The Business of Belonging

When was the last time you truly felt belonging—not just being part of something, but being seen for who you are? The Business of Belonging by David Spinks begins here, arguing that in a world where businesses compete not only for attention but trust, community has become the ultimate competitive advantage. Spinks contends that success in the modern marketplace is no longer about having the fastest product or the biggest advertising budget, but about offering customers a space where they belong.

Throughout the book, Spinks maps out a detailed, science-backed journey that shows how communities evolve, how they drive real business results, and how they nurture the timeless human need for belonging. His core argument is simple but transformative: community building isn’t an auxiliary marketing tactic—it’s a core business strategy. When people identify with a group, actively participate, and receive validation for their contributions, they don’t just stay customers; they become collaborators, evangelists, and lifelong advocates.

Why Community Now?

Spinks frames his theory in a cultural and technological moment—an age of social isolation, distrust in institutions, and overwhelming digital noise. As traditional marketing loses effectiveness and consumers gain power through social networks, community transforms from a nice-to-have into a necessity. Apple’s early online user groups, Salesforce’s Trailblazer ecosystem, and Duolingo’s volunteer-driven learning programs exemplify how companies that treat customers as stakeholders create resilience others can’t replicate.

But community isn’t just good for business—it’s good for humanity. Spinks reminds us that humans evolved to belong, cooperate, and share. Businesses that ignore this evolutionary truth operate in a transactional vacuum where loyalty falters. By contrast, those investing in belonging find themselves surrounded by motivated individuals who want to contribute to a collective mission. That’s what he calls the rise of the community-driven business.

Three Levels of Community Strategy

To turn this vision into practice, Spinks introduces his three-level framework for community strategy: the business level, where community goals align directly with revenue outcomes; the community level, which tracks engagement and health; and the tactical level, which identifies day-to-day initiatives. Each level interlinks, creating a feedback loop between member experience and measurable impact. (Comparable theories exist in Measure What Matters by John Doerr, which uses Objectives and Key Results to align actions to outcomes.)

This structure allows companies to measure community not by vague engagement but by tangible contribution—whether reducing support costs, generating leads, crowdsourcing innovations, or increasing retention. Spinks urges leaders to rediscover a core truth: when your users help each other succeed, your company succeeds faster.

The Human Architecture Behind Belonging

Underpinning Spinks’s model is psychology. Drawing on the Sense of Community Theory by McMillan and Chavis, he breaks belonging into four dimensions: Membership (safe inclusion), Influence (two-way impact), Integration and Fulfillment of Needs (mutual benefit), and Shared Emotional Connection (stories and history). These aren’t abstract; they’re the mechanics of community. If people don’t feel seen and safe, they won’t engage. If their ideas don’t matter, they won’t stay. If their participation isn’t rewarding, they won’t contribute.

Businesses, he argues, can apply these same principles. A software company might build a forum to let users answer each other’s questions (influence). A creator platform might feature member success stories (shared emotional connection). Each act strengthens the social glue that translates directly into customer equity.

Community as an Ecosystem

Spinks compares a thriving community to an ecosystem: leaders, power users, active members, and passive participants all play roles. The system sustains itself only when these parts coexist in balance. A small company might focus on building one core group of passionate advocates; a mature business might enable chapters worldwide. The best communities scale by distributing ownership—empowering local chapters, moderators, and facilitators in the same way that Wikipedia or Duolingo distribute power to contributors. True scale, he insists, is only possible through trust.

Case studies drive home this point. Airbnb’s Superhost program turns high-performing hosts into ambassadors who teach others and reinforce standards. Lyft’s Driver Advisory Council reflects how sharing ownership creates sustained engagement. These aren’t marketing add-ons—they are strategic engines of growth supported by belonging.

A Practical Playbook for Connection

The book’s later chapters turn theory into action, guiding you through mapping participation journeys with the Commitment Curve, designing onboarding experiences, activating leaders, and structuring events using the 7Ps of Community Design (People, Purpose, Place, Participation, Policy, Promotion, and Performance). Every model connects back to a single insight: belonging isn’t spontaneous—it’s intentionally engineered through design, repetition, and empathy.

