Best Practices for Community Management
The term community management is often affiliated with social media management. And while it forms a fundamental part of a social media marketing strategy, community management becomes so much more important as your followers and customer base grows.
Community management is all about retaining the relationships that you build through your social media strategy. And, if you want to build long-lasting relationships with your customers via social media platforms, then it really isn’t something you cannot afford to invest in. If you finished reading this short guide and still unsure of the best way to approach community management for your business, then we recommend getting in touch we a digital marketing agency who will be able to help.
What Exactly is Community Management?
When you think of the word “community”, you often think of just one location. But, when it comes to the internet and your customers, they are quite literally spread all over the place. Think about all of the different social media platforms that your customers are on; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, Quora, and there is a load more.
If you are not currently managing your community on all of these different social media platforms, then you could be missing out on the following opportunities.
- Win new customers
- Turn existing customers into loyal fans
- Build meaningful relationships
- Get valuable feedback about products
- Connect with influencers
- Manage customers complaints
- Network with other brands that could lead to partnerships
Why Does Community Management Matter?
If you think that community management doesn’t have a big impact when it comes to interacting with customers then, unfortunately, you are wrong. In the past 5 years, customer complaints on social media have increased 8 times. A single unhappy customer’s complaint on social media can travel at extreme speed and been seen by quite literally thousands of users within just a few minutes, so it’s more important than ever to manage these complaints to maintain your brand reputation on social media.
Handling these complaints, finding conversations to become involved in or literally starting your own is a must for any business that wants to last in the world of social media. And, ultimately it is the key to growing an online community that will be loyal to your brand. Community management is what presents your brand to the world of social media as likeable and popular amongst users. If you invest time into managing your community, then you will build a loyal fanbase that will consistently choose you over your competitor.
The Four Elements of Community Management: Monitoring, Engaging, Moderating and Measuring
Monitoring. Community management on social media isn’t possible without consistently listening to what users are saying. This means monitoring the different social media platforms for the conversations that are the most relevant to your brand whether they be negative or positive conversations.
Engaging. Every comment that is made on social media leaves a footprint. The more positive comments you business and your community generate, the stronger your brand and the more trusted you will be.
Moderating. Another important component of community management is managing your brand’s reputation on social media. This involves keeping your social profiles clean from any unwanted content and ensuring that any negative comments or feedback is addressed.
Measuring. Figure out which social media platforms your community is the most active on and where you’re most likely to satisfy your main objectives. In order to do this, it is crucial that you regularly measure your social media efforts.
Invest in Somebody to Manage Your Community
It is always a great idea to have a dedicated person managing your community on social media. This will mean that your brand’s voice will be consistent over a long period of time and your audience will become familiar with the way you interact with them. However, if you run a large company and don’t believe that you have the resources at hand to manage it yourself, then a digital marketing agency can do just that. But, before you choose somebody to manage your community, you need to make sure that they possess the following traits.
But, before you choose somebody to manage your community, you need to make sure that they possess the following traits.
- A strong understanding of what your business is and the industry that you specialise in.
- Impeccable experience in social media management.
- The ability to analyse different data sets.
- Strong communication skills.
- Strong social networking skills.
- Creativity and Humour.
- Passionate about social media.
- Friendly and approachable.
