When done right, community groups don’t just increase engagement metrics—they create lasting connections that transform careers, health outcomes, and lives. Here’s how APA and Cure HHT are proving this every day.

Building a thriving online community isn’t just about bringing people together—it’s about creating meaningful spaces where members can connect, collaborate, and grow. The challenge? How do you maintain that intimate, small-group feeling while serving hundreds or even thousands of members?

Two organizations have cracked this code through strategic use of community groups: the American Psychological Association (APA) and Cure HHT. Despite serving vastly different audiences—173,000 psychology professionals versus 400 rare disease researchers—both have discovered that groups are the secret to scaling intimacy and driving real community impact.

The power of creating “Home” within your community

APA: Making 173,000 members feel seen

For Tabitha Brown, Head of Membership at APA, the challenge was clear: “When people hear that we have 173,000 members worldwide, that’s a big number. And for a lot of people it can be overwhelming, not just in person at annual meetings, but certainly in virtual spaces online.”

The solution? Groups that create “very unique niche spaces” within the broader community. APA’s approach includes:

• 54 division-specific groups representing specialty areas like family practice, child psychology, and behavioral neuroscience
• Professional development groups such as the early career network and student affiliate lounge
• Personal interest groups including book lovers, pet lovers, and travel connections

“Groups have become a really popular feature to create home and space topically for our members within the community.”

Tabitha Brown, Deputy Chief, Membership, American Psychological Association

The result? Even in spaces with thousands of potential members, individuals find their tribe and build meaningful connections.

Cure HHT: Connecting a Global Rare Disease Community

Cassi Friday, Director of Research at Cure HHT, faces a different challenge. With just over 400 members researching Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia, her community is already small—but geographically scattered across the globe.

“This space really serves as a way to bring those people together because they are so spread out and kind of dismantle those silos that tend to happen in research.”

Cassi Friday, Director of Research Programs & Grants, Cure HHT

Cure HHT’s group strategy focuses on:

• Medical specialty groups for interventional neuroradiology, ENT doctors, and other specialties
• HHT Centers of Excellence groups for collaborative team work
• Research study groups and working groups for specific projects
• Geographic groups to bridge global collaboration gaps

From hesitation to innovation: Overcoming initial challenges

Both organizations faced the classic community challenge: getting members comfortable with a new platform when they were already set in their ways.

Breaking Through the “Listserv Barrier”

“Listservs have been old school, but very established, very comfortable means of communicating,” Brown acknowledges. The key to success? Making the transition feel familiar while demonstrating clear value.

APA’s approach included:

• Comprehensive “roadshow” presentations to boards and committees
• Quick video demos showing platform ease-of-use
• Positioning the community as “very much like a social media platform” for those familiar with Facebook or LinkedIn groups
• Recruiting volunteer leaders to champion the platform

Friday faced similar resistance: “We do have a really excellent established listserv for complicated challenging cases where doctors will get advice from others.”

Her solution was strategic: launching the platform as the official app for their scientific conference, which “forced everyone into the hub” and then spread them out to other groups from there.

Member-Led innovation: When Groups spark new ideas

Some of the most successful group initiatives came directly from member requests, proving that listening to your community drives innovation.

APA’s convention success story

“We had not launched our community with a group that was specific for the annual meeting,” Brown recalls. When staff requested this group, it became incredibly active—from sharing conference updates to members discussing where to stay in Colorado and what to do while there.

“It’s meeting a need where before that would have happened over email. It may have been very disjointed… but within the community, our convention group is open to the entire membership, so folks can see and exchange information and ideas where they wouldn’t have seen that before.”

Cure HHT’s research breakthrough

Friday’s most exciting success story involves capturing post-conference momentum: “At our last scientific conference, there’s a lot of collaboration and a lot of ideas that get going. And then we leave the conference, and unless someone is facilitating the exchange of those ideas and the continuation of them, they just kind of fall.”

