None of us is as smart as all of us. Excellent thought from Ken Blanchard. Does your business work with a community that it has built? Ever wonder what it takes to succeed with online community building lessons, strategy, and operations?
The concept of community is based on how people gather around shared interests or location to give and take mutually. This has not always applied to business.
Before we continue, let me ask you a question.
What works best for community building for you? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? Be the one who starts a conversation.
A lot of the communities in place today have grown through social media. These tools not only allow communities to connect face to face but also to connect much faster on deeper levels.
Social media allows people to gather regardless of geography into a community of shared ideas.
Community building is about building trust, conveying authenticity, and providing value to community members. It is as simple as giving people who share common interests as a reason to participate and draw value from participation.
The sponsoring organization must create a balance of “gives” to members and “gets” from members – no community can be one-sided; every community is collaborative.
Here are 17 community building lessons learned from my 5 years of online experience.
Create a 6-month operational plan for the community; revise it every 3 months based on what you have learned. The iterative update approach will keep the topics revitalized.
Community building lessons … seek feedback
Take time to validate your community strategy with prospective members. They will be helpful in making important adjustments to the plan.
Community rational
People come for content and stay for the community. All communities are built on relationships among the members.
Community enabler
To succeed in online community building, your organization must be able to give members a reason to convene – online or offline. Build these ideas into your planning and plan updates.
Persistent but patient
Be persistent but patient. Don’t expect overnight miracles. Communities take time to grow.
Invite discussion
Outreach often to members to invite them into discussions. They are unlikely to come in on their own initiative.
Develop an “inner circle” of select members who will form the core of the community and keep it growing over time.
Seek opinions
Ask your members’ opinion about topics that matter. They are smart and insightful and can help you steer the ship.
Wide involvement
Get everyone involved – let them tell their story.
Measure what matters
Your community will become what you measure – think out metrics carefully.
Crisis management
Put a crisis management plan in place as well as a clear triage process. It will save you pain in the long run.
Community research
Use the community to do research on relevant topics to members and your business. Everybody wins.
What is next? How Steve Jobs Would Change Your Social Media Engagement
Include all inputs
Blend offline and online member engagement whenever possible.
Show appreciation
Your community is the heart of customer engagement. Let your members know they are heard and respected.
The bottom line
Social media gives us a great opportunity to listen in on what people are saying. We’ve long known that word of mouth is incredibly powerful, now we can actually track it. Social listening tools are still somewhat primitive, but they are improving quickly and are already being deployed to help monitor conventional marketing efforts in real-time.
Remember … the most important things in existence are kind words and thoughtful gestures.
What do you think? Have a suggestion or experience to add to the comments below? We would love to hear them.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your social media marketing or advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on social media lessons from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
10 Essential Components of a Top Notch Website Design
