The 2020 Community Industry Trends Report indicates that over 88% of community professionals believe that an online community and high community engagement is critical to a brand’s mission.
The best way to keep community management going you have to utilize a good online community platform. Online communities allow brands to structure and organize a community forum, online courses, and professional networks and host events that offer immense value to your online communities.
First things first - you have to understand why you need an online community to make your brand last in the minds of your audience.
What is community marketing?
Community marketing is a growth strategy whereby brands build an emotional connection with their audience, or online community, by building a space where community members can share thoughts and discuss industry trends and topics.
Community building is important for your own network - by offering something beyond what your product or brand services might entail, you’re creating a lasting connection with internal communities in your industry that will keep your customer base loyal and thriving.
“One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way that we couldn’t do as individuals”
Understanding the 5 Pillars of Community
The 5 Pillars of Community is a simple idea that helps you better grasp the need to build online communities and establish a common mindset with your audience. In the fast-changing workplace setting, adopting a common mindset maintains a team-oriented environment as a strong foundation for your organization.
Implementing the following 5 Pillars of Community are key components in differentiating those that succeed from those that thrive in the new digital scene.
1. Direction and Desired Outcome
Providing every community member with a clear outline of objectives is crucial to ensuring your audience works toward something common. Identifying a path to desired achievement and goals is a valuable tool in creating a community in the virtual workplace and helping your own community understand the value of the services you provide.
2. Shared Responsibility
Identifying that each of your community members shares a level of stake is imperative in keeping an engaged community while combating the added distractions of working from home in various environments.
3. Personal Value
Human nature causes people to ask the question, “What’s in it for me?” When organizations show that their product is valuable to an online community, their sales will go up. By building a group of community members who understand the value of your product, you will build a loyal customer base.
4. Progress Awareness
This pillar may not directly relate to your mission to build an online community, but it does offer insight into tracking the correlation between the success of your business and how many community members you’re engaging with regularly. Awareness of both individual and overall company progress maintains a level of accountability and provides updates on development - it’s also a good idea to use a community management platform to share updates and news about your company with your audience.
5. Ongoing Ecosystem
In the traditional workplace setting, an ongoing ecosystem does not require as much change as in the digital setting. Today, the major shift from office to home has caused an entirely new work to evolve and for a community manager to take on. The shift means that reliable online communities are vital and powerful community management tools are necessary to meet demands and ensure productivity.
What can you do with community platforms?
With online community software or platforms, you can more easily engage with your audience in several ways. Using more common methods of engagement like a social media platform or Mighty Networks is great, but it doesn’t offer much more than surface-level connection.
Here are some ways you can use a community management platform to build a lasting relationship with your target audience.
Learn more about JUNO's Community Marketing Platform
Elevate your own brand while helping online communities. JUNO offers the best online community platform and community features available. Our key features include creating a space for community goals through virtual and hybrid event features, creating relevant content, offering webinars and online courses, and creating discussion boards for your prospective customers.
JUNO has helped thousands of users across five continents with event management, post-event analytics, interactive presentations, virtual conferences, attendee networking, live streaming, and so much more.
Tour our community platform or contact us to set up a personalized demo to learn more about what JUNO has to offer. Your team will never want to use another community engagement platform. Learn more at www.junolive.com.
Build your community with JUNO
Tour our platform or contact us to set up a personalized demo to learn more about what JUNO has to offer. Your team will never want to use another community engagement platform. Learn more at www.junolive.com.