The result? Several working groups formed, including one focused on HHT patients who develop pulmonary arterial hypertension. “This group is actually launching a whole new study. And we’re really excited about that.”

Measuring success beyond clicks and comments

Both organizations have discovered that the most meaningful metrics go beyond traditional engagement numbers.

APA’s professional impact

With over 16,000 members now activated in their community, APA tracks engagement closely but focuses on outcomes that matter: “Those are the types of things that we’ll look at when we start to measure retention later on.”

Brown notes they’re seeing patterns similar to their offline engagement: “If our members are part of one or more divisions, if they regularly attend our annual meeting, if they are active in our governance and advocacy activities, then we know that certainly lends to an increase in retention.”

Cure HHT’s life-changing connections

For Friday, success is measured differently: “I have not had anyone, to my knowledge, drop out of our Hivebrite community. I think everyone who is in there is engaged and reading and accessing resources.”

The platform has become essential for their global work: “We have to be cognizant of all the resources that are available in some countries compared to others… we can’t necessarily figure that out easily unless we have these groups and collaborative networks across the board.”

Strategic approaches that work

Content strategy: Start simple, build thoughtfully

APA’s Comprehensive Launch: They launched with core features including a welcome page with video tutorials, community feed, groups, resource library, and members-only directory. “The Resource library was really one of the larger gifts for our team,” Brown explains, providing curated content on topics like advocacy, career development, and professional development.

Cure HHT’s Minimalist Approach: “We launched pretty scarce, and we are trying to build as we have engagement and introduce things slowly, so that we don’t overwhelm our community,” Friday explains. They started with essential resources and carefully considered which features each group actually needed.

Engagement tactics that drive participation

Both organizations discovered that gamification and incentives can jumpstart engagement:

Cure HHT’s Conference Competition: “We did some kind of friendly competition for engagement scoring during the scientific conference. Whoever had the top amount of engagement scoring won prizes on the last day.”

APA’s Creative Connections: “We always offer complimentary headshots within the membership pavilion. But now we’re making a nice connection between get your headshot and update your profile within the community, and we’re going to have some similar incentives for folks to post and comment during the annual meeting.”

Actionable insights for community managers

Based on these success stories, here are key strategies for implementing effective community groups:

1. Design groups around member identity

• Align groups with how your members naturally organize or identify
• Mix professional/functional groups with personal interest groups
• Start with member needs, not organizational structure

2. Plan for change management

• Acknowledge existing communication preferences (like listservs)
• Provide clear value propositions for switching platforms
• Use familiar champions and influencers to drive adoption

3. Enable member-led innovation

• Stay responsive to member requests for new groups
• Capture momentum from offline events and conferences
• Create systems that make it easy to spin up new groups quickly

4. Measure what matters

• Track engagement, but focus on meaningful outcomes
• Look for patterns that predict long-term retention
• Collect qualitative feedback about member experiences

5. Scale thoughtfully

• Start with essential features and add gradually
• Consider what each group actually needs vs. what’s available
• Build systems for volunteer moderation and leadership

The future of community Groups

Both organizations continue evolving their strategies. APA is exploring orbit connections for targeted networking, while Cure HHT is expanding into projects and membership tiers.

The lesson? Successful community groups aren’t about having the most features or the largest numbers—they’re about creating spaces where members find genuine value and connection.

As Brown puts it: “Groups have really enabled us to create very unique niche spaces” where even in a community of 173,000, every member can find their home.

And Friday adds: “This platform actually allows us to have a tool that makes communication efficient and takes that burden off of us, so they can just have a safe space to exchange ideas and go.”

Whether you’re serving thousands of professionals or hundreds of specialists, the power of community groups lies in their ability to make big communities feel small, distant members feel connected, and individual voices feel heard.

Ready to transform your community engagement through strategic groups? The success of APA and Cure HHT shows that when groups are designed with purpose and managed with care, they become the foundation for lasting member relationships that extend far beyond any digital platform.