How do you improve your community content and campaigns?

Setting clear goals and metrics is the compass that guides your community efforts. In addition to the mentioned points, I'd like to emphasize the importance of periodic reviews. Regularly assessing your progress against these goals allows you to adapt your strategy in real-time.

You need to know what you're looking for. Stop focusing on vanity metrics and look for metrics that clearly define the vision you have.

I understand that you might ask yourself "Why do I need KPIs? It's social media!". It's not about numbers, it's about understanding where are we heading with the content we've posted. What is the impact, and what progress are we making? If you are not tracking the data, you can't tell what type of content is preferred by your audience. Start with something basic and countable, and try Impressions/Reach and Engagement, those two will help you track the amount of people who viewed your posts and amount of people who interacted with them in any way. Keep tracking this data for a few weeks and check where you have some ups and downs - what content gets more views, and engagements - be ready to experiment a little!

Working with the numbers is tricky. You could go haywire with your content and lose focus if you rely too much on the metrics. I would say, focus on your goal, and create unique and high-quality content.

It's important you understand your audience and create content that they relate with. You can do some social media listening to get an idea of their pain points so that can help you with crafting content. It is also important to regularly check which contents are getting the most attention.

Knowing your audience is like having a secret weapon for successful community management. In addition to the mentioned methods, I'd like to highlight the importance of ongoing engagement. Regularly interacting with your community through comments, direct messages, and forums can provide real-time insights into their evolving needs and preferences.

The big mistake people/companies/charities make about going on to social media is not being able to regularly update the content and make it fresh, new and newsworthy. Social media is not something you can just dabble with, it’s a full-time job deciding on the content and making sure the content is relevant.

This strategy will also help you to attract similar kinds of consumers/audiences in the future. If you won't understand what your audience likes or dislikes, you would risk losing out on the future customers as well.

Building brand personas is an extremely important step to building an effect campaign and just running your business overall. You should include who they are, what types of jobs would they work in, how much money do they make, what’s their age range, do they have a family or not, what’s are they interested in, what problems do they have, what SM platform are they on, what drives them to make a purchase, what does their sales process look like, etc. Once you have identified who your potential customers are you can start to discover how your products or services can help them and in return help your business reach its goals.

Taking time to understand your audience can shape how you decide to show up on social media. Utilize language, colors, formatting, and interactive tools that speak to your audience, considering their age, purchasing patterns, lifestyle and more. Research social media trends and relevant hot topics to produce timely content that inspires conversation, feedback, or engagement beyond a like. Produce consistent content to remain top of mind when your target audience thinks of your product, or the specific issue that you tackle. Interact with your audience regularly to gather info and allow your audience to feel as if they're part of the decision-making process, influencing future topics of discussion, products, or social media content.

I'd like to emphasize the importance of flexibility within your calendar. While planning is crucial, the ability to adapt to real-time events and trends can make your content more relevant and timely. Moreover, consider involving your community in the calendar creation process. Seek their input and feedback to ensure your content aligns with their expectations and interests.

Your content calendar should take into consideration different seasons and other events happening during the months. This will help you align your content and even create themes.

One thing I've found helpful in managing content calendars for international organisations is linking the work they do to International Days. This creates an opportunity to tap into realtime conversations and create momentum.

Automate! Automate the delivery of your content and do so keeping in mind time zones and your target audience(s). A content calendar is how to do this, perhaps using a tool like HubSpot to ensure the consistent posting of content.

Content calendars are so helpful - especially for a high-achiever who never seems to have a spare second! I like to pre-plan my content calendar by taking it a level deeper: What is the topic/theme I'll be talking about and what kind of asset will I post with it (picture, video, poll, etc). This makes your life WAY easier when it comes to the actual content creation!

Testing, optimizing, and repurposing are the pillars of sustained community engagement. Also, I'd like to highlight the importance of continuous learning. Every test and optimization effort provides valuable data and insights. Use these learnings to refine your future content and campaigns. Lastly, when repurposing content, tailor it to each platform's unique audience and format. What works on one platform may need adjustments for another.

Integrate interactive elements like polls, quizzes, or challenges into your community content. This even helps with your feedback process!

There is no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to social media content. For example, suppose you have a longer blog post. You can use pieces of the blog post, e.g. sentences or paragraphs for use on social media liked LinkedIn. You can also repurpose part of a blog post for use as an issue of a LinkedIn newsletter.

In my opinion, repurposing does not help always. People somehow remember when they have seen content somewhere, even the algorithms rank the repurposed content low. Create fresh content always.

You’ve created powerful content that is creating great service for the community. Engage the community in considering to share these amazing new resources and moments with their community so therefore they have the opportunity to grow and improve the community that they are committed to and draw value from.

I'd like to emphasize the importance of consistency in engagement. Regular, timely responses to comments and messages show that you're actively listening and valuing your community's input.

I love the poll option on LinkedIn for gathering feedback on a product, service or campaign. One of my rules of thumb for content is a silly rhyme but it is "if more than an hour invested, it must be tested." This means that if it's going to take me more than an hour to produce, I need to create a poll or ask for feedback from my community on my LinkedIn Page first to see if it's something that they actually WANT me to create!

Without regular engagement, the communication channels become forced and ultimately break down. However, just speaking at your community doesn't build trust and most certainly does not create a platform of continuous, natural engagement. A like or a perfectly timed shout out can create the excitement and surprise factor to further position a brand as a caring brand. Trust is built up over a series of transactions or in this case a series of engagements. The insights gained from these mutual engagements can be invaluable for future campaigns.

People love when you value their opinions and give them a platform to express themselves. Here, try and invite user-generated content, it can work like magic!

One of the best ways to support and build your community is to engage with those who engage with your content. This can be as simple as commenting on a comment by someone who has liked and commented on your post. People like to be recognized and appreciated and engaging with them shows that you and your company care about those who actively choose to engage and support you and your company.

Emotions often drive people's decisions, interests, and connections. Content that resonates emotionally can create a more profound bond with the community, leading to higher trust and loyalty. If an individual follows the advice of the article without incorporating emotional engagement, the campaigns may lack authenticity and fail to create a strong connection with the audience.

People like to follow people, not brands ??♀?????♂? When I was managing a media company’s socials, anytime one of our journalists offered an inside look at a feature story they’re working on by posting a Twitter thread, their posts tend to get more engagement which led to their followers clicking on to the actual story on the website. Giving a face behind the brand offers more authenticity and trust!

Building a stronger community takes time and effort. Continuously refine the strategies based on the changing needs and preferences of your community members. Acknowledge and celebrate community milestones, such as reaching a certain number of members or achieving a goal. Highlight individual community members' achievements. Establish clear community guidelines to maintain a positive and respectful atmosphere. Enforce moderation policies consistently to address any disruptive behavior.

One of the biggest mistake a community owner can make is seeing their community members as followers versus partners or Co-leaders In my humble opinion, It is vital to create collaboration in leadership with your community. Highlight and reward those that are engaging in the behavior that the community stands for and rewarded for it by doing so you’ll inspire other members to become more like the leaders of the community, which allows you to leverage your time and create a more powerful community