Why Community Strategy Struggles for Attention—and What to Do About It

In many organizations, community is one of the most talked-about assets, but also one of the least understood. It shows up in pitch decks, on landing pages, and in executive offsites as a powerful idea: “We’re building a community.” But when it comes time to resource that idea, it often gets stuck.

Community leaders are left navigating a familiar set of challenges:

• Fighting for internal buy-in

• Operating on limited headcount or budget

• Proving value to teams that don’t quite understand the role of community

• Being viewed as “nice to have” instead of mission-critical

So why does this happen? And how can we shift the dynamic?

1. Community Lives Between Functions -- but Reports to One

Community strategy is inherently cross-functional. It touches product, marketing, CX, operations, and sometimes even sales. But in most orgs, it has to sit somewhere, usually under marketing or customer success. This creates a structural mismatch: community leaders are responsible for wide-reaching impact but are often evaluated through narrow KPIs that don’t capture their full contribution.

When community is boxed into one department, its strategic potential gets diluted. It becomes difficult to advocate for resources or influence priorities beyond that silo.

2. The ROI Is Long-Term, but the Expectations Are Immediate

Community work is deeply human. It’s about trust, belonging, and consistency, things that don’t always show up in dashboards overnight. Executives may ask, “How many leads did this event generate?” or “What’s the conversion rate from community to customer?”

While those are fair questions, they miss the bigger picture. Community builds brand equity. It reduces churn. It drives insight, referrals, and innovation. But these outcomes take time and without early wins or proper framing, community teams get pressure to prove short-term value with tools meant for campaigns, not ecosystems.

3. Lack of Internal Education About What Community Actually Is

Internally, “community” is often a fuzzy concept. It might mean a Slack group, a webinar series, a customer forum, or an ambassador program. This ambiguity works against community teams. If stakeholders don’t understand what community is—and is not—it’s harder to justify why it needs a real strategy, real headcount, and real tools.

This lack of clarity can lead to misguided assumptions: that community is just content marketing, or that “someone can just post on LinkedIn” to keep it going. The result? Undervaluation, underinvestment, and burnout.

4. Community Leaders Are Often Expected to Be Strategists and Doers

Unlike many other departments that scale with specialized roles, community often starts (and sometimes stays) with one person doing everything: strategy, moderation, measurement, events, content, onboarding, support, tech… the list goes on.

That lack of separation between vision and execution makes it difficult to step back and focus on long-term growth. The community lead is too busy keeping the lights on to build the power grid.

How to Shift the Conversation

If you’re leading or advocating for community, here are a few ways to change how the function is perceived and supported internally:

✅ Tie Community Goals to Business Goals

Don’t just talk about engagement. Show how community supports customer retention, product development, talent attraction, or brand trust. Translate community health into language the business understands.

✅ Educate Internally, Consistently

Run internal sessions. Share wins. Define what community is and what it isn’t. Help cross-functional teams see how they benefit from a healthy community.

✅ Start Narrow, Scale Intentionally

Rather than trying to be everything to everyone, focus your early efforts on a clear segment (e.g., top customers, early adopters, or power users) and build a small, strong nucleus. Let that success fuel broader expansion.

✅ Ask for Resources Based on Outcomes, Not Outputs

Don’t just ask for help with moderation or more event budget. Ask for what you need to deliver the outcome the business wants, whether that’s higher retention, more referrals, better customer insight, or increased brand trust.

Final Thought

Community isn’t just another marketing channel. It’s a durable, strategic layer that creates long-term value, but only if it’s resourced accordingly. When businesses underinvest in community, they’re not saving money they’re deferring growth.

It’s time to treat community strategy with the same seriousness we give product roadmaps, sales targets, and brand strategy. Because in a world where customer expectations are higher than ever, the companies that thrive will be the ones that know how to connect: consistently, authentically, and at scale.