The best online marketing communities you need to join

Being part of an online community (like being part of any community) has its perks.

You can make friends and get to know people with mutual interests, get support from members on topics related to said mutual interests, and find out the latest news and updates about– you guessed it– those same interests.For those in the world of online marketing, there are a ton of online marketing communities that are perfect for these very reasons; they can help you make valuable connections, get greater reach for your content, and keep you ‘in the know’ about what’s going on in the world of marketing.

Below are some of the biggest and most engaged online marketing communities you can join if you want to rub elbows with the who’s who of online marketing.

Best for: B2B marketing

Linkedin’s a good place to wet your feet in the world of online marketing because chances are that you’re already registered with the networking site. Linkedin has a ton of marketing groups, although they can really vary in size and activity. The eMarketing Association Network is a good source for marketing news, as is Digital Marketing and Marketing Pros, while Social Media Marketing boasts itself as the largest and most active social media marketing community on Linkedin.

While these groups are large and ‘active’, the biggest downside is that because of this flurry of activity, a lot of content can get lost in the mix unless it’s featured at the top of a feed. Regardless, it’s still a good place to start networking and sharing your latest marketing tips and tricks.

Best for: News and networking

One of the biggest online communities for e-marketers, inbound.org is the place to go for industry news. Created by Rand Fishkin of Moz fame and Hubspot’s Dharmesh Shah, inbound.org is combination news site, publication platform, and discussion forum for everything inbound marketing related. Its navigation lets you see trending articles, channels based on the type of marketing that you’re interested in, and a section where you can connect with other inboud.org members.

Note: it relies on Twitter to sign you in, so you’ll need a Twitter account before you start mingling with inbound.org’s super active community.

Best for: Meaty information

While it’s not limited to marketing, GrowthHackers is another highly active community to get good insight into the online digital marketing world. Helping companies collaborate and develop their growth potential, GrowthHackers is a good source to get in on things before they become a hit. The GrowthHackers “Posts” section features articles and tips from popular outlets like VentureBeat, Medium, and Buffer, which can be upvoted to gain more prominence. There’s also a separate forum for questions and discussions, as well as regular AMAs with prominent industry marketers to get more personal insights into other companies’ marketing strategies and struggles.

If you want to dig a little bit deeper, you also have a “Growth Studies” section, which gives insight into some of the most successful and innovative growth strategies of popular companies in recent years.

Best for: Marketing newbies

Reddit can be a smorgasbord of irrelevancy, but if you dig deep enough, you’ll find some useful subreddits related directly to marketing. Notably, the /r/marketing subreddit is a good place to start. Its especially useful for beginners looking for answers to some of their most burning questions about digital marketing.

What Reddit is less useful for is sharing content. Because of its strict posting guidelines, anything resembling a spammy link practice will get shut down immediately. This can work either for or against you, depending on if you’re the one looking for content, or the one trying to spread the news.

Best for: Reputation building

Any good marketer will know that Quora, the question and answer-based community, is one of the best places to go to build up your repertoire as a marketing expert. Aside from topic streams dedicated specifically to marketing, any topic is fair game as long as you have enough knowledge and clout to answer the question. As you answer more questions and get more upvotes, you’ll be able to get more visibility for yourself or your brand.

As with Reddit though, be careful of spammy practices or you’ll get kicked off the site by its community members. Many marketers use Quora to direct traffic to their site with published articles that answer the questions people are asking, but if you’re simply dropping links or fitting in links where they don’t belong, you run the risk of losing access altogether.

Best for: Real-time interaction

The all-in-one super tool initially meant for team collaboration has grown to include communities outside of the organization too. Companies like Buffer, Audenti, and Online Geniuses all have their own dedicated Slack communities with #channels for various marketing-related topics such as SEO, social media, and the like.

With Slack communities, you can have real-time conversations with communities of other marketers, sharing tips, tricks, tools, and GIFs. The downside is that while the quality and participation of members is high, there’s a bit more red-tape before you can join them.

What are your favorite online marketing communities? Tell us in the comments below!