In today’s competitive marketplace, all corporations are working to maximize their opportunities, to define the brand strategy of holding an online community platform to connect, engage and extend relationships with employees, customers, and partners. From higher education to high-tech, online community platforms have a strong use case in most verticals, so long as the strategy is driven by the business objectives and audience needs and aligns with existing businesses processes and systems.
What is an online community?
An online community is a platform where the gathering of people interacting and collaborating with one another toward a common goal. Nowadays, companies are investing in building community platforms on open social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, while some also building their own community properties. There are some basic differences between a social network like Twitter or Facebook and an owned online community platform like the Apple Support Communities.
The advantages of having an online community
Setting potential and actionable goals are vital to the start and building up of any successful online community. Some aims, goals, and objectives will vary depending on your target group and your brand strategy.
While social networks have their own value, and owned characteristics of a company provide elements that social networks like Facebook, Twitter cannot. They provide a customized design, magnified access to data and some more options for control. But, a versatile social media strategy includes social networks such as Twitter or Facebook in addition to owned online properties.
And when an enterprise builds its community platform on a social network like Twitter, they are subject to that technology company’s business model. The user experience and available data are based on what the platform is willing to provide—and that will probably have little to do with a company’s own objectives and needs.
The following highlights are some of the key advantages of using online community platforms in any media business.
#1: Customer support
Customers usually visit online business communities for the aim of getting some customer support. Most of the times this support can be seen in the form of an employee who is providing guidance and feedback in the community while sometimes the feedback may come from some other customers. Either way, mostly, the customer gets the help they are looking for.
#2: Self-esteem
Customers feel skilled when they contribute in providing some useful information to the online community. If a customer helps a fellow customer in any problem, that customer who helps other usually gets a feeling of satisfaction from the experience. In media business community, you met the people who need to feel important in some way. When the customers help one another, they can get a feeling of being satisfied and will also be appreciated by others.
#3: Reputation
Some customers post some useful information on a regular basis to online communities. When a person becomes regularly involved in including some helpful information in company’s online community discussions, that person can gain a good reputation in that community.
#4: Companionship
While some people like to help other fellows in the online community, most of them attend the community discussions for companionship. Customers can interact with one another and discuss the things that they like and dislike about the company and its products. Sometimes, people may discuss their personal problems, interests and their everyday lives. Online media business communities can give your customers a fresh group of experienced peoples to talk to instead of the ones they see daily.
#5: The unexpected and unique
People join online communities because it offers them an advantage and most of the time, if not always, it would be an emotional benefit. Getting these emotional advantages is a powerful way to tap into them. Most of them, like reputation, are usually great arguments for participating in online communities of others as well.
#6: Content and information
Often, an online community is powered by exchanging and sharing content and information. If that’s the case and your online community members are searching for some useful information and content, you should ask them, and make sure that you remember the basic principles of media marketing. From an online and social community platform, look at the role and essentials of social content marketing.
Final thoughts
- Most of the online communities such as social networking sites have a very unclear difference between public and private details. For most social networks, members should enter their personal information to their profiles.
- Online media communities usually grow slowly in the start, due in part to the thing that the increase in motivation for participating is usually proportional to the size or strength of the community.
Engage your company eco-system with your own branded community. Komm.io provides a modern community platform to organizations who want to improve customer service, increase advocacy, and strengthen brand loyalty.
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