Social media and online networking play a vital role in every field of business today and are an essential form of brand representation. The role of online community management has dramatically changed over the years. Here is an overview of the evolution of community management and its vital role in an overall business strategy.
What is community management?
Community management involves growing and engaging audiences, building credibility and communicating with readers to help drive sales, retain customers and grow a brand’s overall community. Often compared to a social media manager, a community manager has been quickly proven to be valuable to many businesses and plays a different role, depending on your industry. Community managers help to grow, engage, listen and improve your brand’s interactions with customers.
Then
Community management assists as an instant communication means between a brand and a customer. Customers recognize online communities as a way to express their opinions and identify social media as a direct way to voice questions and complaints to a brand. Businesses recognise the four pillars of community management; growth, engagement, listening and improvement.
Now
Community management has come a long way with online conversations becoming more sophisticated due to new communication tools and social platforms. Today, community management focuses on growing, building and guiding your online communities on social media platforms. As brands have branched out from traditional forms of marketing practices with varied types of communication and customer support, marketers are using their responses to showcase creativity.
Importance of Community Management
Community managers work to plan and develop strategies for increasing engagement and conversion long term. Community management is vital for continuously building relationships with your customers and growing your customer base. Recognising online brand ambassadors, facilitating conversations with customers and listening for feedback with a clear and consistent strategy is essential for an online marketing plan.
Online networking strategies are an inexpensive way of building relationships with current and potential customers. If you need help building your online community or managing your social media networks, Clarity Marketing & Communications can help. Give us a call on 1300 060 204 or submit an online enquiry.