How Do I Build An Online Community?
Mark Byrne, Digital Marketing Specialist, Ward Technology Talent.
The Importance of Online Community
Online community building is about establishing trust and showing authenticity to your audience. Having 10,000 Twitter followers doesn’t necessarily mean that you have a community. It means you have 10,000 followers.
An online community is something that is active, made up of engaged brand evangelists; it is an influential part of a business’s online presence. An active community of a few hundred people can have a far more positive impact than a few thousand uninterested clicks.
Building Your Community
It’s all about the community, not the product or company. Some companies may be lucky enough to have a strong enough following that there is already an active community online talking about their brand. The likes of Apple, Sony and Microsoft generate insane online buzz at the drop of a hat, most brands are not so lucky.
It is important not to get scared by not being in control of an active community. If a community senses a corporate takeover on the horizon you may find a rebellion on your hands. Embrace the community and welcome them, show them that you value their support and comments.
It’s important to not forget that you’re a participant too. Listen to what your community has to say and engage in conversation. In any relationship, you’ll reap the rewards of being a good listener and listening to your online community is no different.
You want to be able to give your community content that it will find engaging and encourage them to share and discuss.
Content will help you forge that connection with your community.
Content that Every Business and Community need to Create
John Jantsch mentions on SocialMediaExaminar.com the following content types –
- Content that builds trust
- Content that educates
- User-generated content
- Other people’s content
- Content that converts
Try to offer a varied selection of content types – this will help to increase engagement by keeping things interesting.
It’s Not What it Used to Be
In the early days, community building was a different beast. Consumers have cottoned on to freebies and giveaways as a means of gaining their attention. These freebies were seen as enough by marketers to allow them to flood your email inbox with updates (spam to you and I) and served to very quickly disengage an audience from a brand. Numbers were often seen as good enough when it came to a community, the community manager of today realises that engagement trounces size every time.
Cultivate Community
People want value from communities that they choose to spend time being a part of. It is important to provide this value through meaningful content which can be delivered through your social media channels. This means that you’re going to have to provide similar, if not better, content to your community for free than what they would otherwise pay for. For many this feels counterintuitive but can be a very effective way to build a trustworthy audience and allows to you claim mindshare in an interested following.
How to Promote Your Community
– SEO – Make your site accessible, use Google AdWords to find usable keywords, and promote your content on social networks.
– Use Similar Blogs – Become active on blogs that are similar to yours. You can find your target audience’s networks by using Follower Wonk and FindPeopleonPlus. .
– Guest Blog – We’ve mentioned it in previous posts but there’s no harm in reminding you about it again. Ask bloggers in a similar niche to yours (and of a similar standing in terms of audience size) if you could write a post on their blog. Not only will it give them a chance to take the day off from writing a blog post but you’ll have access to a whole new audience.
Cultivating a community around your brand/company/product takes a lot of time and effort to be done correctly. Here are some tips to make it a bit easier for you.
WTT Tips
- Get to Know Your Users – Ask your community questions, encourage their involvement.
- Leverage Any and All Connections at Your Disposal – To get your community off to a good start don’t forget to let your existing connections know about it.
- Expect It to Take Time – Good things come to those who wait. A community won’t spring up overnight.
- Connect and Help Your Community Members
- Track Everything – Regularly examine your analytics. See which content works and which doesn’t. You can tailor your content over time to what your community really wants.
To summarize, building your community is all about actively listening, engaging in conversation, being open and honest, providing content that your community finds value in and last but not least… time and hard work. And more time.
We hope you found this blog post interesting, for more digital insight make sure to connect with our social media channels.
