The words audience and community are often used interchangeably, but they’re not the same thing.
While audiences and communities share some commonalities, they differ in subtle and profound ways.
If you want to build a better audience or community, it’s important to understand the key differences.
Here are 5 key differences between audience and community:
1. Relationship
- Audience: Relationship only with your brand
- Community: Relationship with your brand and with fellow members
2. Directionality
- Audience: Broadcast to
- Community: Engage with
3. Conversation ownership
- Audience: Conversation belongs to the brand
- Community: Conversation belongs to everybody in the group
4. Members role
- Audience: Members role is to listen
- Community: Members role is to contribute and collaborate
5. Help dynamics
- Audience: Helps members
- Community: Helps members help each other
Audience or community – which are you building?
h/t David Spinks for point of differentiation #5
