"TLC Approach" to Community Management
Jennifer Rosenthal
Chief Communications Officer @ DeFi Education Fund ? PRSA-NY ‘23 - 15 Under 35 Awardee
Don't go chasing waterfalls // Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to...
When I hear the phrase TLC, a few things come to mind: the song "Waterfalls" is high up on the list with the TLC television network. This post is, unfortunately, about neither of those things, but I feel like I can't write a post about TLC without paying homage to one of my favorite childhood music groups.
Instead, this post is about me "chasing" (ha!) an approach to Community Management that will help to build and sustain engaged communities on social media.
The "TLC" Approach
(AKA- Jenn's mantra/approach to Community Management)
I believe that it's important to treat communities with ‘traditional’ TLC—tender loving care. A Community Manager acts as a liaison between their community and his/her company. As such, there should be a level of respect, understanding and compassion for that community.
In order to do that effectively, I've embraced the "TLC Approach" as an acronym for Tailoring, Listening and Creating.
- Tailoring: Research shows that the highest levels of engagement are generated when content or conversation topics are specifically relevant to the audience or person to whom you’re communicating.
- Listening: In order to effectively tailor your content, you need to be acutely tuned into the wants and needs of your particular audience, and you need to identify and understand the key influencers for that particular community. (At Pearson, we use Sprinklr to aid in social listening).
- Creating: Creating is the crux of generating engagement—we want to create to show that our company is listening and wants to have positive and productive two-way conversations. Before spending time and resources on creating a piece of content or planning a particular event, it’s important to understand the audience you’re creating for, so you can be sure the audience feels a connection to that content or event.
This connection makes a community more likely to engage or advocate.
Companies can no longer be in broadcast mode. Social media and the nature of today's content consumers make it crucial for companies be thoughtful about what they're sharing with the public, and have a strategy and plan in place for Community Managers to moderate and engage with that particular audience.
I'm really interested in learning from other Community Managers (or social media mavens): what is your approach to building and sustaining engaged communities on social media?
Strategic Product Marketing @ Amazon Web Services, Board Member @ Hudson Guild
9 年Great reference to TLC (now I'll definitely have that song in my head for the rest of the week). In looking at your acronym, I think that the "T" & "L" are the most important aspects to build an engaged community. Tailoring not just content but the tone and voice of your resources and comments is key to building connections (especially since everything is now digital and targeted). At times, it's hard to figure out what your audience really wants or needs if you're just blasting out content via social, so that's where listening becomes ultra important (and sometimes you just have to reach out to quiet members to ask and listen to their opinion).
Principal at Kekst CNC
9 年Great food for thought. I think for me there's a parallel between community management and working as a teacher in a classroom. Content, just like curriculum and lessons, can't be random - it has to consider context (timing, sequencing) as well as be 'tailored' (which to me means drawing on audience experience and insights). I also think just as a teacher thinks about not only engaging his/her students, but creating ways and content for the conversation to flow among them, community manager has responsibility to think about how audience within community will interact with one another.