Build an online community that you love
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Want to kill it in the world of social media and blogging? It's all about the C word - community. This was a talk I gave at Problogger Training Event 2014
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Build an online community that you love
- 1. How to use social media to grow a community of raving fans @stylingyou
- 3. Know your customer Where do they hang out? Set the tone Give back Manage your time
- 4. The SY story
- 5. Know your customer Google Analytics
- 6. Know your customer Facebook Insights
- 7. Know your customer Create a profile
- 8. Which social media network?
- 9. Which social media network?
- 10. Create your own network
- 11. Set the tone It’s all about YOU!
- 12. Set the tone Funny Inspirational Caring Thought provoking Ranty
- 13. Set the tone What’s your tone?
- 14. Engage and give back Ask a question “Listen” to comments Respect feedback Ask for content ideas Create challenges
- 15. Engage and give back #everydaystyle
- 16. Give back Giveaways Free downloads Replying to comments Replying to emails
- 17. Give back Comment on other FB pages Join Facebook groups Participate in challenges Create a business social media buddy group
- 18. Manage your time What’s your level of consistency? Where and when are your readers online? When can you be online?
- 19. 1. Know your customer 2. Where are they hanging out? 3. Set the tone 4. Give back 5. Manage your time The re-cap
- 20. .
Editor's Notes
- Who here wants to build and grow their customer base through the power of online? And importantly create a community around that customer base that not only loves you but you love back?
- In this session I’m going to talk you through the five pillars to growing an online community of raving fans. We’re going to get clear on who your customer or client is; where they’re most likely to hang out on social media; how to set the tone of your online community; how to give back to that community and importantly how to manage your time.
- When I started blogging, I didn't really know what blogging was. I was the accidental blogger. I had a website on a blogging platform and I added content but I wouldn't have called myself a blogger. Mostly because I didn't know what a blogger was. That all changed about 18 months on. The reason for that change was discovering (mostly via Twitter - it was a lovely place at that time) that there was a whole community out there waiting to connect with you ... if you only opened up to be a part of it. I'm a part-time foodie so I liken blogging to preparing, cooking and serving a lovely meal. Yes the meal will still be delicious if you've prepared it with love and wholesome ingredients but it will be even more tasty - and the eating experience more enjoyable - if shared with at least one other person. For me, I'd go one step further and say that a huge dinner party with like-minded friends is an even better - and infinitely more memorable - way to eat. So, when I discovered that there were other bloggers out there, writing interesting stuff about all manner of things, I basically invited myself to the giant dinner party that is the Blogosphere. From that moment on, I loved every minute. My own online community was teeny tiny but it was lovely and continues to be lovely, even though five years down the track I need way more place settings at the SY virtual dinner table. The are five key pillars, if you like, that I think help you concentrate on building an online community.
- If you have a business website – use it – and Google Analytics
- If you have a FB business page, use it to discover demographics
- Even if you have access to these demographics, it's still a great idea to have a good picture of your ideal customer. This is something that all businesses think about and I ask you to do that today. Male/Female Location Income Interests
- So you have a handle on who your customer is. Do you know where they are more likely to hang out in terms of social media? …. Socialmedianews.com.au 1. Facebook - 13,600,000 users (up 200,000) 2. YouTube – 13,100,000 UAVs 3. WordPress.com – 6,000,000 4. Tumblr – 4,600,000 5. LinkedIn – 3,900,000 6. Blogspot – 3,100,000 7. Twitter – 2,791,300 Active Australian Users 8. Instagram – 2,060,000 Active Australian Users 9. TripAdvisor – 1,650,000 10. Yelp – 1,300,000 14. Pinterest – 370,000
- No matter what you think about Facebook personally – it’s the place to be for your business. Make friends with it. Don’t despair at changes to its algorhythm – they will happen. It’s a free platform. Make it work for you.
- Blog and email newsletter
- Consider the voice of your blog and social media networks - voice is crucial to connecting and growing your online community. You have the power to set the tone of that voice and this will have the biggest impact on how you create a community that you love. Your voice has to be authentic - it has to be YOU.
- Ask audience for examples
- Answer on paper – or out loud It's ok to mix up the tone from time to time - in fact it keeps things fresh - as long as you keep your primary voice as the main tone that people are used to connecting with.
- Blogging is not a broadcast. It's a conversation. This is the single biggest difference between blogging and traditional journalism.
- How this all started
- The more you give, the more you'll receive applies very much in the blogging and online community. The giving and receiving is two-fold. Think about how to give back to your readers and think about how you can give back to the blogging community.
- There is never enough time but it's a good thing to be mindful of the time you have to devote to blogging. Work within that and be ok with that. Think about your customers – find that balance between sharing enough to be interesting and not sharing enough to be noticed. Create a habit that becomes a reader habit.
- Let’s re-cap those 5 pillars to building an online community …
- Over the past month, I've had the absolute privilege and pleasure to meet hundreds of Styling You readers in person. Or IRL (In Real Life) as we purveyors of the online space say. Many of these readers have been regular commenters, so being able to put a face to a name has been amazing; others have never commented but read EVERY day ... the fact that they bought my book and a ticket to come to one of my events blows me away. One 67-year-old reader brought along her three daughters to an event - they all read the blog but they told me it was their mum who would read my posts and then phone her daughters to talk about what she'd discovered. Another mum came to my Sunshine Coast event; her daughter was at my Sydney event the week before. Quite a few have shared very personal stories of gratitude with me - gratitude for my blog helping them personally find their confidence. I'm a complete emotional softy and am prone to tearing up at the best of times - these moments have wreaked havoc on my professional makeup jobs. All of this has underlined for me why I blog. It's the community. It's the community that keeps you logging on each day. It's the community that makes the conversation. It's a community that makes a difference.