Rik Courtney, CEO of Be More Social – the UK’s fastest growing social media marketing consultancy – reveals the whys and the hows of building and engaging with a community for social media success.
As a result of my time in the world of social media consultancy, I know all too well that social media success looks different from one business to the next, and the methods of building that success are constantly evolving. Though, the one thing that remains throughout them all is people.
Whether your social media marketing goal is to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website or generate leads, your community is what’s going to help achieve it.
People spend – on average – 145 minutes per day scrolling through Instagram reels, Twitter threads and everything in between. With a 24/7 window for engagement, social media is a proven driver for community building, and nurturing customer interactions should be a focal point of your social media marketing strategy.
Here’s why:
Broaden your reach
So, you’ve established a decent following on social media by consistently posting quality content, but is this enough?
In short, no. These days, churning out five social media posts a week to promote your products and services and having an admirable number on top of the follower’s column doesn’t quite cut it. Sure, racking up followers is great but they can only be a true measure of success if they are an engaged community.
It’s a two-way street. If you’re expecting engagement from your followers – likes, comments, retweets, DMs and clicks – you’ve got to put the work in to engage back for it to be a ticket to success.
It takes seconds for someone to make a snap-judgment of your brand’s social media – if you appear to be unresponsive on your pages, it’s unlikely to persuade them to give you a follow or any other interaction. And, with algorithms that reward good overall engagement by showing up on similar people’s feeds and suggestion pages, it’ll prove difficult to reach a wider audience.
If you’re using social media to promote your products and services, it’s a given that some of your mentions, comments and messages will be related to customer service enquiries. In a world where people and brands can connect in real-time, it’s no surprise that one in three people prefer using social media to reach out to brands for customer service. With no business immune from online criticism, responding to all comments – even the negative ones – provides an extra opportunity to manage your relationships with your community. Globally, almost 60% of social media users have a more favorable view of a brand if they respond to customer service questions and complaints, meaning that being responsive to all of your messages can give your social channels a boost in the right direction.
Perhaps someone has taken the time to comment on your recent Facebook post with a quick review of your product, service or brand. To show your appreciation, a reply or a reaction to the comment can go a long way to motivate that person (and others) to come back to your brand and content.
You could get involved with (or create your own!) hashtag communities, which are particularly popular on Twitter and are a great way to communicate with people in your industry, and ultimately expand your social media reach.
These are often weekly discussions on Twitter, where people and businesses from various industries use a personalised hashtag to flood a page with tweets and questions around a certain topic. The hashtag categorises all of the tweets onto one page, sparking conversations amongst the community and reaching more people than an average tweet would.
Humanise your brand
Social media marketing is effective in drumming up business but connecting with your community is one step ahead in strengthening the trust and credibility of your brand by showing that there are humans behind it.
Dismissing the corporate robot urge to sell, sell, sell, organically interacting with your audience brings people closer to your brand by talking with them, not at them.
Humans are storytellers, and whilst brands can do this well themselves, sometimes what they forget to do is listen. Encouraging conversations around your products, services or brand gives your audience a chance to tell their stories and provide an insight into their thoughts and interests.
Social media platforms have fun and entertaining ways to socialise with your community. Take Instagram as an example – use its stories features to ask questions, create polls and host quizzes for an interactive way to generate a conversation, buzz and education around your business.
When it comes to informing social media strategies, our almighty trio at Be More Social is to ‘entertain, educate and inspire’. Whilst this is something that I try to drill into all social media activity, I’d say it’s particularly relevant when it comes to engaging with your community.
At times, this might not necessarily mean your own content – mix up your posts by sharing other accounts’ content too. This will provide the best opportunity to achieve all three. You could link your audience to industry articles, retweet a customer’s product review vlog or even post a meme that was a hit in the office that morning.
Again, social media success means different things to different people. For businesses looking to optimise their social media marketing, community building and regular, consistent engagement with them should be a top priority when it comes to reaching business goals.