We, in the media, love to glom onto new ideas and run with them irrespective of if it actually makes sense. A big example of that is the concept of community. Brian Morrisey over at The Rebooting in his sum-up of 2021 did a nice job explaining how overhyped the concept of community really is:
I plead guilty. True communities are incredibly valuable for those able to put themselves in the middle of them. But most claiming a community – or calling their subscription a membership – are just putting lipstick on a pig. My test of whether you have a community is whether the people in your audience want to connect with each other because that brand represents a point of view. Most communities are audiences.
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Ben Clymer is founder and CEO of Hodinkee, a media and commerce company dedicated to the luxury watch market. What started as a personal blog thanks to a watch from his grandfather has turned into a highly respected business that can sell millions of dollars in watches in minutes.
In this episode, we went through the many different facets of the business, but a few things jumped out to me…
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