Building an online community

BUILDING A STRONG ONLINE COMMUNITY

Donna Booth explains why building an online community can help build your brand…

AN online community is somewhere you can meet with like-minded people, learn new things, and share your knowledge. It is the ideal way to ‘pandemic proof’ your brand and to keep your client base strong, but there are pros and cons with every option. Social media is probably every therapist’s go to. It is free advertising for what seems like an endless source of potential clients. All is not as it seems. The attention span for social media users is fleeting and you have to have a powerful hook to catch their attention. The rules and algorithms change almost constantly, and it seems like every second week you have to relearn the software to create a Facebook advert. It is time-consuming, often frustrating and you never actually own your connections. I’m sure we all have a horror story of a business page shut down without reason and all those connections lost. It can, however, be a very effective way of reaching a new audience. Consistency, personality and usefulness are key. Post regularly, let people get to know the real you and make sure you are sharing something helpful for them. Focus on building a community rather than selling. Experts recommend no more than one sales post in every four. The mailing list is a seriously underutilised method for building an online community. If people are on your mailing list, they are already engaged in what you are doing. It provides the opportunity for conversation and personalisation. Best of all, these contacts are yours! They won’t disappear in a social media blip. You do have to gather and manage your contacts though, and the best way to do this is through one of the mail management systems. A good system will help you keep track of contacts, design emails, comply with legal requirements around data and can even create targeted mailing for different sections of your audience. They can be a bit fiddly to set up, but can be one of the best investments for managing your client base. My booking system links directly to Mailchimp, so it automatically collects my client emails in my mailing system. You might send a monthly newsletter, advertise last minute spaces or cancellations or collect feedback for a new therapy. The possibilities are endless and the response rate for an email is much higher than any social media engagement. If I advertise something through email, I will always get bookings and often people will email me to say how lovely it is to hear from someone not on social media.

You can develop your customer offering even further with an actual online community or membership. This can be done effectively through Facebook groups. These can also be great testing ground for a more in-depth membership offering. I began my membership in a Facebook group and it has developed into Vitality’s Inner Sanctum, a dedicated membership website with members from all over the world.

These methods have their own benefits and best purpose. My tip to you is to use them all in whatever way most benefits your business. Above all make sure that you are keeping your contacts, even if it’s just in a spreadsheet. And get to know your community … connections are only as good as the use you make of them. n

iDonna is an award winning wellbeing specialist who helps her clients manage stress, build resilience and prevent / recover from burnout, through therapy, yoga, mindfulness and retreats. Find out more

at www.vitality-retreat.com or www.vitality-inner-sanctum.com.