Perhaps the biggest challenge for brands is that building brand communities requires a considerable investment in time, and complete commitment and integration from departments across a business to stand a chance.

A HBR study on branded communities states that “too often, companies isolate their community-building efforts within the marketing function. That is a mistake. For a brand community to yield maximum benefit, it must be framed as a high-level strategy supporting businesswide goals.”

Last year, we covered two of the most imaginative and popular branded communities, the SAP Community Network, and Random House’s Figment, two communities that have captured the hearts and minds of consumers by providing a place to share and tips, advice, and stories with like-minded individuals. The communities are built on the three principles of feedback, advocacy, and support which were identified in a Comblu report for being the pillars for a successful brand community.

SAP in particular are operating at the very forefront of the industry in building a engaged brand community, and it stems from the technology company’s organization-wide commitment to providing a platform for social engagement. CMO Jonathan Becher spoke of the companies philosophy, in which social is seen to benefit every department, from sales, to development, support and marketing, and in which social interaction is viewed as an “enabler” and “not a goal in itself”.

Recently, several brands have been stepping up their efforts to engage consumers and build online communities. What’s fascinating about each one is that each is uniquely different, offering different opportunities and incentives for consumers to participate and engage. Let’s look at 10 brand communities leading the way.

10 Exceptional Brand Communities

1. The SAP Community Network (SCN)

With more than 2.5 million engaged members, the SCN has been called “the most extensive use to date of social media by a corporation,” by Richard Adler from the Aspen Institute. Community members range from huge multinationals, such as Disney and Bose, to innumerable small and medium-sized businesses, all of which are able to connect and mutually benefit via the SCN.

The communities real success lies in the fact that many members are highly engaged and willing to contribute time and expertise to grow the strength of the network.

Key strength: Huge, diverse, and highly engaged community. Users gain reputation for community contributions and there are plenty of incentives for users to continue to engage.

2. Playstation Community (Sony)

The Playstatioin Community has done an exceptional job at providing an online space for gamers to connect. Users are able to zone in on their specific interests, whether it be by game, interests, or the type of support they need, and it’s clear to see how the network caters for the pillars of feedback, advocacy, and support.

The community is closely tied to Playstation’s linked social media channels, on YouTube and Twitter, and users are also able to experience content being generated both by brands, and users themselves.

User-generated content creation is one of the great strengths of the community and with new features on the PS4 console that enable users to upload in-game clips directly online, this is only going to increase and continue to grow the strength of the community.

Key strength: Virtually unlimited capability and scale in user-generated content, that both entertains and adds value at awareness building, and purchase-point consumer touchpoints.

3. Being Girl (Procter and Gamble)

Being Girl was created as an informative resource for young, teenage girls, to connect and find out answers to the those difficult questions that growing up entails. Like a digital big sister, the community enables open discussion and the ability to ask the resident expert, Anna, for advice on topics such as menstruation, eating disorders, acne, and dating.

Being Girl has been expanded to 46 countries worldwide, and its strength lies in the fact that girls all over the world can relate to each other in the trials of growing up. Being Girl was cited in the book “Groundswell“, as requiring just a 1 percent conversion rate to offer a 3x ROI built on the brand loyalty that the community inspires.

Key strength: Global reach, and builds brand loyalty among potential customers for products in a competitive niche where loyalty for a brand often lasts a lifetime.

4. Figment (Random House)

Figment is a branded community that caters to teenagers who love to read and write fan fiction.

Figment has more than 300,000 members who can share, create, and moderate content, as well as create awareness by recommending products. Highly engaged individuals become brand advocates giving sincere and earnest reviews of the products they enjoy, and this fulfils multiple touchpoints for other community members. It shows how all consumer-facing brands can generate branded community engagement by focusing on specific, highly engaged niches within their audiences.

Key strength: Laser focus on a niche segment of brand audience, which ensure rich engagement levels, and fantastic mutual community experience.

5. H&R Block

H&R Block created a community site that connects users to a tax professional for quick responses to tax-related questions via the “Get Answers” section of their website. The real strength of the portal is in connecting users enabling them to learn and share experiences with others in the H&R Community. The community is reported to have answered 1 million questions and generated a 15 percent lift in business.

Key strength: Adds genuine, and highly useful value to consumer lives. Allows user questions to build the community into a comprehensive resource.

6. Harley Owners Group (Harley-Davidson)

HOG is a special community. Harley-Davidson enthusiasts share more than their loyalty to a brand. For them, it represents a way of life, a culture, and it is one that can be found all over the world.

Since the 1980s, Harley-Davidson have been diligently building up a brand community based around shared lifestyle, taste, and ethos. HOG was born as a way the brand’s highly passionate consumers to connect and engage online. With more than 1 million active members, the strength of the community lies in the openness and highly impassioned members it tries to foster and serve.

