ONLINE

Guidelines for Builing Online Communities

Building online communities is one of the hot topics in Social Med marketing but there are no hard and fast rules in developing social networks – every company and community is different. Here are some guidelines to create the foundation for your online strategy so you can start to build a strong Social Media presence and cultivate a group of brand enthusiasts eagerly promoting your products and services.

Provide interesting content

Providing rich content for your visitors is the cornerstone of any online community. You need to give people a reason to come back and encourage them to share your posts with other people. Remember everything you post on Social Media accounts needs to provide value for people and it’s not just a sales funnel for your online company. Content you can add to enrich your Social

update social media accounts regularly

Make updating your Social Media platforms a priority. Not only do you want to assign a dedicated person or team to manage your social presence but you also want to encourage other members of your team to comment on posts. Not only does this make it more interesting for your members but it shows that everyone in your company is passionate about your brand and helping to grow online communities

leverage the wisdom of your followers

You know you have a motivated community when they eagerly start answering questions that other members have posted. Allow them to do so instead of jumping in with a response straight away and reward them by acknowledging that they have provided the right information by responding to their comments, ‘liking’ their comments on Facebook or retweeting their response on Twitter.

Encourage user content

By encouraging users to post content on your Social Media sites, this will help in fostering virtual communities. Every Social Media network presents different opportunities. With Facebook for example, you can invite people to post photos and videos of themselves using your product and add comments to your page. It is important to acknowledge people every time they add material to any of your sites.

Promote your online communities

You want to get the word out there that your community exists and increase your membership numbers. Promotion starts with you and the members of your company – if you are not the biggest ambassadors of your brand, your community will never realise its full potential. Social Media marketing ideally should also be integrated with your online and offline marketing campaigns including your website, advertising and so forth.

Monitor your online communities

Make your online community a nice place that people want to visit regularly by setting formal or informal guidelines for people who participate – most forums and blogs have terms of service that members must abide by and a zero tolerance policy. Try and defuse any discussions you think may potentially turn nasty and deal with problem members as soon and quickly as possible to stop the situation from escalating.

The most important part of Social Media networking is being committed to updating, monitoring and responding to people who have voluntarily added themselves to your accounts. Learn more about our Social Media Packages and contact us to find out how our Social Media consultants can help you in developing online communities that are passionate and enthusiastic about your brand.

Mkula Dennis