Building a Social Media Community

If your business has a user base, you have the opportunity to build a community around it. But in order for that community to take off and truly thrive as a self-sufficient entity, you must ensure that community fulfils a need – is of some use – to its members.

It’s also important to ask exactly what you’re building a community around. Unless you’re Apple or Innocent Smoothies, you’re unlikely to have legions of fans falling over themselves to associate themselves with your brand. More likely, you need to build your community around some activity or cause that is related to your brand, product or service, one that is better undertaken in a social setting.

Once you’ve got the idea, you then need to come up with interesting – or preferably, phenomenal – ways to engage your community. Here are some ideas:

• Create an online video channel to showcase tips, demos and other content. Great examples of this include Taste of Home on Magnify.net and Will it Blend? on YouTube.
• Build a fan page or group on a social network. See Wiggly Wigglers’ Facebook group, Souplantation’s Facebook group and Coffeegroundz’s Twitter community. For bigger businesses, look no further than Whole Foods on Twitter and H&M on Facebook.
• Set up livestream interviews with executives and customers to share insight with customer. Examples include Wine Library TV.
• Crowdsource for product or service improvements by hosting a collaborative community where anyone can contribute ideas. Starbucks has done this successfully with My Starbucks Idea, while Salesforce.com’s Idea Exchange and Oracle Mix are other good examples.
• Create an application or widget for users to download or embed on their website, blog or social network profile. This helps to spread awareness of your product or service. Examples include PUMA’s Usain Bolt Facebook application and Hotel Indigo’s application (see below).