Kseniya I. Content Marketing Expert

What is a community and why does a brand need it?

In simple words, a community is a group of people united by one topic, interest or brand. These people communicate with each other and develop their community. Often, groups in social networks are used to unite the community.

The community can be created both by users themselves and by brands. Let's take a few examples. The chat of copywriters in Telegram, in which authors share their experience, is a community. Nike group on Facebook, created around the interest in running is a community as well.

Why should a business create a community? To make big profits. Users buy more often from brands that use community management. Here are some facts to back this up:

1. According to Forbes, 64% of shoppers believe shared values ​​bring them closer to a brand.

2. According to the Sprout Social Index, in 78% of cases, satisfied customers recommend the brand to friends and acquaintances.

3. Community members spend 19% more than regular shoppers.

4. In addition, community management allows you to receive high-quality feedback from users. It helps in the development of the product.

Why community management is not SMM

Many people think that community management is the same as SMM. In fact, this is not so.

In SMM, communities are used as sales channels or to increase reach. SMM managers work only in social networks: they release posts, make challenges, giveaways and polls, set up ads, post in other publics.

In community management, they can use social networks, websites, applications and they build communities on a much larger scale than the groups or fan pages on Facebook. The group can be the main hub of the community, but at the same time they work with the audience in a complex way: they arrange meetings with bloggers, launch special projects in other media, hold offline events.

Another popular misconception is that the community is any brand group in social networks. This is not true. The community has three characteristic features:

1. The audience is involved. The engagement rate in the community is usually higher than in regular brand groups. Participants like posts, write comments, make reposts and communicate with each other. They also attract new people to the community. Let's say a Nike fan wants to go to the brand's offline workouts, but he's bored alone. He invites a friend with him, and he also becomes part of the community.

2. Everyone can influence the community. The community can fulfill member requests and use UGC for the product. For example, there is LEGO Ideas, a community for those who love to create with Lego. Participants propose product ideas, and the company produces kits based on the most popular designs.

3. The community is growing rapidly. Usually, communities develop faster than regular brand groups in social networks. New event formats, challenges and other events often appear.

A brand group that talks about promotions and gets two likes per post is not a community.

The main community management tools are content and events. Content is needed for constant interaction with community members. Events keep members interested in the brand and promote the community.

Events are any events like competitions, marathons, limited training. Here are some examples of the formats used by Nike:

- opening new points of sale or branches, for example, Nike opened the Nike Box sports space;

- regular small events, for example, dance master classes;

- ad hoc activities tied to events or circumstances, such as online training during the coronavirus pandemic;

- Influencer Meetups: Nike invited the most loyal members of the community to meet brand ambassadors.

How a business can start working with the community

The easiest way to work with the community is for those who already have a group on social networks. Then, on its basis, you can build a community in three steps.

1. The first step is to analyze the situation. Explore the audience's reaction to the content: what posts get more reach, what content is more often commented on, what users write about. This will help you find the posts with the highest engagement so save them as ideas to build on.

2. The second step is experimenting with content. The goal of this stage is to achieve maximum user engagement. Try new formats, create content based on the ideas collected in the previous step, try the approaches of market leaders. Be sure to analyze what works best and leave the most successful solutions in the content plan.

3. The third step is community development. At this stage, it is important to constantly work with the audience and give it what users are asking for. We can say that there are three big blocks of work::

- Working with the audience in social networks: publishing content and increasing engagement. For example, conducting surveys, challenges, battles, sweepstakes.

- Working with an audience outside of social networks: holding events, master classes, special events online and offline.

- Attracting a new audience. Standard methods will do: media advertising, integration with bloggers or publics that have your target audience.

You need to work with the community all the time. At least once a month, analyze the situation and adjust the strategy if necessary.

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