The concept of online community, and brands engaging directly with their customers, prospects, critics and stakeholder, is still relatively new; and many companies considering a move into social media are nervous of the perceived loss of control. Graeme Harvey, managing director of HuzuTech explains more.
So for many the starting point is Facebook. With 400 million active users spending 500 billion minutes per month it is undoubtedly important for a consumer-facing brand to create and own its own Facebook page. But it is not without issues, not least company pages created automatically, sometimes with content from unauthorised sources.
So, it’s always struck us as strange that companies should take their first steps in social media by creating a community on a social network where they have no control at all. Why give away all that valuable customer data and advertising revenue to a third party? Or limit yourself to someone elses functionality?
Early adopter brands are increasingly using social media communities as part of their customer relations strategy. Eircom, the Irish telecoms operator, has created its own, highly successful customer community – eircom connect – which complements its existing customer support services, and improves online customer communications by opening up a genuinely two-way dialogue with customers.
Could you do this on Facebook? The answer, simply, is no. To have a meaningful engagement within a customer community, you need more than the kind of forum provided by Facebook.
So, what are the key things to consider if you want to create a social media community?
What are your objectives?
Firstly, work out exactly what you want to achieve. If it is to provide a great customer service experience, you need to consider what tools your customers will expect from you. Do you want the community to act as a sales channel? In which case, you need the facilities allow this to happen.
What is the killer reason for people to come to your site?
Like any site, a branded community has to have a compelling reason for consumers to visit. That might be because you provide specialist information or unique content; or because consumers can get great deals, that they can’t get elsewhere; or because they can take part in an experience online; or because it’s your customer service hub and your customers get great service there. Plus, good communities are a two way street consumers should get the opportunity to interact with many fellow consumers rather than the one to many communication that is common in static marketing websites.
Can the community become self-funding?
Consumers are often more receptive to relevant advertising on a specialist community than they are on a generic social network. You might consider some targeted advertising; or a sponsored area of the site (for example, if you’re a fashion retailer, you might have an area of the community sponsored by a fashion label that you stock). In this way, you can create a community that actually generates value and income. Because members of communities are self selecting – they are actively interested in the topic that the community covers – they are much more likely to respond positively to tightly targeted advertising than consumers without a specific interest.
How will you measure success?
The size of a community doesn’t necessarily reflect its success. On an owned community, you can measure: what action consumers take after being on your community; what are the most profitable areas of the community; who are the most valuable members of that community – so you can reward them and encourage them to be your advocates; and what, ultimately, the financial impact has been of the community (by including a sales channel, for example). You should also keep a close eye through social analytics on areas that are not operating to plan and react quickly to any negativity or issues created.
With your own community you have a wide choice of tools that you can provide to its members, from activity streams and private messaging, through comment and rating functions to connect functions - so you can connect to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc and share content between networks.
As the community manager you can utilize tools that allow you to generate income through sales or advertising; targeted content; and analyse activity and commercial success.
The level of control that a brand can have on its own community, as opposed to a third party social network page, is what makes it such a compelling proposition. If the barrier to social media take-up by brands is control, then providing a social community within the brand’s ultimate control seems to be an ideal answer.
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