Brands live or die by engagement. That is why online community building and maintenance are vital to business success. Here are some top ways to do it right!
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A brand without an engaged online community is like a boat run aground. Suddenly, there's nowhere else to sail! The water is shallow and the boat collapses and decays in the sandy shallows.
Too often, brands present themselves online in an entirely different way than elsewhere. Perhaps they drafted a style guide and followed it in print, in-person, or even initially when they launched their website. However, over time the materials on the website and social media channels have become distinctly off-brand and off-putting.
The truth is simple – with so many existing and potential customers doing research online, it's important that online community building is done in a brand-forward way. Today we'll discuss details and must-dos to be aware of to ensure your brand stays the course online.
Types of online communities
There are four types of buildable communities and each is important to brand survival. While not all four need to be actively utilized by every brand, it's important to find out which ones will serve the needs of your specific customer base.
Social – These are used primarily for marketing, brand awareness, and growing audiences. Examples include Meta, X, Pinterest, and more.
Support – Communities built on support help minimize your need to provide it yourself. They are places where customers help customers solve problems. That might look like a Reddit string or a Meta group about a specific product online.
Advocate – Advocates are so important to brand success as their endorsements, though typically incentivized by the brands they enjoy, are seen as more genuine to other potential customers. You can see this in action through the sphere of influencers and the groups they head up.
Insight – Sometimes these communities are also known as focus groups. The chief reason for spearheading them is to gain feedback from ideal clients on the products and services they use and how the brand can do better in the future.
At a minimum, we recommend you establish social communities, but remember that the others also have significant value.
The benefits of online community building
Research opportunities
As noted above, communities focused on insight are smart choices to determine what your best customers like about your company and how you can improve. However, all your online communities offer research opportunities for potential customers. Deducing customer patterns is how you can learn and build.
A voice
Giving your existing customers a place where they can raise their voices and express themselves will endear your brand to them. In turn, though not all feedback will be positive, it will also make room for advocates to sing your praises.
Growth
In particular, social networks are perfect places to grow your reach both organically and by using paid media. While communities like these may begin without a capital investment, they can be boosted by adding one later on, thus advancing you faster.
How to activate engagement
Nothing is worse than the sound of silence in online communities. That's why you must focus on engagement. Here are some top ways to earn it:
Encourage user-generated content – People are more inclined to trust people, especially ones they know already, over brands.
Create peer review groups – Again, people place other peoples' opinions at a premium. Offering a space for them to share reviews is not only kind but a great way to convert new potential customers who are doing their research.
Offer live Q&A sessions – Because live sessions involve live answers, they are extremely interesting and helpful to your users. These live events will allow them to ask you questions and for you to offer education and brand personality.
Provide resources – Quizzes, whitepapers, Ebooks, videos, and more allow your people to do their due diligence independently so that when they are ready to commit, they'll have plenty of information to do so from an informed position. These can be placed on your website and can be promoted socially.
Respond to comments promptly and individually – Whether positive or negative, responding to comments online is important. Even more important though is taking the time to respond individually. Do not copy and paste. While some boilerplate is necessary, make an effort to tailor responses so that your community feels heard. As a bonus, responding to negative reviews dispels confusion and promotes that you are willing to resolve problems.
Ask team members to participate – If you are in the beginning stages of trying to enhance your engagement levels, ask your internal team to weigh in. If you have a positive business culture, you likely already have advocates who will want to engage and help the brand grow.
Align with influencers if it works for your brand – Choosing the right influencers can be difficult, but if you do manage to isolate ones who align well with your brand they can open up a profitable sales channel. This year, the global influencer marketing market is slated to pass $24 billion!
Collaborate with other brands in the same space for cross-pollination – Cross-promotion with another aligned brand is a win for both businesses. It increases reach and often means sales for both brands.
Simple ways to stay on brand
Activating engagement in communities that aren't on-brand isn't a good idea. Here's a list of easy methods you can take advantage of to be positive your community is receiving the right message.
Make sure your personality is consistent – Your voice and tone will be scrutinized online. If one day you come off as bubbly and the next you're dead serious, customers will be confused. Stick to one personality, even in the face of trends to inspire trust and loyalty.
Keep image use in mind – Using clip art one moment, a Google image with a copyright statement across it next, and polished art later on makes you look like spam. Beyond the fact that people may think you're cheap, it also doesn't tell them who you are.
You can define the types of images you want to use in a style guide along with messaging. Creating one that includes both elements and distributing it to your team will help them show your brand in the best light.
Show genuine care – The people who try to engage with you want to know that they matter to you. Show them their opinions and experiences matter by personalizing them whenever possible.
Always be looking to provide better online user experiences (UX) – If you haven't been seeing the level of conversions you want on your social content or your website, it may be time to take a look at the journey your customers are taking. A UX audit is a great place to start.
Deciding where you should engage
Platform placement
Not all brands need to build communities on all platforms. Determine your activity levels based on where your ideal customers are engaging and create an amazing experience just for them!
Consistency
Choose platforms you or a fellow team member can maintain realistically. While it's wonderful to shoot for the stars, sustainability must also be considered. It's unprofessional to provide your community with a top experience at first and then to lapse into a lesser one.
Your website
No matter what, you need a high-performing website. If yours isn't helping you meet your business goals, it needs to be your number one priority.
How to keep improving
Measure
You can't gain insight into how your efforts are working if you don't measure them. Set goals and create tools to watch your progress. Dashboards are an excellent choice for that.
Listen
Let your community educate you on how they want to be engaged with. Trust us, they will tell you! All you need to do is inventory their feedback and make choices based on it.
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The first step to being on-brand online or otherwise is to establish a brand kit and other branded elements that you can draw from. Our Creative and Strategy teams can help you do that. Just reach out and say hello!
