Build Community With Your Audience

Building a real community starts with listening. Not just to what people say about your brand, but how they use it, experience it, and show up around it. The goal isn’t just to reach your audience—it’s to bring them in.

At Pop & Awe, we think about community as something you build with your audience, not just for them. Here’s what that looks like in practice.

Make connection personal (even at scale)

Fanmail is a big part of how kids connect with brands they love. For Tinkercast, we created a system to respond to hundreds of letters each year in a way that still feels personal. It made things easier to manage behind the scenes, while making each fan feel seen.

Give people something to participate in

Community grows when people have a role to play. For Tinkercast’s social channels, we developed a mix of weekly prompts and bigger campaigns that invited kids and families to join in, such as answering trivia, sharing ideas, or dressing up for the annual HalloWOW contest. These UGC experiences built for participation consistently drove more engagement.

Let things build over time

The best communities don’t happen all at once. The Tiny Desk Contest started as a single concert at NPR's HQ and grew into a multi-city tour and major platform for new artists to get discovered. With the right strategy and partnerships in place, it became both a cultural moment and a meaningful revenue driver.

Keep the conversation going

For Add Passion & Stir, we created social content that helped extend each episode beyond the podcast itself with behind the scenes moments, ways to get involved fighting food insecurity in neighborhoods nationwide, and ways to connect with the hosts and guests.

Make people feel like they belong

With Tinkercast’s W.O.W. Membership, we focused on making the experience feel ongoing, not one-and-done. By adding more touchpoints throughout the year, we helped listeners feel like they were part of something bigger. The result: stronger retention and more positive feedback from both kids and their grown-ups.