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Maria Ogneva was one of the organizers of the Customer Community Twitter Chat

Businesses today are seeking for more effective ways to connect with their customers, and customers are more likely to care about how this connection gets established.

 

On June 13th, Trish Forant, Melanie Thompson and myself hosted our monthly Twitter Chat, where we discussed successful customer communities. With the help of Customer Community experts Maria Ogneva and Erica Kuhl, we shared insightful thoughts and ideas on this topic. Managing successful customer communities is a powerful way to show and deliver great customer care, but just what does success really look like?

Our #mcloudLIVE Community gave us great ideas. Here are 4 lessons to consider when building and managing successful communities for your business.

1. Understand How Your Community Perceives “Community”

It starts with listening. With different opinions around the definition of community, the commonalities and the differences in varying opinions can help your business refine the sense of purpose for its customer community. For example, 10 people in your community may see it as a place to learn more about a specific product, while another group might also perceive it as somewhere to give product feedback. Therefore, listening can provide your business with an opportunity to keep refining the sense of purpose for your customer community.

2. Build a Win-Win Scenario

Simply put, if your customers win, your business will win too. As Joseph Schum said, “be the facilitator, not the filter for any community.” A business must aim to enable its customers to empower themselves with knowledge to become heroes within the community, all while nurturing positive relationships. A community allows customers to build a stronger bond with a brand and its products, letting them become great resources for others peers, and acting as strong advocates for your company. And don’t forget - have fun with it!

3. Enchant Them With Useful Content

To empower the members of your customer community, you must help them become sources of knowledge. Useful content can not only help solve your customers’ issues - it can also enable them to easily share this knowledge with others. To provide content, there has to be constant dialogue between the business and its customers so that helpful, shareable and relatable content gets created. Delivering the resources customers need will establish more trust for ongoing collaborative relationships.

4. If You Want Success, Let Them Bring The Heat

You’ve done your part, but like any community, its members must keep enriching it. Give them the spark, the sense of belonging and the resources to achieve great things while helping others. If they’re passionate about their connection with a product or brand, they’ll help drive the community to empower others to be successful as well. The sense of belonging can evolve into a sense of responsibility, where members will thrive, helping peers and becoming invaluable assets to your business community. Would you add another lesson to this list? Post a comment below to let us know what you think.

To learn more about Customer Communities, check out our webinar on June 27th at 2PM ET: “How to Create a Valuable Customer Community.” Our next Twitter Chat will be on July 18th at 2PM ET. 

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