There will be people who will be highly active in certain online communities. There will also be people who aren’t as active. Sometimes getting people to simply sign up is the most challenging part. That challenge can be met with effective community marketing practices. Here are four simple ideas for an effective community marketing strategy.
Drawings for engagement
Create a drawing for the most active participants in a community. The drawing should be marketed via all other social media outlets and communications from the brand. In order to set up the drawing, there should be requirements. For a designated amount of weeks, individual activities can be tracked. Those counted among the most active participants should be included in the drawing. As the timeline progresses, top participants should be publicized in order to keep the momentum and buzz going. You’ll also need a good prize, liked tipped polos with your business logo on them, to really incentivize people to participate.
Turning negative feedback into proactive support solutions
Build a solutions-oriented community focusing on the product or service. Consumers are most likely to report on something that is negative in nature. This means that it is most ideal for the business to engage consumers on their terms and invite people to discuss their issues in a controlled, helpful environment. The letters and threads can be launched internally based off of consumer complaints. Individuals can then join in on discussions and engage with technical experts.
Promote the communities everywhere
Market the highly visible activities at multiple touch points. One of the biggest challenges is baiting followers and participants to remain active. Take the most common threads from community members and market them into the major social platforms. For example, the business should capitalize off of the momentum from a major and active thread. Invite participants who respond to the threads to engage directly within the communities.
Engage influencers
Reaching out to journalists, bloggers and major influencers in a group is something all businesses should do proactively when launching their communities. The goal is to have bloggers cross promote their activities and introduce their communities to their major audiences. If a business is in a unique industry, finding the right influencers to help market the community can be essential. Sending out media kits and promotional materials to key demographics can be done to initiate the dialog with top influencers.
The first step to building any online community is generating awareness. A business will have its share of challenges getting their community building efforts off the ground. Building an online community requires being active in promoting the community across various platforms and in all forms of communications with consumers. These four simple ideas for community marketing will help you get your community off the ground
