“I believe community is the solution to 90 percent of our problems. I can't think of anything that wouldn't be solved by better community and I think it's harder than ever to find.
And I just think there's just too much bad customer experience stuff for most companies to consider a community. Like you shouldn't even have your eyes on community. There's so many other things that need to be addressed first.” - April MacLean
No matter how much businesses talk about “community,” most of them get it wrong. They treat community like a marketing channel, a way to keep customers engaged between purchases, or a place to upsell their products. They hold back on resourcing it, or require vanity metrics to show performance. But real community isn’t just a forum full of brand users—it’s something deeper, more intentional, and, if done wrong, more likely to fail.
So what does it actually take to build a community that works, one that people want to return to again and again? And more importantly, should you even be building one at all?
April MacLean joins Aggressively Human to break down what real community building looks like in 2025. Through her consultancy, Wondry, she works with production companies, cultural institutions, and creative teams to bridge the gap between promise and delivery. April shares why most business communities fail before they even start, how to design a space people want to be part of, and why communities require strong leadership.
If you’ve been struggling to make your community thrive—or wondering if you should even start one—this episode is a must-listen.
Why most business communities fail (and why just starting a Facebook group won’t cut it).
What must be present in a business before trying to build community.
The three essential conditions that define a real community.
The difference between a support forum and a true community (and why most businesses confuse the two).
What happens when community managers abdicate leadership instead of shaping the space.
Why exclusivity creates stronger connections—and how to keep your community from turning into a ghost town.
The importance of rituals and rhythms that keep members engaged over time.
“There is a real underestimation of the importance of community leadership, of having a central figure who is present in that community, keeping the train on the tracks. It’s set up for failure without that central person who is shaping the behavior, shaping the culture, starting the conversations, gathering the intel about people so that they can introduce this person to that person and have this overarching knowledge. That external role gets less and less and less and less as these relationships happen, but even behind the scenes it still continues to be integral.” - April
About our Guest
How to People Newsletter: Where sharp eyes meet sharp wit: A weekly look at customer experience through a very human lens.
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