The Community Industry Deconstructed: Looking back at 2022 and ahead to 2023
It has been a year of great change for online communities and the professionals working in this space.
Some of that change has included positive and exciting developments such as a convergence with marketing and events management, new career categories like community operations, and the appearance of specialty tools and platforms to make the job of managing communities easier.
Other changes, such as the layoffs of many community professionals and the downsizing of community platform employees have been far less so.
To comment on these changes, Clocktower Advisors has gathered the opinions of seven leading community consulting professionals on a range of topics. Our panel’s comments cover several key community industry topics (click a link to jump to a section):
Rise of community-based marketing
Community professional layoffs
Event planning and communities
A future of possibilities for community pros
Let’s look back on 2022 and look ahead to 2023 with our seven experienced panelists:
Community-based marketing (CBM) is an emergent trend identified by Michelle Goodall and Ashley Friedlein, both of the Guild community platform, back in 2020 and updated last October.
Related: Read the Guild’s Community Trends 2023 blog).
According to their definition, it involves bringing people together around a shared practice, purpose, place, product, or set of circumstances to create insights and closer, more valuable relationships with prospects, customers, and other stakeholders to deliver organizational value.
However, not all of our panelists agree that CBM is a trend.
Q: Community-based marketing (CBM) has emerged recently in some community professional circles. Do you think CBM is a term that relates positively or negatively to community building?
“Community-based marketing is a newly minted phrase that’s come on the scene just this year. For a few years now, I’ve been hearing that the latest thing in marketing will be community. What the new awareness of CBM tells me is that we’re getting more serious about defining the relationship between marketing and community building. At its heart, I believe CBM is championing the idea that the best marketing builds a sense of community by fostering conversations and not by pushing out your messaging in a one-way fashion.” - Todd Nilson
“I’ve never heard of this term before. I think it could be used as one of the many definitions of Community. To me, it’s more like a purpose statement though.” - Jenny Weigle
“I’m not sure we need yet another term to describe the community. The definition given here is just the way community should be, and arguably always has been at its best. Let’s stop trying to find new terms, and do a better job at explaining the value.” - Darren Gough
“I’m with the other contributors on this. As someone who came to the community via marketing, this feels more like a community objective than a new marketing methodology.” - Carolyn Zick
“Totally agree with the previous comments. Marketing objectives can certainly be part of the community objectives, but they should primarily be about the (envisioned) community members and their needs and shared goals. Community is the buzzword in marketing but treating community solely as marketing is setting up for failure.” - Mathijs Vleeming
The question that many community consultants get is, “What’s the best platform?” You can find an incomplete but working spreadsheet listing community platforms here that has been around for many years.
In the years since the pandemic and with the rise of Web3, the question has become even more complex with a seemingly endless number of choices. Maybe it’s not an openly declared “software wars” scenario, but the competition has heated up between legacy players and newcomers alike.
Q: What online community platforms will come out ahead in the “software wars”?
“The way I envision this is that there are platforms that cater to various audiences:
Enterprise brands
Web3
Startups
Small- to Medium-businesses
Creators
Nonprofits/Associations
I’ve not heard of one platform that solves all the needs of any one audience… yet. I think some platforms are doing better marketing than others, but from a satisfaction standpoint, I don’t have enough info to comment on who I think is best serving their customers.” - Jenny Weigle.
“The platform should be part of a wider conversation around the needs and purpose of the community. It’s sadly too common to see organizations being recommended and purchasing, high 5 and often 6-figure platforms with little understanding of why. Start with the community purpose, invest in a good community manager, train well and then understand what the community needs before starting the platform conversation.” - Darren Gough
“Creating a strategy and defining the community purpose should always come before choosing a platform. You should choose a platform that best suits that strategy, not create a strategy that best suits the platform. This means there is no one answer to ‘What is the best platform?’. There are many platforms for different types of communities with different purposes. This seems like a no-brainer, but in my experience, it is very often not the chronological order for organizations looking to build an online community. That’s why our work is so important! We see an ongoing trend towards smaller, private communities, and I think owned platforms will continue to be the way forward for many thriving communities.” - Mathijs Vleeming
“I don’t think there’s one platform that will rise to the top over others. Picking a platform really depends on how it aligns with the goals of your community and business and particularly how it can deliver data to support that. When evaluating and selecting a platform, organizations need to have a strategic approach to ensure they’re evaluating the criteria that make the most sense for their business. This could be really different for every company. It’s also vital that businesses ensure that several senior stakeholders are involved in this selection process from the start. Otherwise, this can lead to issues once the platform is onboard. The platforms that will win are those that can really dig deep into what community professionals need to help their communities thrive, and those that continuously innovate to enhance their products and create a more meaningful impact.” - Laura Roth.
