What is an Online Community? Definition, Benefits & Examples

An online community is a group of people — also called a virtual community or digital community — who connect, communicate, and support each other online around a shared interest, goal, or brand, without needing to be in the same physical place.

“​Brands should think of themselves not as storytellers but story builders. We plant seeds of content and let our community build on it.”
– ​Amy Pascal, Business Executive and Film Producer

In today’s digital-first world, online community is no longer optional, it’s strategic. For coaches running paid courses, businesses launching new products, or even agencies managing client relationships, online communities are becoming powerful growth engines. They help businesses build deeper relationships, increase retention, and create long-term brand loyalty.

As internet usage continues to grow, more people are turning to digital spaces to connect, learn, and collaborate. According to HubSpot’s 2026 social media research, 85% of marketers now say building an active online community is crucial to a successful strategy, and 40% plan to invest even more in community building this year than last.

But what exactly is an online community and why are so many businesses investing in them? Let’s discuss that in detail.

In this guide, you will learn: 

• What is an online community? 
• Private communities vs social media groups
• Examples of branded online communities 
• Benefits of building online communities
• Who should build online communities
• Online Community Engagement Ideas

What is an Online Community? 

A group of people who communicate online over a common interest, problem, or objective is called an online community. Without physically meeting, people who share a sense of belonging utilize these communities to study, grow their networks, share knowledge, or discuss their interests.

Who Uses Online Communities? (Real-World Examples)

• A business coach can create a paid mastermind community to deliver group coaching, shared resources, and peer accountability.
• A fitness or wellness studio can create a private member community where clients access workout plans, live class schedules, nutrition tips, and peer support.
• A SaaS startup can build a customer community to reduce support tickets, collect product feedback, and improve retention.

What is a Branded Online Community?

A professional network that unites individuals around a common, organization-based experience to promote broad online collaboration and growth is known as a branded online community. Your company can link members, clients, staff, partners, and any other audience it wishes to reach with this kind of community.

Branded digital communities are very important to your members’ experiences. To give greater value, they dismantle the conventional one-way information flow and open up communication.

For businesses that want full ownership and customization, dedicated community platforms like TribeCrafter allow you to create a fully branded, private community; without relying on third-party algorithms or limited social media features.

Open vs Closed Online Communities

Branded online communities come in a variety of forms. One of the primary distinctions between them is whether they are searchable and public, private (accessible only with an invite or login required), or hybrid having some public components but requiring a login to access them all.

The number of people who may profit from the information is maximized in open communities because anyone can view the talks that take place. The membership and contribution requirements for these groups are typically somewhat loose.

Open communities are like the Public Subreddits which means group’s material is visible to everyone. Making a contribution is as easy as creating an account and selecting the appropriate community to join.

Although this slows down community growth, it makes it simpler for leaders to steer conversations in the right direction. Members of closed communities frequently derive great benefits from them.

Online Community vs Social Media Groups

Difference between branded online community and social media groups

Usually, people confuse large social media networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn with virtual communities. Although both the types may have some similarities such as a common goal of connecting people online. 

However, the major difference lies in the core functionality and features of the strategies behind targeting the audience. 

The lack of ownership is one of the biggest limitations of social media communities. This is where a private community platform like TribeCrafter shines. Unlike social media groups, TribeCrafter gives you full control over branding, privacy, member access, and engagement tools. All in one customizable platform designed to grow your private community effectively.

Reasons for Choosing private community over a social media network

Here’s why a private community tends to outperform social media networks for business use:

Added Security

The privacy of the community and its members are the top priority of these private online community platforms. Social media platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn offer limited control over the privacy of both members and the community owners. 

Moreover, when you are part of any open source platform, you will have limited control over how the users’ or your own data is used. This may lead to various security concerns such as data hacking. 

One such example of a massive security breach is the famous Facebook data breach that occurred in 2021 where the personal information data of around 533 million Facebook users was leaked. 

Control over community 

Being a community owner at a social networking site, you are bound to follow the rules set by these networks. So, every time there is a new regulation, you will have no other choice but to follow the changes with no autonomy. 

