Building Community in 2026
A Q&A with our Account Director and an Account Manager. The two discuss how brands can build community with their audience in 2026.
Intro: Hey, Olivia! I’m really excited for us to explore the topic of community. It has been a big focus in marketing this year.
Olivia: Totally agree! And community is something that I think will be at the forefront more than ever this year, online and in real life.
Q1: What does community mean to brands?
A: Brands are recognizing community as a currency and a reputation builder. If you build a community around your brand or purpose, you are doing well in important areas of marketing. This also helps with decision-making. But you’re also winning outside of that.
When someone feels like they belong to a community and resonate with it, they’ll stand behind it and become loyal.
That’s what every brand or organization wants, at the end of the day-- someone who feels like they belong to something and brings others to join in. It’s similar to the work we did with Choose Chicago.
We involved local community members and leaders to create content about their areas. This effort helped build a community of people. They followed the creators, attended events hosted by Choose Chicago, and engaged with the content for four years.
Q2: As HausCo’s Brand Director, you’ve worked with a range of CPG to non-profit clients. What ways do you see brands creating a sense of community with their audiences that stand out to you?
A: Brands have to ask themselves-- “What do people want from us? How do I build a community so people will come? What am I asking people to do, and what behavior am I trying to elicit?” And then they can devise strategies and associated tactics to achieve this goal.
CPG brands like Glossier and Rare Beauty get their customers to sign up for a platform called “TYB”, where customers and brand loyalists can engage with the brand by leaving reviews about products, responding to questionnaires, posting UGC, and participating in giveaways in exchange for product sneak peeks and discounts.
It could be as simple as a paper snowflake contest or teasing a “secret menu”. Both were great ways to build community for SWAY, a local retail brand we work with. And now we’re seeing brands move to IRL experiences for fans and newcomers to build community the “analog” way.
And for nonprofits, you get to build community once you get heads nodding in agreement around your purpose and message. How are you inspiring people to take action? A great way to do this is by being very intentional in the content you share. Testimonials are compelling and effective for that.
Q3: You bring up an interesting point around “analog”... how have you seen people and brands tap into this more? I feel like it’s not just a buzzword this year.
A: Definitely not just a buzzword this year! It’s a behavior change we’re seeing in social media use, within communities, and within visuals. People are craving offline experiences more than ever right now (i.e., IRL book clubs, phone-free board game bars, and growing chapters of The Luddite Club!). Crafts and designs with a human/DIY touch are soaring in popularity (think hand-done typefaces, illustrated visual elements, and scrapbook-organized chaos).
The move towards analog isn’t entirely unexpected either. In a year defined by AI overload and AI slop, people are nostalgic for the imperfect, the human. It’s a push away from the perfect (or near-perfect, thanks to AI’s flaws in some visual generation) and into something tangible that strikes a chord.
Gen Z is especially craving the offline/analog life as they become more worried about the grip technology has on life these days. And, importantly, analog is a clear pathway into nostalgia, which is a very powerful thing for brands and marketers. Brands that can connect and build community and relationships in the real world will thrive in 2026.
Q4: Community management has been around for a while now as a nice add-on. How crucial is it now as we enter 2026?
A: It’s definitely a good thing to implement… if you do it right. Meaning leading with a VERY clear sense of brand identity and voice, and this comes naturally if appropriately staffed with teams of people who really care. The “unhinged social media manager” is getting old, and no one wants to turn into “that brand” in trying to connect with people in cringey, try-hardy ways.
Providing that extra touch from a brand or organization in comments on posts is a great way to engage with people who may be fans already, or are on the fence. It also humanizes the brand or organization, bringing people deeper into the conversation a post is starting. So pick the comments you want to engage with wisely and go from there.
Rewarding model behavior, correcting the recording, and replying in general are all equally important. Building and maintaining community is never perfect, nor is it easy, but showing up is what matters most.