If you have a following online, communities are an excellent next step to grow your brand and give back to your fanbase that’s why you need to turn followers into a community. But why are communities becoming the topic of discussion for every influencer and brand these days? And how can you get on board with this ages-old, yet highly effective method of keeping your fanbase alive and strong?
Building a community element around your brand has many benefits. Internationally renowned brands such as WhatsApp and Facebook are fully committed to enhancing community and group features, aiming to provide an improved overall experience for both members and dedicated community managers like yourself.
And there’s a reason for this! After all, communities help us create long-lasting connections and have even proven to increase a brand’s revenue by as much as 20%.
What is a “community” really?
You might look at your social media accounts and think, this is a community! Why would I need to “build one” when I already have one on Instagram?
There’s a distinction between a community where you post and people respond versus one where members actively drive engagement.
Consider starting a social community on a platform like Substack. Here, you can send newsletters, and subscribers can comment and share on the Substack platform, akin to responding to a blog or an Instagram post.
However, this community experience is limited, it’s only active when a new post is created by the influencer.
There’s limited interaction, you have limited control, and it’s not a community-focused platform. Social media and Substack follow more of the “one-to-many” communication model. What you want for a community is a “many-to-many” communication model.
When you build your community, you want to focus on building a powerful experience where the driver is not your content, it’s about fostering communication, support and sharing between your members who all share a similar goal.
If you turn your followers into a community, you can have significant benefits in helping your audience in different ways. It can help them:
- Find answers in a fraction of the time: It can sometimes take hours and hours when trying to find a simple solution on search engines. But with instant access to a community, finding what you’re looking for from like-minded individuals becomes easy. This is especially valuable in a global community where members are active 24/7 across different time zones, potentially providing the exact answers you need.
- Relationship & network building – When fans get to join a community, this means that they have the opportunity to network and build relationships with other fans. Not only this, but having an online community now becomes a place of support. It serves as a resource for finding answers to questions and offers simple emotional and motivational support. Moreover, it’s a great way for members to have access to accountability partners and people who can provide feedback. Additionally, it provides a space for individuals to connect with those who share a common interest.
- Extra resources: Part of joining a community means having a built-in support system and network – but also a place where members can find material resources whether it be links, exclusive content, panel discussions, event passes, research, tools, and more that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to.
Through providing this extra value, it has benefits for you and your brand in return. For example, hosting a community for your fans is a great way to:
1. Increase your revenue
When you build a community product around your brand, you’re also diversifying your income stream.
You can charge consistent subscription fees for your community, or give discounts and early-bird access to any of your future product launches. With a community, you now have a built-in loyal audience that is far more likely to invest in your future products – and in the end, help you generate a larger, and more diverse stream of income.
2. Encourage engagement
When fans get to participate in a community hosted by an influencer that they look up to, they start to feel as though they are part of the brand and part of your world, rather than feeling like just another viewer commenting on your posts. It helps encourage fan participation and engagement off-platform as well – whether it be through social media, or through investing in your products.
They’ll also be more likely to recommend you to others, share your content, share your story, and express their experiences with your brand. In short, community is key to promoting better engagement amongst your fan base.
3. Build deeper, long-lasting relationships
When you simply have a bunch of fans following you on social media – it’s very likely that many of them will eventually leave. You don’t know many of them, except for maybe a familiar username. After all, community on social media tends to be mainly a one-way communication system.
The influencer posts online. Fans react by liking the content, but their attempts to grab attention often go unnoticed amidst the stream of thousands of other comments. Some of these comments are made by people who don’t even like the creator but engage in spam for amusement.
However, when you create a community product, you initiate a transformative model of communication. This model facilitates direct interaction between you and your fans. Simultaneously, it encourages meaningful communication among fans and their peers.
Your fans are instantly going to feel more heard, and more connected with you. Especially when you respond to them and interact with them on the community platform. It’s a way of building stronger, longer-lasting relationships with those fans because they feel seen.
Not to mention – especially if you charge a subscription fee – you’re mostly going to get dedicated people joining the space. This means the community experience will be stronger, and won’t be clouded by problematic spammers.
