Initiative (URI), in reference to the circular empowerment of specific groups of people.
These segmented groups include social-clusters come together in recognition of mutually desired outcome, yet, they may not be the basis or the foundation of the community you want to build.
Recognizing Community –
This fundamental power of actually seeing the community and the reason for building the brand within the community offers a resourceful look at dynamic change action within a platform. Within the platform exists developmental options and the ability to build a brand significant enough to carry through the desired outcomes. Nurturing the supporting and supplemental resource of a community drives ultimate goals. While placating a socio-culture may appear to sustain he association, no community is forthcoming.
I found the intentions of Building Brand Community to be effectively empowering, yet the authentic end result of such formidable principles when used through a non-vulnerable community lacked results – even by the standards put forth in the book. For this reason, the overall accessibility of such a welcoming and forbearing model appears to be more fitting to the dynamic of social clusters.
Internal motivation, fulfillment, and purpose may become the quintessential foundation of a community, but without a sturdy footstone of transparent ethical values, the foundation will crumble.
Reading for understanding the dynamic and purposeful realization of opportunities currently available is recommended. I found many plausible ideas in this book, and actually believe it reveals the causation of quid-pro-quo relationships that have become the overwhelming normal in current socio-community standards.
# # #
4.5
Authors: Carrie Melissa Jones & Charles H. Vogl
I’ve been told shy little girls become writers. The realization that everyone needs connection, community, and a place where they can be heard, becomes a powerful consensus for a book about building brand communities. This book strikes hard and heavy on the sense of need that allows leaders who understand this concept to build strong and lasting relationships.
The fundamental value of leadership is the ability to build relationships and grow communities that promote and expand a purpose. The implied difference between promoting and facilitating steps up at the earliest point in the book, recognizing the instructional value of leveraging relationships in the place of paid promotion. The mobilization of segments of society to act on a single concept doesn’t require, nor does it offer and option to build community.
Alarmingly, the age of social media has brought about a combination of the dynamics that create isolationism as opposed to building community. Rising rates of suicide, loneliness, and horrific deaths due to self-inflicted harm reveals this truth, as recognized in Building Brand Communities.
An era of loneliness?
In working concepts the isolationist mode of cubicles, individualism, separation of teams, and limited team interactions cajoles members of a workplace into comfort zones of self-isolation. In some books this introverted workplace solution is celebrated as optimal, and yet… Successful brand building with a community structure indicates the opposite is true.
It’s been a well-known fact that congregations who sing together, worship together, and hang out after church for casserole lunches become a strong, united family, with a cause. This kind of community building has been around for more than 2000 years and working successfully! In Building Brand Community, the authors reference such organizations as TwitchCon, and the United
Religions Initiative (URI), in reference to the circular empowerment of specific groups of people.
These segmented groups include social-clusters come together in recognition of mutually desired outcome, yet, they may not be the basis or the foundation of the community you want to build.
Recognizing Community –
This fundamental power of actually seeing the community and the reason for building the brand within the community offers a resourceful look at dynamic change action within a platform. Within the platform exists developmental options and the ability to build a brand significant enough to carry through the desired outcomes. Nurturing the supporting and supplemental resource of a community drives ultimate goals. While placating a socio-culture may appear to sustain he association, no community is forthcoming.
I found the intentions of Building Brand Community to be effectively empowering, yet the authentic end result of such formidable principles when used through a non-vulnerable community lacked results – even by the standards put forth in the book. For this reason, the overall accessibility of such a welcoming and forbearing model appears to be more fitting to the dynamic of social clusters.
Internal motivation, fulfillment, and purpose may become the quintessential foundation of a community, but without a sturdy footstone of transparent ethical values, the foundation will crumble.
Reading for understanding the dynamic and purposeful realization of opportunities currently available is recommended. I found many plausible ideas in this book, and actually believe it reveals the causation of quid-pro-quo relationships that have become the overwhelming normal in current socio-community standards.
