Will Community Management Be The Future Of Digital Marketing?
Why is community management taking digital marketing by storm?
Community management is set to hold a strong position as a buzz word in 2021. According to Krystal Wu, HubSpot’s Social Media Community Manager, brands rely on community managers to be their tone, voice and human element that hold it together – and carry it farther. (1) Working with your internal team to project your brand values and nurture your customers online, a community manager will empower your brand and transform the way you think about digital marketing and social media.
But before we discuss the benefits of hiring a community manager for your business, let’s first consider the role and importance of an online community.
What Are Online Communities?
Whether you’re a small business or an international brand, building a community online is becoming increasingly important for digital marketing.
In the real world, communities form the foundation of modern-day society, providing a safety net of support and knowledge sharing. Humans are naturally social creatures, and we tend to feel safer when in a group dynamic. When things become difficult, communities offer help, advice and first-hand experience, and this forms a strong bond between individuals from all walks of life. When people come together with a shared interest or goal, they become more powerful, and this group dynamic is not to be underestimated!
Online communities, such as Facebook groups, forums and hashtags empower groups of people online. Whether it’s following a huge brand on social media or connecting over a shared interest, online communities may hold the key to your online success. By tapping into online communities, or forming your own digital group, you can position your business and brand as an industry leader, creating a corner of the internet where your brand provides information, advice, support, tips, resolutions, answers and entertainment. In this digital microcosm, you hold the power to convert users into loyal customers.
The question is, who from your team will take on this new position?
The Importance of Community Management
To have an authentic social voice for your brand, you need to be a real person and that entails hopping online every once in a while. Trust us, finding balance in the always-on world of social will make you a better community manager—and human being! Brandie McCallum @LTTLEWYS. (2)
If your business has a following on social media, it comes with the responsibility to nurture your community. When a customer reaches out to you, you need to be engaging, responsive and reactive. Authentic responses and engagement generates more loyalty than a generic presence ever will, and this is where a community manager comes in – fully immersing in the business and personify your brand’s tone of voice and brand values.
While implementing new ways to engage with your community online, they’ll wear the face of your business and bring a human element to your social media groups. Setting them up with their own branded social media profiles (separate to your business accounts) can help by giving them a link to your brand without being viewed like a corporate employee. By paving the way forward for a more playful and relatable approach to social media marketing, you can shake up your social media strategy and reap the benefits. (3)
So, let’s check out all the ways welcoming a community manager to your team will pay off.
Benefits of Hiring a Community Manager
Save time and prevent negative customer reviews by managing and responding to online customer enquiries, questions and complaints
● Get a window into the lives of your online audience to help tailor your digital marketing strategy
● Turn existing customers into loyal fans of your brand
● Network with other brands and influencers online to form exciting collaborations
● Receive valuable insight into your online customers and their honest opinions about your brand, product or services
● Have a real person representing you online that customers can relate and respond to
Building and nurturing an online community will not only save your business a lot of time in the long run, but also help you both save and make more money. From building trust and credibility as a brand to helping you make more data-driven business decisions, online communities allow brands to get inside the minds of their customers. So, instead of investing in pay per click ads to drive traffic to your product pages, you can instead answer industry-related questions, post advice and tips to your online audience, and create an organic community interested in your brand and business.
How Community Management Will Transform Digital Marketing
So, how will community managers take over the standard social media marketing role?
Engagement has remained a buzz word throughout the digital marketing world for the past couple of years, yet some brands have still not quite mastered engagement optimization by investing the right time, energy and resources into being present in the moment. While it can be time-consuming to respond to everyone online, this investment will help you to build brand awareness and loyalty through nurtured online communities.
Adapt Your Social Media Strategy
Social media has become an important part of daily life. It’s where we catch up with friends and family, vent our frustrations, and share our experiences, top tips and advice. For brands hoping to connect with their online customers in a more meaningful way, social media is an invaluable tool to listen and monitor user behaviour. It’s the most effective platform to analyse brand mentions, reinforce brand loyalty and reward customers with exclusive offers.
As a new approach to digital marketing, community management will nurture online communities while providing insight, information, customer service and creative content in real-time. While a social media manager will spend time scheduling content to go live across different platforms at the best times of day, a community manager’s role will involve being ready on the social media frontline to respond, reply, comment and share information at a moment’s notice.
The bottom line? Community management forms a key part of online customer service. Breaking down barriers between brands, businesses and online users, this new style of social media marketing will focus on building trust, brand awareness and transparency. It’s all about nurturing leads and moving customers further down the sales funnel and keeping your customers happy. And since knowledge is power – the more informed your customers are, the more likely they will be to invest in your brand. (4)
Unlock The Power Of Community Management
Whether you post on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn or TikTok, the social media world shows no sign of slowing down. The idea of trying to juggle being relevant, responsive, on-trend and engaging across each platform as a business or digital marketing professional can feel daunting – but there are great ways to manage your online presence.
Check out our new service on Fiverr: Community Management. Find services from strategy planning, team sourcing, partnerships, monetization and community management and engagement. Nurture your online community and position your brand as an industry expert with help from digital marketing professionals around the world. Click here to explore your possibilities.
We hope that after reading this article, the next time you hear the term ‘community management’ you’ll know exactly what this role involves!
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References:
1: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/community-management-expert-advice
3:https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-vs-community-manager/
4:https://www.shopify.com/blog/community-management
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