Below, I have attached 10 examples of online communities. What they all have in common is that they have done a fantastic job of branding their product and created a strong community around this. If you are looking for inspiration, these brands are definitely a good place to start.

Sephora

This cosmetics brand has a popular community set up around beauty and beauty tips. Also, they are very active and provide loads of content. It is a perfect example of a symbiotic relationship between brand and community - the community genuinely drives a large number of sales and provides constant feedback.

Results with Lucy

This is a paid community for beauty, exercise and nutritional results. It originally started out as a website and now is a successful community app (7-days free trial - then paid). It is a good example of a subscription app driven by content. Based around the combination of a media personality and a physical trainer. The app has great customer ratings.

Harley Owners Group

This is a full 360 community with events, chapters, membership cards, training, insurance, and more. A physical community with strong brand values and identity combined with a digital community that reinforces the brand. It shows a community that is built to the extreme.

Playstation

Overall, forum for the Sony Playstation brand mostly focused on games. But, it also focuses on hardware and repairs. It is full of user generated content with strong input from members. The community even produced a full game.

Spotify Community

A community of engaged music and Spotify fans. There are lots of music discussions complemented by strong user-generated content. Their Rock Star Program is a great example of motivating members to generate valuable content and contribute to the community.

7 Streams Academy

A high-priced subscription-based business course and community centered on personal success and positive motivation. A good example of how targeting a specific segment of a large influencer’s user base (Derrick AXN has 1.1 million followers on Instagram alone) allows you to charge a larger subscription to the right people. Disciple app-based community.

Apple Support Community

Customer support can be costly, but it’s often more efficient when existing customers can help each other. This is a highly moderated community with community managers who step into a support role when needed. Forum-based and very structured, it covers all Apple products and is often the first result in Google search.

Tough Mudder

Official Facebook page with good levels of interaction (for Facebook) and 4 million followers. Good example of passion and brand mixed - the brand creates community driven content that constantly drives to their events.

Nordstrom

It takes a lot of guts to open a community channel on a platform like Reddit, known for direct speech and honest users. Nordstrom has tried to build a community with mixed results, especially when it releases controversial products. This is an interesting example of a different approach and platform. In many ways it comes across as very authentic and honest.

The Rolling Stones Official

Official app for the mega band containing updates, videos, images, live streaming and Spotify and Apple Music links. Mostly user generated and moderated. This shows the highly visual nature and interactively of a good community app.

We hope that these top examples will help you out with some inspiration if you're feeling a bit stuck. Keep going and hopefully this sparked some new ideas!