Katie Kelly says, “Evolutional research suggests that Homo Sapiens survived over other species due to our ability to be social, meaning that forming communities is innately human.

With 41.8m people online in the UK who spend on average 25 hours a week connected, being online forms a large part of our lives. But we crave social relationships and thus individuals turn to online communities to fulfil a basic human need for interaction with others.

Building a community is not rocket science but is does require a lot of time, effort and authenticity.

There are numerous commercial benefits for businesses who pursue this time intensive strategy; some of the main ones being that consumers who are part of an online community associated with a brand show more loyalty, as well as being a source of valuable market research.

Just as you would build a community in the real world, online communities act and react in similar ways. The main difference and difficulty arises when we try to build communities acting on behalf of brands”.

Four crucial elements you need to build a valuable online community

Econsultancy

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