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Welcome to the Wednesday edition of Social Media Community Week at Bemis Promotions!
As I think of Social Media and Community building from a Brand standpoint, it comes down to two areas of focus: Gathering like minded folks with whom you want to help and share information, and then interacting with them once they come to your blog/forum/or website.
1. Building Your Community
Let no one tell you any different: networking is business, not a hobby. To build a thriving community—if that’s what you want to do—you have to commit to reaching out to others, and desire to do so for good reasons. The online world today is transparent—you can’t “scam” people who join up with you and expect them to stay a part of your community. You can’t think of your followers or community members as your next “get”, to use a term social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk used in a recent webinar I attended. You need to look at them as people you help—and be committed to give and give and give and give to those people… and know that you will “get” when you need to get, not from everyone, but from enough people who will make a difference.
So, here are a few steps for building a community:
1. Create content/reasons for people to come to your site. Don’t worry about building a huge community until you have huge value to share.
2. Join other communities in a thoughtful and considered way. Engage with individuals in those communities and share your value – NOT by spamming – but in ways that are intended to truly help other community members.
3. Leave comments on blogs that are relevant to you, in your niche. Become known for adding to conversations in thoughtful ways.
4. Engage in passive marketing. Put your latest blog entry or your newest webinar in your signature line on your emails, and share it with every email you send it out.
5. Stay involved. Even when your personal community takes up, continue to remain a presence on those forums who launched you. Stay relevant and engaged!
Those are just a few ideas to get you started!
2. Sustaining an Online Community
So, once you have a community, what’s next? To keep it, you need to feed it:
1. Be present. If that means posting every day, post every day. If it means posting multiple times a day, do that (at least to get started). Build a team of “master forum members” and have them share the load of representing you and your team. But whatever you do, BE THERE as much as you can.
2. Be a valued forum. The only reasons why people continue to come to your forum is to share new information, engage in meaningful ways, and learn something new. Create an environment of sharing and keep your news flowing to your community!
3. Be real. Again, this sort of activity only works if you truly love what you’re doing and can continue to do it on a consistent base—and that is only possible if the activity is a match for your Brand and your Passion. So build that community wisely, and then thoroughly enjoy it as it grows!
Creating and sustaining an online community is truly a valuable exercise, and when you approach it thoughtfully and fully on-Brand, it can become a wonderful support system for you and your business!
Go forth and Brand boldly!
Jenn
Jenn Stark serves as Strategic Brand Consultant for Bemis Promotions, and helps authors, entrepreneurs and organizations maximize their Brands at www.knowyourbrand.com.
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