“InSided and Vanilla (Acquired in 2021 by Higher Logic) are increasingly becoming enterprise options for organizations. Both platforms have emerged as challengers to incumbent enterprise-grade heavy hitters like Salesforce and Khoros. They are a pricing threat to the bigger, more traditional enterprise platform solutions, which is appealing to organizations that are hesitating or experimental about entering the community space.
“Overall, I think it’s a healthy development, forcing Khoros and Salesforce to get more focused on delivering value. Khoros has always been all about customization but that kind of work can be expensive, even for large enterprises. Khoros’s new Project Aurora is a re-imagining of the platform as a more turnkey, sleeker, no-code solution that is on par with many of the more recent offerings from the likes of Mighty Networks, Circle, Tribe, and so on.
“Higher Logic’s release of Thrive also feels like a response to the startup/lower-cost entrants. It seems to be driven by an increased consciousness of the threat of losing market share to smaller startups with a lower price tag. The new Thrive is less fully featured than the “classic” Higher Logic, but it’s designed to be an easier way for organizations to get started with a community. Something that stands out about Thrive is its built-in capacity to replace a company’s existing CMS. Provided your organization’s needs are not too overwhelmingly custom, it could be a very nice solution.
“Both Khoros and Higher Logic have migrated/are migrating downmarket to compete with what seems like “lite” versions of their legacy products. It’s a logical move for incumbents to stay as competitive as possible. Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing how the startups will continue to innovate and push the envelope.” - Todd Nilson
“With experience building on Mighty Networks, I know that platform has shifted to a new model called “Spaces” (Release Date December 8th, 2022), and in 2023, there will be a massive shift for entrepreneurs who are using Mighty Networks to build communities which will allow for unlimited potential in ways to design a community of practice intentionally.
I haven’t been able to review and compare many competitors, but the ones that rise to the top for me are the more unique, creator-focused apps, including Disciple, Circle, and Passion.io. The differences are mostly based on usability and feature, making it easy for coaches, speakers, and leaders to easily build on these platforms and integrate with their existing offerings such as courses, cohorts, and challenges, bringing everything into one cohesive space.” - Deb Schell
New tech tools are coming out all the time, including digital adoption platforms (DAP) and analytical data-driven tools to support community professionals.
With all of these tools, we asked community professionals if they believe that this will help to improve the operations of a community manager, improve the experience for community members, and what other benefits community integration tools do to support community professionals.
Q: Do you see these as tools that will improve the community experience for community members, leaders, and managers?
“Matik is a little buggy right now (I’ve tried it), but when it gets going, it could be a huge timesaver for Community pros who need to present their data efficiently and concisely. I’m a fan of Talkbase because I don’t know of any community ops tool like it yet. Sparktoro While this does not yet connect with a community platform yet, if it did, it would give incredible insights into the members’ preferences and interests.” - Jenny Weigle
“Comunify is a new community management tool that connects people, conversations, and data. As a part of the founding team for Comunify, I’m, of course, very excited about what we are building. What stands out to me most is the streamlined reporting tools that can quickly develop customized reports that auto-send to your email or your key stakeholders’ emails. I’m a data nerd, so seeing tools that put quality numbers in the hands of community managers feels like a win.” - Carolyn Zick
“Approaches to community such as Volley.app and Kickback.space and others that use video or VR in interesting new ways to build community. Look for these to start showing up more aggressively in 2023. Not to mention new add-on services to the community like Talkbase, Common Room, and Communify. And late on the scene but something that’s grabbed a lot of attention from community professionals lately—ChatGPT is an AI tool that has great potential for automating many writing tasks.” - Todd Nilson
“There are so many tech tools out on the market that it can create a sense of overwhelming for leaders and business owners to decide on the right tool for them. I think there are some great tools for freelancers and small business owners that help keep things organized and I’m thankful that I found Bonsai to help me with invoicing, time management, and client workflows. As a community consultant, this is a major part of my business but I suspect it could also help entrepreneurs who are managing a community. In addition, I used Trello with my past community advocates and team to keep track of active challenges, projects, and upcoming events.” - Deb Schell
The tech world might be ready for Web3; however, much of the community industry isn’t sure what to make of it just yet.