Key strength: Incredibly strong and impassioned community, one that extends beyond online communities. HOG acts as a connector for enthusiasts around the world.

7. Lugnet (Lego)

Lugnet is an established website and the largest unofficial community of Lego fans. Lugnet is mainly composed of adult men, who build elaborate Lego projects, sharing news and images of their creations.

As a focused and niche group of users, the Lugnet community has even been recognized by the Lego brand as being a valuable source of information. As one Lego spokesman said: “[Lugnet offers] incredibly valuable insights” in hardware, software, design and usability, feedback which informs the brands product development, marketing, and much more.

Key strength: A highly enthusiastic and capable community that is receptive to working closely with the brand to provide a source of feedback which can inform product and business decisions.

8. My Starbucks Idea (Starbucks)

My Starbucks Idea works on the same principle as the old customer “suggestion box” for the global coffee chain’s 150,000+ members. In the last six years, suggestions from My Starbucks Idea community members has led to the implementation of nearly 300 innovations – from digital tipping, peach green-tea lemonade, to the hugely popular ability to enjoy free Wi-Fi.

Alex Wheeler,VP global digital marketing for Starbucks, said that “our passionate customers and partners have been sharing their ideas with us on My Starbucks Idea, and we have listened and acted upon many amazing innovations that we have received from this online community.”

Key strength: Actual implementation and follow through of popular ideas shows that the brand listens to consumers, which inspire ever greater levels of innovation and ideas. A real asset for the brand’s continued progression.

9. Oracle Community (Oracle)

Oracle Community connects the millions of users worldwide who use the platform, whether for personal or for a business function. It enables users to ask questions on dedicated forums and to solve problems together. Members are able to share personal stories, form independent groups, and even build their own networks and schedule meetings.

Key strength: A great technical resource, which seeks to aid users in solving problems in any way it can. Very popular among its target audience.

10. r/Nordstrom1901 (Nordstrom)

While many brands feel comfortable on social media platforms such as Twitter, or Instagram, where they are able to maintain a level of control of the content on their channels, the majority seem reluctant to open a channel on Reddit, put off perhaps by the unabridged openness of the site, and the rawness of user-generated comments. Nordstrom, however, felt ready to rise to the challenge, a first for a luxury brand.

The brand values genuine authenticity, which gives them the bravery to facilitate open conversation with customers via reddit. All initial signs point toward it being a highly positive move for the brand.

“We’ve been on Reddit for about two months,” said Dan Evans Jr., spokesperson for Nordstrom, Seattle. “We hope it’s another way for us to respond to and speak with our customers directly in real-time in a way our customers will enjoy.”

Key strength: Engaging on an open forum such as reddit requires brands to commit to genuine authenticity, consumer-centricity, and social values, which ensures sentiment for the brand will win a highly positive response. Future-proof, and long-term wins.

Why Should Brands Build A Strong Brand Community?

Each one of the above brand communities offer a unique set of virtues that ensure their success. To varying degrees, each possesses the three pillars of feedback, advocacy, and support that have come to define a thriving community.

Lugnet and My Starbucks Idea offer a unmatchable resource for brands to gain feedback on their product offering and the influence of that feedback has permeated into the culture and identity of the company. Harley-Davidson is an outstanding example of how a brand can win and engender advocacy. H&R Block and Oracle Community offer valuable support resources for consumers.

Another crucial element of all of these is that all of these networks offer a unique value proposition for consumers, whether it be the facilitation and sharing of information (SCN, Being Girl, H&R Block, Oracle Community), or a platform for users to connect and share content (Playstation Community, Figment).

Perhaps the most important takeaway, and the one which required the greatest amount of commitment from an organization to deliver, is the boldness and authenticity that enables brands to operate in a way which doesn’t require censorship. It’s a measure of how transparent a company is prepared to be, and something all brands must eventually aspire toward. The rewards for such authenticity as unmatched (having, for example, the power to transform struggling motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson in the 1980s into the multi-million dollar global brand they are today).

Building such communities requires integration and commitment across departments within an organization. HBR’s aforementioned study summarized:

“In today’s turbulent world, people are hungry for a sense of connection; and in lean economic times, every company needs new ways to do more with what it already has. Unfortunately, although many firms aspire to the customer loyalty, marketing efficiency, and brand authenticity that strong communities deliver, few understand what it takes to achieve such benefits. Worse, most subscribe to serious misconceptions about what brand communities are and how they work.”

It means that brand communities are not, as they are often perceived, a lone marketing or customer support objective, but a business strategy that demands authenticity as a pre-requisite. In establishing one, a brand can look to grow and evolve with the expectations and needs of its most valuable customers.