“Show your community that your brand cares.”
Social media Community management occurs whenever there is an online interaction with the customer on a social media platform. These interactions can be public, when replying to a comment or brand mention, or happen privately via direct messages in your inbox.
Your followers on social media are considered your community, how you interact with them, is considered community management. These interactions can act as customer support for complaints or questions, or be a catalyst for increasing the engagement rates on your content.
Successful community management will support your marketing strategy by conveying your brand values and persona consistently and accurately. These interactions should accurately display your brand’s persona and result in your community feeling valued and considered.
Social media agencies must effectively convey a brand not only through creative content but also through thoughtful community interactions. This is crucial for creating an authentic audience and ensuring a cohesive brand identity.
Consumers want more personalised interactions with brands, they no longer want an automated response that lacks a human element. Interacting in an authentic manner is crucial for successful community management. Adding a human element to your interactions is just one aspect of an effective community management strategy. Others include fast response times, thoughtful responses, following up, showing appreciation and re-sharing user-generated content.
Benefits of Social Media Community Management
Improve your online marketing strategy
Listening to your community is vital for improving your marketing strategy. Interacting authentically with your community can help you gain insights into what they like and don’t like. These insights combined with other data will allow you to evolve your content strategy effectively.
Improve your products and services
When you promote interactions on social media, you increase the chances of gaining valuable insights which can help you improve your products and services.
Provide customer support
Community management includes customer care and support. If a customer has a complaint or a query, the community manager will be responsible for the response. The same care must be taken when dealing with a customer digitally as one would take when interacting with a customer face to face.
Enhance your brand image
Community management is the perfect opportunity to enhance your brand image on social media. When your content and branding sends a message, your online interactions can solidify and support this message.
Promote trust between the consumer and your brand
Community management on social media is the ideal opportunity to provide credibility for what your brand stands for. Consumers value your online interactions much more than your slogan. This is why community management is an important tool in gaining trust and showing the public what you stand for.
Promote engagement
Engagement is one of the most important metrics that a social media algorithm uses in order to determine how many people will see your content. Interacting with your community online is a great way to boost engagement and therefore increase your contents reach on social media. Replying to a comment thoughtfully stimulates conversations between your followers and in turn, increases your engagement rates.
Create an authentic audience
You want followers that are loyal and share your brand’s values. If community management is implemented successfully you will be able to convert an ordinary follower into a fan that promotes and defends your brand. Loyal customers are key to the long term success of a business. There is the chance for a consumer to turn into a loyal customer if their values are in line with what your brand stands for. A community manager increases the chances of that consumer becoming loyal, by proving that the brand is authentic and values its customers through its online interactions.
Improve customer retention
If your social media community management is implemented correctly, customers will have a positive experience when dealing with your brand. Your brand will be associated with this positive experience which will improve the chances of this customer making future purchases.
Frequently Asked Questions about Community Management
What is social media community management?
Any online interaction that your brand has with a customer or follower becomes community management.
Why is community management important?
Your brand’s online persona is dependent on how your community management is executed. Community management is necessary in order to make your followers feel valued along with allowing your brand to have an online identity.
What are some examples of social media community management?
Any interaction that your brand has with a customer online falls under community management. These interactions can be through comments, sharing of user-generated content, resolving complaints and replying to direct messages.
What is effective social media management?
Effective social media management is when your brands identity is accurately portrayed online and results in your followers and customers feel valued. Each community manager will try to achieve this in different ways.
How do I measure successful community management?
Successful community management occurs when a customer or follower feels valued. Online reviews provide insights into whether or not your customers had a positive or negative experience while dealing with your brand online. Metrics such as engagement can also indicate how well your brand is managing its community.
What does a social media community management strategy look like?
A social media community management strategy must outline your brands identify and how community manager will effectively portray that identity online. Your community management strategy should also include your brands opinions on popular topics within your industry. Guidelines around emoticons, words and which types of content should be shared, can also be helpful to maintain a consistent tone when interacting with customers.
What tools can I use for social media community management?
Social media platforms have free features that allow you to track the interactions your brand has with consumers online. Social media marketing agencies will use products such as Hootsuite, Buffer and Sprout Social to manage interactions along with other paid tools to track your brands online reputation.
What services can I expect from a social media community manager?
A social media community manager is responsible for your brands online persona. This persona is created through interactions with customers and followers. It is the responsibility of your social media community manager to ensure that these interactions happen in a consistent manner that maintains your brand identity.