The Internet was created to link people together—and look how far we’ve come! Email and social media connect us with people around the world. And in the world of business, a sense of community is important for keeping high engagement. Building authentic relationships with your customers means bigger financial gains for your brand.

Not sure how to start? Here are six tips to help you build a community surrounding your brand.

Build on Your Values

In order to start building a community, you first need to understand your mission statement. What’s your company’s mission statement? How are you going to differentiate yourself apart from other companies’ communities?

Determine what you stand for and who you stand for—this way, you’ll determine how you can build that community.

For example, if you’re in the green cleaning products industry, don’t try and push your products. Instead, think of who purchases these products—people who care about the environment. What are their other interests? Are they up to date on current events surrounding the environment? Create a place they can feel safe discussing these ideas.

Let the Users Control the Forum

Look at your community as a democratic society. This means you’ll give up control to the users. One of the biggest uses of a community is for others to feel safe to share their opinions without being drowned out. Encourage open conversation, but with limits. For example, things like spam should be removed.

The value of a community means even leaving negative feedback. Deleting posts that critique your brand not only silence your community members, it gives you feedback without trying too hard on your end.

Make Your Community Valuable

Do a quick search online and you’ll find online communities for days. If this is the case, why would users choose to be part of yours? As I stated above, don’t let your online community surround around your products and services—make it more than that!

For example, you may start your online community with a customer forum. This is a place where customers can ask questions and share their own experiences. Why not take it to the next level and include a section for new ideas, a knowledge resource section, and a job board?

Use Consistent Content

You’ve seen it all over the digital marketing sphere—content is king. And while this may be an overplayed phrase used time and time again, it’s not wrong. Your content is what drives engagement, and brings your community together. It stands at the forefront of your brand.

But quit thinking that content needs to be created for your brand—it needs to be created for your community. Your content should be useful in other ways, too. Say you write a blog post about the best DIY natural cleaning products—repurpose the content into a video or infographic. Think of ways you can make your content more useful for your community.

Your content should also be shareable—the easier it is for customers to share your content with your friends, the quicker you’ll build your community. Stay consistent with your content. Keep your customers informed and engaged as often as you can.

Get Active on Social Media

Your business should have a social media account for all the platforms. But it’s not enough to set up an account and expect followers to interact on their own. Your business has to get active in your own community! Not only does this mean sharing your content, but sharing the content of others within your niche.

Share relevant content that keeps your community in the know on the happenings of other top players in your industry. This doesn’t mean you need to post on every social media account you’re part of—choose the accounts your community is most active. Comment on as many posts as you can, and share content that starts the conversation in your community. The more one-on-one, authentic relationships you make, the better your payoff.

Utilize Your Tools

Whether you’re building your own community platform, or utilizing social media to gather your customers in one place, there are plenty of tools to take advantage of.

Facebook Groups

Aside from your business’s Facebook page, why not create a separate Facebook Group that allows customers to gather in one spot to communicate? Facebook Groups are one of the easiest tools to use to create your community.

Facebook Groups allow you to monitor your community while also letting them take the conversation into their own hands. Let users upload photos, create events surrounding your brand, and create polls. Plus, everyone’s already on Facebook, so you won’t need to convince your customers to follow you elsewhere.

To get started, click “Create” and then “Group” on the bottom left-hand side of your Facebook homepage. You will then be taken through a series of easy steps to name your group, invite others to join, determine privacy restrictions, and more.

XenForo

Not a fan of Facebook? No worries, another option for creating your own online community platform is XenForo. This platform is excellent because of its impeccable security. Users will love the fast-loading pages and mobile-friendliness. It’s also completely customizable—so your community will stand out from your competitors. Below is a screenshot of the tool in action from forum-software:

bbPress

Are you already running on WordPress? bbPress might be your best option. With this software, you’re able to set up a simple discussion forum immediately. Administrators can monitor the forum easily from the same dashboard as WordPress. Plus, this option is 100% free!

Putting it All Together

Focusing on your products and services in order to build your brand is a thing of the past. In a time when your online presence means everything, it’s imperative to build a sense of community online. Focus on who your customers are, and find out what they need. Creating lasting, personal relationships with your followers makes all the difference.

Feature Photo Credit: ehipassiko.com