What 500 Community Managers Can Teach About Building a Community. Encourage the idea of relationship-building among your group's members by helping them engage in conversations and call on one other for help and insight. You can similarly leverage your own community advocates to act as extended team members and help grow the customer service component of your hub. CMX asked companies how often they used various metrics -- from retention to changes in sales revenue -- to measure the value of brand community. That may be why the report showed that most people plan to measure more than they actually do. Ask your community manager to consistently report on metrics and community engagement as part of your overall community-building plan. As she told CMX, “With consistent reporting, I’m able to present metrics that show how important and vital our community is. "I believe it will become more and more of a resource for the company when making product decisions.” You need a dedicated community manager. Building an engaging community isn’t something that can done as an afterthought. The majority of CMX respondents report having a dedicated community manager, who's either full-time, part-time or outsourced.
If your brand is lagging behind in its efforts to build an engaged community, you could be leaving your customers in the dark.
In today’s consumer-led market, customers are looking for authentic ways to become a part of, and influence, a brand’s story. And the brands that provide those experiences e are the ones that will thrive.
As Carrie Melissa Jones, COO of CMX, the community strategies hub, wrote, “Mass media is no longer the place to connect with your audience, as the ‘one-to-many’ message is dying. The ‘many-to-many’ messages inside of brand communities are the ones that are being received and acted upon.”
You may understand the “why” of building a community, but how to actually build one isn’t so simple. That’s why you should look to the brands that have been there before you and are still actively building successful communities.
CMX created the 2017 Community Value and Metrics report, which offers valuable takeaways, insights and inspiration from more than 500 community manager respondents. Here’s what they can teach you about building the community you need.
Brand communities foster relationships.
Sixty-six percent of those polled by CMX said they define a brand community in their organization by the online and offline relationships their members have with one other. While you can’t force relationships in any group, you can give your own business community opportunities and reasons to connect.
Encourage the idea of relationship-building among your group’s members by helping them engage in conversations and call on one other for help and insight. You can also kick-start relationship-building by singling out brand advocates to help answer questions and motivate members in return for recognition and access to VIP events.
Community is an important customer service hub.
It’s tempting to think that the best way to offer amazing customer service is via social media. But while social media is certainly important, B2B companies may be overlooking the opportunity that exists within their own community.
For example, Salesforce leans on its passionate advocates to help keep a finger on the pulse of the community and offer support. As Erica Kuhl, VP of community at Salesforce, told CMX in a separate interview,…
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