How To Ace Community Management On Social Media

Community management is quickly establishing itself as a key part of marketing in the modern world. But how does it work?

Community management is the act of establishing a community among a brand’s customers, employees and partners. It’s how a company uses opportunities to interact with audiences and create a network. Within this network, customers can connect and share insights and feedback with each other. 

The importance of community management cannot be understated. But how exactly do you tap into this magical marketing resource? Let’s break down everything you need to know about community management. 

TYPES OF COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT

The easiest way to understand the many types of community management is through the SPACEI model. 

S: Customer Support/Success 

This kind of community management is typically seen in the form of a forum, FAQ document or community website. A question and answer community board is a fantastic example. 

Consumers help other users in this model by guiding each other to information. As a result, consumers build a strong sense of community amongst themselves and with your company. You can even use this format to ask questions to your community in order to better your brand. 

The community support/success model is a great fit for companies with products that are very in-depth. Software companies, for example, benefit from this model in particular as consumers are able to ask a multitude of questions and receive on the go support. 

P: Product Ideation, Innovation, and Feedback 

Our next community management model is product ideation, innovation and feedback. This type of community management focuses on being both proactive and reactive. This is achieved by your online community existing as a safe space angled towards feedback and suggestions. 

Thus, product ideation, innovation and feedback community management suits all companies, as seeking real feedback from customers is a crucial business tactic. 

A: Acquisition and Advocacy 

Next up, is acquisition and advocacy. This form of community management sees your brand interacting directly with your customers, leads, brand ambassadors and advocates to drum up word-of-mouth advertising.

A perfect example of this kind of community management is the Skimm’bassador program. The program, established by The Skimm, allows anyone who gets at least ten people to sign up for the product to become an ambassador. Being an ambassador gets you access to special products, events, and the Skimm’bassador community. 

Companies wishing to play into their brand advocates and promote brand loyalty should look into this model. 

C: Content and Programming 

Content and programming community management largely centres around user generated content (UGC). Great examples of this model include crowdfunding, market places and user groups. 

Typically, these communities have a community team to make sure everything runs smoothly and stays squeaky clean. 

Companies that have contributed content as a large part of their business model are best suited to this kind of community management. For example, brands such as Airbnb. 

E: External Engagement 

The external engagement model seeks to provide a sense of community to customers outside of your brand. This is most commonly seen through social media management. 

Social media community management is simply the act of engaging with your community through social media. This can be through your brand’s page (such as on Instagram), or a page dedicated to community management specifically (such as on Discord). 

I: Internal Engagement 

Internal engagement covers the internal communities amongst your employees, vendors, suppliers and partners. By ensuring that your internal engagement is going swimmingly, you are boosting overall company happiness and morale.

A perfect example of internal engagement is Slack; a program that allows employees to communicate together all in one place, no matter how far apart they are. 

COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

If you have decided that the best place for your community is on social media – which, in most cases, it is – let’s look at what this will entail. 

Choose a Platform 

The first big step towards community management on social media is figuring out where exactly your audience lives. This is important as the demographic that your brand caters to dictates which social media platform is best suited for your community. 

Once you have figured out which platforms are favoured by your audience, focus on amping up engagement on these. 

Track Your Progress 

Making sure to track your progress is integral in ensuring your community management is as successful as it can be. 

A great way to do this is by carefully monitoring your engagement. Take note of the likes, shares and comments your brand is receiving. On top of this, keep track of your social mentions and brand sentiment. 

By staying on top of what people are saying about your brand, you are able to switch up things that aren’t going so well and amp up the things that are. 

Monitor Conversations 

This links back to our previous point. We can’t overstate how important it is to listen to what your consumers are saying. By listening to what is being said about your brand, you can define what truly resonates with your audience and focus on this. 

Constantly Engage 

Simply pushing out content is, unfortunately, not enough to truly succeed at community management. Make sure you are reacting to your audience and engaging with them constantly. 

The key here is to find the perfect balance between constant engagement and genuine engagement.

Community Management Best Practices 

Last but not least, are best practices. To be certain your community management efforts are successful, it is important to understand the do’s and don’ts established by others in your industry. 

Set Community Rules and Guidelines

By setting rules and guidelines for your community, you ensure that the space is reflective of your brand’s values and ethos. Moreover, you set the tone for community engagement and thus promote positive interactions that protect your community members. 

Check Your Community Regularly 

Your community is your responsibility, so keep a close eye on it. Make sure that your guidelines are being met and that your community members are satisfied on the whole. A large piece of this is monitoring that all questions are being answered and that no customer is left waiting. 

Be Authentic 

Being authentic is an integral part of making your customers feel valued. Authenticity can be felt in all interactions, even if they are through a screen. A great way to ensure authenticity is by maintaining your brand’s image and voice in community spaces. 

Listen to Your Community 

We’ve said it before and we will say it again; listen to your customers! Community management fails if brands do not listen to what customers are saying. Valuing your customer’s opinions ensures that their needs are being met, they feel valued and your community is improving day by day. 

Show Appreciation 

Showing appreciation to your followers encourages brand loyalty and lead retention. Much like day to day interactions, it can be hard to stick at something if you aren’t receiving any positive reinforcement. The same goes for your community members. 

Remind them how grateful you are for their dedication, time and suggestions. Otherwise, they might just move along.

Maintain Your Brand Voice 

As we mentioned in our previous point on authenticity, maintaining your brand voice is critical in terms of community management on social media. Your brand voice is what makes you unique and identifiable out there in the big, wide world, and the same goes for your community. 

Control Spam and Take Action 

Finally, an important part of community management is ensuring that your community stays spam-free and safe. The internet is filled to the brim with great, effective spam tools for you to use to protect your community. Beyond spam, it is essential that you monitor any behaviour that can be deemed as dangerous or unseemly.

Our Influencer marketing agency and Social agency are located worldwide, with our agency network based in the USA, UK, UAE and China.

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@ Socially Powerful

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