Should We Ditch the Word “Communities” & Instead Talk About “Collectives”?
Content creators: after building trust and intent, focus on purpose and benefits.
Author, futurist, and Web3 speaker Travis Wright just rocked my world. In a recent conversation we had, something he said about “communities” versus “collectives” kicked me in the serial entrepreneur ass.
Here’s the gist. Everyone these days talks about communities. I do this constantly, especially whenever I talk about the power of NFT memberships for content creators.
Increasingly though, Travis helped me see that the real value is in transforming a community into a collective.
But Aren’t Audiences, Communities, & Collectives Essentially All the Same Thing?
No. They’re related, yet different.
For content creators, it’s helpful to think of these groups in a “nested” nature, as follows.
The above representation clearly isn’t to scale (a collective might only be as little as 5% of your overall audience), but it gives you the idea.
Now I’m going to dive into my thinking on these three groups.
First, Let’s Differentiate Between Audience and Community
Web2 and Web3 have empowered content creators like you to build communities around your work. The problem is, too many people confuse community with audience. That is, people mistakenly think they’ve built a community when usually they’ve "only" got themselves an audience.
Audiences are based on attention. You can get an audience by attracting people to your work. (Also, shysters and asshats can buy an audience.)
Communities are based on intention. You can build a community—but it must be earned.
By the way, I want to give credit to Adam Ryan for helping me understand the crucial distinction between an “attention economy” (which we should say goodbye to) versus an “intention economy” (which is what we should focus on). I can’t stop thinking about how Adam wrote in this thread that:
Attention is when your audience takes notice of you.
Intention is when your audience is willing to take action for you.
Now I want to return to Travis Wright’s bright idea that we should concentrate less on communities, and more on collectives.
Now Let’s Differentiate Between Community and Collective
The problem nearly all content creators face is that most online communities are ineffective and useless. To thrive, communities need purpose and mutual benefit—yet most don’t have that embedded into their fabric.
Remember my above “nested” example? From your perspective as a content creator, it’s also helpful to think of these three groups as a journey. Think of it as three steps.
Many people think that creating a community is the last stop. (I certainly thought that.)
But sorry, it’s just the step that helps you build trust and intent with your audience.
The next step is to turn your hard-earned community into a collective. (Some might even call it a DAO!)
A collective is a community with greater purpose and aspirations. It’s where members share mutual benefits and are capable of collective action without relying on intermediaries (including you).
So, How Can NFTs Help Build Collectives?
To align interests and benefits in a transparent and independent fashion, an internal economy must be built. Blockchain and crypto-currencies are the only way to effectively do this.
NFTs are also the perfect tool to distribute utilities and benefits through your collective. (Read this to learn about the following five examples of utility NFTs that will empower your true fans to take action in the real world: (1) access NFTs, (2) redeemable and use-once NFTs, (3) royalty and revenue sharing NFTs, (4) governance and voting NFTs, and (5) experiential NFTs.)
Collectives should also be able to create and manage collective treasuries using crypto-currencies and community wallets. Such collective treasuries could be used to crowdfund community actions and projects.
This concept may not be easy to achieve, since it really only applies to those who have a real community to start with. But for those of you who have a community, I don’t think it’s realistic or sustainable to expect your community to buy all your products no matter how great they are.
The future isn’t about making money from your community, but about creating your own economy with them. And that means taking the next step: transforming them into a collective.
Let's say goodbye to the creator economy, and start building our own economies around our own communities. Oops, I mean collectives!
Thanks for reading. I can't wait for your thoughts and reactions.
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Lastly, I want to give another shout-out to Travis Wright for being the intellectual spark of this article. Travis is (among many cool things) a co-host of the Bad Crypto Podcast, which brilliantly bills itself as “the world's #1 podcast for blockchain, cryptocurrency, and bad dad jokes.” Check out Bad Crypto NFT membership cards on Uncut.FM, learn more at BadCryptoPodcast.com, and follow Travis on Twitter.