Smooth community management with specified tools

Most of the community platforms, such as TribeCrafter, offer powerful community management tools that further simplifies the hassle of managing your communities. These tools are designed to give community owners full control over their platform’s configuration, members, content, and monetization.

Improved access to community data

Unlike social media communities, private community platforms allow you to have complete access to the community data. You can monitor this data and track the overall performance of your community in terms of engagement. Hence, access to your community data helps you track the progress of your community towards the specified business goals. 

Examples of Online Communities

Nike Run Club

With Nike Run Club, running becomes more than just a solo activity. It turns into a shared experience. Members join challenges, track progress, earn rewards, and stay consistent through a sense of community.

This isn’t just about engagement. It’s part of a much bigger system. Nike has built a digital ecosystem with over 160 million members across its apps. And the company has repeatedly highlighted that more engaged members especially those using multiple touchpoints buy more often and stay longer.

Apps like Nike Run Club play a key role here. They keep users coming back, not through ads, but through community-driven motivation. Over time, that consistent engagement translates into stronger customer relationships and higher lifetime value.

That’s the real impact of community it doesn’t just attract users; it keeps them.

Apple Support Community

One of the largest tech enterprises, Apple, needs no introduction. Its users can share their experiences and receive peer-to-peer support through its extensive discussion forum. The Apple Support Community includes a number of interactive features and lets them hang out electronically as well. Apple community mainly uses reputation levels, badges and recognition.

Apple built its support community to scale support through its users. Instead of handling every issue internally, users help each other solve problems. This reduces pressure on support teams while building a group of highly engaged, knowledgeable customers.

Buffer

Buffer’s community story is really a story about what radical transparency can build. Since 2013, Buffer has publicly shared everything: employee salaries, revenue figures, churn rates, and even equity breakdowns.

This resulted in creating a community of users, creators, and founders who felt genuinely invested in Buffer’s journey, not just its product.

According to Ravio, when Buffer published its open salary database, they immediately saw a 229% increase in job applications, which is a proof that community built on trust attracts the right people at scale. And the business results followed. Data from Buffer’s December 2025 shareholder update shows that it closed 2025 with annual revenue of $22.46M, a 31% year-over-year increase which is their strongest revenue results in company history.

Today, Buffer serves over 190,000 creators, small businesses, and marketers every month, and invites users to actively shape what gets built by joining their Discord community.

Their community isn’t a support forum; it’s a feedback loop that directly drives product decisions.

Benefits of Online Communities 

Building a digital community pays off in five concrete ways: stronger two-way engagement, better lead generation, increased brand awareness, deeper trust, and direct access to customer insights. For coaches, SaaS startups, and agencies, these benefits translate into recurring revenue, higher retention, and lower support costs.

For the full breakdown with real examples for each, see our guide to the benefits of online communities.

Ready to Build Your Own Online Community?

If you’re an educator, startup, or a business looking to build a private, branded community with full control over your data and member experience, platforms like TribeCrafter make it easy to launch and manage your community without technical complexity.

See how TribeCrafter works.

Who Should Build an Online Community?

Online communities are especially powerful for:

Course Creators & Educators

Coaches can create private membership communities to deliver courses, host Q&A sessions, share resources, and build recurring revenue through subscription plans.

Startups & Small Businesses

Startups use online communities to reduce support tickets, collect product feedback, improve onboarding, and increase customer retention.

Agencies

Agencies can build multiple private client communities to centralize communication, share reports, provide updates, and strengthen long-term client relationships.

Types of Online Communities 

Virtual communities take different shapes depending on your business goals and how you want members to interact — from branded communities and learning communities to niche communities of practice. The right type shapes everything from your engagement strategy to your moderation approach.

See our full breakdown of 11 types of online communities to find the model that fits your business.

Online Community Engagement Ideas

Community engagement is the heartbeat of a healthy community — the more actively your members participate, the more value your community delivers. A few starting points: encourage freedom of expression, ensure a smooth onboarding experience, plan engaging community events, and welcome new members with a proper introduction post.

For a complete list of engagement tactics, see our guide to 10 online community engagement ideas.

