It’s not just about defining community, but defining your community.

Because if they're not, you'll never be talking about the same thing.

"I feel like the first thing for us is to get a working definition of what community means to everyone."

This line stuck in my mind during my conversation with Richard.

Richard Millington, who has partnered with Oracle, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Sephora on their community strategy, said this during a chat we had on the Digital Community Leaders Podcast.

"I'm not rigid about the definition of community. I used to be, but these days I'm like, whatever definition makes sense to that organisation, we can work with that just as long as everyone is on the same page.

Because if they're not, you'll never be talking about the same thing.

You're never going to achieve the right results."

It's a bold statement, but it's spot on.

If your marketing team believes that community = X, your leadership team believes that community = Y and your community believe that the community = Z, it's not going to go well.

And that's the crux of the problem: misalignment. When everyone involved has a different perception of the community, conflicting priorities, mixed messages, and an overall diluted impact result.

This isn't just a soft conversation about getting on the same page.

It's a strategic imperative.

Imagine trying to build a house where each architect, engineer, and builder has a different blueprint—chaos, delays, and a lot of frustration would follow.

The first step is to establish that common ground.

It's not just about defining community, but defining your community.