How to Utilise the Power of Online Communities

Whether it’s Facebook groups, online events, or conversational platforms like Discord and Reddit, with participation in online communities growing year upon year, utilising online communities has never been more central to social media management. Factor in a global pandemic encouraging millions of people onto social media, and the potential power of online communities becomes clear.

In this guide, we’ll be answering some key questions about how to utilise the power of online communities, using top tips from expert speakers from SocialDay’s very own online event community.

Firstly, why are online communities so unique?

The number of online communities is increasing along with the cross-platform demand for them. The potential for brands to expand their audiences and increase engagement is constantly growing. But what are the key features of online communities that make them so unique and useful when it comes to social media strategy?

1. They allow users to build connections around ‘key passion points’

The power of appealing to people’s unique interests through building communities around their ‘key passion points’ is hugely important. With so many online communities, you want to ensure your community stands out and truly and appeals to your target audience.

2. They evoke and precipitate genuine change in real people’s lives

At SocialDay 2020, Nick Entwistle of One Minute Briefs demonstrated the importance of forging online communities where people feel supported and able to express their thoughts and creativity.

3. They instigate engagement and real action

Online communities can be used to bring people together around broader issues like climate change, for example, and evoke real action off-screen as well as great engagement on-screen. This is particularly important for charities and non-profit organisations looking to use social media to engage with those likely to donate, share, or show support in other ways.

How can brands actually form and engage online communities?

Knowing that online communities are effective strategies is one thing, but actually implementing them and seeing engagement and action from them is another entirely. So how can brands do just that?

1. Ensure content has value

To encourage online communities to listen to your brand’s story and engage with your community, it’s important that people find value in your content. Your brand can ensure this by:

• Including exclusive content, such as sharing the perspectives of relevant influencers associated with a brand

• Creating valued content that finds a balance between what the audience expects to see from a brand and what is relevant to people’s real lives

2. Engage members at every stage

One Minute Briefs challenges the traditional industry model of content creation, which involves zero consumer engagement up until the brand posts it themselves at the end of the marketing process. Rather, One Minute Briefs’ process of engaging and utilising an entire community of creatives at every stage forges a strong sense of community and produces a minimum potential reach of 3.55 million people for brands. This strategy gives the creative community a voice and is mutually beneficial to everyone involved in the creation process.

3. Add a personal touch

Going the extra mile with an audience to add personal touches, build individual relationships, and provide exclusive, meaningful experiences for fans are all key to a thriving online community. 

4. Think long-term

Online communities do not forge unless brands and companies think long-term. For example, holding a webinar series may well engage an audience, however a community is not going to form around that event unless a permanent communication platform is put in place to allow users to connect and interact continuously and on a personal level.

5. Remember the human aspect

Remembering the real-life human that’s on the receiving side of a social media campaign is integral. Our 2020 SocialDay speakers agreed that brands often over-complicate social media strategy by placing too great a focus on aspects like production value and statistics, rather than placing the community at its centre. Hannah Anderson, for example, suggested keeping things simple and always bearing in mind the emotional, human element to campaigns and communities.

Did the landscape of online communities change during lockdown?

The coronavirus lockdown saw the accelerated digitalisation of communities, brands, and even entire industries. With people being forced to stay in their homes and limit their social contact, all of our 2020 speakers agreed that people wanted to feel part of something, and that often drew them towards online communities. Alice More O’Ferrall explained that charities like WWF had seen an increase in user-generated content, while events companies like Eventicious, Ruslan Demyanenko shared, had seen a huge surge in demand for online events including webinars.

5 important things to consider when creating community-driven social media content

Across all of our 2020 community-driven sessions, there were some key points about social media content that just kept coming up:

1. It doesn’t have to be polished 

Engaging social media content does not require a huge budget or have to be polished. In fact, Alice More O’Ferrall of WWF highlighted that Gen Z audiences actively reject perfection, so prioritising a campaign’s substance over its style is a good strategy to adopt.

2. Wherever possible, capture emotion

Nick Entwistle and Hannah Anderson in particular stressed the importance of focusing social media content on evoking strong emotions from the target audience. 

3. Allow users to share their own voices

User-generated content, along with other ways of allowing users to share their voices, is a consistently effective social strategy to engage communities.

4. Keep up with change and be agile

It’s inevitable that social media and the digital landscape will be constantly changing, so much so that a campaign may become irrelevant from the time you start it to the time when it’s ready to go live. Keeping your finger on the pulse, staying ahead of industry competitors, and adapting quickly when things inevitably change will allow you to stay relevant to online communities and ensure engagement.

5. Be consistent

Whatever brand strategy and personality you adopt, make sure that you stay consistent with it. Particularly in wake of the pandemic, online communities are held together by online events and regular content more than ever, so if you say you’re going to show up, make sure you do!