Real humans want to interact with real humans, even (or perhaps especially) in a B2B context.
In an increasingly AI-driven world, it can be tough to know what’s real and what’s not. Deepfakes are more believable by the day. Lines are blurred between human-written prose and ChatGPT-generated marketing content. There are approximately 8.4 billion digital voice assistants currently being used worldwide. This means Siri and Alexa are literally more popular than actual humans—like all of them.
So it’s no surprise that we’re all increasingly wary of online interactions. Real humans want to interact with real humans, even (or perhaps especially) in a B2B context. People want more than transparency and efficiency from the brands they interact with: they want community.
Real humans want to interact with real humans, even (or perhaps especially) in a B2B context.
At Swoogo, we believe events are a key part of building community around a brand. But we’re far from the only folks saying this. B2B marketers are increasingly looking to events to build community with customers and prospects. As Liz Lathan, co-founder of the event engagement company The Community Factory, says: “Events really allow people to get together and actually know that they’re with humans.” By trading transactional relationships for genuine, meaningful ones, community members actually become your brand advocates.
But building a genuine community for a B2B brand is complex. That’s why we’re taking a deep dive into the interplay of community and events.
First, we’ll introduce you to the “Big C, Small C” framework for thinking about event-led communities, and explain why we think most event leaders benefit from focusing on “Small C” communities.
Then, we’ll look at tactics that help build an organic, attendee-led community through events.
Finally, we’ll break out the steps to measuring and maintaining something as ephemeral as a sense of community around your brand.
But before we get into the good stuff, a reality check: what does community even mean in a B2B context? Let’s try to nail down some definitions.
In the context of events, “community” is the group of people who become advocates for your business because you’ve made them feel a sense of belonging. You can think of it in two ways: “Big C” community and “Small C” community.
“Big C” communities are formal groups built on measurable platforms—Dave Gerhardt’s marketing group on Circle, for example. These communities are usually run by a community manager, who leverages online and virtual events to build affinity with your brand. Big C communities are formal, in that they’re moderated, measured, and part of a wider growth or demand generation strategy.
“Small C” communities are different. They capture the organic, personal connections that form between attendees during in-person events, when groups coalesce based on shared experiences. While the brand isn’t the direct driver of these connections, it benefits from the stronger ties between participants, who feel more connected to the brand via that sense of community. These groups may not be as formal or measurable as their Big C counterparts, but are often just as valuable in driving demand.
Encouraging “Small C” community means designing event experiences that naturally foster networking, interaction, and personal engagement—ultimately creating loyal advocates in a non-pushy way.
There’s an intuitive way to think about the distinction between Big C and Small C communities, based around formality, structure, and connection to your brand. Imagine it like a continuum: Big C communities (on the left) are more formal, structured, and organized by the brand; on the right, Small C communities are less formal, looser in structure, and user-organized.
Big C communities are a long-term strategic play and are resource-heavy. We know that most event organizers don’t have a lot of spare resources right now (if only!), and so we’re going to focus on making a big impact with few resources using Small C community.
Getting event attendees to form genuine connections and networks isn’t an “if you build it, they will come” situation. From mom-and-pop shops to Fortune 100 companies, organizations of all shapes and sizes struggle to design event experiences that naturally foster community vibes. Here are a few common challenges:
The biggest challenge when it comes to fostering community through events, says Liz from The Community Factory, is a lack of ownership. “Somebody has to step forward. The community really does need a face.”
For Big C communities, the person in the public eye for the brand is often the president or a member of the board of directors. For Small C communities, it could be an influencer or thought leader—someone people can really connect with without it feeling too much like a brand play.
Companies are often wary of appointing a public persona because they’re afraid the influencer will leave or “be more visible than the brand.” This leads to organizations adopting a Generic Brand Community™, something which almost always fails the authenticity test.
Both formal and informal communities work best when the brand allows the community owner or influencer to be their authentic selves. Put worries about them being bigger than the brand to one side; their power to attract folks is why they’re there, so lean into it.
Building a community can feel resource-intensive, but you don’t have to start big. Focus on organic growth by forming a customer advisory board or a pilot group. These smaller, manageable initiatives can scale over time as you gain insights into what works and where to allocate resources.