# # #
4.5
September 21, 2020
An absolutely phenomenal book about community-building. Don’t let the “Brand” in the title make you think that this book is only for companies looking to promote their wares. This book could easily have just been titled “Building Communities” because that is truly what it’s about.
I’ve been running community groups since the early 2000s when I became a certified group facilitator. Every best practice I’ve learned in the last two decades (some through training, some through trial and error) is encapsulated in this book. It includes left-brain logistical information and well as right-brain and heart-centered guidance around things like acknowledgement, appreciation and group bonding techniques.
The authors have managed to take some of the things that “feel magical” when you’re in a great community — and explain how to create them as easy step-by-step instructions backed by lots of data and real life examples. Highly recommend for anyone who is thinking of starting a community, or who needs to fix one that doesn’t feel quite right.
I’ve been running community groups since the early 2000s when I became a certified group facilitator. Every best practice I’ve learned in the last two decades (some through training, some through trial and error) is encapsulated in this book. It includes left-brain logistical information and well as right-brain and heart-centered guidance around things like acknowledgement, appreciation and group bonding techniques.
The authors have managed to take some of the things that “feel magical” when you’re in a great community — and explain how to create them as easy step-by-step instructions backed by lots of data and real life examples. Highly recommend for anyone who is thinking of starting a community, or who needs to fix one that doesn’t feel quite right.
June 10, 2020
I've read a lot of community books but this has felt the most authentic as it goes beyond case studies and weaves actual stories of brand communities into best practices in a seamless way. I found it well-organized, easy to read, and easy to refer to for so many applications of communities on and offline.
Disclaimer: I was interviewed for the book and have a small appearance, but this is my honest review.
Disclaimer: I was interviewed for the book and have a small appearance, but this is my honest review.
August 16, 2021
What I liked so much about this book is the language (obviously!) and the real world examples. I found it very easy to understand, which made it even easier to relate to and then glean inspiration from.
September 22, 2023
Amazing book that covers everything you need to know about community building. I found myself highlighting every other page as each one was full of gems. Perfect for anyone looking to hone their skills in bringing people together.
October 18, 2023
while this book was objectively very good and quite well written and organized, it was slightly monotonous and i didn’t feel super engaged. part of this might’ve been that i’m not super passionate about the subject, but oh well.
March 10, 2021
Really relevant to the work that we do with online brand communities! Straight forward to read and full of good tips and ideas.
Read
March 30, 2021If you're in a position of building a community and you're wondering, what works, and why the heck is that not working? This book will help you zero in on it like nothing I've ever read.
April 22, 2021
Read this in one day after attending a session with Carrie - fantastic tips for how to lead a community, really digging into why it’s important to build with intention and start small.
January 9, 2024
Great examples of companies and their interviews. Must read for those seeking to build a meaningful community of customers or other stake holders
November 10, 2025
Full of helpful ideas for anyone working with a community that comes together around a product or mission. I found lots of applications for non-profit mission driven community building.
April 7, 2021
Carrie is super friendly yet passionate & dilligent in her work.
Her book is an insightful read on the power of online communities & why companies should invest their capital in optimising this intangible asset!
Her book is an insightful read on the power of online communities & why companies should invest their capital in optimising this intangible asset!
April 1, 2021
Changed Everything for Me
I thought I knew what I was doing. This book showed me while I was in the right track, I still have a LOT to learn. This is a must read for community builders.
I thought I knew what I was doing. This book showed me while I was in the right track, I still have a LOT to learn. This is a must read for community builders.
Read
June 12, 2025I found this book very interesting as a compilation of community theories and practices that exist out there. Personally, I thought the beginning of the book was useful and interesting, particularly when it comes to how to create branded communities, but when it came to development, metrics and values I found it more anecdotal than what I was expecting. Nevertheless a good book to read on community building and one with useful lessons.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews