The advantages of having an online community for your business

Here’s your guide to creating well engaged online groups

As business owners who are very much based online (we have websites and social media), it’s fair to say that many of us are involved in some form of online community or group.

By definition, an online community is a group of people who interact online – straightforward, isn’t it!

You may be in a general group that everyone can join (i.e. generalist business groups, mums in business etc.) or a private group (i.e. for a course, a specialist training group, a private network etc.).

Have you ever considered starting an online community?  

Online communities have shown they’re a reliable marketing tactic. Although you’re not in a group to sell yourself (blatant sales pitches won’t be well received), you build a group by sharing your knowledge. You become the trusted expert, and with trust comes loyalty.

Brands that use online community groups build stronger relationships with their customers. And when you’re mixing directly with your customers, you’ll get fantastic intel. People in groups tend to open up, share their experiences, and talk about what they need.

You’ll hear straight from your customers how you’re helping them or what else they need so you can target your marketing and improve your offering.

Here are 5 steps to build an online community

1.      Decide if you’ll need help

Treat your online community as an extension of your business. It will need some degree of organisation to avoid a chaotic mess with your customers feeling ignored.

If you have time to monitor all comments and posts, go for it. However, you may find this time-consuming, and you’ll need to get a ‘community manager’ on board.

2.      Set your community’s purpose

You need to know what you want your community to achieve, and your audience needs to understand WHY they should join your group in the first place.

You need to offer people a specific reason for being involved in your community.

For example, you may run a real estate agency. Rather than having a general group, you could create a group for a suburb that people either living in the area or looking to move to the area can join.

Quite often on social media, there are posts from people saying, ‘I’m thinking of moving to the area soon and would like to know about…schools, parks, shops etc.’. If you had a group you could direct potential buyers to (that’s also filled with others on your database who already live in that suburb), you’d become known as the area expert, and they’re more likely to come back to you when they want to purchase a property.

3.      Create the group online

Depending on your purpose, if you have a small intimate group, you could set up your group on a platform like Instagram or WhatsApp, where you’d create a group DM or chat.

If you want to attract a bigger audience, Facebook groups are the most popular online community groups available, and Reddit is another option for larger groups.  

4.      Set the rules

It’s your group, so you get to be the boss and set some rules! Don’t zap all the fun out of the group, but if you have specific topics that you don’t want to be discussed or particular language to be used (e.g. offensive) – say so.

For example, if you’re a real estate agency, you don’t want people tagging or mentioning competitor real estate agencies in your group. You may also note that no local business slander is allowed, and only positive comments are acceptable.

5.      Start promoting your group

Once you’ve got everything in place, it’s time to get people to join your community. Remember that you have a purpose and don’t want just anyone joining. To make sure you’re only allowing people in who your group is intended for, you can set a couple of ‘qualifying’ questions.

As people join, make sure there’s a welcome message with a note to read your group rules. And most importantly, make sure you’ve got your branding all over it! You should be using your logo and brand colours in the headers and photos as a minimum.

You could also have a welcome video that people can watch as they join.

As momentum grows, monitor your sign up and engagement rates and make adjustments if you need. Remember to invite any existing customers to join (if they fit the purpose of your group), and encourage people to share the group with their communities.

Online communities and groups can work for any business

Online community groups require attention and effort to be successful. If you don’t have time but know your audience would benefit from connecting, get a social media (or community) manager on board to help.

For an online community to be popular, it must be vibrant and have loads of interaction. Having a dedicated team member monitor your group means you’ll keep your group active.

They can moderate the comments and ban those breaking your group rules and giving your brand a bad rep. They should also know enough about your business to respond to comments and questions on your behalf and create an engaged audience.

As with anything in business, if you don’t communicate with your audience, they will lose interest, and your group will become a ghost town.

And if you need any help with your social media or you’d like to learn more about creating an online community, please get in touch.