Why Brand Communities Matter – Part 2
Brands of any size must show their customers and leads that they are willing to engage in conversations, listen and learn from their feedback, and discover how to leverage these relationships to grow their business today.
Building effective brand communities can help your business start developing loyal support and positive buzz around your brand image.
How to Build Your Community
1. Determine which social media sites your target market is using.
2. Join those important communities and introduce yourself.
3. Start engaging in meaningful conversations in a friendly manner.
4. Always remember that if you are joining the conversation on other sites, you are the guest and must act accordingly. If they join your community on your own hosted site, then welcome each new member.
5. Do not start promoting your product or brand until your community trusts and likes you.
6. Consider setting up a ning community (ning.com) to develop a personalized brand community just for your product, allowing for a specific place for customers to come talk about your brand, and your brand only.
7. Implement channel managers to monitor the comments and feedback from consumers on each platform.
8. Analyze effectiveness of each platform and act on the results accordingly.
Existing Branded Communities
Businesses small and large are taking advantage of the immense opportunities that brand communities can provide to them. Branded websites are becoming more realtime due to the fact the consumer has the ability to weigh in on products and services.
Take CVS as an example. They have multiple branded communities including For All the Ways You Care. The more platforms in which you can engage with consumers in a manageable way, the more effective your communications and their loyalty will become.
Kraft Foods also has multiple online communities, including this highly targeted one, Mommy Snacks. I think this is a great way to develop very specific communities so that, for the example of Kraft, moms can go here to get coupons, snack ideas, and learn money saving tips for food.
In addition, Charles Schwab has launched an online community that is exclusive to active traders. Here, traders are able to participate in discussions on short and long-term investing topics, exchange information, ideas, and trading experiences, connect with other traders to share knowledge, and access Schwab themselves.
These three companies are just a snapshot of how brands today are actively engaging with customers online in both broad and specific ways. Online communities are not meant for every type of product or service, but if your targeted leads are online and discussing your brand or industry, it is highly recommended that you start to get involved.
In what ways has your company used online communities to actively engage in conversations with your audience?
What brands do you admire for their effective use of online communities?
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This is it! A clear, to the point, plain English how-to on being a thoughtful participant in the global dialogue. Thanks for the added help finding it, btw. Ok so my question is this: what's among the smarter approaches to diplomatically redirecting the interests of the hasty quantity-centric boss who is preoccupied with conversions, rather than cultivation?
Kristin Dziadul delivers a clean and plain English discussion on how to coordinate your efforts to build a community for your brand. This is a thoughtful and above all painless explanation of the process as told through Kristin's friendly, non-invasive disposition. This was a quick and pleasurable read that explains to the total social media greenhorn how to strategically insert oneself into the fray without appearing pushy or self-promoting. A great read.
Scott, great question. Like I said in the first part of this series, your boss should ask: where would the brand be without the loyal support of the customers? And could it be possible that the customers just may know more than you about your brand (as scary as that may sound). It is a tough concept to realize from a profit standpoint, but since so much of business has moved online and people are buying online, businesses must therefore be making connections with their customers online. Since we have moved away from the traditional direct selling and trade shows where conversations used to occur, we must instead develop conversations and connections online in communities. This may take time and effort, but it can be more than worth it. The value of developing a meaningful and genuine relationship with your community can be so much more valuable then sending out a mass advertisement or direct mail piece. In the third part of my series, you can read about the ROI that this can have. You can use lead generation, lead qualification, and even speed up the sales process just by interacting. I hope this helps!
Good series of postings. Thanks for sharing information on "Existing Branded Communities."
Mike Byrnes, President
Byrnes Consulting, LLC http://byrnesconsulting.com/
Twitter: ByrnesConsultin
Thanks Mike! You're welcome
I really appreciate what you post here, very refreshing and intelligent. One thing though, I’m running Firefox on Ubuntu and parts of your layout pieces are a little off. I know it’s not a popular setup, but it is still something to watch out for. Just tossing you a heads up.