Ultimately, Spinks’s message is both strategic and soulful. Businesses can no longer afford to view customers as transactions; they must view them as participants in an ongoing story. Community, far from a buzzword, becomes the medium through which people understand themselves, connect to others, and align with brands that share their values. In a world of fleeting attention, authentic belonging might just be the most sustainable advantage there is.

Spinks chronicles how business has shifted from selling products to building relationships. He begins with Apple’s pioneering Apple User Group Connection, which turned isolated customers into a global network of advocates long before social media. When Ellen Petry Leanse convinced Apple’s leadership to connect directly with users online in the 1980s, she was doing something revolutionary—humanizing technology. Today, that same principle fuels startups like Figma, Notion, and Roam Research, which treat community as the beating heart of their business model.

From Customers to Collaborators

The core evolution Spinks describes is a shift from transactional to relational engagement. In the past, businesses communicated one-to-one (customer support) or one-to-many (marketing). Community introduces a many-to-many model where customers connect with each other—sharing feedback, solving problems, and bonding over shared purpose. This model multiplies impact exponentially because participation becomes value creation itself. Salesforce’s Erica Kuhl demonstrated this empirically: her Trailblazer community didn’t just make customers happier—it reduced support costs, increased retention, and drove millions in revenue.

The Strength in Shared Identity

A successful community gives customers a new shared identity. When Figma calls its users ‘collaborative designers’ or Culture Amp brands its HR community as ‘People Geeks,’ they aren’t just naming segments—they’re defining belonging. These micro-identities make participation aspirational. You’re not just using software; you’re joining a movement. (In comparison, Seth Godin’s concept of “tribes” in marketing follows a similar logic: people seek meaning through collective identity.)

Economic and Emotional Value

Spinks argues that “community-first” businesses succeed because they combine economic incentives with emotional safety. Customers of Duolingo contribute language courses because they love the mission. Airbnb’s hosts go beyond transactional service to become ambassadors because they feel recognized through programs like Superhost. The community amplifies business outcomes while fulfilling human needs—a dual engine most corporate models neglect. And since competitors can copy features but not relationships, community becomes an uncopyable moat.

Building community-driven business requires reframing growth itself. Instead of chasing customers, you grow by empowering them to extend your brand. When you give people belonging and purpose, they give you advocacy and innovation. Or, as Spinks distills it: “A great business is simply a great community.”

At the center of Spinks’s business framework sits the SPACES Model—a six-part map for identifying what value a community can drive for a company. Each letter stands for a distinct business outcome: Support, Product, Acquisition, Contribution, Engagement, and Success. Together, they describe how community amplifies each department across an organization.

Support: Customers Helping Customers

Community-powered customer support, like Square’s self-service forums or Apple’s discussion boards, lets customers answer each other’s questions, reducing overall service costs and increasing satisfaction. Members who answer questions aren’t doing it just for others—they reinforce their own expertise and bond with the brand. This is community influence at work.

Product: Crowdsourced Innovation

Communities serve as living R&D labs. When Techsmith let users co-create the Snagit course, it saved $500,000 in development. Lyft’s Driver Advisory Council and Xbox Ideas space show how feedback loops create innovation faster than internal teams alone. When customers feel heard, their trust solidifies.

Acquisition and Advocacy

Growth communities, like Lululemon’s local ambassador clubs or Culture Amp’s People Geek network, use community leaders as organic marketers. Members recruit others not through paid ads but authentic enthusiasm. The result: leads qualified through trust rather than metrics—what Spinks calls Community-Qualified Leads (CQLs).

Contribution and Engagement

Platforms like Airbnb and Udemy show how empowering members to contribute content multiplies scale. Spinks’s research echoes the Pareto principle—20% of members drive 80% of content. But all levels matter: passive consumers give audience, active members drive conversation, and leaders sustain structure. Engagement follows naturally when members are both creators and benefactors of value.

Success and Retention

Finally, success communities—like Salesforce Trailblazers—help customers learn, grow, and achieve mastery. Teaching others increases commitment to the brand and career advancement. “Come for the utility,” Spinks writes, “stay for the unity.” When the community itself becomes the product, loyalty transforms into purpose.

The SPACES Model turns intangible sentiment into tangible business logic. It anchors belonging to measurable impact and shows executives that communities aren’t charity—they’re infrastructure for sustainable growth.

