The importance of community

Community is the key driver behind any Social Media or crowdsourcing campaign. Building a community or ‘crowd’ is probably one of the most important decisions a business can make because essentially you’re building a ‘brand asset.’ Understanding consumer behaviour, community conduct, people’s motivation and reasons to participate coupled with the correct Social platform is essential to achieving community or crowdsourcing success.

Below is a checklist for building a community by being mindful of consumers motivations:

· People like people so make your social networks personable by generating topical and conversational content

• People are easily distracted so be entertaining by coming up with ‘big ideas’, running competitions, campaigns

• People like to stick to the things they know so be consistent on your social networking platforms

• People feel happier in groups than alone so build a community on the most suited Social platforms

• People need to see ‘it’ to believe ‘it’ so use digital to its full potential, showcase your other assets

• People need to be found so find them through Facebook Pay Per Click Advertising, it’s highly targeted and measurable

• People like to be led so form relationships with Bloggers and Opinion Leaders on Social Networks like Twitter

• People like to be heard so manage customer service on all your Social platforms

When building a community, utilizing Ambassadors or opinion leaders to get the ball rolling can often generate more buzz than expected. Below are a few steps to bare in mind when executing a Crowdsourcing or Social campaign.

· Contact a Social Media Agency (like us)  to get guidance and outline a strategy

· Target Ambassadors that would be inspired by a campaign of this nature, in most cases fan/followers that have interacted with the brand in the past either on Social Networks or offline

· Use product or brand extensions rather than monetary compensation to reward your ambassadors

· Ensure your Ambassadors personalities suite the brand

· Take a look at their social reach in relation to your target market

Have an awesome weekend.

The Chilli Chica's xx