Why Community Management On Social Media Is Key

In today’s highly digital and connected society, sometimes we can still feel disconnected from others. With so many people communicating online, this connected world, behind the scenes, can actually feel quite lonely at times.

You may be asking yourself, what is it that makes someone feel disconnected? The answer you’re looking for is ‘a lack of community’.

Community provides people with a feeling of belonging and a network of other people they can connect with, based on their shared interests and characteristics.

It is so important now more than ever, that brands begin to invest in the creation of communities for their customers, employees, and fans; as part of a process known as ‘community management’.

Community management does what it says on the tin. It’s about relationships and how a brand seizes opportunities to interact with their community in public online spaces, and manage a network in which they can connect, share and grow.

If you’re thinking whether your business needs to invest in social media community management, this blog should help you make up your mind!

Let’s start at the beginning! “Community” doesn’t just cover a single location. Your community is everyone connected to you; regardless of age, gender, location, interests etc. By managing your community, it allows your business to:

• Obtain feedback and gather ideas from your customers and audience members through real conversations.
• Provide support for audience members, fans and customers when they need it.
• Increase brand and product awareness among your target audience.
• Learn about your customers and what they want, expect and need in terms of content, products, services and support.
• Build up relationships between audience members.
• Boost customer interactions, conversations and sales.
• Provide value to your customers beyond a product or service.

It is important to note that community management is very broad, and these are just some of the things that it covers and what your business can do.

So, what is the best practice for community management?

It’s really important that you set some community rules and guidelines, which you follow throughout your social media pages. Here’s what we think are important things to consider and worth adding to those guidelines:

Check on your community regularly

By posting on your channels consistently, this gives your community the chance to engage with you and lets them know you’re there for them, if they need you. If you choose to post once a month, you’ve fallen at the first hurdle. Your community won’t know if you’re going to be around for them, and may move on.

Be authentic and maintain your ‘brand voice’ at all times

Your community will discover your brand’s tone of voice. Make sure you keep this consistent across your business pages, should you choose to use several colleagues for ‘community management’.

Listen

If a customer or fan asks a question, whether it’s a comment on a post or through a direct message, listen to what they’ve got to say and respond appropriately (we’ll talk more about responding to customer’s comments and feedback later in this blog).

Show appreciation and connect with your fans

Make sure are responding to comments, messages and reviews. Even if you have nothing to respond with, a simple ‘like’ gif, or emoji will show your fans and customers you’ve taken the time to read what they’ve said and believe us, they will appreciate it! This will also help build brand loyalty and trust between you and your community. It also shows them how much you value their time and commitment to your brand — remember, some of your community members are most likely some of your most invested, supportive, and loyal fans, followers, and customers already, and their word of mouth is invaluable to you.

Explore new ways to engage your community

This is really down to your social media strategy, however there are so many different ways that you can engage different members of your community. Remember: not everyone engages the same way. Think about how your business can encourage engagement. Create a poll. Ask people to comment their favourite product you sell. Encourage tagging you in their personal posts. Upload videos. Share reviews. The list is endless!

How to deal with negative comments

Ok, so we appreciate that not all comments are going to be positive. Some people may use social media as a platform to vent their frustrations with your brand or product and ‘out’ you to the public. There’s nothing you can do about this, you just need to be prepared. We’ve all seen those comments (and some of us may be guilty of writing one or two of them ourselves!)

It’s really important to acknowledge negative and positive comments equally and respond accordingly.

Your business should have a policy on how to deal with negative feedback or complaints and this should be followed. If you don’t have one, we would highly recommend creating one. This will be your bible, should anything dramatic happen to your business that may be a focus for negative feedback on social media. If someone has negative feedback or a complaint to make, we would suggest asking them to send you a direct message. This shows that: A) you’re acknowledging a problem, B) are willing to listen and C) this gives you the opportunity to gather further information etc. without drawing too much attention to this problem on your original post. A simple “we are so sorry to hear this, could you please send us a direct message so we can put this right” looks much better than just letting an unanswered negative comment / complaint sit on your page.

We know how tempting it is to delete a negative comment – DON’T DO IT!

Unless it is offensive or goes against your business policy (see, we told you it was important that you had one), you MUST RESPOND. By answering these comments, you continue to build trust with your audience and show prospective followers that you do care about your community and what they think.

How often do we need to reach out to our community?

This all depends on your constraints. For best practice, we recommend checking in to your pages at least twice a day - at the beginning and at the end. Also, if you know a particular post is going to attract a high level of engagement, pop some time in your diary to check in more regularly.

Don’t worry if twice a day is too much, possibly start off with once every other day, but be mindful that you may have queries sitting unanswered that could be lost business.

So, in a nutshell that is community management!

As we head out of lockdown, we’ve all seen the positive effects that community management has had on our social media pages, haven’t we?

Whether it’s keeping our fans updated with what’s happening with the business during the pandemic; sharing support for local businesses and our wonderful NHS and keyworkers; providing a ‘safe place’ where our community can feel loved (if they’re feeling vulnerable) or answering queries regarding those hot topics – when are you open? What are your social distancing rules? Do you have to pay by card? Community management has been the key to keeping pages alive and fans engaged.

There are so many ways to handle community management; none of them are right and none of them are wrong. It is down to the individual business and the tools they have available. However, what is essential is having some form of community management there, otherwise you may as well have a blank page.

We hope we’ve given you some food for thought and highlighted why community management is so important on social media.

Here at Social Soda we pride ourselves on the community management package that we offer our clients. If you feel this is something you need help with, why not get in touch? Contact us at hello@socialsoda.co.uk