Humans build identity through the groups they join. Spinks’s Social Identity Cycle explains exactly how people move from curious observers to loyal participants: Identification → Participation → Validation. This cyclical flow mirrors psychologist Henri Tajfel’s theory of social identity—categorization, identification, and comparison—showing how the sense of community becomes part of selfhood.

Defining Who Belongs

To design identity that magnetizes members, you must ask three questions: Who are we, what do we believe, and what do we do? CMX, Spinks’s own organization, defines itself as ambitious, empathetic, and innovative professionals who believe community is the future of business. This clarity attracts like-minded people while gently repelling those who don’t align—an intentional form of exclusivity that ensures safety and trust. (Note: Spinks emphasizes that exclusivity isn’t exclusion—it’s focus.)

Making It Specific and Cool

General identities rarely spark loyalty. “People who ride bikes” is too broad; “competitive cyclists who are parents in Austin” is compelling. The more specific your identity, the stronger the gravitational pull. Likewise, perceived ‘coolness’ matters. The Ministry of Testing made software testing cool with playful design and quirky mascots. CMX rebranded ‘community managers’ as ‘community professionals,’ giving them prestige and pride. Coolness, here, equals acceptance and self-expression within a trusted tribe.

Inclusivity Done Right

Spinks’s insights on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are blunt yet crucial. Communities can unintentionally perpetuate bias if they don’t prioritize representative voices early. Founders often recruit from their own networks, creating monocultures. The solution: embed DEI values before growth, seek underrepresented leaders, and make inclusion structural, not cosmetic. (Compare to Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist—both demand proactive action, not passive intention.)

Identity is the engine behind every thriving community. When people feel seen, safe, and significant, participation becomes self-expression. That’s when community transforms from a marketing channel into a movement.

In Chapter 4, Spinks turns belonging into a journey. He introduces the Commitment Curve, originally developed by Darrel Conner and Robert Pattison, to map how individuals deepen engagement over time. The curve reflects a psychological truth: commitment grows gradually, not instantly.

Small Asks First

Meetup’s Douglas Atkin learned this the hard way. When they asked new users to host events immediately after signing up, engagement dropped. Hosting is a massive leap for a newcomer. By switching to smaller asks—fill your profile, read a blog, attend an event—they eased members along the curve and dramatically increased participation. Spinks encourages the same patience: “Love your lurkers.”

Four Levels of Participation

Communities naturally stratify into four tiers: passive members (lurkers), active members (participants), power members (hyper-engaged users), and leaders (moderators, organizers). Each level is essential. Without the outer circle, the inner circle loses reason to create. YouTube’s 99.9% viewers sustain its 0.1% creators—an interdependent ecosystem.

Recruitment and Onboarding

Spinks dispels the myth of “if you build it, they will come.” Communities rarely grow organically at first. Founders of CMX, Product Hunt, and Nextdoor started by manually inviting members—hundreds of personal emails and even door-to-door recruitment. This deliberate intimacy builds foundations of trust. Once established, members themselves begin inviting others.

Effort and Earning Belonging

Using Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance, Spinks introduces effort justification: the more effort someone invests to join, the more they value belonging. From Airbnb’s Superhost requirements to Yelp’s Elite program, earning status deepens identity. It’s not hazing—it’s human psychology turned into engagement.

Mapping the commitment curve gives you a blueprint for engagement. Ask small first, celebrate movement upward, and design experiences that respect each member’s pace. Growth is less about pushing everyone forward and more about nurturing each role to thrive.

Validation closes the loop in the Social Identity Cycle. It tells members their participation matters. Spinks dives deep into motivation science, drawing from The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg), Hooked (Nir Eyal), and Predictably Irrational (Dan Ariely) to show how community engagement becomes habit through rewards and reinforcement.

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation—driven by growth, connection, and autonomy—builds lasting engagement. Extrinsic rewards like points or swag can help, but overuse causes the overjustification effect: members care about prizes, not purpose. The trick is balance—external cues must amplify intrinsic joy, not replace it.

Social Norms Over Market Norms

Spinks warns against turning social contribution into transactional work. Quoting Ariely’s study with lawyers who preferred volunteering for free over charging reduced rates, he shows that introducing money shifts interactions from favor to transaction. Surprise thank-yous and recognition (not payment) maintain social norms of generosity.

