By Randle Stonier
CEO, AddingValue
The World Wide Web is becoming a more gregarious place – but many British business leaders remain to be convinced of the value of social media. The McCann Erickson UK Social Media survey shows that more than half of the UK’s leading marketing experts are “not up to speed” with social media as a marketing and communications tool. Two thirds (65.6%) of marketers in the survey said they do not have adequate knowledge on how to use social media correctly in marketing.
We are here to help. You don’t need to be an internet guru to know that in a weak economy, it is essential to focus on your best customers. Building online communities is really all about connecting with customers and building deeper relationship.
If you’ve read this far, you’re obviously open to the idea that online communities can improve your business. What’s the next step?
1 Don’t start with the technology
You’ll be relieved to know that you don’t have to grow a pony tail and buy a baseball cap – nor should you immediately hire someone with these things. First, work out what you want your community to achieve. Are you hoping to build supplier relations; attract new clients; improve the existing clients’ experience; network with competitors and allies; all of the above?
2 Who’s allowed to join?
Based on your answers to the questions raised in the previous paragraph, you will decide who the community members will be - existing clients; potential clients; suppliers; other players in your sector. Your community’s success or failure will flow from getting this right or wrong. Participation is crucial, and the best way to make sure this happens is fulfil a genuine need.
3 Measure up
How will you measure your community’s achievement and return on investment? If you don’t know what success looks like, you won’t recognise it when it arrives. Some sensible metrics include:
Activity levels: page views, members, blog posts, comments, and time spent on site
Sales leads and an increase in revenues
Getting talked about – in a good way
Not getting talked about in a bad way
4 Make a new plan Stan
No community flourishes in isolation. Yours must be the central point for all marketing efforts across your business. And that means planning. If you want to drive membership and user engagement, you will need community-specific marketing activities, such as contests, members-only content, giveaways, and rewards. Each marketing campaign must encourage customers to join and participate in your community thereby maintaining awareness of your brand and encouraging people to talk about it.
5 Show me the money
That is, if you have decided to monetize your site – it may be that your site is aimed at non-monetary targets, keeping competitive and in touch with your customers’ needs for example.
But if monetization is a key aim than you should consider one of the following;
- Advertising. Classic display advertising, forum and group Sponsorships, Pre- or post-roll video ads (the ads you see before and after a video plays), ad overlays (ads that take up the bottom third of the video), and partnerships through which you can products featured in videos can be bought, all help you generate revenue.
- E-commerce. Integrate the online buying process and translate customer excitement into immediate sales.
- Pay-to-participate. Users pay a membership fee to receive members-only content (similar to online magazine subscriptions) or a nominal entry fee to participate in a contest or tournament.
Through careful planning you can quickly establish a vibrant and attractive online community. Isn’t it time you joined the conversation?