Are You Building a Community Around Your Business?

First, when it comes to social media, what do I mean by “community”?

Oxford literally defines community as: a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.

As businesses on social media, creating and nurturing a sense of community around our companies is one of our many responsibilities. A large social media following is great. A growing social media following of any size, which engages with your content consistently, is better.

Why You Need Community on Social Media

The clearest reason building community is important is that it promotes engagement. An actively engaged community brings users closer to your brand, even those who may not follow you yet. Your community also organically places your business in front of other users on almost any social media platform (therefore attracting potential clients/customers/leads to you).

Healthy business communities create a sense of welcoming and excitement. Communities build brand awareness and loyalty, too! Those in your community will serve as ambassadors for your company as they want to share their positive experiences. Positive social media comments and engagement beget more positive connections and even motivate others to share their own wonderful experiences. This, in turn, grows trust in your brand. If potential followers see a thriving community, it’s an indicator of trustworthiness and quality business.

Companies that build community have more followers who are engaged with their content.

How Do You Build a Community Around Your Business?

• Invite your people: Invite friends and family who may be genuinely interested in your company, to like and follow your account. Those you know well, you can ask to support you by interacting with your posts and sharing your content. This initial audience helps establish trust, build your reputation, and spread the word about your brand.
• Invite your business connections: Invite those you are partnered with or have worked with in the past to like and follow your account.
• Use social media calls to action (CTAs): Add social media CTAs to your website. For example, embedding the Facebook Like button allows visitors to like your page without leaving your website.
• Use hashtags: Another great way to build your community organically is by using hashtags in posts. Hashtags continue to be a fantastic way to put your content in front of new faces.
• Cross-promote your social media accounts: Share your social media accounts across platforms. For example, if you share links to your Instagram account on your LinkedIn profile, and your podcast on your Instagram account, you’re maximizing your reach across these platforms.
• Engage with your community: This point can’t be stressed enough. If your followers feel like they're only being spoken to and not engaged with when they ask questions or post comments, they won’t be around for long. It is so important to respond to your followers.
• Use the ‘language of social media’ (GIFs, emojis, memes, etc.): When used in a relevant way, your content becomes relatable and shareable (and your business more likable).

Community Building Best Practices

Know your voice: Your business voice should be authentic and consistent. Your community wants to be able to depend on you.

Share with purpose: The majority of the content you share should be helpful content, catered to the interests of your audience. This means that only a small percentage of your content should be direct business promotion. Again, authenticity is important.

Post about broad topics that you can dive into more specifically: You might have a topic you post about on a certain day of each week or a series of posts that your followers can look forward to! Recurring topics also encourage engagement on social media.

This last note may go without saying, but I'm going to remind you anyway! Keep track of what content is engaging your audience. Adjust and pivot, adjust and pivot … as much and as often as you need to. Providing valuable content to your followers should always be at the forefront of your community-building strategy.

Still need help? Work with an agency or social media partner like Next Step Social. You can utilize a highly-experienced team of professionals to help increase awareness of your account and kickstart your community. Contact us here so I can learn more about you and your goals!