Community management helps develop a trustworthy connection with the online community. So, why should a brand consider this actively? We will give you 9 (nine) reasons.
Millions of users online who scroll through their social media are active for more than one reason. Mostly it is about feeding the curiosity they have, for the latest trends. Or about wanting to research for any product they’re interested in. Many times, it is reading the product reviews before making any purchases. Many are looking for any solutions for the issues they’re dealing with. For each of the instance, social media might have all the answers available in just one click. The users now are smart enough about what to consume or ignore in terms of data relevancy. This shows that the social media and its users has a high importance specially for a brand.
Table of contents
- What is Community Management?
- What makes Community Management inevitable?
- 1. Reliability in Community Management
- 2. Importance of Humanizing a brand for Community Management
- 3. Pertinence as a Community Management tool:
- 4. Building connections is important for Community Management
- 5. Mind share & Community Management
- 6. Ground-breaking Thought Leadership for Community Management
- 7. Enhance brand value through the voice of customers
- 8. Increase’s retention rates
- 9. Increase Word of Mouth publicity
- Final say
Now, why does a brand even need to consider this? The answer is to develop a trustworthy connection with the online community (the target audience). It can be with the help of communication and brand authenticity. So that a brand establishes a loyal customer base online. This is where Community Management becomes inevitable. Humanizing a brand with the help of community management will open the doors. These doors will be for long term loyal connection with the customers that are more than just one time purchase.
What is Community Management?
Community Management is more than posting content about brand’s products and services online. It is so different from social media marketing. Community Management is about having a deep understanding of what the customers are looking for and what they need. So, It is about creating a sense of belonging for a community to connect with. It is crucial in building a loyal fan base (customers) for a long-term business. After all, Engagement is the key here. Being a part of the conversations with the target audience is important. So is trying to come up with strategies that align with the feedback you receive from them. They all will be far more positively impactful than it seems.
What makes Community Management inevitable?
1. Reliability in Community Management
Here in community management, reliability is about how much the scrollers can rely upon on your brand in terms of your expertise. It is about how well aware you are about your own field as a brand. Sharing the right knowledge is immensely important. It is because users are well aware about how to identity whether the information is coming from the right source or not. Having conversations with the social users helps to develop that trust. In fact, It is for the information they’re receiving from your end as a brand. The more accurate the information you provide to them, the more value your opinion gains. Your expertise in your own field becomes the source where the social users can rely on.
2. Importance of Humanizing a brand for Community Management
The most potent way to humanize a brand is to have genuine and emotive conversations with the users online. Above all, Authenticity has its own power. It holds enough strength to attract long term customers which an automated response fails to attract. Users feel seen and heard when a brand shows interest in their feedback. It is by considering them as important. By helping the users to solve queries if they have any. By paying attention to what the users are looking for and so on. Giving an emotive touch to the conversations will take a connection with the customers to a whole different level. Do that and the one-time buyer would show the willingness to become a long-term customer.
3. Pertinence as a Community Management tool:
Social media is a platform where it is important to stay updated about the latest trends. You must provide the right opinion in the conversations. Your brand needs to be more than just observing the trends. Knowing what’s trending is important. So is adding your opinions to the conversations. The users would then believe that you know what’s happening and why. Users will understand that your brand filters the unnecessary data. They will believe that you only share information & opinion that is relevant. They would consider your community as the right place because it relevant.
4. Building connections is important for Community Management
A brands social media page is where the users communicate directly with a brand. This is essential to develop a long-term connection with the target audience. Those DMs and comment boxes stand for more than just sharing responses. It is where you can receive raw response about your brand. About how well your brand is doing. And about the areas you may need to improve. You also get to know the users who are consistently in touch with your brand. And are willing to give you feedback. These are the ones who are interested to stick around and build a connection with a brand.
5. Mind share & Community Management
A user identifies with a Brand based on the expertise the brand associates within its own industry. Let’s consider an example. What happens when we want to purchase a book online? The very first thought that pops up is to look whether the book is available on Amazon. We hardly go looking for the same book on the other bookstores online. Why? Because the world’s largest online bookstore is Amazon. Users subconsciously created the mind share of identifying a brand with the area of its brand expertise. In this case, Amazon as a Bookstore.
6. Ground-breaking Thought Leadership for Community Management
Coming up with innovative insights related to the brand’s industry helps a brand to outshine on social media. Most of the brands talk about what products and services they offer. A brand receives a huge chance to standout by coming up with the valuable and interesting insights about the industry in general. This helps a brand to move forward to the position of a ground breaker. It establishes itself as a lead for the further development and improvement in the overall industry.
The best way to drive engagement in your online community is to stay Ethical in all your Social Media Activities.
7. Enhance brand value through the voice of customers
Every brand has Visitors to their Social Media Pages. Many are more than just visitors. These users are willing to become a part of the loyal fan base of a brand. These are the customers who become the brand representatives. Brands conduct online surveys, events or even chats. It’s here where they need its users voice. These are the long-term customers who become the brands voice. More often they become brand ambassadors in their online community. This happens only when a customer forms a loyal bond with the brand. It undoubtedly increases the brand value because of its loyal customers.
8. Increase’s retention rates
A study by Bain & Company shows that even 5% increase in retention rate can increase the brand’s profit drastically between 25-95%. So, when a brand gives importance to the community management the users are likely to spend more time on the brand’s site which increase the retention rates.
This can be done by:
- Giving timely response to the customers;
- Valuing the customer’s feedback;
- Sharing trending updates; &
- Sharing genuine opinion related to the brand or industry in general.
9. Increase Word of Mouth publicity
Word of mouth has always been one of the most powerful forms of marketing. It is because the customers who share their positive experience with the brand. Let it be replying to the customers DMs or comments or responding back to the feedback they provide; it all counts in a positive experience of customers. With community management, the users develop a psychological bond with the brand because of their positive experiences and that creates a strong word of mouth.
Final say
According to Statista currently there are 59.5% worldwide users who are active online and that makes community management even more important. Because in the end, it is an engaging community which becomes a long term and loyal community that helps a brand to elevate its success to a different level. Community management goes beyond one way communication and posting brand content. It is about developing connections by creating a loyal fan base. It is about going beyond selling products & services and engaging more with the customers by adding value to the connection they have with a brand.
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