We’ve been grappling with this existential issue at CredSpark and have kept coming back to the same question: Is “Common Interest” the foundation of successful community building? Or is “the Discovery of Common Interest” the foundation of successful community building? Are successful communities built in a focused way around a common interest from the top down? Or are they the result of a continuous back-and-forth between audience members where shifting common interests and topics emerge and drive activity and engagement?

No, we’re not talking about replicating a Facebook free-for-all food fight. However, even communities that are highly focused on a particular subject or domain can benefit and thrive from bottom up, audience-driven activity. But how do you create that?

Interactive content experiences crush industry standard metrics for engagement. Whether your key KPIs are clicks, page views, user-generated content, or time on site, interactive content consistently outperforms static content and even video because it’s active engagement, not passive.