Forward-thinking organizations are now recognizing communities as core commercial infrastructure, and the results are validating that instinct.
In fact, community engagement platforms are projected to reach $23.19BN by 2035, signaling a fundamental shift in how B2B organizations build relationships, retain customers, and generate revenue.
As a result, businesses that decide to invest in structured, engaged communities are seeing measurable gains in retention, advocacy, and expansion revenue that their non-community counterparts simply cannot match.
The Evolution of B2B Communities
Whilst the concept of b2b communities is not new, their role within the space has changed significantly.
Having once existed as support forums and niche industry groups has now evolved into one of the most strategically significant assets a brand can hold.
Speaking with CX Today, Kimberly Bastoni, Chief Go-To Market Officer at Alida, explained how historically, b2b communities were restricted to specific departments before evolving into engines that drive value across the entire organization.
"When we first started out, it was kind of siloed and tactical,” she explained
“They weren't deeply integrated into how business decisions were made"
At the time, organizations would allocate a specific budget for a community, but its use was typically limited to occasional questions or small quantitative studies, not being deeply integrated into how core business decisions were made.
However, thanks to the rise of communities in online spaces, enterprises recognized the potential value of investing further in their customer hubs.
“The expectation has shifted from it being a research tool to a company-wide decision engine," Bastoni explained.
Once brands brought structure and scale to communities, along with it came fragmentation, meaning platforms would typically specialize in either qualitative or quantitative work, but rarely both.
But today, in its third evolution, marketers are able to justify the value of community spaces to financial teams, as platforms transform into enterprise-grade SaaS infrastructure.
"It's a central hub for insight generation,” Bastoni continued.
“It's no longer just having a community — you can bring sample in there, bring all your methodologies, and pull in market-size data.
“It's a blend of first-party community with third-party sample."
Communities Are Revenue Drivers
More recently, organizations have shown that many successful customer journeys begin in social communities, with customers participating in online discussions about product reviews and brand perceptions.
What was once considered soft influence in the journey is now being tracked, attributed, and taken directly to the board.
Fospha’s State of Retail Commerce 2026 report reveals that businesses that invested in community-driven platforms saw cost per purchase improve by 34% and recorded a 257% increase in revenue, reframing communities not as a marketing cost, but as a growth lever.
In fact, community-led customers are not just more engaged; they are measurably higher-valued than their non-community counterparts.
Despite this, the attribution challenge remains, as community influence only receives a 3% share of revenue credit under last-click attribution models – a significant undercount given that communities shape buyer decisions long before any final conversion.
When earlier-stage signals are captured, platform contribution appears substantially higher, reflecting the reality that trust, comparison, and intent are being built in community spaces well before a purchase is made.
When Platform Trust Breaks Down
Despite these reported successes, recent social platform news has indicated that customer trust in community platforms is fleeting, with a string of high-profile legal cases exposing the fragility of building engagement strategies on platforms that operate beyond an organization's control.
In one example earlier last month, Meta was ordered to pay $375MN in civil penalties after a New Mexico jury found the company had violated state consumer protection laws by misleading users about the safety of its platforms and prioritizing growth over user protection.
Just days later, a Los Angeles County jury ruled that Meta and Google must pay $6MN in damages after finding both companies negligent in platform design and failing to adequately warn users of associated risks.
For B2B organizations operating within these environments, this back-to-back reputational exposure is an immediate threat to customer trust, signaling a common theme in the community space, platforms that offer the greatest reach are increasingly the ones with the least predictable foundations.
Trust Is the Foundation of Retention
Despite recent events, customer trust remains important even when overall trust on social platforms is low, as it directly affects how people interpret brand actions, messages, and communities.
Sarah Stephenson, Social Director at tmp, explained to CX Today that customer trust online is built through consistent, long-term engagement rather than one-off visibility.
"On social platforms, especially LinkedIn, brands need to be building ongoing relationships because you see real value come from sustained attention, not one-off reach," Stephenson explains.
"A social community can't be, and isn't, a top of funnel play – it is something that constructs over time."
As a result, brands need to prioritize customer retention on community platforms, as many rely on sustained relationships rather than short-term exposure to drive loyalty and advocacy.
In longer b2b buying cycles, this tactic is critical when decisions depend on confidence and familiarity rather than impulse.
These failures in community retention are often reflected by a breakdown of trust when customers do not see consistency in brand value or authenticity, perhaps frequently shifting their customer policies without properly informing customers, or misleads in business values.