Brand Communities and the Social Funnel
Association professionals often express the fear of LinkedIn or Facebook groups and social channels competing with your private brand community. I like to look at engaging with your members on social as the first step of engagement with the association. These channels should help funnel current and potential members to login and participate with your private branded community.
Why would they move to the new space? It’s exclusive. It’s private. It’s safe. AND Data is protected. I hear from some of our members frequently that they purposely do not participate in social media, but they actively participate in the community because they know the space is private, their data is being protected, and discussions are moderated by their peers. It also connects them with like-minded individuals that have been vetted by our organization. A member can look at the member grade or credentials and know how much experience they bring to the discussion. How do you get members to your private space? Here are a few ideas.
Engage with content creators
Pay attention to your active voices. Who are your members that are creating and sharing content? Are they building their own social networks? Ask them to write blogs or host AMAs or events with your community. These individuals will share the content they create for your organization with their social network and BOOM! You’ve infiltrated their social network. You can now connect with a broader audience of potential members and current members you might not have been familiar with before and similarly they might not have known about your organization either. Or maybe this was the final reminder of your organization that caused this person to actually join! One of my rules (I occasionally break it because it can be a hard one to keep) is not duplicating blog or event participants. The strategy behind this content is hearing from new perspectives and connecting with new social networks. Creating content is one of the top levels of engagement. Once a member creates content for the community, they are more invested in the community and more likely to be an advocate of your community and organization.
Ask members to share content in the private community
When I joined our organization to manage our online community, I was also asked to help monitor our LinkedIn group. One of the tactics I used to generate more engagement in our branded community was keeping tabs on content in the LinkedIn group. If there was a great topic or post from an actual member, I would contact them directly and invite them to post in the online community. Some of these members didn’t know about the community so they welcomed joining the other space by logging in for the first time. If there was an unanswered question, I would contact the poster and recommend that they ask the question to the exclusive community with more experts. Please note, if you use this tactic you need to follow through and ensure the question gets answered in the community. You may need to tap your member network and make personal asks to answer the question, but the member that had an unanswered question in a social channel but a valuable answer from your branded community will keep returning and participating because they received value from your community.
Post your events
Leverage your social channels to promote community events. I often post our events, AMAs, and community content to existing social channels to engage with members and potential members. Engage people where they feel most comfortable, you don’t have to force them to the community to see the value of the community. If they notice that the community is hosting events and content that is valuable they are more likely to login to the community and participate. Logging in is the first step of engagement in the member journey – not just the community journey. My goal is that members login so that the next time they want to renew or purchase a product they aren’t guessing or create a duplicate login. Your organization wants members to be logging in and engaging on all your platforms as often as possible – not just your community platform. SSO is crucial in creating this muscle memory.
Connect with your members and potential members
Be the face of your organization and community. Many organizations can seem like impersonal machines. That doesn’t fly anyone. People want a personal connection with your organization, whether that is you or the top executives or other members. Friend your members and get to know them! Connect with them on a personal level. Like their accomplishments, congratulate them on their successes. You will have a lot more friends and mentors if you engage in this way and you’ll have a lot more advocates for the community.
In closing, don’t view social media as competition for your branded community. View it as an opportunity to expand the reach and value of your branded community and your organization. Social is the first step in acquisition and member journey. Put your best foot forward! I would love to hear how you as a community manager engage with your social channels.
Please add your tactics and strategy in the comments!