The way to foster relationships and encourage conversations about your brand is by building a community. The importance of building communities is to bring all your followers to one place and also make it possible for your audience to chat with like-minded people.
People who are part of your brand community are emotionally invested; they will buy from you, consume your content, tell their friends and family about you, and so on. The Harvard Business Review explains that many brands forget that the consumers they serve are humans and that instead of focusing on loyalty, brands should focus on providing value that will meet their community’s needs.
For many small businesses, communities have already been built through their social media accounts, but a strong community brings the consumers together in a place to foster more relationships for more opportunities for discussion, value, and engagement. One major thing to note is that building a community is customer-centric and great businesses are always humanized.
Forbes explained that the world is now becoming digital and people are looking for communities to belong to. That means, in this age, great businesses will only survive in strong communities and will only be successful if they serve what their customers want. The great importance of this is that it brings enough awareness to such a business.
Small businesses should focus on building communities for the following reasons:
- It builds brand awareness.
- Encourages customers to share their love for your brand.
- It brings authenticity to your brand.
- It provides a difference between your brand and competitors.
- It provides strong relationships with your customers and encourages repeat sales.
Building strong communities requires effective strategy methods that will make such communities survive. One of which is by starting with the current customers you have. Make efforts to keep them engaged and solidify the relationship you already have with them. This could include having an exclusive email list where they get the best offers or exclusive information about your brand. That way, you keep them engaged while still working on bringing new people into the community.
Finally, small businesses should work on leveraging their social media channels and building strong online engagements that would keep their communities together.
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