How to build a strong brand community? A brand community is a group of customers who are invested in a brand beyond what is being sold. So, while this might be a new idea for you, many of the world’s best brands have been putting community building to the test for years.
Imagine having customers that continue to engage with you beyond your products. This is a sign of a loyal brand community, and some of the most successful businesses are strong because of it. Building a great brand community can be done in three steps:
- First, you need a captivating reason for members to join.
- Secondly, you need to make it worth their time to engage with each other and with your brand.
- Finally, it has to be easy and valuable for members to share your community with others and help it grow.
As a marketer, you know that there’s no well-defined one-size-fits-all tactic while selling your product. The same principle applies when you try to build a strong brand community. You can build a community to take benefits of social media. Considering where your audience spends their time. Moreover, communities come in different forms and even specific niches.
Here are some guidelines that should help you build a strong brand community.
Engage in cause-driven activities
How do you plan to strategize your actions in communities to demonstrate your values? Leveraging the potential of social media. Marketers can empower their followers to engage in cause-driven activities. Why not invite your customers to be a part of your brand’s activities?
When you present them with this opportunity to engage in cause-driven activities. They feel valued and connected. This further strengthens the affinity between your brands and the audience.
Express your voice clearly
When you start building your brand community on social media. People should know your brand voice. So, think beyond what you are offering or selling through your business.
Your brand voice should express the mission, vision, and personality of your brand. Who is your brand trying to help or what is it trying to do? Who is your target audience? Consider all these aspects before working on your brand community development.
Try to showcase the character and voice of your brand through engaging content on social media communities. This voice should appeal to your target audience, which would generate more engagement.
Create crafty content
Well, you might already have a content marketing strategy in place. How do you plan to transform social engagement with this strategy?
Often, marketers overlook content like memes, images, and emojis. Which appeals to users during their interaction. These elements constitute the language of social media! By prioritizing relevancy, your content becomes engaging and sharable. Your audience gets to relate their lives to the posts you share. Naturally, they are likely to share these memes or blogs on their personal profiles. This is one of the best ways to boost your visibility for free.
Invite your friends and customers
It’s wise to get started with your friends and existing customers. Once you create the community on the most appropriate platform. Start with people who are already interested in or related to your business. Invite them to follow or like your account. Request your friends to share your content, which would generate more interaction.
This initial audience will help you create more engagement. Work on your reputation, and help in spreading your word.
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Be responsive
While it’s imperative to post engaging content on social media. It’s equally crucial to respond to the interactions. For instance, your followers or users would be commenting on your posts or sharing your content. Express your gratitude by encouraging them. And this would help you boost your digital footprint organically.
Break stereotypes
The best tactic to boost social media engagement in your brand community is to blur the formal lines. Treat your community members just like a family. This would help you strengthen your affinity with your clients. Walking in the shoes of a marketing head or a digital marketer, try to break stereotypes. This approach will help you foster better engagement among your community members.
Being a strategic marketer, have you considered integrating social media employer pages? This can be an innovative tactic to build your community. When your business appears on social media as an employer, you can boost engagement. Explore the potential on LinkedIn and Facebook. Where you can grow your professional network as well as engage users. Simply link it to your business page, so that potential users directly click on it.
Cross-promote on communities
Suppose, you have communities on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. How do you bring all these communities on one platform?
This is where cross-promoting becomes relevant. The strategy involves promoting one social network community on other platforms. So, when you promote your LinkedIn community on Facebook. Your audience on Facebook would be able to join LinkedIn. Repeat this process on other platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. This way, all your followers would be active in every community. This approach is effective in boosting your reach across all these alternative social media platforms.
Also, be a part of groups relevant to your industry. Share a link to these communities on your business page or social media platforms.
Don’t forget to integrate your social page links in your email signature. When you send emails. Your recipient should get an opportunity to check out your community.
Make your audience feel special
Everyone loves to feel recognized. When you promote your products or offer promotions. Reward your customers or community members. A cash back, special discount, or one-time offer makes them feel valued.
This strategy goes a long way in retaining your customers. When you reward them with special offers. They acknowledge your brand which boosts brand affinity.
Express your goals and metrics
With the right approach, your brand community can spread the word about what you are doing. And prompt customer-driven decisions. Before creating one of these social media communities. Marketers need to coordinate and work on these questions.
- What does the business expect the community to do?
- Do you expect feedback from your users about your product or service?
- Will you provide answers to common questions your users might be having?
- What measures will you take to engage your community members?
- How can you measure the level of engagement you create in the community?
- Do you have a plan to track metrics such as lead generation or conversion?
- How can your brand engagement lead to greater sales?
- What are the next plans once your initial strategy works out?
Answering these questions will help your brand community development gain a goal-oriented stance. Next, choose the right platform on social media. Such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, or any other community.
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