🔥 From hype to heart: In Community #98

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🙌🏽 Welcome to In Community.

Before we dive in, take a sec to learn about this week’s sponsor, Philo Ads.

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“I’m interested in building something that lasts, not something that trends.” – Issa Rae, creator, writer, producer, actress

We’re past the era of campaigns. We’ve crossed into the era of systems.

And the system that matters most now? Your influence infrastructure.

Last week, when I wrote about the momentum gap, I mapped out three levers to build lasting momentum. But how do you take this and create a system that serves well into the future?

The new scaffolding of influence

Marketers have always chased attention. But attention is fickle. It scrolls. It swipes. It forgets.

What endures is infrastructure — the unseen scaffolding that keeps connection alive. Not tech stacks. Not martech integrations.

The human infrastructure. The network of people who carry your message, defend your brand, remix your values, and bring new people into the fold.

Influence isn’t what happens when you post something viral. It’s what happens when the community takes ownership of your meaning.

And that doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by design.

✦ Pause here for a second.

If this work matters to you — if you’re leading a brand, building a movement, or trying to anchor community in your marketing strategy — become a paid subscriber.

You’ll get access to the systems that help sustain movement and energy with senior brand leaders, frameworks for mapping your influence infrastructure, and a private network that’s designing what comes after “community management.”

Join us here.

Because building infrastructure is long-term work. And we’re building it together.

Why this matters now

Community isn’t a campaign. It’s the continuity.

👉🏽 We used to measure reach. Now we measure relationship.
👉🏽 We used to chase demographics. Now we cultivate connective tissue.
👉🏽 We used to talk about diversity as representation. Now we understand it as systemic design — who shapes the story, who owns the platforms, who moves the meaning.

For marketing leaders, this is the new edge. It’s not “what story are we telling?” It’s “what structure keeps that story alive when we log off?”

Four moves to build your influence infrastructure 📌

1. Intersection Points — Create the moments where your people meet each other, not just you.
   

2. Micro-Rituals — Anchor belonging in small, repeatable acts that signal “this is who we are.”
   

3. Shared Authorship — Don’t just invite participation; give people the pen.
   

4. Designed Renewal — Build in feedback loops that let your community evolve instead of ossify.

The provocation

👉🏽 If your community resets every campaign cycle, you’re not building infrastructure — you’re running sprints.
👉🏽 If your influence depends on content instead of connection, you’re renting attention, not earning allegiance.
👉🏽 If your work representing the rising majority lives in policy instead of practice, it’s still performance.

Influence used to mean having followers. Now it means having foundations.

Your challenge this week: map one space — digital or physical — where your brand could support the system, not just speak into it. Build the bridge, not the billboard.

Because the future of marketing doesn’t belong to the loudest. It belongs to the most connected.

Welcome to The Influence Infrastructure.

And before you go, consider who else might value this message. Make sure to fwd this onward to them too. They can subscribe here for more directly in their inbox. 🔁 

In community,

Fahad