If there’s one thing to be taken away from having lived and worked through the global Covid-19 pandemic, it’s that digital communities are now more important than ever!
Whether you’re a large multi-national company with a large-scale marketing budget or simply the local café owner down the road with little to no marketing budget – every business can harness the power of a digital community.
A digital community includes a group of people with a shared interest or purpose who meet online so that they can connect, ask questions and share ideas or information.
Digital communities can be created around products, services, recipes, courses, fitness groups – practically, anything! The fact that you can build a digital community to any topic immediately should highlight the importance of a digital community and how you could potentially utilise these types of communities to build loyalty and referrals through peers and customers.
While creating and maintaining a digital community doesn’t have to be a difficult task, it should focus on the following points in order to get the most out of it. These include:
This one might sound like a “no-brainer”, but before anything else you need to be absolute clear as to what the purpose of your digital community will be.
For instance, ask yourself:
- What is the goal of your new digital community group?
- What are your business’s goals and priorities?
- Is this something you can maintain, yet keep on ‘topic’?
Defining your purpose of your digital community will go a long way into integrating with your business, goals & objectives as well as providing that helpful community vibe that it should.
This step will closely resemble your business’ current target market, but may be slightly different due to the online focus that a digital community embodies.
Make sure that the members that you intend to target will have a genuine interest in your digital community as well the ability to be a part of it.
For example, if your desired members are Facebook users, then you had better make sure they have active accounts.
A successful digital community will incorporate no shortage or relevant and engaging content on a regular basis. The content should be helpful (not a sales pitch!) and is likely to help your members solve and discuss problems they are facing.
Your content strategy might incorporate a variety of items, such as guides, video tutorials, info-graphics or blog post articles.
Choosing the right platform will depend on what type of digital community you are looking to create.
Example 1: Professional Online Courses & Development
In this instance, a platform such as Zoom or Skype might be imperative to the online learning experience.
Example 2: Fashion Inspiration
Contrary to the above example, this industry would require a highly visual platform such as Instagram whereby digital communities can connect via comments or hashtags.
If you want your community to succeed, then you’ll have to remain a very active member yourself. After all, if you expect others to engage and contribute then you need to as well.
You can even help others to engage by welcoming new members, asking questions of members, or even running competitors to help expand your digital community.
Summing Up
We hope that you have found these 5 tips on how to create, maintain and grow digital communities very useful.
Bonus tip: the best digital community hub for any business should always be your website. Your website is something you have full control over and says everything about your business and brand. It’s also an excellent tool for promoting your content and brand as well as being your very own resource tool. Once you have achieved this, then your digital community can truly flourish.
Covid-19 has certainly changed things forever, but that in no way has to be a bad and profitless move. Knowing how to pivot your digital strategy is crucial and something we have helped many small and medium businesses across Australia to do during these (and other) challenging times. If you need assistance crafting your very own digital community, then please just contact us.