The SNAP! Framework

Holly Firestone’s SNAP! model—Status, Networking, Access, Perks—offers a smart way to reward members without cheapening belonging. Badges and roles signal status; curated events enhance networking; access to mentors or leaders communicates trust; perks like swag and certifications reinforce identity. Used well, these rewards elevate rather than commodify participation.

Gamification Done Right

Points and levels don’t spark engagement; they amplify it. Amy Jo Kim’s work on game design reminds us that gamification succeeds only where intrinsic motivation already exists. When members proudly wear the T-shirt or chase badges, it’s because they value the story those symbols tell—not the pixels themselves.

Rewarding community participation isn’t bribery—it’s acknowledgement. When members feel seen, appreciated, and elevated, you’ve created an emotional feedback loop that fuels long-term habit, loyalty, and identity.

Community isn’t built in abstraction—it’s experienced. In Chapter 6, Spinks introduces the 7Ps of Community Design: People, Purpose, Place, Participation, Policy, Promotion, and Performance. This framework ensures every space—whether a Slack group or global conference—sparks belonging, not confusion.

Synchronous and Asynchronous Experiences

Communities thrive through both live (synchronous) and ongoing (asynchronous) engagement. Conferences, workshops, and meetups create emotional depth; online forums sustain daily connection. “Breadth online, depth offline,” Spinks writes. Burning Man and Dreamforce prove events can scale without losing intimacy when leaders empower members to self-organize.

Cadence and Ritual

Repetition builds habit and culture. Spinks likens community rhythm to music—a steady beat of weekly posts, monthly meetups, annual summits. CMX’s rituals (Monday welcomes, Wednesday promo days, Friday fun threads) make participation second nature. Repetition communicates reliability; variation injects curiosity.

Space, Size, and Safety

Designing for belonging means curating both people and psychological safety. Ethel’s Club, founded by Naj Austin, illustrates this beautifully: art by Black creators, mirrors symbolizing self-recognition, playlists echoing cultural identity. Physical or digital, space must visually affirm who belongs there. Small groups foster vulnerability; large groups inspire momentum. Both are necessary.

Rules that Liberate

Rules aren’t restrictions—they’re containers for freedom. Spinks’s go-to principles—“What’s shared here stays here,” “Give more than you take,” and “Critique the idea, not the person”—create trust and depth. Inside Circle Foundation’s prison circles show what safety can unlock: vulnerability, transformation, and healing.

A well-designed experience makes community tangible, predictable, and emotionally resonant. It’s how belonging stops being a concept and becomes a lived practice.

In the final stage of the journey, Spinks moves from structure to activation—how to ignite participation and sustain energy. Community engagement, he says, is an art of experimentation. There’s no formula, only mindset: Curiosity, empathy, and persistence.

Personal Invitations and Making It Human

Mass emails rarely spark belonging. Personal invitations do. When Ryan Hoover built Product Hunt, he emailed fewer than 100 people individually. When CMX launched its summit, Spinks sent 300 direct messages. Personal touch makes members feel seen, valued, and accountable to respond. In the age of automation, manual effort is magic.

Permission and Participation

Community thrives on mutual respect. Spinks’s technique of asking for permission—“Would you like to participate in this exercise?”—turns commands into collaboration. This small linguistic shift transforms compliance into choice, reinforcing shared ownership.

Positivity and Humor

Positivity is contagious. Spinks recalls David Nihill’s comedy lessons: find humor in failure and awkward silence. Jokes, warmth, and authentic voice reduce fear of “crickets” (unanswered posts). Communities mirror their leaders’ tone—if you model curiosity and joy, members follow suit.

Moderation and Transparency

Every community eventually faces conflict. The solution isn’t control—it’s communication. Enforce rules consistently but compassionately. Default to transparency when mistakes happen; own errors publicly to rebuild trust. As Spinks learned at CMX, authenticity transforms skepticism into loyalty.

Activation isn’t marketing—it’s leadership through empathy. When people are personally invited, heard, and treated with respect, they don’t just participate—they take ownership. That’s when a group becomes a movement and a community becomes a legacy.