Essay · ~8 min read

Customer Community vs Community of Practice: What Is the Difference?

Hannah Rafter · Turf Free Intermediate

This is the cleanest short explainer we found on the exact fork in your question: a community tied to your brand and customers versus one built around a practice or topic bigger than you. It does not pick a winner for you, it lays out what each is actually for (retention and support versus reach and acquisition) so you can match the choice to where your company is. Treat it as a starting point for deciding which job you need the community to do first.

  • A brand or customer community is aimed at people who already use you, and mostly pays off in retention, support, and advocacy.
  • A community of practice is aimed at your whole niche, including non-customers, and mostly pays off in reach and pulling new people toward you.
  • The two are not mutually exclusive: a topic-led community can quietly feed your product, but you should be honest about which goal is primary right now.
Open on useturf.io ↗

The question it answers

  1. Should I build a community around my company brand or around a broader topic bigger than my product?

Read with it

  1. David Sacks argues that the strongest companies rally people around a cause and a change in the world, not around the product... Bottom Up (David Sacks) Article · ~15 min read Your Startup Is a Movement David Sacks
  2. Pat Flynn's whole argument is that people become superfans because of a mission and a set of shared moments, not because of any... Pat Flynn Book · 224 pages Superfans: The Easy Way to Stand Out, Grow Your Tribe, and Build a Successful Business Pat Flynn
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →