A Recipe for Building Community

Building a community for a business or brand is the powerhouse way to go from good to great. Companies that can transition from delivering products and services to building a community possess the ability to unlock extraordinary competitive advantages to create and support a superior business model.

Okay, it sounds simple enough, but if it were easy to build a community, everyone would do it. But it may be that easy. All it takes to start those building blocks is to follow a recipe for successful community building.

Content Creation Is the Foundation of Community Building

Timely and engaging content that meshes with what people do in their personal life and bring it into their professional life is one great way to start building a community. That’s advice from Tim Maitland, CRO at MarketScale and host of their B2B Weekly edition.

“Right now, B2B could stand for boring to boring-er,” Maitland said. “And we want to bring fun and exciting content that does two things. One, it’s our mission: taking experts and turning them into content creators. And two: we want to build a community. And what better way to build a community than to create media that brings people together.”

Got Any Examples, Tim?

Call this content creation idea B2C: Business to Cooking. Everyone can relate to cooking, and what better way to demonstrate the power of business experts showing off their passions and professions than with a cooking demonstration? Tim Maitland got executive chef André Natera on B2B weekly for a cooking session. Why Natera?

“He has pivoted his focus from not just being a great chef, but also a community builder,” Maitland said.”

Natera’s channel, The Chef’s PSA, provides thought leadership and knowledge for young chefs in organizing kitchens and utilizing cooking techniques in a fun environment.

Cooking Up a Community Build

Maitland strapped on his apron and entered the kitchen with Natera for a lesson on providing home cooks with essential skills to improve their techniques.

Natera’s first lesson applies to cooking and, in business, being organized. “You want to get as organized as you possibly can,” Natera said. “And I mean everything from the utensils that you are going to need to cook with, to the ingredients, to the pots and pans. Have everything out, and be mentally ready before you begin.”

Other Lessons from Maitland and Natera’s community-building cooking session include:

• The importance of seasoning

• The thought process behind salad construction and cutting techniques

• Layering flavors

• Proper temperature techniques in cooking

In just one-half hour, Natera taught Maitland how to prepare and cook a salad, a steak, a vegetable side, and a seafood appetizer. Is the community getting hungry yet?

If you’d like to learn more about building your own community-generated content, please reference these resources from MarketScale.

Thought leadership by Tim Maitland and André Natera

Article Written by James Kent