Motions - February

Three Essentials to Creating Community on Social Media

We’re social creatures. Despite the galaxy of cultural differences across this great world, everywhere people crave community. To belong. Our most important communities—often our family and our local communities—nourish our lives in priceless, incalculable ways. The Internet has complicated things.

More than half of the world’s approximately eight billion people are online, according to a 2018 United Nations report. And we’re both more connected and seemingly more divided than ever. Today, because of social media, people are finding communitieUNSPs in non-traditional ways. They’re building communities based on shared interests—and those interests can include your brand.

Here are three principles to build a community on social media:

BE ACTIVE

You’re going to display your brand anywhere you can. People will also be showcasing your brand on social media to support you and hope that you notice that they’re spreading the word.

To drive engagement, you’ll need to use hashtags. Obvi. The important thing to remember is to use unique, thought-provoking hashtags. Hashtags are a key component of social media, brand awareness, and community engagement. Social media experts recommend using succinct, specific hashtags.

As a way to drive a consistent connection, you can create a calendar of offerings unique to your social channel. See how Opel, the German car maker, used Instagram Stories to run a contest that generated more than 1,800 entries.

BE A GOOD LISTENER

Your social media channels are an opportunity for customers to engage directly with your business. And your community will be the first to tell you when they love what you’re doing, and when they don’t. When something goes wrong, you’re likely to hear about it first on social media.

Here’s the thing: You must listen to your audience. Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable, according to Adobe’s CMO Magazine.

Starbucks is a great example. Thanks to their “My Starbucks Idea Campaign”, the company invited customers to shape their product strategy—and, to all our benefit, resulted in cake pops and pumpkin-spiced lattes.

BE AUTHENTIC

You’re a leader in your space. Leaders lead by engaging with their community in an authentic way, in a way that shows who you really are. Read more about why authenticity is the key to social media marketing success. Being authentic is the only way to create a connection with your followers that feels familiar. You’ll earn respect for transparency. And, if you’re clear about the purpose that’s driving everything, you’ll make a real impact.