Community Revenue has its own vocabulary. This glossary defines the key ideas behind building communities, creating value through belonging, and understanding the limits of content-driven business models. Use it as a reference as you explore the Community Revenue framework.

 

Attention

Attention is the time and mental focus people can give to content, people, brands, and experiences. In the Attention Economy, attention is the limiting resource organizations compete to capture. Attention should be measured not only by how much you capture, but also by the quality of that attention.

 

Attention Economy

The Attention Economy is an economic environment in which organizations compete for people's limited attention. Some organizations create value by reaching as many people as possible, while others create value by developing deeper attention over time.

 

Audience

An audience is a group of people connected by a shared interest in the same content, creator, brand, or organization. Unlike a community, members of an audience primarily consume rather than participate.

 

Barrier to Entry

Barrier to Entry refers to any obstacle that makes it difficult for new competitors to enter a market. Advances in technology have dramatically lowered the barriers to creating and distributing content.

 

Belonging

Belonging is the feeling of being accepted, valued, and connected to other members of a community. It develops through relationships built by repeated participation and shared experiences.

 

Championship

Championship is the stage of the Member Journey in which members become Community Champions by taking shared responsibility for the long-term success of the community. Community Champions lead by example, cultivate the culture, develop other members, and help the community grow and thrive.

 

Community

A community is a group of people who develop a sense of belonging through participation in pursuit of a shared mission.

 

Community Champion

A Community Champion is a member who takes shared responsibility for the success of a community. Community Champions don't just participate; they help shape, grow, and sustain the community by contributing their knowledge, leadership, time, and talents.

 

Community Design

Community Design is the intentional practice of creating the structures, experiences, and interactions that help people participate, develop a sense of belonging, and advance a shared mission.

 

Community Hypothesis

A Community Hypothesis is an initial theory that bringing a specific group of people together around a Shared Mission will create value for members while generating Organizational Value. It combines the community's Shared Mission with the organization's desired outcome and serves as the starting point for testing Community Readiness before investing in building a Community Space.

 

Community-Led Growth

Community-Led Growth is a business strategy in which an organization builds and supports a community to drive the growth of another product or service. The community creates value for its members while generating Organizational Value through outcomes such as customer acquisition, retention, loyalty, and referrals.

 

Community Member

A community member is someone who actively pursues a community's shared mission by participating with other members in the community space. Community membership is defined by participation, not by subscribing, following, or paying.

Note: Many organizations use the word 'membership' to describe a paid subscription or exclusive access to content. Those offerings can be valuable, but they are not community memberships unless members actively participate with one another in pursuit of a shared mission.

 

Community Readiness

Community Readiness is the degree to which a latent community exists around a shared mission. The stronger the desire for connection, the more ready that community is to emerge when given an appropriate space.

 

Community Revenue

Community Revenue is a business model that creates value through belonging. It may be monetized through memberships, events, sponsorships, education, donations, or similar models. Its success depends on fostering strong relationships among members.

 

Community Revenue Blueprint

A Community Revenue Blueprint is a strategic framework for building a community that creates value for its members while generating Organizational Value. It defines the community's Shared Mission, target members, Member Journey, Community Spaces, participation opportunities, and revenue model, providing a roadmap for launching and growing a sustainable community.

 

Community Space

A Community Space is the environment intentionally designed to enable participation around a community's Shared Mission. Community Spaces can be Digital or Physical, and they can be Persistent or Time-Bound. Digital spaces include online groups and virtual events, while Physical spaces include community centers and in-person gatherings. Persistent spaces provide an ongoing place for members to interact, while Time-Bound spaces bring people together for a defined period, such as a workshop or conference. A community may use multiple types of spaces, depending on how and where its members come together.

 

Content Arms Race

Content Arms Race is the escalating competition among organizations to produce more, better, and faster content in pursuit of attention. As more organizations adopt this strategy, the competitive advantage of additional content diminishes while the cost of producing it continues to rise.

 

Content Commoditization

Content Commoditization is the process by which content becomes increasingly abundant and interchangeable, making it harder for any individual piece of content to stand out or command a premium.

 

Content Consumption

Content Consumption is the act of viewing, reading, listening to, or otherwise experiencing content. It requires attention but not the deeper attention required for active participation or interaction with other people.

 

Content Engagement

Content Engagement refers to the ways people interact with content beyond simply consuming it, such as liking, commenting, sharing, clicking, or responding. Unlike participation, content engagement does not necessarily involve relationships between people or contribute to a sense of belonging.

 

Content Escalation

Content Escalation, also known as ContentMaxxing, is the practice of continually creating, improving, optimizing, distributing, or automating content in pursuit of more attention. When widely adopted, Content Escalation contributes to the Content Treadmill and Content Arms Race.

 

Content Flywheel

Content Flywheel is a repeatable system for creating, distributing, repurposing, and improving content so that each piece increases the effectiveness of future content.

 

Content Marketing

Content Marketing is the practice of creating and distributing content to attract, educate, or retain an audience with the goal of achieving a desired business outcome.

 

Content Oversupply

Content Oversupply is the economic condition in which more content is produced than people have the attention to consume. As the supply of content exceeds demand, the value of individual pieces of content declines while competition for attention intensifies.

 

Content Revenue

Content Revenue is a business model that creates value through content. It may be monetized through advertising, sponsorships, subscriptions, ticket sales, purchases, licensing, or similar models. Its success depends on attracting and sustaining an audience's attention.

 

Content Shock

Content Shock is Mark Schaefer's term for the market condition that occurs when the supply of content outpaces people's ability to consume it, making attention increasingly difficult and expensive to earn.

