Why community should be at the heart of your social media strategy ??

If you're looking for the 101 on how to incorporate a feeling of community into your social media strategy, then you’re in the right place.?Understanding consumers is at the heart of everything we do. We get under the skin of every brand we work with and truly understand what makes them different. We understand your brand values, who your target consumer is, what makes them tick and then activate campaigns to get you noticed.

Blast from the past

Remember the days when Instagram was purely for sharing unfiltered photos of what you were up to amongst your friends? The days before the platform became a place for businesses to use to their advantage?

We do, and we can bet your audience does too! So to persuade them that your business hasn't jumped onto the platform like everyone else (purely as a money-making tactic) you’re going to have to work a little harder to create a virtual environment in which the focus is shifted away from just sales and more in the direction of a community.?

Here's our 6 takeaways:

1. Nobody likes a pushy salesman!

Online communities want to see helpful content which caters to their interests NOT pushy sales posts or constant business promotion. According to Sprout Social, 57% of consumers will follow a brand to learn about new products or services while 47% will follow to stay up to date on company news. Aim for an 80% - 20% split, whereby 80% of your content should provide value to your audience.?

2. Do you spend your week looking forward to Strictly on a Saturday? Your audience might feel the same!

Create recurring topics or a post series. Online communities love an opportunity to tune into weekly or monthly topics which they have the opportunity to participate in. One way to encourage participation is through developing hashtags specific to your community.?

Responsive brands that continuously react and engage in two-way communication with consumers are better equipped to serve their customers’ needs, dial up personalisation and humanise content in a way that forges deeper connections with customers.

3. POV: you’re on a first date and all they have spoken about is themselves...

Just like any successful relationship a community requires two-way conversation between the brand and its audience. It's key to be responsive and engage with your audience on a more personal level - by showing your appreciation for their comments they are more likely to continue contributing and encourage others to do so too! Introducing... Thursday.

Thursday is renowned for having some of the quickest replies on LinkedIn and as a result they're sparking viral conversations on the daily.

It pays to be different from the rest and to be authentic.

The stats speak for themselves - 78% of consumers are willing to buy from a company after having a positive experience with them on social media, so it’s pretty important that you engage as much as possible with your audience.

4. Just keep it real

People love to interact with other people so make sure you have a clear brand voice that doesn’t sound too professional or far-detached from your audience because relatability is crucial when it comes to trust. Social media is supposed to be social after all!?

There are so many opportunities to have fun with your brand voice too - take Innocent as an example, their reactive wittiness and big online personality has become a tell-tale part of their brand. Take a look at their response to the social media outage back in October.

5. Prepare for the worst…

By nature social media is unpredictable, we wouldn't recommend placing the fate of the community you have built, solely in the hands of these platforms. TOP TIP: Build an email list alongside your online community to prepare for any sort of social media disaster!?

This also enhances your relationship with your customers by making them feel part of a VIP club whereby they can receive exclusive news and early-bird discounts.??

6. It pays to give

Be sure to reward your audience by sharing their content, running competitions and most importantly make sure they know you are thankful for them. This is a key example of operant conditioning and will facilitate the development of a loyal community base ??

Let's use our own work as an example!

Our client Llanmoor Homes is a family-run, new home developer - it's especially important to them that they build communities as well as high quality houses.?

Our organic social strategy across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest includes educational content, homeowner case studies, competitions, brand partnerships, and user-generated content.

We've made it a priority to share the stories of Llanmoor’s new homeowners and welcome them to our virtual community as well as the physical one they live in.

We love to run seasonal competitions exclusively for Llanmoor homeowners, to give back a little something and show our thanks for their ongoing support.?The most recent competition winners won ￡500 to spend on Christmas decorations - which they will be able to use and love for many years to come!

When it comes to the success of putting community at the heart of your strategy, the stats speak for themselves - these tactics, among others have led to the following results:

?? 4.8 million organic impressions

?? Website traffic increased by 122%

?? Engagements increased by 48.9%

?? Audience growth increased by 81.5%

With NO paid spend.

Let us help you...

If you feel like a sense of community is missing from your brand’s online presence but you don’t have the time nor expertise, we are happy to help - drop us an email at [email protected]