Is the word “Community” still valid on social media?
I’m not referring to that cult TV show we all loved back in the day. It is a word that is used, let’s just say, somewhat freely in our world.
Every business wants a community. Every group is presented as a community. Everybody wants this imagined community to be full of fierce brand advocates. But, the truth is that not every group or a set of people can be called a ‘community’.
We need to think about the core of a community: a set of people with similar interests, goals, and motivations. Now, this could certainly help a brand. If done well, it usually does, but it’s not easy to just set up a community. It has to be created around people. People with their own ideas and needs for what that space is for.
A careful approach to word usage
I’d like to say another important thing: Brands do not own a community on social media.
Repeat after me: Brands do not own a community on social media.
They can work with one or host one on their platform, at best. This means that creating a community is a job done by the people and it’s my job to study why or how a business can engage with it.
Remember the classic Harley Davidson case? They went from bankruptcy to billions of dollars because they designed their work around a biker’s lifestyle. Communities work not because they have people that all agree on everything. Come to think of it, that would be boring.
A community thrives on debate: Dove’s community celebrated differences in ideas of beauty among people, for example. You have to see if people in a group engage in discussion and learn from one another, and whether they are motivated by a larger, broader understanding of what brings them together.
Where to host one?
There are a number of sites that allow you to host a community, some of the more popular ones are below:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
GetApp
Quora
Discourse
Glassdoor
Slack
Brand communities
Communities on social media have long been utilised by brands to market themselves. This is tricky business because it’s worth remembering that communities exist to serve the people in them, not the business that hosts them.
People join communities to build actual human connections, not to be associated with a brand (not the whole time, anyway). This is important as the word “community” is thrown around in business marketing strategies really often. A thing to remember is; community members’ lives and motivations matter more than the brand. Always.
7 steps to setting up your own community:
Identify your key stakeholders to join and use the online community.
Define the purpose and goal.
Select a social media platform.
Develop the rules of the community that are visible for all who participate.
Set up your community and brand accordingly.
Promote your community.
Add value for the community members beyond just trying to sell them things.
Re-looking “community”
As I liaise more with consumers who are more mindful of their privacy and the power they possess to launch actions and campaigns on social media, we, as marketers, should all think carefully about what makes a community.
So, calling your Facebook followers may be tricky. Your Twitter followers aren’t exactly your community either. A community is not tied to a platform. It’s the people that make it what it is.
Instead of trying to sell, think about what brings these people together. Are they there for more than the association with the brand? If so, we are closer to the idea of a community and it would be prudent to delve into that cause further.
If all you have is a large number of followers on social media, then it’s prudent to refer to them as your audience and to find a better way to set up a community that works for both you and your followers, where you can both benefit.