 

Content Treadmill

Content Treadmill is the experience of feeling compelled to produce an endless stream of content simply to maintain existing levels of attention. Despite increasing effort, organizations often struggle to achieve proportional gains.

 

ContentMaxxing

(n.) The practice of continually creating, improving, optimizing, distributing, or automating content in pursuit of more attention. (v.) To pursue more attention by creating more or better content.

 

Contribution

Contribution is the stage of the Member Journey in which members begin creating value beyond their own participation. They answer questions, share knowledge, welcome newcomers, volunteer, mentor others, organize activities, or otherwise help strengthen the community and support other members.

 

Engineering Serendipity

Engineering Serendipity is the intentional practice of designing a community space to increase the likelihood of meaningful connections and discoveries. While serendipity itself cannot be planned, the conditions that make it more likely can be.

Further reading: How to Engineer Serendipity by David Spinks

 

Feedback Loop

A Feedback Loop is the ongoing process of gathering input from community members, acting on that input, and communicating the results. Because communities continually evolve, feedback loops help ensure the community grows alongside its members while advancing its shared mission.

 

Joining

Joining is the stage of the Member Journey in which a person becomes a community member. People may join through many different paths, including invitations, referrals, applications, events, or content, but joining always marks the transition from outsider to member.

 

Member Journey

A Member Journey is the progression of a person's relationship with a community over time. It describes how members move through the stages of Joining, Onboarding, Participation, Contribution, and Championship, creating increasing value for themselves, other members, and the organization as they deepen their involvement in the community.

 

Member Milestone

A Member Milestone is a predefined achievement along a community's Personal Journey that marks meaningful progress toward the Shared Mission. While members may reach milestones at different times, they share the same milestones. Communities help members achieve these milestones and celebrate them through shared rituals.

 

Member-to-Member Value

Member-to-Member Value is the benefit community members create for one another through participation. It may take the form of knowledge, support, connections, feedback, collaboration, or shared experiences. Unlike value provided directly by an organization, Member-to-Member Value emerges from interactions among members and strengthens the relationships that create belonging.

 

Onboarding

Onboarding is the stage of the Member Journey in which new members learn how the community works, begin participating, and achieve their first milestones. Effective onboarding helps members build confidence, form initial relationships, and establish habits that lead to long-term participation.

 

Organizational Value

Organizational Value is the measurable benefit a community creates for the person or organization that supports it. Depending on the business model, that value may be generated directly through the community itself or indirectly by supporting the sale, retention, or adoption of another product or service.

 

Participation

Participation consists of the actions community members take that create value for themselves, other members, or the organization. Because participation creates opportunities for relationships and belonging, it is the engine that transforms an audience into a community. Participation requires deeper attention than content consumption.

 

Participation (Member Journey stage)

Participation is the stage of the Member Journey in which members actively engage in the life of the community. Through participation, they create value for themselves, other members, or the organization while building relationships and making progress toward the community's shared mission.

 

Persona

Persona is a fictional representation of an ideal audience member or community member used to guide marketing, product, or community strategy.

 

Personal Journey

A Personal Journey describes the progress members make toward the community's Shared Mission.

 

Publishing Tool

A Publishing Tool is a tool that distributes content from a central source to an audience. Its primary purpose is to help one source reach many people. Before the internet, publishing tools included printing presses, radio towers, television stations, and movie theaters. Today, they include blogs, email newsletters, podcasts, video streaming platforms, and social media.

 

Reach

Reach is the number of people exposed to content, a message, brand, or experience during a given period.

 

Relationship

A relationship is an ongoing connection between two or more people that develops through repeated participation, trust, and shared experiences.

 

Serendipity

Serendipity is the unexpected discovery of a valuable relationship, idea, opportunity, or experience that occurs through participation in a community.

 

Shared Mission

A Shared Mission is the common purpose that brings a community together and gives members a reason to participate. It defines who belongs, why they gather, and what they hope to accomplish together.

 

Social Identity

Social identity is the part of a person's identity that comes from belonging to a group. Strong communities reinforce social identity by giving members shared experiences, language, traditions, and relationships.

 

Space-Creation Tool

A Space-Creation Tool is a tool that enables the creation of a Community Space where people can participate together around a Shared Mission. Its primary purpose is to facilitate interaction between members rather than distribute content from a central source. Examples include digital discussion forums, chat platforms, video conferencing software, and tools used to organize in-person gatherings.

 

Sponsor

A Sponsor is a person or organization that does not share in a community's Shared Mission but provides financial or other support in exchange for access to opportunities created by the community.

 

Transformation

Transformation is a lasting, meaningful change that members experience as a result of participating in a community. For communities focused on personal growth or change, transformation may be a central outcome of pursuing the Shared Mission.

 

Value Capture

Value Capture is the process by which an organization converts a portion of the value created into revenue or other economic benefits.

 

Value Co-Creation

Value Co-Creation is the process by which multiple participants contribute to creating value through their interactions. In a community, members create value for one another while the organization facilitates the conditions for those interactions.

 

Value Creation

Value Creation is the process of producing benefits that people find useful, meaningful, or desirable.

 

Visitor Ring

A Visitor Ring is the welcoming outer circle of a community where people who have not yet joined can become acquainted with its members, purpose, and practices. Visitors may observe or participate in limited ways, build relationships, and decide whether they want to move toward membership. In a paid community, the Visitor Ring can offer a way to experience some of the community's value without creating a separate free membership tier.

The Visitor Ring is a concept developed by Charles Vogl in The Art of Community.