MemberWise have just published their excellent Digital Excellence (2023/24) Report. It provides provides "a fascinating snapshot of the Membership and Association Sector’s progress in developing membership/digital focused strategy, planning and delivery."

Not surprisingly we at Guild are particularly interested in what is happening around online communities. Here are the top trends we picked out around the use and value of communities according to the research:

1. Continued YoY growth in adoption of online communities:

The good news for those in the community sector is that all the evidence points towards continued growth in the adoption of online communities by associations, at least for the next few years.

"The increasing trend among membership bodies to host an online community continues for the 6th consecutive year. We expect this trend to continue beyond 2025 when the number is likely to peak."

"Online member communities are fast-becoming a great value-driven online member benefit."

"Of the 54% of membership bodies that don’t yet host an online community, 25% plan to host one or more in the near future."

2. Move away from free social media platforms to paid community platforms (like Guild):

Interesting (and encouraging for the likes of Guild) to see an ongoing move away from the large, free (but ad-funded), social media platforms as places to host online communities for membership organisations:

"Free solutions like Facebook and LinkedIn Groups will continue to reduce in usage as the benefits of more sophisticated/private solutions are realised."

16% had Facebook Groups in 2021/2 - this has dropped to 10% for 2023/24.

9% had LinkedIn Groups last year and this has dropped to just 5% now.

Annual change in type of community platform used according to MemberWise:

  • Paid-For Community Solution 73% (+23%)
  • Public/Free Community Solution (Facebook/LinkedIn) 15% (-10%)
  • Bespoke/In-House Community Solution 12% (-13%)

3. Paid-for community solution market still emerging and fragmented

Obviously, we'd love to see Guild feature in the top 5 community platform providers, but it is interesting to note how fragmented the supplier market is - even the biggest players are in single digit % of market share:

Paid-For Online Community Platforms by Usage:

  • Discourse / Higher Logic (7%)
  • Salesforce Community Cloud (5%)
  • HiveBrite / iMIS / Pixl8 Groups / ReadyMembership (3%)
  • Centrecode / Crowdstack Discord (2%)
  • Answer Genius / Buddy Press (1.5%)

4. Online communities for new member acquisition, not just retention

While the primary business benefit of online communities is still delivering member value, and increasing engagement to improve retention, there is a trend towards using communities for new member acquisition, particularly for larger membership organisations (something we're certainly seeing at Guild).

A table titled The Tangible Benefits of having an Online Member Community
Benefits of an Online Member Community


5. Opportunities to get more value out of online communities:

The research makes two recommendations for ways that associations can get more value from online communities (which we absolutely agree with here at Guild):

"It is interesting to note that the use of online community analytics remains the same. The sector may be missing a trick here."

"There is a requirement for membership organisations and associations to optimise or better promote their online communities to members. This will help to improve member awareness/value perception."

Further Reading:

Are you a membership organisation or association looking for a better way to acquire or retain members?

See for yourself how the Guild experience is different to WhatsApp, Slack, LinkedIn or Facebook Groups.

Guild is a safe space to connect, communicate and collaborate with others.

Join us on a platform that is purpose-built for creating groups, communities and networks on mobile.

Contact us if you want to know more or have any questions.