Building an online community can bring numerous benefits, from driving website traffic to improving customer relationships and increasing revenue. A brand community consists of customers, partners, and employees united to support one another, offer feedback, and form strong emotional bonds with a brand. This community can be hosted on a company website or Facebook and is not limited to one platform.
For instance, Apple support community goes beyond typical peer-to-peer support, offering customers a space to share experiences, feedback, and knowledge. This approach promotes customer success and fosters engagement through user-generated content and gamification to incentivize positive participation from an active fan community worldwide.
Similarly, our brand community was created to bring NbliK, customers, and experts together, focusing on our platform and the success of our users.
This blog will guide you through 6 practical steps to creating a successful online community in 2023. Let's begin!
6 Steps to get started with an online community:
Building a successful online community involves six steps: defining the ideal member, selecting a hosting platform, customizing the community's appearance, inviting members, monitoring engagement, adapting based on success and failures, and continuously enhancing. A successful brand community results in increased sales, customer loyalty, and lower marketing expenses.
Here are the six crucial steps to creating a thriving online community:
- Define your community purpose and goals
It is more effective for your community to focus on a limited number of goals that offer value to you both and can be tied to specific actions.
Additionally, having clear metrics, known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), helps to measure the success in achieving your goals.
2. Choosing an ideal member
Identifying your Ideal Member is crucial for the success of your community. The Ideal Member is the person who will derive the most benefit from joining. While it may be difficult to select your Ideal Member, once you have, you can begin to build your community. Here are some questions to help you find your Ideal Member:
· What challenges do they face?
· What are their aspirations?
· What is their demographic and personality like?
· Who can you best assist?
· Who will benefit the most from your expertise?
Narrow down your Ideal Member.
3. Community hosting platform
To build a community, you must choose a host platform. Consider using NbliK as your community platform. NbliK combines community, content, and commerce in one location. Its flexible workspace allows for events, chat, profiles, and more. It also offers various monetization options.
Here are some of the features you can build with:
- Post
- Live events, RSVPs
- Discussion
- Chatroom
- Members and their profiles
4. The prep work
Once you've selected a platform for your community, the next step is to determine what features to offer your Ideal Members.
In comparison to social community platforms, hosting your community on your preferred platform for the customization of aesthetic components like fonts, colors, and artwork offers a more concentrated and efficient experience.
Also, don't forget to customize the visual appearance of your community to match your brand, including adding your URL. With NbliK, you have the flexibility to infuse your style and voice into the platform. To ensure engagement from the start, consider customizing the new member experience.
5. Time to launch by inviting people!
It's time to launch your community! This step can be exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. Start by inviting the people you identified as your Ideal Members during your research. However, don't limit yourself to just them; feel free to invite as many people as possible.
6. Learn and adapt
Don’t forget that NbliK gives you a great set of tools to see what’s working. To ensure your community's success, regularly evaluate what's working and what isn't. Find the unique rhythm for your community and adjust accordingly. Use tools like custom analytics to gain insights from your audience and continually improve their experience.
Brand community and NbliK
Get started now! Be sure to feel fully prepared. Take the leap of faith and trust in your ability to figure it out. If you want to try NbliK, then you have a free trial, no credit card required, to ensure it is a good fit for you and your community.