community management tips: 3 ways to expand your communication strategy
DESCRIPTION
Learn how you can better discover, engage and nurture relationships within your communities and, in turn, reach new audiences.TRANSCRIPT
Learn how you can better discover, engage and nurture relationships within your communities and, in turn, reach new audiences.
Community Management Tips3 Ways to Expand Your Communication Strategy
Community Management Tips3 Ways to Expand Your Communication Strategy
HootSuite Media Inc. Communication Strategy | 2
Communication is the cornerstone to any effective social strategy. As a Community Manager, creating a communication strategy that empowers you to discover, engage and nurture effectively is key to kickstarting the growth of your brand’s community.
Social media equips Community Managers with the necessary tools to activate their communities while creating long lasting, meaningful relationships with people all over the globe. With a social relationship platform like HootSuite on your team, your brand has access to the best possible tools to enhance your social reach.
Read on to learn how you can better discover, engage and nurture relationships within your communities and, in turn, help your brand reach new audiences.
1. Discover New Audiences
2. Keep Your Community Engaged
3. Nurture Key Relationships
HootSuite Media Inc. Communication Strategy | 3
Before you can effectively activate your community, you will need to build it up. Discovering new audiences and growing community can be both a rewarding and difficult task. In the ever growing landscape of the internet, it’s important to develop a communication strategy that enables you to easily discover new audiences.
Online Chats and Hangouts:For a brand looking to expand their community, joining online conversations is a great start. Not only do Twitter chats and Google Hangouts give you access to the pulse of your industry and consumers, they allow you to build a community of quality individuals who value your brand. All the while, you will be laying the foundations of relationships worth nurturing later on.
Geo-target Audiences:Using geo-targeted search on Twitter allows you to discover new audiences in key demographic regions. Whether you are looking to discover new people in a city, province or country, geolocation can help narrow your search. Try filtering your streams by geolocation via HootSuite or install Hootlet to your Chrome web browser.
Create Valuable Content:Creating content is a powerful way to attract and retain quality members of your growing community. Take time to not only craft quality content, but also use content as a foundation for socialization and engagement on your social media networks.
1. Discover New Audiences
“How do you know which
Chat or Hangout is worth
your time and resources?
Doing your research is
paramount to discovering
where your time is best
spent. Look to find the
chat with a high volume of
participants and quality of
discussion. At HootSuite,
some of our favourite
chats include: #CMGRChat
and #HSUChat.”
- Connor Meakin, Community Manager, NA @ConnorMeaks
HootSuite Media Inc. Communication Strategy | 4
Building a community is one thing, but keeping them engaged and passionate about your brand over time can be challenging. Whether your community is comprised of 10 people or 10 million people, how you monitor and engage is crucial.
Monitor Intelligently:Avoid the possibility of letting an important interaction go unnoticed, be it a negative experience or a comment from an important community member. Setup keyword search streams in your HootSuite dashboard that monitor every variation, and misspelling, of your brand name. Twitter might seem like the easiest platform to do so, but don’t forget to monitor across all your social properties. For example, HootSuite’s Community Managers monitor for all of the following:
• Keywords: HootSuite, Hoot Suite, HootSweet, Hoot Sweet
• Direct Mentions: @HootSuite, @HootSweet @HotSuite
• Hashtags: #HootSuite, #HootSweet, #HotSuite
Language Specific Search:Since social media knows no borders, neither should you. As your community grows and expands to international audiences, it’s important to effectively engage diverse language segments. A great way to do so is by filtering your search results by language within your HootSuite dashboard.
Encourage Contribution:The best way to make your community feel heard, is to let them know you value what they have to say. Whether it’s inviting them to guest write on your blog, encouraging them to give product feedback or simply holding contests on social media – the more you facilitate engagement, the more your community will participate.
“Filtering search streams
by language helps me
reach out and nurture
HootSuite’s robust Latin
American community. It’s
my secret weapon to being
local and keeping up with
the pulse.”
- Marina Tostes, Community Coordinator, LATAM @MariTostes87
2. Keep Your Community Engaged
HootSuite Media Inc. Communication Strategy | 5
After you have discovered and engaged with your community, it is vital to sustain their interest and attention. The nurturing element of a communication strategy taps into how, as a Community Manager, you are going to go from entertaining your audience, to inspiring and convincing them to consider your company’s offering.
Personalize Social Messaging:It’s important to respond and engage with your audience, but in order to nurture a long lasting relationship between the community and your brand, you need to be strategic. Target key community members, whether it is a potential sales lead, partner or candidate for a brand ambassador, and craft your messaging to them personally.
Share Curated Content:When personalizing messaging, try sending your target audience content specifically curated for them. A key part of being a Community Manager is being on the pulse of what’s new and trending. In time, your community will begin to value and rely on your brand for the the news they enjoy most.
Give Swag Love:Often in the early stages of building a community, regardless of the brand, the budget is tight. But fear not, even the smallest gestures go a long way. Whether it is a handwritten post card, an envelope full of custom stickers or something as simple as pin – giving your community physical pieces of affection will take your digital relationship to all new levels.
3. Nurture Key Relationships
“HootSuite mails over
11 000+ personalized
‘HootKits’ every year.
A HootKit is a small
envelope full of stickers,
pins and other fun items.
The cost is low, but the
emotional return from our
communities is incredible.
HootKits have been apart
of our community since
the very beginning and
despite a few design
changes, have remained
essentially the same.”
- Diana Luong Community Creative Coordinator @DianaLuong_
HootSuite Media Inc. Communication Strategy | 6
Want more Community Tips? Find them every month on blog.hootsuite.com or follow @HootClub on Twitter for updates.
@hootclub
/hootsuite
/company/hootsuite
/+hootsuite