With technology moving at the speed of light and humans training behind, here’s what our panel of community professionals say about Web3.
Q: What’s your opinion of Web3, and how will it be received by the community industry?
“Web3 is certainly interesting to keep an eye on, but it’s too early to implement it as a mainstream offering. One item to think about is that participation in DAOs [Decentralized Autonomous Organizations] is motivated by ownership/NFTs [Non-Fungible Tokens], which is not an intrinsic motivation to take active part in a community.
“Ignore the hype of Web3 and the softening effect it has had upon cryptocurrencies. Ignore the scam artists that have damaged the credibility of the space. Ignore the confusion that many have when people start talking about NFTs, virtual wallets, DeFi, and a host of other terms that have served as barriers to entry. Instead, think about how this intersection of technologies, this molecular interaction of Web3 technologies and communities, accelerated by the pandemic and other forces, are reacting to and shaping a relevant and exciting future for those of us in the community space.” - Todd Nilson
In the past few months, there have been significant layoffs in the community industry, most notably CMX Bevy, Khoros, and Commsor, among others.
This could be an issue of overstaffing during the COVID-19 pandemic, or is it a result of an economic downturn?
Q: What are your thoughts about the future of the community professional industry in 2023?
“I think Community is here to stay, no matter how many budget cuts and layoffs occur. I think community professionals will need to adapt to these times, but this isn’t anything new for community pros…being asked to adapt to change. For my own consultancy, it has made me more aware of how I present the value of my work. ” - Jenny Weigle
“I think during COVID, the ‘digital first’ necessity caused many organizations to invest in the community without really understanding it, and now purse strings are being tightened; that lack of understanding is causing the financial plug to be pulled as they focus on the core (read: familiar/traditional) parts of the business. Like any sector, there will be rises and falls. Still, I think a contributing factor is the noise some vendors have made about funding, high-profile hiring (very loud on social media), and, in some cases, a lack of ongoing care for their customers.” - Darren Gough
“I’m not sure I want to say about Commsor and CMX and Khoros, but the exodus/downsizings from these big players seem to be something significant we should discuss. It’s too soon to say if CMX will no longer be the central “watering hole” for community pros, but I think that faith in the brand has been shaken a bit. There’s room for a new kid on the block to take over being the “Big Community Conference” from CMX. Word on the street has been that the live event lacked coordination. Add the layoffs on top of that, and it causes me to question whether Bevy is serious about keeping its community cred.” - Todd Nilson
An increase in layoffs in the industry has in some cases resulted in an influx of new community consultants and freelancers who are looking to fill their income gap after being let go from a full-time role.
Regardless, our team of community professionals feels that the demand for consultants to help businesses, organizations, and startups build, launch, and grow online communities will increase in 2023 due to expanding enterprise needs for communities to engage their customers. This will lead the way for groups of community industry professionals to gather together and find a new way of working: as consultants.
The Community Consultants Collective, founded by Deb Schell, is a virtual group that meets monthly via Zoom to discuss how to be a consultant in the community industry. During our interactive sessions, the collective discusses topics including pricing, services, client onboarding, and professional development. The group meets monthly and has established a board of advisors, including Todd Nilson, John Summers, Ilker Akansel, Mathijs Vleeming, and Carolyn Zick.
The CCC plans to become more formal in 2023 with speaker-led sessions, a website, and a consultant directory. If you are a consultant or considering shifting to doing freelance work and are interested in learning more about the group, send an email to deb@findcalmhere.com to schedule a conversation.
