With the ever-increasing expansion of the Internet and social networks and the multiplication of online pages and forums, many companies wonder what the secret is to create a successful community. Let’s start first with the question: what is a community?
A community is a group of people who have a common interest and communicate with each other through a web platform (forum, social networks, etc.) or a social messaging application, such as WhatsApp and Telegram. This group can remain in the virtual world or extend to the physical one through live meetings, whether occasional or periodic.
How a community works
Before delving into useful strategies for creating a community from scratch, it is important to understand the mechanisms that make it work. One of the bases of a successful community is the participation of all its members or most of them. Nothing is further from reality. Based on information gathered by Nielsen Norman Group, the 90-9-1 rule applies in online communities :
90% of users are called “lurkers “, that is, passive users who read other people’s posts but do not publish content.
9% of the members are occasional contributors who participate in the group from time to time.
1% of users are regular contributors, responsible for 90% of the posts and comments present.
Knowing these percentages will help nurture realistic expectations about the level of community engagement and immediately identify the most active members, encouraging them to share content.
The advantages of a community
Innovation
A group of people loyal to the brand is ideal for testing new products or services and gathering valuable information and feedback. In the Starbucks community, for example, users can suggest new ideas and vote on the most interesting ones posted by other members. Next, the company selects the most voted proposals and puts them into practice, transforming them into new products or services.
Customer Service
One of the values on which the sense of belonging to a community is based is mutual help and the exchange of useful information. Members can respond to questions and issues from other users regarding the company’s products or services, making customer service more streamlined, efficient, and cost-effective. In fact, according to some data, 49% of organizations with a brand community save between 10% and 25% on average in costs related to customer service.
Apple has built one of the most active support communities in the world, providing a space where fans of the brand can express their experiences with products and give advice to other users.
Talent search
What better place than a group of people loyal to a brand to find new professionals to hire? The tour operator WeRoad, for example, has a habit of recruiting young talent directly from its community, selecting the people who most align with the company’s philosophy.
Brand loyalty
Belonging to a group and establishing fruitful relationships with other members are positive experiences that strengthen the bond with the brand. The community makes it possible to increase public participation through various initiatives to stimulate the creation of user-generated content.
A virtuous circle is thus activated. On the one hand, user-generated content (videos, photos, posts and comments) are free resources available to the company, which can be used for marketing activities or as suggestions to improve its products or services. On the other hand, they consolidate the link between the public and the company and increase the latter’s reputation (brand awareness).