Seven Community Management Best Practices

Even though we are more connected than ever before, people still feel disconnected from each other on social media platforms. This is a little ironic. But it comes as no surprise to some of us because having 500 friends does not necessarily mean you’re in constant contact with them.

Community is lacking on these platforms. With a business, Community Management strives to ensure consumers relate to the brand and products. Creating meaningful relationships with customers is challenging but worthwhile in the end.

1. Ask the right questions!

Traditional marketing is primarily speaking at customers. For example, in a television commercial, you merely hear actors/actresses promoting a product. You don’t have an opportunity ask questions or provide feedback unless you call or email.

Online, there are opportunities to change the narrative and allow two-way communication. Ask questions about your products. Let’s say you own a salon, and you have some new hair sprays to sell. It might be a clever idea to have customer provide feedback prior to listing the products.

Maybe some people think the font on the hair spray needs to be updated. Perhaps there is a request to decrease the size of the bottle. Consider the feedback then make changes that make sense while factoring in the suggestions. Ultimately, opinions of your customers dictate the direction of the business.

2. Prioritize customer success

Putting the customer first is important. It means understanding your target audience, what they want to see in a certain product or service. Also, why are they participating in your community?

Meeting the demands of a community member, your customers, can be done by ensuring all their questions are answered in a reasonable time(well they chat or call). Providing a way to leave feedback, ask questions, and support one another.

3. Set your rules and guidelines

Even though we want most comments to be positive on our community, it is unlikely that this will happen. Also, it is not advantageous to remove or suppress negatives comments. Rather, creating rules and guidelines for conversations on community is beneficial.

Customers will understand what is acceptable and what is not. Business owners cannot let spam run rampant. Removing spam and minimizing trolling is a top priority because it eliminates clutter from the site. And it holds people(trolls) accountable for their actions.

Community Management – It should be conducted on peer-to-peer basis, in other words, members of the community should have the ability moderate each other, too.

4. Lead by example

s you have established rules and guidelines. This is foundation of how people should conduct themselves within the community. However, are members aware of them?

Community managers should focus on leading by constructive conversation instead of authority. Why? Simply barking you cannot do this or that is not beneficial. Rather, if there is an opportunity to provide a warning about use of language, does so. This will showcase your ability to lead by actions and will inspire members to treat each other with respect.

5. Be authentic

What separates your brand/company from another one? Authenticity. Traditional marketing tactics focus primarily on promoting the product( ex: TV, radio, billboards). Meanwhile, community management focuses on creating relationship among members and the brand.

Brands want to maintain a positive public persona. The marketing department and company want comments, feedback, and videos circulated online and the radio be positive. However, it is impossible to not receive negative or feedback. When it occurs, use it as a constructive criticism or way to improve.

6. Publish valuable content

User-generated content is what drives communities. This could be anything from feedback, comments, videos, reels, questions, or enhancements requests. Clearly, members will drive most of the content. However, it does not mean community managers don’t have anything else to do.

When the activity subsides(content sharing), content posts or videos that were popular to generate excited. This will generate feedback, comments, and inspire community members participate. Upvoted posts are great to share with community members when there is a lull in activity.

7. Don’t ignore in-person events

The shift towards the digital world has accelerated and continues to every day. Zoom meetings or other type of meet-up are the norm right now. Without a doubt, it much easier to organize any business gathering online than ever before. However, it important not to lose site of face-to-face meetings.

It is up to community managers to ensure there is a balance between online events and in-persons. Establish a healthy ratio, whatever makes sense to you or your team. Leverage tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Meetings, to organize in person events to ensure connections are more personable. Most importantly, this will help narrow the divide between the digital world and real world.

Summary

Community management strives to connect people and brands, to create more meaningful relationships. There are several ways to achieve the goal. First, ask the right questions. Within the community ask members about the products you’re selling. Are improvements needed in the design, presentation, packing? Questions will foster inclusiveness and a sense of belonging.

Prioritize customer success, meaning ensure their constructive criticism is taken seriously(when well grounded). Reply to comments within a reasonable time, and strive to provide authentic responses. In others, don’t just use robotic replies or the same canned reply for the same question.

Rules and guidelines should be established regarding how to communicate on the community. Members should know what language is acceptable and what is not. Once rules/guidelines are established, community managers should use constructive conversation. In other words, providing feedback is a professional manner. Also, accepting negative feedback as an opportunity to improve.

For a brand to constantly evolve and thrive, authenticity is a necessary ingredient(if you will). Community managers need to seek and promote a positive image of the brand. At the same time, whenever there is a negative feedback, respond with a growth mindset. Ignoring or hiding negative comments is not beneficial at all.

Members of community will drive the content most of the time. When the chatter dies down, repost popular videos or upvoted posts to generate conversion. This will reignite communication between members and brand again. And last but least, try to maintain a healthy balance between online events and in-person ones.

References

10 Community management best pratices.DiscipleMedia.com.Disciple | 10 community management best practices (disciplemedia.com)