The Rise of Community Management Platforms in the Era of Disconnection

by Daaku M. Digital Marketing

With over a third of adults globally experiencing loneliness, companies are tapping into the power of online communities to build genuine connections with their customers. Enter community management platforms – the new frontier in audience engagement.

Despite living in an increasingly connected world with a global social media usage rate hovering around 50%, many still feel isolated and lacking a sense of belonging. This disconnection doesn't just impact personal relationships, but also the way customers relate to brands. Which is why a growing number of businesses are turning to community management strategies to facilitate real relationships and engagement.

 

What exactly is community management? 

In essence, it's about leveraging opportunities across digital and real-life channels to create an interactive network where a company's customers, partners, and fans can communicate, share experiences, and cultivate feelings of membership. 

The benefits of fostering a engaged brand community are vast, including the ability to crowdsource ideas and feedback, offer rapid customer service, amplify brand awareness, understand audience needs and preferences, connect customers to facilitating valuable networks, and ultimately boost customer satisfaction, loyalty, and referrals. 

While community management and social media marketing may seem similar on the surface, they each require unique strategies to succeed. Social media managers tend to focus solely on organic and paid campaigns on each social channel, mapping out content strategies and analyzing performance metrics. 

In contrast, a community manager's number one priority is interacting directly with members through comments, direct messages, and designated community spaces. They gather insights from these one-on-one touchpoints to share back with the wider team and shape future engagement. 

Perhaps the most significant differentiator? Social media managers act and post as the faceless brand, while community leaders operate as approachable individuals, allowing for more intimate, human connections with followers. 

Rather than sidelining customer service requests through social media, the focus of community management is providing real-time assistance, maximizing each personal interaction to truly understand customers and build long-lasting relationships.

 

Building an Effective Community Management Strategy 

Choose your channel thoughtfully 

Think about your audience demographics and behaviors to select the most fitting communication method. Options include Facebook Groups, Twitter Communities, Discord, Slack, product feedback platforms like Geneva, and more. This is an emerging space without hard conventions, so feel empowered to experiment with creative approaches like hosting a community on Discord. What matters most is understanding where your customers prefer to engage. 

Clarify how you'll define success 

Depending on your company's goals, determine how you'll track performance. Possible metrics include community size and growth rate, number of participating members, engagement indicators like likes/comments/shares, social mentions, improvements in brand sentiment, website traffic sources, customer retention rates, and revenue/conversions influenced by community activity. At times, success criteria like an increased sense of fellowship can be challenging to quantify – track both tangible data points and qualitative indicators.  

Engage thoughtfully and consistently 

Building a thriving community requires consistent interactive effort beyond just broadcasting information. Proactively encourage user-generated content, respond promptly to comments, leverage polls and surveys, and find creative ways to spotlight community members - like highlighting remote worker home offices in a community newsletter. 

Measure performance and adapt based on feedback 

There's no one-size-fits-all approach to community measurement, so monitor various engagement, sentiment, and survey metrics to understand member behaviors and satisfaction. Share metrics and insights across teams, and conduct period pulse checks with the community itself on future wants/needs. 

Define clear guidelines 

A code of conduct and behavior standards will help preserve your community as an inclusive, productive space that authentically represents your brand. Clearly outline respectful treatment, spam/harassment policies, any rules around promotional sharing, etc. Share guidelines prominently and reference them regularly. 

The rise of brand communities signals a craving for digital spaces that offer belonging and connection on a human level. And with innovation in the community management space, there's exciting potential to foster meaningful relationships and engagement between companies and customers. By investing in thoughtful community strategy powered by dedicated team members, brands have an opportunity to turn loneliness into lasting bonds.

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Created on Feb 9th 2024 22:14. Viewed 119 times.

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