Being the Hostess or Host with the Mostess
The Importance of Social Community Management:
The responsibility of organising and managing shared experiences within an online community falls to the host(ess) or Community Manager. While Community Management is a relatively new profession, its principles are rooted firmly in a 1950’s Good Housekeeping Guide to Good Entertaining. Why? Because community management is not about broadcast marketing. It’s about building relationships, sustaining involvement, nurturing conversations and resolving problems; encouraging engagement and providing support. Think Fanny Craddock or Betty Draper (Mad Men) as gracious hostesses meeting and greeting martini-starved guests to their respective homes each week and you understand the importance the role plays in keeping the community alive. What these women knew (fictional or not) was that a gathering of likeminded people is deemed a success when there is palpable energy, buzz and memorial shared experiences – handled with a little bit of grace and a big smile.
At the IAB Social Media Party, Amy Cutbill, Communities and Social Media Manager for BT Tradespace and I outlined four key elements for successful Community Management:
- Etiquette and Tone (The Social Butterfly)
- Listening and Receiving (The Good Listener)
- Involvement and Empowerment (The Wallflower)
- Support and Affinity (The Staff)
While Etiquette and Tone might be found in your brand guidelines, the other three are intrinsic to relationship building are sometimes unclear within an organisation or – worse yet – overlooked. If you are looking for them, look in your CRM strategy. They’re there.
As Amy pointed out, “Organisations and brands should focus their attention on the members (The Guests) and think about what members want from the platform. For example news sites can push messages and stories out without concerning themselves greatly about encouraging a dialog amongst users because that’s not what readers expect. However within other platforms it’s essential to sit back and take note, listen, get involved, ask questions and be fully engaged instead of broadcasting facts about you and your brand – you wouldn’t walk into a party and start by shouting out your achievements.”
By incorporating these four elements into your strategy you will elicit the support of your most active users and they will, in turn, help to build your brand and become your biggest advocates. There’s no need to shout to be heard.
Sally Ormond of Briar Copywriting is an active BT Tradespace member:
“With the ever increasing use of the internet it’s never been more important to engage with your readers online. And that doesn’t mean just to sell. Today, prospects aren’t looking to be sold to. In fact, if people feel they are being sold to they’ll head for the hills. Today’s online marketing is all about giving great information and advice, building relationships and entering conversations.
Selling has changed; people want more, they want real value and that can only be achieved by engaging with your readership.
Social media sites such as BT Tradespace encourage businesses to embrace this form of ‘selling’. Although businesses can set up their own microsite, the community forums offer a valuable opportunity to find out what their market needs. By becoming involved in discussions, businesses can learn what their customers really want. Giving free advice may seem a strange way of doing business, but in doing so you are elevating yourself to expert status within your field. People will get to know you and are more likely to do business with you when the time comes. Showing your personality is key as the old adage ‘people buy from people’ is even truer today than it’s ever been.
BT uses its communities to draw small businesses together. By actively encouraging their members to use the forums, they are ‘teaching’ business to become web savvy – something that is vital in today’s online world. Their use of Twitter multiplies this effect innumerably. It engages a wider audience creating a real community spirit amongst users. Certainly since I’ve been on BT Tradespace I’ve gained a lot by using the communities.
Whether it’s finding new suppliers, clients or information, the contact with other businesses has been vital for me to grow my own business. I’ve been able to share tips on how to utilise blogging and article marketing to boost your SEO efforts along with providing simple copywriting tips that help the effectiveness of your marketing.
Growing your business today is all about boosting your online presence.
Getting a website is just the start. If you want to be successful online social media marketing is a must. From utilising the power of sites such as BT Tradespace, to using Twitter and Blogging – the real power of the internet comes from engaging with your readers.
Tradespace http://briarcopywriting.bttradespace.com/
Now back to our IAB Social Media Party. Amy and the entire LBi CRM team handed out cake balls and cake pops courtesy of CakeBalls.co.uk to all the guests because we know the fifth key element to a successful gathering is cake. Who doesn’t love cake?
Tags: Community Management, CRM, eCRM, Social CRM, Social Media, Tradespace