Members orbit the mission at different orbit levels. Members in each orbit level are similar in the role they play in the community (love) and their level of influence (reach). Within an orbit level, members have different amounts of love and reach relative to each other.
Members orbit at different distances around your community's center of gravity. These distances correspond to the impact that the member has on the community, through their actions and relationships. Each member is assigned an orbit level based on their pattern of activity and influence.
The Orbit Model outlines 4 levels that work for most communities. Each level describes a broad class of members gravitating at the same level. Let's look at each level starting with those closest to the center of gravity.
Advocates comprise the first, innermost orbit level. These members help lead and organize the community, leveraging deep experience and large networks. They set the example for other members to follow and often act as bridges between different branches of the community's network.
Advocates help the community mobilize and grow, building social proof and actively spreading the word. They create content and give talks, leveraging the reach that they have. In product communities, this level includes product ambassadors and champions.
Advocates have high love and reach relative to all members of the community. It is important to monitor changes to an advocate's love and to keep finding ways to increase their reach. One consequence of advocates having high reach is that their talents become widely visible and may attract other people or communities to compete for their time. By continuing to increase their reach in the context of your community, you will secure and expand the advocate relationship.
Contributors actively put time and energy towards helping the community achieve its mission, taking a share of the responsibility.
Contributors invest time directly toward helping the community or product reach its goals, and not only for their own personal benefit. In product communities, this level includes contributors of code, templates, documentation, translation, and users who give product feedback and participate in beta groups.
Contributors tend to have lower reach than advocates. Helping a contributor become an advocate by increasing their reach is often a win-win situation.
Participants are drawn to the community's mission and will engage in activities where they see a personal benefit.
Participants regularly engage in the community and build connections with other members. In product communities, this level includes the users of the product.
Participants tend to have small amounts of love and reach. In some cases, they have more love than reach, and a good strategy is to introduce them to some contributors and advocates and see if value can be exchanged. In other cases, the participant has a lot of reach but not much love yet (e.g. they are an influencer and most of their reach is outside the community). In that situation, taking time to meet 1:1 with the participant and talk through the mission of the community (or details of the product) can make them more willing to start using their reach to amplify the community's message.
Explorers are newcomers and passive observers. They follow the community's flow of information and filter for what's personally relevant.
Explorers are primarily interested in getting information and learning. They won't have much love yet or reach within the community.
If the explorer has a lot of reach outside the community, it may be worth getting in touch with them earlier than other explorers. You want them to form the correct impression of the community, and if it's a fit, to deepen their love and grow their reach inside the community by starting to participate.
