How To Grow Your Online Community
Business owners, entrepreneurs, brands, and influencers alike all know one thing to be true: a loyal and engaged online community is everything. Without that community, there is no growth, collaboration, lead generation, and certainly no impressive conversion rates to speak of. Plain and simple, building and maintaining an online community is going to be critical to your success regardless of what industry you’re in.
So, how do you begin to build an online community that welcomes all, educates, engages, and builds trust and loyalty between you and your audience?
We’ve got six tips to help you get growing:
1. Show up consistently
Building an online presence should be at the top of your priority list. How can you build an online community and increase brand awareness if you’re not showing up on a regular basis? Showing up consistently and keeping your content consistent and on-brand builds loyalty and trust with your community. If getting online daily seems like a loaded task, consider using a content management system (CMS) that automatically uploads content for you across all of your social media platforms. When using these CMS, you can upload days, weeks, even months, of content all in one shot. Experiment with various CMS and find which one works best for you—we love using Planoly and Hootsuite!
2. Always add value
Give your online community a reason to show up! Provide value in a sustainable way that’s on-brand for you. What do we mean by sustainable? You want to show your community that you’re an expert on what you’re talking about—so stick to what you know. If you’re a writer and your goal is to inspire, share your words and quotes. If you’re a business coach, share actionable business tips with your community. If you’re an outdoorist or environmentalist, help teach your community through helpful advocacy tips and guides to getting outdoors safely and responsibly. You need to repeatedly be sharing tips, guides, inspiration, and motivation in your area of expertise. The more you share, the more your community will begin to trust your authority and turn to you for advice in the future.
3. Be social and encourage conversation
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that social media is meant for being social! Don’t forget this seemingly obvious, but incredibly important element of growing your online community. Start encouraging more conversation and actively building a dialogue with those who engage. Using a call to action in your posts can help motivate your audience to communicate with you. Ask questions, ask people to tell you about themselves, ask for opinions. When those comments come rolling in, always respond, and do so in a timely fashion. This will help you to build a genuine rapport and relationship with your online community, allowing you to connect on a deeper level.
4. Target your ideal client
Are you using 30 on-brand hashtags on every single one of your posts? If you aren’t, add it to your to-do list today. This is one of the biggest and easiest ways to reach a wider audience and target your ideal client simultaneously. We suggest using smaller hashtag groups (starting at 10k), especially if your audience is on the smaller side to ensure that your posts get seen and not buried. Remember, when it comes to choosing hashtags, stay within your niche, and use hashtags that are relevant to your content, industry, and ideal client.
5. Mind the times
Always keep an eye on the trending news and current events. These days, we’re seeing more and more social media campaigns that are having sweeping effects, and if it’s something that aligns with you, your mission, and your brand, you won’t want to miss out on getting involved. Stay informed. This will also help you to avoid posting anything that’s misaligned with or insensitive towards any current events.
6. Be authentic
Your online community—especially those who have been with you from the beginning—will be able to sniff out disingenuous and inauthentic content instantly. Don’t try to be something or someone else. Your community is showing up for you.
So, be yourself. Show your silly side. Share personal stories. Be quirky. Letting your true personality show will build trust and loyalty with your community. It will also encourage your audience to open up to you more, and building relationships is always the goal.
Written By: Maggie Peikon, AMR Digital Marketing, Content Creator