Growing Your Community with Social Media Marketing

There are a variety of benefits to social media that extend far beyond networking. Modern social platforms are a vehicle for community building and branding that give a business big bang for the buck!

By leveraging social media today, a business can build a brand community and drive engagement that will ultimately lead to organic conversions and leads. Two main approaches include:

• Create a membership site and use social to draw more members.
• Build a community using engagement on a social media platform.

Each option has advantages and disadvantages, but both can be used in conjunction to garner the most successful results.

Creating a Subscription Site

One of the best ways to keep readers interested in modern digital marketing is by creating a membership site. This is a portal or gated platform where your audience can access special content by signing up as a member. This offers a business more control over consumers and additional benefits like:

• Build a brand image more effectively
• Add extra site features like:
  • Email marketing
  • Online courses
  • Forums
  • Loyalty programs
• Availability of in-depth analytics
• Complete customization of a membership site

Creating a subscription-based site means managing content and users all in one domain.

However, you still need to market this platform and social media is a powerful means to do so. This bridges the gap between finding customers and having them sign up on your site. Ways you can funnel your audience from social media to a membership signup page include:

• Create a branded social page and group that users can join and follow.
• Make use of social media advertising to raise awareness about the membership site.
• Run a free giveaway or contest and offer access to gated content on your platform.
• Write concise posts on social media to give the audience access to more in-depth and creative content.

All of these tasks help to leverage a social media presence and get more people to visit your membership site. This also gives a business the opportunity to develop and build more meaningful customer relationships.

Building Community on Social Media

Another option to establishing a branded community is doing it through the social platform itself. For example, Facebook allows you to create both public and private groups.

LinkedIn also enables a business to start a group. In both cases, a company can request specific details to join, like:

• Contact information
• Email address
• Job role
• Etc…

This is suitable for professional-level community building and networking. Some top reasons why you should consider social media for community building include:

• It’s free to create a group.
• Social media is widely used.
• The audience is already present and active.
• Users take fewer steps to join a group than a membership site.
• Social media prioritizes showing content to the groups people belong in.

All of this leads to a better chance of your content standing out. On the contrary, there can be some disadvantages to building a community through social media. These include things like:

• There are limitations to the features you can add.
• You cannot use email marketing, create courses, or have groups for subtopics.
• Branding is limited to a group. You can only change the logo and header. You have no control over the ultimate appearance.
• There is no access to in-depth analytics like you would have on a branded site.
• There is no option to collect payments and/or sell a product.

Developing and keeping a community together requires consistent and ongoing effort. Content must be posted on a regular basis and people should be engaged daily. This includes activities like:

• Answer questions
• “Liking” and leaving comments
• Asking users to engage through posts (polls and contests)
• Address concerns

It’s important to curate and moderate the content in your groups and site whenever possible. Do not just set it and forget it. Removing off-topic subjects and directing discussions is a job all its own. When a community is thriving and engaged, it takes a concerted effort to keep it that way.

Once you build momentum, the community will start to run itself. Set up long-term members to help moderate, add content, and engage other members. Another benefit of creating an online brand community is that it automatically establishes social proof. When you see others investing in a brand, engaging, and forming a community, everyone feels the company is more trustworthy.

In Conclusion

Social media helps a business build a brand in two ways: through a membership site or engagement on the platform itself. Creating pages and groups where you can nurture and grow an audience ensures revenue growth and continued success.

Another benefit of creating an online brand community is that you’re laying the groundwork for social proof. When you see people invested in a brand, communicating with it, and each other, you can’t help but feel like the business is trustworthy.