Why the shift is happening now

Two lines are crossing. The cost of attention keeps rising while trust in large platforms keeps slipping. Marketers spent five years planning for the end of third-party cookies. After multiple delays, Google backed away from a full deprecation in Chrome and moved to a softer, user-choice model. The U-turn does not bring trust back. It only confirms how fragile rented reach can be. Owning the relationship is safer than renting it from an algorithm. 

At the same time, the people who move culture are getting smaller and closer. Engagement rates tend to be higher for nano and micro creators than for celebrity accounts. That points to a simple truth: tight communities with real dialogue beat large audiences with passive views. 

Put together, these trends push brands to invest in places they can govern and learn from. Not closed walls. Open rooms with clear rules, steady rhythm and a direct line to the team.

What leading brands are actually doing

Notion. Ambassadors as part of the team

Notion built a working network, not a fan club. Power users apply to be ambassadors. They get early access to features, a direct line to product managers and a private space to coordinate. Notion publishes ready to use kits for local meetups and workshops so anyone can host a high quality session. Feedback from these leaders flows back into the roadmap and ambassadors are credited in public. The brand voice travels through people, which makes onboarding and education peer to peer.

LEGO. Community as product pipeline

LEGO Ideas lets any fan submit a set concept. When a concept reaches ten thousand supporters it goes to a formal review by LEGO. Selected ideas become real products. The fan designer is credited and receives a share of sales plus complimentary sets. The ten thousand mark acts as demand proof, so LEGO reduces risk and ships items with a built in community already attached.

Airbnb. Hosts teaching hosts

Airbnb runs a public Community Center where hosts trade playbooks and help each other fix problems. Local leaders coordinate events and keep conversations useful. Product and policy teams watch the threads and collect feedback that shapes features and rules. Better informed hosts create better stays, which strengthens the entire marketplace.

What to learn in one glance

Give real access, not slogans. Give tools people can use today. Close the loop so contributors see their impact. When these three things are in place, community stops being marketing and becomes part of how you build.

What changes inside a brand when community is the engine

A brand team used to run in bursts. Brief, produce, launch, measure, move on. Community work runs on rhythm. You still launch things, but the main goal is to keep a steady conversation where people teach each other and tell you what to build next.

That has three practical effects.

1. Measurement gets simpler and closer to behaviour. You care about active members, useful posts and referrals from members to new members. You also look at how fast the team closes the loop when people suggest a change. These signals tie to outcomes like retention and time to insight

   
   

2. Brand voice changes. In a crowd you broadcast. In a tribe you host. The language gets shorter, the tone gets warmer, and the company speaks with names, not only with logos. That is why ambassador and leader programs work when they give volunteers tools and trust rather than scripts. Notion’s public materials make this clear. Ambassadors get guidance and early access, then they teach and gather people in their own way. 

   
   

3. Product and marketing merge. Communities reduce the distance between feedback and change. LEGO Ideas is a literal pipeline from the room to the shelf. Airbnb’s host forum is a live sensor for policy and feature needs. This is the opposite of a one-way loyalty scheme. It is a shared workshop. 

What to learn if you are not a software giant

You do not need a huge team to benefit. The important move is to narrow the room. One group, one place, one rhythm. A boutique hotel can host a private circle for repeat guests who share a hobby, then let that circle test a check-in flow and a breakfast idea before the season starts. A clinic can maintain a small recovery group led by nurses where people share weekly progress and ask practical questions, then fold the common needs into service design. A production studio can keep a small channel for editors and directors to swap cut reviews every Friday, then shape the next tutorial or tool based on those threads. The format changes by industry, the logic stays the same.

There is also a shift in partners. Brands still work with well known creators, but the growth work often comes from smaller leaders with strong ties to their own circles. Trade press and benchmark reports keep showing higher engagement at the nano and micro tiers and a move to longer collaborations. This mirrors how community feels from the inside: less spectacle, more steady presence. 

A final lesson is governance. Communities fail when they are only announcements or when they become support queues. The fix is simple. Set a clear purpose, keep a consistent cadence, write short rules, and nominate visible hosts. HBR’s work on brand communities reminds us to also count the cost and keep goals realistic. A good community is not free. It is worth it when the learning and loyalty are visible. 

Where this goes next

Expect more co-creation, more small events and more data that people give on purpose because they see the benefit. Even if cookies linger in Chrome, the logic does not change. Direct relationships beat rented reach. Communities give brands resilient signal in a noisy market, and give people a place that feels like theirs. That is why you see companies from software to toys to travel moving in the same direction.