Q: What kind of market do you foresee for community consultants in 2023?
“I think there’s more than enough opportunity for people to find a niche in this field and create a business of that! Yes, I believe we’ll see more consultants in the next year, and I can’t wait to see what they will accomplish!” - Jenny Weigle
“It’s been gratifying to watch many colleagues in the community space break away from their organizations in the last 5-10 years and build impressive careers for themselves. Community is such a wide term, and there are so many areas we need expertise in that it will remain a growing, rewarding field of work.” - Darren Gough
“The beauty of community is that no matter your background or skill set, you can contribute to the vibrancy of a community. I am fairly new to the world of professional community building but have enjoyed so far seeing where my existing skills fit and where I need to challenge myself to grow. I definitely don’t think community consulting is a new trend; there are so many experienced consultants that I have had the joy of learning from so far!” - Carolyn Zick
“As the industry continues to grow, I think we’ll see more and more consultants in the community industry, which is exciting. What is great about all the community consultants I’ve met over the last year is how diverse everyone’s skillset is… every consultant has their niche and has experience in different areas of the community. It’s a very open and supportive space to be in, which I think can only be good for the industry as more and more people get into it in 2023 and beyond.” - Laura Roth
“I’ve noticed the growth of offering strategy for new community builders in the creator space, and I believe that it’s important to support startups, entrepreneurs, and leaders in the small business sector, as well as non-profits who need guidance in gathering supporters inside an online community. We’ve all got different skills, and with the number of communities being built, there’s no doubt that they will all need strategic planning for building an online community,” - Deb Schell
New tools to measure engagement and boost conversations like Talkbase, Common Room, and Comunify have started to show a common theme that community managers struggle to get organized by providing metrics and data to leadership. As mentioned previously, with the number of layoffs and in an economic downturn, numbers are still the metric that helps leaders make decisions.
Q: What are your thoughts on the state of community data and metrics tools? How do you use them in your current workflow?
“My clients continue to use multiple tools to prove the success of their community. While there are efforts to simplify the number of tools out there, I don’t see this changing much in the next year.” - Jenny Weigle
“I think this is still something we struggle with as an industry. Nice engagement numbers can be a good indicator (especially in the early days), but I’m convinced most brand businesses still want to see the impact and, being honest, how it affects their bottom line.” - Darren Gough
“Comunify is a new tool, so it has been really insightful to have conversations with consultants, community managers, and other brand stakeholders about what they would like to see in a community reporting tool. There certainly needs to be a level of education for community leaders, consultants, etc, about what impact is best supported by which type of metrics.” - Carolyn Zick
“This is the challenge facing platforms as there is such a strong demand for more and more community data that helps to prove the value and power of a community. I think there is space for this to improve, especially in reporting, and it’s great to see so many new tools coming out to help provide this.” - Laura Roth
“Commsor, Common Room, Comunify… the fact that these platforms have even started forming a “space” in the market indicates that there are many community managers who are struggling for a better solution than cobbled together community platform metrics, plus Google Analytics, SEO, workflow automation, etc.,” - Todd Nilson
Virtual and Hybrid Events are here to stay. Community events have often had a virtual component, so this is not going to be anything new for our space. It’s more of a stressor for events management companies itching to get back to live, in-person events. However, we can acknowledge that virtual/hybrid for community launches and buildings are here pretty much forever,
Q: How do events play into the community strategy and structure of new and existing communities in 2023?
“All of my clients are planning to incorporate in-person events in their 2023 strategy. Many of them are wrestling with whether or not they want to offer hybrid, as that’s a different dynamic than purely virtual or in-person.” - Jenny Weigle
“I think hybrid will remain, but there’s no doubt people are enjoying the return to in-person events. I think what we have now is an “In person+” model. Events that are in person will now typically also include the virtual option for those who can’t attend in the real world.” - Darren Gough
“I love that hybrid event are here to stay, and I think community managers are starting to really wake up to the deep interconnectedness of community and events. I think we’ll see additional reporting tools develop that incorporate live and virtual event data and community impact. I think events can bridge the gap between current community members and potential community members. This can allow for some really major impacts on the businesses that build a cohesive event and community strategy.” - Carolyn Zick
“2020 marked the rise of community in the events industry. Everyone in the events industry (which is my background) was talking about online communities during the pandemic. Everybody was struggling with online events, and the lines between online events and online communities were fading. This year, face-to-face events are back but are at 65% of pre-pandemic levels. Some say that might be as high as they get. Since everyone was craving to go back to face-to-face events, the discussion about online communities is not as urgent and relevant as before. Many event organizers are not making the 365 approaches a priority anymore, and time and resources are focused on face-to-face events.