4. Build a larger following
Within your community, individuals have the chance to express themselves and share their stories, creating a more interactive environment. This unique aspect of community products is renowned for triggering a “network effect.” Simply put, as more people engage with and find compatibility in the platform, the product itself continues to improve. That means more people will join, the product will keep improving, and the fanbase will keep growing.
When it comes to building a community, however, there are steps to take so it doesn’t end up like one of those sad, Facebook group communities where nobody talks, statuses don’t get seen, the members aren’t fully invested – and it just eventually becomes a spam group that no one uses.
So, how do you avoid this, and build a community that will last?
How to turn your followers and fan base into a community
1. Pinpoint your community focus
When you start to build out your community, you want to make sure that you have a narrow focus on what exactly you want to accomplish with this community. So how exactly do you do this? Well first, ask yourself:
- What am I passionate about?
- What problem is my audience experiencing?
- What skills do I have, and what can I teach?
While self-reflection is crucial, it’s also extremely important to do research. If you’re not quite sure how to focus your community experience and create something incredible, start looking into other communities that are being hosted by similar creators, with similar fan bases.
Do some qualitative research as well – go into the field and interview people in order to build an experience that people will truly enjoy and use. So, take to Instagram or whatever platform you want, and ask your audience. Host a focus group. Explain your idea (if you already have one) and see what they think. Then, ask what they would like to see in your community. What would they benefit from? What’s the biggest problem they’re facing in an industry right now, and how could a community help them solve it?
And in order to do this properly, you first have to:
2. Narrow in on your target audience
Oftentimes, especially if you’re a content creator online building an online community – it’s best to focus on reaching an audience that is more tech and social media-oriented. This is especially true if you’re building a problem-solving community because younger folks tend to be more focused on advocacy and changing systems.
However, it’s crucial to emphasize that targeting a tech-savvy and social media-oriented audience doesn’t exclude older demographics. The key is to focus on a specific type of person. This approach enhances your ability to attract like-minded individuals to your community. It holds true regardless of age, ensuring inclusivity and relevance across diverse age groups.
To achieve this, identify the prevalent characteristics of your audience. Tailor your community experience to align with these characteristics and cater to the unique needs of your members.
3. Pick a community-building platform
Choosing the right community-building platform is crucial for crafting the ideal fan experience. Amidst various options like Nas.io, Mighty Networks, Circle, Tribe, and more.
Make sure to prioritize a platform that supports seamless chats, efficient notifications, and easy post creation and content sharing. Overall, here are some important features we think are important to look out for when choosing a community-building platform:
- Ownership over data
- Integrations with other platforms
- Monetization options (accepts global currency)
- Easy and accessible to use
- Good customer service
- Customizability and optimization for the user
- Something with all-in-one capabilities (email services, video hosting etc.)
Before choosing though, make sure to do your research to find out which one supports your ultimate mission and your personal needs as a community host.
4. Market your community experience
Newsletters may not be the primary tool for fostering a community that transforms your fanbase’s interaction with your brand. However, they prove highly effective in marketing your community and establishing a more intimate connection with your fans. Consider this: appearing in someone’s inbox is more personal than a casual scroll through your Instagram feed, making emails a powerful and conversion-driven approach.
In fact, 64% of B2B marketers in 2021 claimed that email marketing was what helped them achieve their business goals that year – and 81% said it was still their top marketing strategy.
This means building an email newsletter around your community is a great way to start building your fan base into a community.
Turn your followers into a community through Nas.io
If you’re looking for a forward-thinking platform to build your community on, Nas.io is the best, up-and-coming community platform in 2022. Nas.io is a platform that is directly committed to building functional, collaborative communities online for your fanbase.
We offer integrations with your most-used apps from Discord to WhatsApp – and we offer global payment options (including cryptocurrency). With Nas.io, you have the option to set up a community and manage it yourself, or get a team of community experts behind Nas Academy and Nas Daily to help you out.
We’re here to help you create a private space where your unique fan base can grow, connect, and learn. Our user-friendly tools are all about bringing your vision to life.
Learn more at Nas.io, and start building that community today.