How to Start an Online Community

Specified set of goals

While creating an online community for your organization, it is mandatory to have a set of goals in your mind that you want to achieve with the community.

For example, a startup building a product-led community will focus on user education and feature discussions, while a coach running a membership community will prioritize peer interaction and accountability.

Pay special attention to selecting community moderators

With the right community managers team, you can make it thrive effectively.
You can either hire a new team or select from the existing ones. Make sure to hire someone who has a knack for social media or running online communities and has in-depth knowledge of your brand’s vision. 

Take inspiration from the competitors

Taking inspiration from your competitors and their growth strategy is a great way to effectively run and grow your online community. This method will broaden your perspective and give you a new understanding of how to grow your community. 

Plan an effective engagement strategy

There is no point in having a virtual community, if there is zero or minimum community interaction. 
In order to productively grow your community, you should set up an excellent community engagement strategy. 

Online Community Moderation

Moderators keep a community aligned with its guidelines — reviewing content, addressing violations, and deciding who can join. Getting this right early prevents most community problems before they start.

For moderation best practices, see our guide to effective online community moderation.

How to Measure Community Engagement

There are tons of matrices that you can measure in your community. However, there are only a few that are truly responsible for impacting the KPIs of the community. This is because only a small number of engagement measures will enable you to determine whether the objectives of your particular community are being reached.

What is community engagement rate 

The community engagement rate (CER) tells us the percentage of community members that have interacted with others in any way. 

Community engagement rate is calculated by dividing the number of community members engaged with the total number of community members. 

Community engagement matrices

Active members and contributing users: As the name suggests, active members refer to the number of people actively participating in the community. You can monitor daily active users (DAU), weekly active users (WAU) and monthly active users (MAU). 

Just like active users, it is crucial to monitor contributing users. You may get a glimpse of how many members of your community are participating (and how many aren’t) by comparing the number of active users with the number of contributing users. 

Member growth: Member growth is the amount of new members added to your community in a specific period of time. 

Your community’s membership growth rate also tells you about the popularity of your virtual community. 

Key takeaways

For businesses looking to build deeper relationships with their audience, an online community is more than a communication tool, it’s a strategic growth asset. Online communities are the easiest way to promote communication with your intended market, customers, stakeholders, etc. Online communities can be launched as private, branded communities or on social media networks. 

While private digital communities offer greater advantages in terms of management, moderating, and forum control, social media platforms are still suitable for novice users. Virtual communities have a number of noteworthy advantages and can provide you with valuable customer data. It is an excellent way to interact with your audience directly and it makes business growth simple.

Build Your Own Branded Online Community

Now that you understand what an online community is and how it can benefit your business, the next step is implementation.

TribeCrafter is an all-in-one community platform that combines groups, courses, events, a blog, and monetization tools in a single product — letting you launch a branded community without using plugins or separate tools. If you’re ready to move beyond social media groups and build one of your own, TribeCrafter gives you:

• Full ownership of your member data
• Advanced engagement tools
• Custom branding options
• Analytics to track growth

Create your online community with TribeCrafter today.

What is an Online Community? – FAQ

Q1: What is the purpose of an online community?

A: Online communities help people connect, share knowledge, and support each other around a common interest, industry, or goal.

Q2: What are the different types of online communities?

A: The main types include:

• Social Communities (Facebook Groups, Reddit)
• Support Communities (Customer service forums)
• Professional Communities (LinkedIn Groups, Slack workspaces)
• Learning Communities (Coursera, Udemy discussion forums)

Q3: How do I create an online community?

A: To start an online community:

1. Choose a platform (e.g. TribeCrafter).
2. Define a purpose and rules.
3. Engage members with valuable content and discussions.
4. Moderate and grow the community organically.

Q4: What are the benefits of online communities?

A: They provide:

• Networking opportunities
• Support and advice
• Knowledge sharing
• Brand and business growth

Q5: How can businesses use online communities?

A: Businesses use online communities to:

• Provide customer support.
• Gather product feedback.
• Increase brand loyalty.
• Offer exclusive content and networking.