“To me, one thing is for sure: If your event has a purpose outside of the event itself, I think it is time to re-think your engagement model and transition from an event-led engagement model to a community-led engagement model.
“Organizations traditionally relying on their in-person events as their main engagement driver, like professional and trade associations, have to take a “community first”, 365 approach to events in order to stay relevant in the long run. I think this is a do or die, looking at expectations of new generations and environmental pressures.
“This usually means taking an ecosystem approach; either joining one or leading one, and often needs collaboration with key players from a client point of view. For many organizations this is a big cultural change.
“Hybrid Events only exist from the organizer point of view, since you either attend in-person or or digitally. Event organizers see that a simultaneous live online component of an in-person event is often not feasible (it is like organizing 2 events at one, as different audiences need a different approach). This means the digital event is either on-demand or at another time, before or after the event, which quickly means you are into online community territory. It is not about virtual versus in-person, it is about combining best of both worlds. This opens new opportunities, like “flip the classroom” education models. I have seen some great examples of online followed by F2F event structure, in which the inevitably less-interactive online content is followed by deep-dive in-person discussions. The Ergodicity Economics Conference 2023 for instance, will start with 2 days virtual open to a larger audience at a smaller prize, followed by 2 optional days in person, with limited capacity for the in-person event. There is a travel day in between on train/plane for contemplation & reflection.
“I could write a book about this (and I did, published in April this year).” - Mathijs Vleeming
“Hybrid and entirely virtual events are already ripe for incorporation in online community experiences and I’d like to suggest that organizations will soon realize that it is more economical to build these events through an online community with a strong mobile experience rather than investing year-over-year in a dedicated event app that is used and discarded again and again. The benefits of keeping an interested group of people connected and involved throughout the year are many, from the economic savings of easier, or even automatic, signups for future events to deeper, more satisfying brand engagement.” - Todd Nilson
“I think events will play a huge part in the 2023 community strategy. Events have a lot of power to connect people within a community, whether they’re in-person, virtual, or hybrid. There’s no doubt that people have been enjoying returning to face-to-face events post-Covid. Still, there’s an opportunity to add even more value to events in terms of how it connects to your overall community strategy.
For example, more innovative event styles and formats create new spaces for connection for both existing members and new members of a community. There are lots of new and exciting ways to engage people before, during, and after an event that can really have a huge impact on connecting people within a community. Also, how you use this data can be invaluable for organizations as there are huge opportunities for extracting customer insights from this event data.” - Laura Roth
“I think virtual events, summits, and webinars will be increasingly important to community builders to help educate their potential ideal members around how they are gathering, connecting, and thriving in 2023.” - Deb Schell
Recapping the various elements within the community industry, the mix of several events has led to this moment of anticipation around the power of community.
Here are a few final remarks from the panel of community pros:
“I'm interested to see how Google’s testing of putting forums/communities into search results may see a re-awakening of many people to that style of community.” - Darren Gough
“Every platform is scrambling to create a “community” right now (WhatsApp Communities, Facebook Group settings updates, Instagram Group Profiles, etc.), but the container is never the community. The people are.” - Carolyn Zick
“I’m interested to see Zoom’s developments into becoming a full-fledged virtual event platform, further blurring the lines between online events and communities. New features announced include unified profiles with connected social handles for networking, an on-demand platform for replays, a fully branded portal for the website, and a Zoom open API being released. This is huge for organizations moving from event-led to community-led engagement models and integrating (hybrid) events as main community engagement drivers.- Mathijs Vleeming
If you are looking for more opinions and ideas about what to expect in 2023 in the community industry, you can find additional year-end and forward-looking roundups in