The community imperative: next-generation strategy for coworking success

What sets the greatest coworking spaces apart from the rest? Most coworking business owners would agree that it’s the community that makes the difference. However, building a tight-knit community in a coworking space is truly challenging.

Community expert Simone Franke emphasizes that community marketing is more impactful than any other form of advertising, a point especially relevant for the flexible workspace industry. This isn't just a feel-good statement; it's a financial necessity. As the market matures, the differentiator is no longer the furniture or the Wi-Fi; it’s the social capital you create.

The data that proves it: studies confirm that community-driven spaces drastically outperform those focused solely on transactions.

• Retention: community-active members exhibit 30% higher retention rates than passive members, directly reducing expensive churn and lowering customer acquisition costs (CAC).
• Lead generation: member-to-member referrals generate leads that convert at a rate 5x higher than those from paid digital advertising.
• Financial impact: the total value of an active member is exponentially higher when their activity is tracked, proving that the money spent on a skilled Community Manager generates a superior return on investment (ROI) compared to equivalent spend on a sales team or Google Ads.

We've consolidated Franke’s most potent advice, layering it with current market analysis to provide a concrete roadmap for operators seeking sustainable growth and deeper member engagement.

 

1. Community building: from social to financial capital

Franke clearly states the ultimate operational goal: "to transform social capital into a financial one." This transformation is the essence of building community in a modern, B2B-heavy context. The goal isn't just friendly happy hours; it's engineering an environment where demonstrable business value is created through interaction.

 

Defining social capital

Social capital must be tracked and managed. It is the cumulative potential within your network, measured by operational key performance indicators (KPIs) like:

• Introductions: proactive member-to-member introductions facilitated by the Community Manager.
• Internal leads: documented client leads or contracts passed between members.
• Joint projects: new business or product collaborations launched between two or more member companies.

 

The ecosystem framework and member roles

Franke's concept of a functioning community ecosystem is critical. She identifies four dimensions that members orbit, defining what they seek from the space: connectivity, efficiency, isolation, and inspiration.

The B2B misstep is allowing corporate teams (your main revenue stream) to operate solely in the isolation/efficiency quadrants. This guarantees high revenue but starves the community of the very social capital it needs to thrive.

 

Resolving the B2B paradox

You cannot mandate event attendance and negate the client's purchase of privacy. Instead, the strategy must add value without sacrificing their focus.

The B2B solution is designing irresistible, non-optional value adds that naturally create cross-pollination. This directly benefits the B2B team by offering them:

• Talent sourcing: exclusive early access to a new-member breakfast introducing specialized freelancers and startups (connectivity).
• Market intelligence: small, invite-only roundtable discussions on specific industry trends hosted in their private suite (inspiration).
• Client leads: personalized, documented introductions from the Community Manager to potential collaborators or clients (financial capital).

 

Community management: the strategic core

Franke highlights that the failure to build a strong community often lies with management, not the Community Manager (CM). This is a crucial B2B lesson.

• The strategic mistake: distracting CMs with facility care, reception duties, or general marketing prevents them from executing their priority: creating and maintaining the member experience.
• The B2B mandate: the CM must act as a Relationship Manager. Their time must be dedicated to:
  • Proactive introduction: identifying a corporate member's current project needs and matching them with the skillsets of a startup or freelancer in the space.
  • Data-driven engagement: using software data to track which teams are underutilizing their potential social capital and intervening with a relevant, value-based invitation.
  • Succession planning: the CM must not become the "soul" of the community. As Franke warns, the community thrives on processes and incentives, not the CM's personality. This ensures the system remains stable and sustainable when staff changes.

 

2. The German coworking market: context, culture, and profitability

Franke, with her German roots, offers invaluable context by separating cultures into "high" and "low" contexts. This distinction is highly relevant for the German market, which typically exhibits low-context culture characteristics.

 

Cultural strategy: explicit communication

In a low-context culture like Germany, there is reliance on explicit verbal communication. This means that community strategies must be direct, clear, and focused on professional value over pure socializing.

• Effective strategy: vague social events will likely fail. Events must have clear titles, defined agendas, and professional outcomes, such as a "Legal tech Q&A" or a "Series A pitch practice session." The networking approach must be seen as an efficient business task, not a social pastime.

 

Market reality and the profitability challenge

The German coworking market is dominated by small-scale operators, with 70% of spaces under 500 square meters.  Many focus on social impact and community rather than commercial expansion. This fragmentation often leads to profitability lagging behind global benchmarks, as the main revenue driver remains direct desk rentals, contrasting with the global trend toward higher-margin private offices.

• The community link: for these smaller, community-focused German spaces, Franke's advice—to focus on defined values, identity, and an original story—is not just marketing; it is a survival strategy. Community becomes the unshakeable unique selling proposition (USP) that justifies the price and counteracts high operational costs.
• Deep insight: the true stakeholder discrepancy in smaller, community-driven German spaces is the gap between what the member says they want (a cheap, quiet desk) and what they actually need (a high-value, reliable network). To fix a weak community, operators must avoid applying aggressive, copied concepts and instead work from the inside out to address this gap.

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3. Sustainability in workspaces: embedding values into identity

In today's business world, sustainability goes far beyond energy efficiency—it’s about building lasting communities and resilient business models. Franke emphasizes that true sustainability starts with authenticity:

“If you can’t build a narrative on top of your individual value proposition, you won’t be able to send and promote an authentic message to your customers.”

For a workspace, this means integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles into its very DNA not as marketing, but as part of its core identity. 

• Application: if a space is built on sustainable principles (e.g., using reclaimed materials), this must be the original story around which the community is built.
• Social sustainability: Franke emphasizes that community activities must enable collaboration. This is the social sustainability of the space, ensuring the network remains rich and perpetually beneficial.
• The sustainable ROI: the "vibe" of a space is preserved by building a brand community where members feel seen and where activities enable collaboration. This is the only way to get a sustainable return on investment (ROI), because the community becomes the magnet that guarantees renewals, regardless of external economic shifts.

Franke's holistic view proves that community is not an amenity; it is the operational and strategic core of the modern flexible workspace, responsible for transforming intangible social value into measurable, sustainable business success.