community-buildinglisted

# Community Building for B2B Marketers ## Overview This skill covers community strategy, launch sequencing, platform selection, member engagement, event design, moderation, metrics, and organizational positioning for B2B communities. All practices are sourced exclusively from Exit Five podcast guests across 28 unique episodes. Where guests disagree, those disagreements are surfaced explicitly rather than resolved. --- ## Before You Build: Foundational Questions ### Distinguish Between Audience and Community Understand that "community" exists on a spectrum. Broad community building means growing the number of people interested in a topic — this can happen through content, social media, events, and newsletters. A specific community platform (e.g., a paid Circle community) is a more defined, gated space for a specific subset of people. Both are valid, but they serve different purposes. Do not conflate the two when planning strategy. (Source: Matt Carnevale, Episode #320) Separately, distinguish between audience (passive observers consuming content) and community (active participants who contribute, refer, and participate in exclusive experiences). Audience is the top of the funnel; community is a behavioral engagement tier below it. CMOs often conflate the two or focus only on small on-property customer forums, missing the larger audience-building opportunity. (Source: Anthony Kennada, Episode #145) Use the TRIBE framework to evaluate whether you have a true community or j