The concept of managing communities may seem straightforward.
But a community management strategy is what separates the ‘omg I love them!’ brands from all the rest.
If you really want to make an impact on your audience, it’s going to require a little bit of planning. Come with me to take your community management efforts to the next level.
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Think about some of your favorite brands and how they interact with their audiences.
Personally, I love Duolingo’s approach to community management. It’s authentic, consistent, and human. When you see the Duo owl in the comments section on TikTok, it’s to be expected. It’s almost like they belong there.
Plus, they get an A+ from me on content creation. Posts like these are a big part of why my Spanish-learning streak is still alive. (I’m on day 580, btw.)
While this strategy works for Duolingo, it won’t work for everyone. That’s because your community management strategy is unique to your brand. It all depends on who your audience is and what you want to accomplish.
Jenny Sowyrda, manager of community strategy and operations at HubSpot, says you’ll want to take “the needs of your community members, the key goals associated with your community, and the business goals of your community” into consideration when designing your strategy.
And sometimes, those needs and goals will change as you begin to scale.
But before we talk about growth, let’s start with six simple steps to help you get your community up and running.
1. Define your objectives.
The first step to develop a community management strategy (that actually works) is understanding what success looks like for your brand.
What do you want to achieve?
Your answer may include one or more of the following:
- Increase brand awareness
- Gather product feedback for product development
- Increase engagement
- Enhance customer support
- Build a network of brand advocates
- Increase traffic to a website
- Increase customer satisfaction and retention
- Boost sales and conversions
Defining objectives upfront helps you lay the groundwork for your entire strategy. Every decision you make from this point on — such as choosing platforms and content types — will tie back to this step.
2. Identify your audience.
After you define your primary objectives, the next thing to do is identify and understand your audience.
That means gathering data on your current and target customers, including:
- Demographics: Who are they (age, gender, profession, etc.)?
- Psychographics: What are their values, attitudes, and lifestyles?
- Behaviors: How do they interact with brands and content online? What social media platforms do they use?
- Needs and challenges: What are they seeking to gain from being part of a community? What challenges are they hoping to overcome?
To gather this intel, I recommend starting with market research, social media analytics, and customer surveys.
Taking time to understand the target audience will help you refine your communication strategy and tailor your activities to their needs and interests.
3. Choose the right channels.
Next, choose the platforms where your communities are most active. That could include social media, a forum like Reddit, Slack channels, or even offline meetups.
When choosing the best platform for your target community, consider these factors:
- Audience preferences: Ensure the platform(s) align with the way your audience prefers to communicate. For example, I might choose to focus my energy on TikTok if I have a young target audience or LinkedIn if I’m targeting a B2B crowd.
- Objectives and type of interaction: Remember those objectives we talked about earlier? They play a big role here, and so does the type of interactions you want from your audience. For example, Instagram is great for real-time engagement.
- Level of control: Figure out how much oversight you want over the user experience. For example, you have more control over if you host a community on your own website versus a third-party platform.
- Platform tools and features. Consider the community management offerings for each option. For example, if you’re hoping to engage your audience via quizzes and polls, choose a channel that supports this.
A big part of a successful community management strategy is being in the right place at the right time.
4. Set your targets.
Your targets will naturally flow from your primary objectives.
For example: If the primary goal is to increase engagement, a sample target could be to increase the average comments per social media post by 15% in the next three months.
Or, if the goal is to gather feedback in order to improve a product, a potential target could be to collect and respond to at least 100 customer feedback submissions each month.
My top tip? Set realistic targets. Here’s how:
- Consider industry benchmarks: Look at similar communities from other brands in your industry and set a baseline based on their average past performance.
- Run your own experiments: Design a couple of quick-hit experiments to determine what your average metrics are (e.g., brand mentions, engagements), and use those numbers as your benchmarks.
- Start small: Cultivating a thriving community takes time and consistent effort. Begin with small goals and gradually escalate them as your community grows.
Max Pete, community engagement program manager at Square, also notes the importance of aligning your targets with your company resources.
“Realistically, you have to have bandwidth and capacity. Otherwise, you're setting yourself up to fail,” says Pete.
“Consider what needs to get done ASAP and what’s going to make the biggest impact — while also keeping in line with budget and realistic timelines for you and your team.”
For example, if you’re a solopreneur, try responding to comments within 48 hours instead of a more ambitious target like 12 hours.
It's great to aim high, but it’s also important to understand what’s achievable with your current resources.
5. Post regularly and engage with your audience.
Consistent posting and active engagement are crucial to keeping your community vibrant. Make sure you have a steady stream of content flowing so you sustain interest.
Depending on your goals and the type of community, content could include:
- Blog posts or articles: To establish yourself as a thought leader.
- Polls and quizzes: To gather valuable insights.
- Discussion prompts: To spark conversation.
- Contests and giveaways: To encourage/reward member participation.
Regular posting helps maintain visibility in your members’ feeds and keeps your brand on top of their minds.
That said, life happens, and you can‘t be online every minute. Don’t let that silence your community.
Content calendars, as shown in the video below, are a great way to plan ahead.
And tools like HubSpot’s Marketing Hub let you schedule posts in advance.
Aside from posting, remember to interact with your people. Like their comments and respond to their questions or concerns.
Show them that you value their support. In turn, you’re likely to get even more insight into their needs, preferences, and challenges.
6. Measure your results.
Finally, it’s time to see if your hard work is paying off.
Take the time to evaluate your metrics. This will tell you whether what you’re doing is resonating with your audience. If not, you may need to change tactics.
Here are some tried-and-true methods for tracking your success:
- Social listening: Monitor your social accounts for any mentions, keywords, or discussions related to your brand (and your competitors). If the sentiment is positive, then you know you’re doing something right.
- Platform analytics: Use built-in tools, like X Analytics and Instagram Insights, to get direct insights into the engagement and reach of your posts and interactions.
- Third-party tools: For deeper analysis, consider using an external resource to gather data. My favorites are HubSpot's Social Media Management tools, Google Analytics, and Sprout Social.
My advice? Don‘t get hung up too much on quantitative data. Numbers can’t always capture the magic of a thriving community. Plus, community building takes time. Be patient, and focus on the long game.
Create, Connect, Engage
You now have the ingredients to start a community that your customers, partners, and supporters want to be a part of. When you put them all together into a cohesive strategy, that’s when the magic really happens.
