Should your brand focus on social media communities in 2022? The answer is a resounding YES.
More and more companies across multiple industries are investing in building their social media community and growing it into an engaged audience. When you have people engaging with your brand on social media, you are in the best position to nurture and convert them into loyal customers. So now more than ever, you can benefit from effective social media management to grow your business.
In this blog, you will learn:
• The benefits of social media communities in 2022
• How are social media communities formed?
• How to grow your social media community
• How to tackle challenges with a social media management company
What Are Social Media Communities?
Social communities are online social units where people share common interests, attitudes, beliefs, goals, hobbies, causes, professions and other factors that create fellowship. Social media networks, like Facebook and Twitter, are great avenues for building them.
So, how are social media communities formed? They form around shared interests, goals and other topics that encourage participation and forge interpersonal connections.
You can build your own social media communities based on people’s interests that align with your brand voice. Rally followers under your brand by being part of that network of people building on those connections.
For example, Yelp created an online community where people could share their experiences and passion for the restaurants they have visited.
To form a community, you must nurture relationships more than promote your brand.
QUICK TIP: As a rule of thumb, you should interact with your community 80 percent and promote your business only 20 percent of the time.
Important Trends To Watch Out For
According to a recent Hubspot survey, more businesses are investing in social networks and social media community management this year. It means the competition will be steep – to have stand-out campaigns, you will need the help of a seasoned social media community manager and agencies for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and other social media channels.
Here are other crucial facts and figures from that survey you should pay attention to:
• Today, more than half of all social media marketers consider TikTok the most effective social media channel in 2022 for video content.
• Short-form videos, the ones you usually find on TikTok, are the best type of content in social networks, according to 85 percent of global marketers.
• More than half of marketers plan to spend more on them (64 percent) and build more communities, which you can do with the help of a seasoned social media management company.
• A lot of expenditure this year will be made on Facebook (89 percent), with more marketers investing in Facebook Live Audio (83 percent) and some trying Facebook Stories for the first time (44 percent of all social media managers)
• Instagram is still number one with regards to influencer marketing (73 percent)
• Twitter Space, which hosts live audio chat rooms, is considered one of the best formats in social media marketing; 79 percent of marketers will invest more in it in 2022.
• Video content is still big, which is why 83 percent of marketers will increase spending to generate more content.
• The biggest challenge that marketers will face in 2022 is managing these communities.
From the statistics above, you can see that many companies will focus on their social media content strategy and online communities this year. And for good reason.
Benefits of Social Media Communities
Social communities present an incredible opportunity to attract an engaged audience. But beyond that, it offers multiple advantages: from cutting down customer support costs to building brand affinity to creating more opportunities for brand management.
Here are the top benefits of social media communities:
1. Increases Personal Recommendations: In social networks with high engagement, people often go out of their way to personally recommend a brand they trust to people they know.
2. Promotes Engagement: With the help of a social media community manager, members don’t just like and follow you, but they also interact with you, improving brand engagement. Social media advertising agency experts can equip you with strategies for improving engagement across different platforms.
3. Cuts Costs: With social media community management, you can encourage members to respond to queries and concerns raised by others. This helps cut down your customer support costs by 72 percent.
4. Boosts Brand Visibility: Having a social community is one of the most potent forms of word-of-mouth marketing that boosts brand visibility. A seasoned social media optimization company can equip you with the tools and tactics to do that.
5. Encourages Active Participation With Your Brand: By having contests, polls, surveys and other events, you promote active participation in social communities, building brand engagement.
6. Attracts Potential Customers: With the right social media content strategy, you attract potential customers who share the same interests and advocacy that align with your brand.
7. Fosters Trust: Not only do you improve social media engagement when your business grows online communities, but you also foster trust. By having real people behind your accounts, you’re able to mold genuine and meaningful connections.
8. Offers Consumer Insight: You can track interactions in these social media networks. You can identify how your products solve people’s problems, find and respond to customer complaints and get additional insights from your target market.
9. Creates Brand Affinity: Build brand loyalty through your social community as you interact with members and help them find solutions to their problems.
10. Avenue for Resolving Negative Sentiment and Reviews: You have the opportunity to respond genuinely to negative reviews in an online social community. It demonstrates your commitment to listening to your customers, an effort that goes a long way in reputation management.
How To Build Your Own Social Community
Building your social media community takes time. So an experienced social media community manager will be crucial for your team to grow your online group. The following are the basic steps in building an engaged audience through social media communities:
1. Identify Your Purpose and Goal
What hobbies, interests, goals and subjects will you focus on? For instance, if you sell guitars, which brands and types will you support? State the purpose and focus of your community on your social media page.
2. Develop Community Rules
Establish rules on what community members can share, their treatment of fellow members and other expectations. When you enforce these rules, you are able to regulate your audience’s social media engagement and interactions, helping build harmony and trust within your community. Social media community managers will enforce these rules and keep things fair for everyone.
3. Create a Member Profile
Use your customer persona when building a member profile. It helps with social media community management and allows you to determine whether you’re attracting your target audience.
4. Promote Your Community
You can start by inviting people you know. You can ask them to share your page with contacts who have the same interests as your target audience. A social media management company can formulate effective outreach strategies for your business.
5. Make It Easy To Find
There are ways to do this:
• Invite your customers to join your community by liking or following you on social media. Add social media icons to your company’s website.
• Use hashtags to reach new audiences.
• Cross-promote across different platforms.
• Send invites to customers on your mailing list.
6. Build Your Community Through Communication
Maintaining regular activity on social media networks is critical.
• You and your social media community managers should welcome newcomers as they join.
• Answer questions, create events, run surveys and polls.
• Post infographics and other valuable content that community members can use.
• Encourage people to ask questions and answer them as they come.
• Create discussions and allow members to post their thoughts.
• Use recurring topics, post series, instructional videos and live events.
The goal is to consistently interact with people in order to build social media engagement and foster long-lasting relationships.
Overcoming Challenges With Expert Help
You will face many issues when building a community online; the most pressing of which is community management. The process will involve scheduling social media posts, monitoring page insights and coming up with exciting and valuable content for your audience week after week – and so much more. An expert social media advertising agency provides comprehensive solutions that cover community-building strategies and ongoing support for all your management needs.
Thrive is a social media optimization company that has helped hundreds of businesses grow their social following and succeed on social media. We’ve equipped them with tools and strategies to improve brand engagement, increase conversions and boost revenue.
Leverage more than 16 years of industry experience to build your own social media community. Call today for a free quote.
