What is a Community?

Before we dive in, let’s clarify a few things about communities. A community and an audience are two different things. Take your blog readers for example: when they absorb and consume your content, they are an audience, but when they engage and make comments on your blog, that’s the start of a community. A community is a two-way street — interaction with your followers is what builds the community.
A community can be anything from a neighborhood group to a school to a business networking group. When people talk about “brand communities” they’re referring to a community created around a business.
Many of these brand communities exist predominantly online. Building a community is a great way to bring back the human connection and to engage with your target audience. However, it requires the leader (which is you) to make a mindset shift to view their business and customers as part of a shared entity. Not all business owners are comfortable with this. You need to find your own way that fits who you are and how you want to interact with your audience.

How a Brand Community Benefits Your Business

With your brand community, you’re taking followers you already have, adding to them, and then turning them into loyal fans.

Here are some of the benefits a community brings to your business:

• Increased competitiveness – Your community will be like no one else’s, and this uniqueness sets you part from your competitors. The fact that you build loyalty to your brand strengthens your position in the marketplace.
• Deeper insights and feedback – When you get the two-way interaction going with community members, they’ll give you ideas for products they’re looking for. They’ll also give you feedback on products they have bought from you and, by sharing their experience with your community, they’ll encourage others to purchase. They’ll be an invaluable database for your business.
• Higher conversions and more business – By developing a deeper connection with members in your group, you will build the ‘know, like, trust’ factor which leads to increased sales, higher customer retention rates, and more referrals. Growing your membership will also assist with generating leads and building your email list.
• Better support – You provide a comprehensive support package to your community members by giving them product information, handling issues, offering how-to videos, and so on. You can also ask members to help out each other.
• Time and money savings – When you promote your offers through your community and enlarge your group by referrals, you can save money on advertising. If your customers have better information about the use of your products and service, then there will be fewer support tickets to deal with.

Why Do You Want a Community?

Communities come in all shapes and sizes, from masterminds to paid membership sites to large community platforms. We’ll look in more detail at this in a later module.

For now, think about why you’re considering building a community. Look back at the benefits above and decide what makes most sense to you. Could it be to…

1. Get more leads for your business
2. Shine a light on a new product or service
3. Foster interaction with your customers to monitor the effectiveness of your products
4. Keep in touch with the essential needs of your customer base
5. Encourage networking among members
6. Create a stronger connection with your followers
7. Cut down on individual customer support time by answering questions and sharing ‘How To’s’ in the group

These won’t all resonate with you and you could have other reasons to add.