Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging

by Carrie Melissa Jones

The first is that most social media “connections” are, at best, only weak ties. And every minute spent entertaining weak ties is possible time taken away from creating or deepening strong ties.

With any group of more than fifteen, this activity should be done in subgroups of no bigger than ten (we prefer eight). In a big group, no one remembers names, learns something relevant, or shares anything private. Given that participants entrust their time and attention to us, we can at least arrange for them to connect within a campfire experience (subgroup) intimate enough for the possibility of real connection.

It won’t matter what considered intentions lie behind a choice or outcome. If you are not transparent in communicating what, how, and why decisions are made, division and anger will harm all the goodwill built to date.