#39 The ROI Of Community
The highlight of my week was attending this month's Creative Mornings in Baltimore. Sarah Doccolo and Jenny Hamilton spoke about their collaborative arts and sciences program for the National Aquarium.
After their talk I asked a question about how they measure the ROI of community and get buy-in from business leaders. Their answers and the conversations I had with guests after the talk inspired this issue.
Let's get into it–
Sarah Doccolo and Jenny Hamilton spoke at Creative Mornings about their artist residency program, Voyages. Here's the blurb from CM:
Voyages is an artist residency that hosts an artist who has a deep connection to Baltimore and an interest in learning from scientists and content experts from around the world about a nature based subject of their choosing. Together they build an adults only event around the artwork that reimagines the Aquarium’s galleries for one evening.
The intersection is what makes this so special. In Jenny's words it's the combination of these three things–
Baltimore Art
Science & Natural World
Gathering In Community
There's a fun formula to think about here for your business. There is so much differentiation power in a unique intersection when developing a product, program or service.
These events take SO much work to produce and I couldn't stop thinking about how amazing a program like this is... but having worked with enough CEOs to know what it takes, I wondered how they were able to get executive buy-in to put these events on.
I haven't seen the books myself but making a few sweeping assumptions and some back of the napkin math... I can't imagine that there is much net profit from these events on the P&L.
And so I asked the age old question...
How do you measure the ROI of community and get buy-in from business leadership?
You Can't Build A Product/Program/Service For a Community Without Involving The Community.
The first step in understanding the ROI of a community project is gauging interest from the community.
Bring people together from the community to contribute.
When Jenny & Sarah put this idea out to the local community in Baltimore the response was overwhelming and a huge group of people showed up to come up with ideas and get involved.
The first step in getting business leadership buy in is to share how many people showed up. You also have to share who and what they offer. Unfortunately, status, connections, and reach matters.
Everyone in business knows how important building relationships is. The community showing up in partnership is great for the long-term strategic positioning of the business.
Collaborations are also good for word of mouth marketing and growth.
In the words of Jenny & Sarah, "The more people that work on the project, the more people come see it."
The people that contribute are proud to be a part of it and so they show up, and they share with their communities and it creates a network effect.
Building Community Is About Sustainability Of The Business
Kira Wisniewski, Executive Director of Art+Feminism and co-host of Creative Mornings Baltimore, added to the conversation by sharing that sustainability of the business is the most important community ROI factor.
She was referring to what we talk about here all the time: retention, relationship building, and customer LTV.
Building with community is like compounding interest. You won't see the return immediately – it's a long game. And because of this when you're collaborating with a team you have to continue to remind them of the sustainability factor.
Sarah mentioned that one of the most important things for executive buy-in is to include them in the process and continue to remind them of the long-game strategy.
In this work we have to constantly educate and remind our stakeholders that building community takes time... much like growing your investments.
But if you're smart and strategic, you'll see the returns you always dreamed of. And you'll feel good because you'll be surrounded by a community you built.
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