How do you measure the value of a brand community? Ten ideas.

I’ve been giving many talks about community-based marketing, and one of the common discussion points is measurement. Isn’t that ALWAYS the most important question in marketing? What’s the value of a brand community?

But when it comes to community, brands are often entering an alternate universe — many traditional ideas of brand messaging and control are abandoned.

First, let’s be clear that when I say “community,” I mean either building or partnering with an online or offline community who:

• know each other
• gather for a unified purpose
• participate in the direction and evolution of the community

This is different than influencer marketing, which I probably need to address in a separate post. With influencer marketing, you typically lightly touch consumers through a brand mention. Through a community, your aim is to build brand love and loyalty through a consistent effort.

One other caveat — most communities are transactional and focused on customer self-service. The value of those communities is easy to measure because you can track customer service costs and cost avoidance. But a community aimed at customer loyalty and brand-building is harder to quantify.