At the end of the day, community isn’t just about size or scale; it’s about creating meaningful connections. Whether it’s a small group or a large network, if people are coming together with shared interests, that is a community. The key is to start where you are, with what you have, and allow it to grow naturally.
To encourage the organic formation of Small C communities at or after an event, event organizers need to understand what makes people want to form groups in the first place. Then, they need to structure events around those community-forming moments.
There’s a relatively new term in psychology: prosocial effervescence. It’s the moment at the Taylor Swift concert when everyone’s bracelets light up at the same time, and everyone scream-sings “You Need to Calm Down” together. It’s harnessing the power of shared experiences to create a sense of belonging.
The three main psychological drivers of this prosocial effervescence, or a sense of community, are:
Fostering these elements among event attendees is critical to your community success.
The best way to engage people is to create an environment in which everyone feels like they’re doing something together. You can do this by creating a collaborative environment, giving people a task, or creating space for collective delight.
Liz gives an example of an event she went to—a beautiful evening reception on the beach. Before anyone went into any business talk, guests were asked to select a stick from a pile, and when they walked down to the beach, they had to find the bonfire that their specific stick needed to go into.
Liz describes how this ritual, and speaking one-on-one with your fellow firestarters, created an intimate moment and set the tone for an evening that felt a lot more connected than your average B2B SaaS user conference.
Giving people a task they have to accomplish together creates a natural ground for bonding. When people have to rely on one another to hold up their ends of the deal, it helps create trust. These tasks don’t have to be big, just opportunities to work together toward a common goal.
Take the example of a 90-minute corporate event that had a surprise wedding in the middle of it. Event organizers told attendees that they were part of the ceremony prep, and had 30 minutes to set up for the ceremony. These attendees worked together to accomplish an incredibly special moment for a couple they didn’t even know. After “I dos,” guests went right back to their conference, and the couple got their big day on a budget thanks to being offered the venue for free.
Measuring the success of community-building efforts begins with defining the reason you’ve built your community in the first place. It’s important to start with the “why,” and then determine your measurement strategy.
Each community will have a different set of success metrics based on the type of engagement they’re designed to foster:
Cognitive engagement
Do you need your attendees to learn something? Do you need to test their knowledge or retention?
Behavioral engagement
Do you need attendees to change their behavior in some way? Do you need to elicit a specific behavior from them (e.g., leads collected)?
Emotional engagement
Do you need to measure customer loyalty, net promoter score (NPS), or advocacy?
For Big C communities where the intent is to drive loyalty and retain clients, success metrics are going to be more pipeline and revenue-oriented. You’ve invested resources into these formal communities, and so success metrics will cluster around proving the return on that investment. A Big C community may well measure itself on new user acquisition, as well as revenue retention and expansion.
Small C communities, with their lower investment threshold for the brand, may choose to track more engagement-oriented metrics. Attendee data such as connections made, meetings booked, and conversations started can all give you a sense of Small C community formation.
At The Community Factory, where Liz and her team help companies add community into their events and keep them running year-round, she says they have the 5 Ss of community, a framework to maintain community engagement:
Top-of-funnel way to get your community information out to people (e.g., LinkedIn, email newsletter, podcast). This is targeted toward people who are outside of your community.
For online, asynchronous communication; channel for people to find each other (e.g., Slack channel, message board).
Virtual and in-person events scheduled throughout the year.
Bring five to seven people together regularly (once per quarter, for example) to get their insights and find out what they want to see within your community.
This brings together all the above components; create snippets of these Ss to share with your audience.
These elements form a feedback loop: your event informs which shareable moments happen, and these shareable moments help tailor future events to better suit the community.
Creating a sense of community and belonging around your brand does not mean you have to become a full-time, full-on community manager. Encouraging Small C communities to flourish can be as low-lift as understanding what makes folks feel like they belong, and creating an event structure that promotes that feeling. Because events aren’t just user conferences or industry seminars, they’re vital opportunities to create belonging.
When you’re ready to create some belonging of your own, get in touch for a demo and discover how Swoogo can help you develop your community.