How can social media build genuine community?
This article is part of the Take-Away series; where AI is applied to the Puddding database of marketing stories to identify key insights and learnings from our community of professional marketers. These insights are then summarized with clear actions for you to apply to your marketing efforts.
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As a means to build community, social media is quite possibly the most valuable tool available for a brand. However, due to the fact that it is so useful, many brands, people and organizations attempt to use many of the same strategies. It is the job of communications and marketing professionals to refine their approach and tailor their use of social media to the brands they work with. If social media can build community, make sure to ask yourself: what kind of community do we need, and what value can we offer them?
We once again sent the Puddding robots into the depths of our marketing stories from the Puddding community of market professionals and identified these key insights regarding social media’s ability to build community.
Scale matters. Are you local or global?
The first question one should ask when looking to build a community for your brand using social media is what scale you will be working with. Will you work locally, regionally, or will you aim your brand globally?
Galaxy Theatres attempted the former when the 15-location theatre chain decided to work with Bright Age Digital Creative Agency. Instead of creating a single corporate social media account, they asked that each of their locations create their own, local, social media content. Bright Age was able to make unique and localized campaigns that created genuine community engagement that felt more personal to Galaxy’s audience. They used their branch locations to speak to their customers directly and create authentic connections that grew their social media followers across the board! On Instagram specifically, they saw an increase in followers of over 200%, with engagement up by 395% as well!
“Social media is not about the exploitation of technology but service to community.” - Simon Mainwaring
Leverage influencers to create authentic content.
Not every brand has different locations and branches to work with when attempting to create genuine community connections. When the Arizona Office of Tourism (AOT) decided to increase their brand awareness, they used influencer-led campaigns to generate their content.
AOT’s agency, Off Madison Ave, partnered with influencers who already had large social media followings, and also had an interest or love of Arizona. Rather than building AOT’s social community from the ground up, they utilized existing influencers to generate content and gain an audience very rapidly, receiving 4.9 million impressions on their Instagram account alone.
In both of these cases, the goal was to use social media to create something genuine. Content that not only provided value and showcased their brand - but also spoke directly to their audience. Whether one does so locally or with large influencers, community building is all about authentic communication.
Take-Aways
- Is your brand local, regional or global?
- What value are you providing with your social content?
- Does your content generate engagement?
- How responsive are you to your followers?
- Have you highlighted followers and turned them into active participants?
- Are you empowering your followers to take action?
- Have you identified influencers within your followership?
- Are your posts relatable and on-brand?
References
https://puddding.com/brightage.com/galaxy-theatres
https://puddding.com/offmadisonave.com/arizona-office-of-tourism
https://puddding.com/kineticww.com/perrier-flavor-studio
https://puddding.com/theshelf.com/lenox
https://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/community-action-blog/2011/dec/08/facebook-social-media-community-development
https://academic.oup.com/cdj/article/51/3/419/2594952