Community Management 2

Creating Community Spirit

As discussed in the previous blog (Part 1 — Community Management), the value of community is universal and should not be under estimated. Specially during this outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, isolation can be defeated only by coming together online. Community is an invisible helping hand that pulls one out of solitude.

But what good can come out of an idle community? Yes, right, nothing! It will be just an empty room with no resident. To bring life to your community, engagement should be maintained. With continuous and meaningful engagement, the retention rate will be low and the community will grow larger. Engagement keeps the spirit high and builds interest in members. Through engagement long term relationships can be formed and nurtured over time.

Though you can motivate the members and keep the community glued together, you might like to reach a stage where the community is self-maintained. For reaching this stage you need to set the speed and tune the tone high and invest interesting ideas.

10 IDEAS FOR SUCCESSFUL ENGAGEMENT

1. Get-Together

So what if its virtual! You can still come face-to-face and get feel of a real meet-up. Conduct live sessions, webinars, chat, workshops and other such events to show the human side of your brand. Invite members to join the virtual events. You can even invite influencers to the webinars and have them tell their story about your brand.

1. Encourage forming mini-groups

When you have a hundred or more members encourage members to make mini groups if they want to. Let the sub-groups arrange their own meet-ups and video chats and ask them to share their experience with others. Success of such mini-groups encourage other members to participate as well.

1. Initiate conversations

Be proactive! Do not wait for the members to always start the talk. Initiate and bring the topics of community’s interest. Never let the land dry. Keep the involvement from your side going.

1. Ask for suggestions

Taking a suggestion or asking a question gives a boost to the self-worth of the second party. Let your members feel valuable. Pose serious questions to them about your service or product. Appreciate their answers.

1. Collaborate with peers

Bring other communities into the scene. These communities can also be from different platforms. Collaborate with them and conduct joint events. This will create a new journey to the group. Also, members of the other community can explore your group which in turn increases your reach.

1. Giveaways

Your members must feel proud to be a part of the community. Make them feel important by giving them exclusive offers in your services or products. Conduct contests for the members. You can also announce news about upcoming events or products in the group first. Let the members feel special.

1. Empathize and show emotions

Always remember that you are not a brand or the head of community but a member. Relate with your co-members, show empathy in their stories, induce some humour and ace the game of emotions. People feel delighted when they encounter humans behind the brand. Building an emotional connect with members & among the members is vital.

1. Flaunt the numbers

Do not hesitate to flaunt the number of followers or subscribers or fans that you have got on other platforms. Let you community members feel that they are part of something huge. Share fan stories and ask your members to share their success stories too.

1. Take a road off the promotional stuff

The most important ‘do not’ is to avoid posting promotional content on a regular basis. People do not expect to see advertisement in communities. Pushing your products/ services will only increase resistance. Therefore, it’s better to make customer-centric conversations rather than product-centric.

1. Identify the advocates

There are always atleast handful of people who are more active than others. Identify these key members and take special care in building relationship with them.

IS THIS THE RIGHT STRATEGY FOR YOU?

Definitely, yes! Community engagement assures positive results for the brand and thus is a very effective formula to be used. Being a proven business strategy, community engagement helps make the people brand advocates and shifts the focus from product to people. Community engagement programs should be designed and implemented by keeping your business goals in mind. Although, engagement on a daily basis is time taking and exhausting, the outcomes are worth it. Also, keep an eye on the insights drawn from this engagement and re-align your activities to keep on track. Some posts may attract more attention than others. Designing future posts according to such insights can be more beneficial.

You probably are already doing this analysis. So, the next step would be to observe and analyse your competitor’s community. Make note of the topics of discussion in other forums and what drives the most attention. Introducing such topics in your community will keep you updated.

Once your community members start feeling as owners of the community themselves, consider your work done.

To be continued.

Co-created by

Dr Amit Nagpal, President & Chief Community Builder

Annie Jain, Social Media executive at Bloggers Alliance