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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.
@marketingcloud A1: A group of people united by common values, goals or approaches #mcloudLIVE
— Phoebe Shin Venkat (@Pheebkat) June 13, 2013
communities are groups of people that share common social, cultural and behavioral interests. @marketingcloud #mcloudlive
— A.J. Bellarosa (@JaumePrimero) June 13, 2013
— Jeff Brown (@4JeffBrown) June 13, 2013
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.
@themaria within business communities, often times the "win-win" scenario is more important. #mcloudlive @marketingcloud
— A.J. Bellarosa (@JaumePrimero) June 13, 2013
@marketingcloud Communities help grow evangelists for products outside a company. They are passionate customers of ur products #mcloudLIVE
— Muhammad Saad Khan (@invinciblesaad) June 13, 2013
@marketingcloud A:2 Gives ownership. Empowering those invested in you, your group, your brand. Real 3rd party social proof. #mcloudLIVE
— Joseph Schum (@SaysJoeSchum) June 13, 2013
— Michael Hahn (@mbhahn) June 13, 2013
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!
A5: Provide them with fresh, shareable content. @marketingcloud #mcloudLIVE
— Amelia Lerutte (@miadia) June 13, 2013
@ValaAfshar That's a great stat! Can you share the source? #mcloudlive
— Maria Ogneva (@themaria) June 13, 2013
— Gustavo J. Chavez (@gustavojchavez) June 13, 2013
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.
An individual can create the spark, but the flame, heat and energy must come from the community. #mcloudlive
— Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) June 13, 2013
A community is successful when the likeliness of share-ability is amplified to vitality #mcloudLIVE
— Sawsan (@Sawsanicity) June 13, 2013
— Joe Sterne (@MrJoeSterne) June 13, 2013
@marketingcloud A4: When other members answer questions addressed to you! (with smarter answers than yours) = Community Success #mcloudlive
— Geraldine Gray (@GeraldineGray) June 13, 2013
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.
