Understanding Community-Building: The Importance of Connection
Fostering a connection within communities is a delicate, almost artful, process. Appears To Be no matter how hard brands push their agenda to their audience, all their efforts are wasted if the community cannot relate to the brandās message and values. It becomes even more critical in this day and age when brands interact with their communities digitally, in a faceless world where relationships take on a whole new meaning.
Win hearts is not as much about what you sell but more about how your audience relates to your brandās messaging. This is one of the most profound insights brands must internalise when attempting to build a loyal customer base with long-lasting relationships. Content is at the heart of this and is often the best way for brands to engage with their communities and, more importantly, allow community members to engage with each other.
But hereās where it gets interesting: the role of influencer marketing within brand communities. There has been an ongoing debate about whether influencers can be credible sources of information or if they can only serve as channels for mindless consumption. The short answer is - yes, influencers do work as long as it isnāt someone your community isnāt familiar with.
Brands must tap into influencers from within their communities - influencers who know exactly what their community members want and need. More or less. And this two-way communication is at the heart of winning hearts through community-building. The way I see it, without it, there is nothing but an endless list of āto doāsā for community managers who are tasked with driving engagement through direct conversations that rarely work anyway.
Feature Spotlight: Engaging Communication Tools
Iāve noticed that most community engagement tools are equal parts communication and control. And itās always a question of which side the scale tips. Members need a sense of belonging and open communication, but community managers need control to maintain a healthy environment. Modern engagement tools offer more than instant chat features.
There are options for content moderation, message scheduling, voice and video chats, file sharing, polls, and resource libraries. These tools let members connect with each other in ways that work best for them. It seems like even if someone is a little camera-shy and introverted, they can leave voice notes or share helpful links in the resource library. Features like multi-channel chat can keep conversations around various topics neat and easy to follow.
I do wonder how chatbots fit into this scenario. Theyāre much faster at answering queries and guiding members compared to community managers who have to juggle multiple tasks at once. Maybe itās not quite the same as connecting with another person but itās still better than waiting days for an answer to a simple question.
But engagement tools should offer more than different formats for messages. They should offer everyone a safe space to be themselves without worrying about bullies or stalkers. And even if someone does slip through the cracks, engagement tools should offer members accessible ways to report issues and help moderators maintain a healthy environment for all members.
Creating Safe Spaces: The Role of Moderation
Thereās no shortage of unfiltered opinions on the internet. Thatās not always a bad thing, but itās rather difficult to build a thriving community where everyone feels welcome and valued when there isnāt any moderation in place. To have a space where people can enjoy themselves and connect with others, there needs to be someone keeping an eye on things and making sure everyoneās being civil.
I know what youāre thinking - being nice is overrated and letting people say what they want keeps things interesting. But I disagree. There needs to be a clear distinction between healthy debate and discriminatory abuse or harassment. The way I see it, sometimes, people donāt see where the line is or they donāt care about how their words affect someone else.
More or less. Thatās where moderators come in to guide conversations and foster a positive environment. They help provide structure and purpose for a community so that everyone can have an enjoyable experience.
If there are any issues that need to be addressed, moderators act as impartial mediators who do what needs to be done and keep the peace within a community. And sometimes, communities donāt need to have issues for moderators to play an important role. They can a bit provide regular updates about relevant topics and events that members may find interesting or helpful.
Itās not very difficult to win people over or have them coming back if you provide them with something they canāt find anywhere else - safety, security, and peace of mind.
Incentivizing Participation: Rewards and Recognition
Itās always a bit of a juggle, keeping an online community alive and kicking. The difference between flatlining engagement and a thriving group isnāt luck - itās making sure people feel appreciated. Looks Like incentivising participation with rewards might seem like bribery to some but it gets people involved.
There are so many different ways you can do this, but the trick is working out what will land with your specific users. A little recognition goes a long way, too. And let's face it, we all love feeling special or celebrated. Even something as small as a āContributor of the Monthā badge or exclusive privileges for regular posters adds real value to someoneās experience online - because it means other people see how hard they're trying.
Peer pressure goes both ways. Of course, gamification tools have their place - they keep things light-hearted and fun in communities that need them to be. But not everyone will want to rack up points and tokens for everything they do.
Find rewards that match the vibe of your members if you want them to work. There isnāt really a winning formula when it comes to incentivisation - youāll only know what works for your group by talking to them or having open conversations about engagement in the first place. Some people think rewarding community members is buying loyalty, but Iād say celebrating contributions and effort is never going to go amiss in any type of group setting.
Fostering Inclusivity: Diverse Engagement Strategies
Itās always a bit strange watching old footage of a typical 90s Australian shopping centre - you see only thin, mostly white people and you have to squint to find a person in a wheelchair or a hijab. Thatās not what the world looks like anymore - and thatās not what the modern online community looks like either. More or less.
A good online community is allegedly one that has different types of people from all sorts of places. Now, fostering inclusivity is much easier said than done and it takes more than a bold statement on your Instagram feed. It comes with creating opportunities for engagement by speaking directly to the different groups of your audience (or customer base). So sharing blog posts with the same five models in every photo isnāt really going to cut it.
Thatās not what people mean when they say representation. And if your brand isnāt creating relatable content, then youāre never going to get engagement from those audiences. But I do think it would be rather strange if a mainstream fashion brand made their whole identity about only speaking to one group or type of person. Letās say that they use only indigenous models on their campaigns and donāt post any other models.
The way I see it, it could alienate audiences while trying so hard to connect with another - that never ends up well because you also run the risk of tokenism (which is even worse). I think there will always be some sort of controversy about community building and diverse engagement strategies in marketing because some brands donāt realise that diversity isnāt a marketing tool - it has always been reality even though most brands havenāt reflected reality for decades (which seems odd now). Audiences want to feel seen, heard and most importantly - spoken for. And sometimes, the latter means quietly representing them, normalising diversity instead of pointing at it loudly and repeatedly bragging about being āinclusiveā.
Measuring Success: Metrics for Community Growth
I have never liked metrics. The way I see it, it is not a word that suits a community-based organisation.
Metrics feel too structured, too measured, too mathematical for the organic messiness of a group of people who want to come together. Sometimes I think the metrics themselves can become the focus - the stick at the end of the carrot - and that when we get so hung up on measuring success itās like collecting our tears in a bottle. But everything needs accountability.
I mean what are we without some kind of idea of how we are going. How do we even know if our best intentions have got good outcomes. How do we know if things have improved, declined or even plateaued.
More or less. Sometimes when you are in it, when you are part of the community or the project, you can lose sight of what is actually happening and why. We need metrics to give us perspective, to give us direction and to keep us honest. The sorts of things we should be measuring are engagement rates, contributions and feedback from community members.
It seems like these provide a direct indication on how well your platform is operating and how much people enjoy being part of your community. Itās important to see feedback as a positive thing - even when it hurts your feelings and makes you want to run home from school crying because someone said something mean about your haircut. You need honest feedback to ensure you are listening, really listening to your people. Often in communities there can be power imbalances with those at the top wielding an authority that means their word or their opinion comes first - this stifles communities.
Those at the top need regular honest appraisal so they can evidently grow. Other key ways to measure growth include app downloads, website visits, session durations, frequency of use (how often do users come back. The way I see it, ) and active daily users - all will provide great insight into what is working and what isnāt.
I would hope that when it comes to winning hearts that growth isnāt necessarily measured in bigger numbers but more impact with smaller groups. Sometimes overgrowth in organisations leads to unhealthy competitive power structures within them so maybe less is more.