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Many factors contribute to business growth. However, one factor is consistently highlighted time and time again: having a strong community. This does not mean a robust online following, though if you learn how to engage your community this will be something that will happen naturally. Let’s get into this topic a little deeper in this article.
Online communities have so many benefits, such as driving traffic to your website, strengthening your relationship with customers, increasing your business' revenue, and creating an engaged audience. However, it can be challenging to build one - a strong one. You may have a community up and running, but as days and weeks go by, you see no significant engagement or increase in your reach. You start to wonder, "What did I do wrong?"
In this article, we'll explore what you need to build a strong community, the types of community, and more.
Exploring Different Types of Communities
When it comes to building a strong community, social media is often a popular option. While it's an excellent choice, it shouldn't be your only focus. Depending on your goals, audience, and niche, other types of communities might be more suitable and effective. Here are some communities worth exploring:
1. Online Groups and Forums
Online forums or groups are among the top five communities many businesses are taking advantage of today. Platforms like Reddit, Quora, Discord, Stack Exchange, LinkedIn groups, Small Business Forums, and other specialized industry forums each offer unique advantages, providing valuable engagement with a targeted audience.
2. Email Lists
An email community involves getting the email addresses of your existing or potential audiences and nurturing a relationship with them. Whether you're sharing newsletters, tips, exclusive offers, or just keeping your audience updated, having an email list community provides a way to speak directly to your subscribers.
3. Offline Communities/Meetup Groups
While the digital world is a place to build communities for your business, offline communities should not be dismissed as an option. This type of community centers on physical, face-to-face interactions through events, meetups, conferences, or workshops.
4. Social Media Communities
This is considered a must-have. It involves building communities on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and X. These platforms offer a range of ways to engage with your audience beyond likes, comments, and shares.
Tips for Building a Solid and Powerful Community
Here are standard, applicable, and prove-worthy tips for building a strong, powerful, and solid foundation community:
1. Understand Your Audience
Before you decide to build a community, understand your audience. Have a sheet or map view of their interests, pain points, dislikes, content type, and conversational flow. This is the base or foundation on which you can start building your community.
2. Choose the Right Platform
Not all platforms are right for you to build your community engagement. Some platforms may be better suited for casual, broad conversations, while others are more effective for in-depth discussions. Make adequate research and find the right one that best fits the community you want to build and aligns with your brand identity and audience.
3. Create Content that Engages and Captivates
From the first word, let your content be hook-worthy. It should capture the eyes and attention of your audience. Your content, video, text-based, or image-based, must be entertaining, educational, and inspirational. It must have the ability to spark conversations, not just look and pass.
4. Encourage Interaction
Ask questions, respond to comments, send a fun joke or meme, and create opportunities for everyone to speak about their experiences, thoughts, and more. Ensure there are constant interactions between you and the members.
5. Measure and Track Your Success
Monitor the KPIs of your community-building efforts, such as engagement rates, content performance, and follower growth.
Essential Reasons to Build a Strong Community
One key mindset to have when building a strong and powerful community is that the community is not mainly for you or your business's benefit but for your members to build a deeper connection and support with one another.
Think of it as the 30:70 mindset: your business benefits 30%, while your audience benefits 70%. The immense value and benefit they gain from being part of the community is one of the determining factors that ultimately help your business thrive.
Below are six reasons why building a strong community is essential for your business:
Increased Brand Loyalty: The more people that interact with you the more you will be recognized as being a trustworthy brand. Don’t forget engagement is the new ‘likes’.
Word-of-mouth Marketing: A strong community cultivates a group of passionate brand advocates - these are your personal brand influencers.
Ready Access to Feedback: Communities are the best places to get honest and forward-thinking reviews, feedback, and insights that can boost your business to greater levels.
Opportunities for Collaboration and Innovation: You can attract influencers, thought leaders, and other folks with like-minded audiences to partner with you.
Our Comprehensive Approach to Building a Strong Community
Community building takes time, effort, and strategic planning. While it can be done the DIY way, some things are best left to the experts, and this is one of them.
At RSMS, our community-building strategies are effective and sure-fire. Our services go beyond simple engagement to building strong, connected communities that foster long-lasting brand loyalty. Here are ways we do that:
Community Building Strategies: Using well-tested and result-proven strategies, we create communities that are unlike any other and create meaningful, memorable, fun, and engaging connections between your brand and your audience.
Metricool Analytics: We analyze key metrics to understand what works, identify opportunities for improvement, and guide you on the best steps forward.
Social Media Management Analysis: Our team conducts thorough analyses of social media trends and performance to provide actionable recommendations, enhancing your overall social media presence.
Weekly Catch-Up Emails: We don't leave you hanging till the end. Instead, we keep you informed every Monday with weekly progress reports that highlight wins, tasks and updates. We ensure you are well-informed of your community's progress and our efforts.
Online Community Management: We oversee and engage with your online community to ensure active participation and positive interactions.
Brand Advocacy Programs: we develop programs to encourage and reward brand advocates, influencers, and users who promote your business and amplify your message.
Our approaches are unique and designed to ensure that your community stands out, is seen as an interesting and engaging platform, drives brand loyalty, and contributes immensely to the growth of your business.
Conclusion
At Ruth Sherrill Marketing Services, we want to make sure your online presence is strong. Our approach is different, yes, but highly effective and result-driven. Are you ready to harness the power of community and take your social media marketing to new heights? If this blog was helpful, please leave a comment below!
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