How to grow your business by building an online community
Article written by Bound Media
Having loyal customers is one of every business’ main goals, and of course is a very important one, but better than that is building a community. Having advocates that will be loyal to your business is ideal and even though it can seem hard to achieve at the beginning, in this article we will give you a few tips that will help you get there.
What an online community is like
Making the difference radicates in the fact that your advocates will find extra value in your products and services, even if they have to pay more than with the competition. They will likely interact with other members of your community, and talk to their friends and people they know about your business.
Word of mouth can be both a blessing and a curse, but if you succeed at building a strong and advocate community, it will become of great help because there is no better publicity than your own satisfied customers sharing their positive experiences.
Like every online process, it takes time and effort, but we can assure you that everything will be worth it. Here are some things you can do to help build your online community:
Sharing your customer’s experience
On both your social media channels and your website, encouraging your clients to share their positive experiences with your products or services is a very effective way to start building your online community. This strategy helps to show your clients that you value their opinions and, at the same time, they end up selling your service for you.
Generate discussion
Providing a space where your community can interact is ideal. People with different points of view can exchange opinions and start building a relationship not only with you, but with each other. These discussions can happen on your online forum, on your social media posts, or you can even use Facebook Groups for such interactions.
Keep it LIVE on social media
If you have a blog or a forum, or if you use Facebook Groups to generate discussion, that is perfectly fine, but social media channels are also ideal to diversify your community’s discussions. Encourage your users to comment on your posts, use hashtags to create conversations on Twitter, use a question box on Instagram Stories for your users to ask you questions about your business.
Going on a live streaming is always a good option, you can invite your community to ask questions before the broadcast or during and have a good live interaction. If you don’t feel so comfortable going on a live streaming, you can collect your users’ questions and record short videos answering them.
Listen to what your community has to say
You can get a lot of insight on how to develop your business based on how your customers perceive it. You can always ask them how you could improve your operation, what things you could do differently, and what good things you should maintain over time.
Your community can help you make important decisions based on their experience and relationship with your brand. Even if you are not asking specific questions, keep an eye out for the discussions happening on all of your online channels. Remember that your community is built with the people most engaged with your brand.
Summing up
Building a strong and advocate online community is a time and effort long-term process, but pays off in the end. Generating loyalty within your customers will automatically make them stay longer and bring new people in, it’s the best investment you can do in your business
