12 ways to utilise online in your community
Online communities are the cradle of new ideas in different niches. Creating online community is not that much of an easy task.
The main problem is that most of the people do not have a proper blueprint for creating the online community. If indeed, you are not having a blueprint, you would not be able to achieve the kind of growth which you want. Due to this very reason, instead of struggling to create an online community, you have to look into some of the most simple steps which you can undertake in order to create the online community. Once you’re able to undertake the steps, it becomes an easier task for you.
Creating online community not only involves blueprints but also you have to make sure that you’re using the right tools as well. Once you’re able to use these right tools, it becomes easier for you to grow your community into something which is self-sustainable and which is able to provide newer and newer ideas in the niche to its members.
Today we would share with you 12 different ways in which you can build an online community and sustain it.
1. Utilizing Facebook to build your community:
While you would be using various different social media platforms in order to build your community but the 1st one with which you should always start is Facebook. This is because it is the largest social networking site currently. Also, due to the different features which are provided by Facebook, it would become easier for you to utilize all of those to your advantage so that you are able to build a larger community.
At the start, you would be needing authority as well a social proof in order to grow your community. Both of these would be provided by Facebook.
There are 2 ways in which you would be able to utilize Facebook.
Creating your own group:
The 1st step which you have to undertake is to create a group with the name of your brand. Thereafter, you have to work towards attracting more and more members towards this group. The more the number of members which you add to this group, the larger would be the amount of traffic which you can divert from this group to your own online community. Also, the larger the number of members of this group, the more would be the social proof which you can highlight in your online community. Owing to this very reason, you have to ensure that you are attracting more and more members to this group.
Creating a Facebook page:
The 2nd option which you can utilize in order to build your own community is to create a Facebook page. You have to ensure that you are creating it with your brand name. You have to work towards getting more and more likes to this Facebook page. This would serve as a social proof. The higher the number of Facebook likes you have, the more would be the trust factor in your community. Moreover, you can easily divert traffic from your Facebook page again to your online community. This would ensure that you would be able to get a consistent source of traffic.
You can also try to advertise your online community on Facebook. This would ensure that you are able to get a consistent amount of traffic to your online community. Once you’re sure that your online community is self-sustainable, thereafter you can stop advertising.
2. Instagram:
This is another social website which is becoming quite popular, and also a key player in the Facebook ecosystem. Primarily, it is the app of Instagram which is becoming more popular.
You can easily upload continuous streams and you would be able to build a community by attracting more members. You can interact with the other interested peopple in your niche. Once you’re able to do so, it becomes easier to divert the traffic to your online community. If part of your strategy is to build on Facebook, you should also include Instagram.
3. Making the content viral:
The content which you post on your online community should be of highest quality. When the content is of the highest quality, it becomes easier for you to make it go viral. The more the number of social shares you get, the more would be the traffic which you would be getting. More traffic would generally mean more members as well. This would ensure that it becomes easier for you to get the continuous stream of members. Moreover, with social shares, you would be able to get back links as well. This would get you traffic from search engines as well. When you’re able to get consistent traffic from search engines as well, it would become easier for you to get newer members. Know that some content will be produced with the ambition of making it go viral and stick, meanwhile other content is more to keep people engaged with your brand.
4. Blogging continuously:
Many times, when the new members are not contributing to your online community, you might be wondering how you would be able to get more and more content for your community. Instead of just relying on the new members, you have to also open up a blog on your own. Once you’re able to start up a blog, it would become easier for you to post consistent content. If you’re able to consistently post good quality content, more and more visitors would be frequenting your blog. You can easily convert these blog visitors into members of your online community. This would significantly increase the number of members which you are having in your online community.
5. Capturing emails:
Either you can gain organic traffic to your landing pages or you can get paid traffic to your landing pages. In both of these cases, instead of directly promoting your online community, you have to work towards capturing their emails. When you’re able to capture the emails, it would become easier for you to promote your community to them. Also, by capturing their emails you would be able to consistently market to them. This would ensure that if they are not converting in the 1st instance, you would be able to easily market to them, again and again.
6. Utilizing YouTube:
These days, most of the people are directly visiting YouTube when they are searching for tutorials or information in any niche. That is why, if you’re having videos on YouTube, it would become easier for you to divert the traffic to your online community. Also, the more subscribers you have on YouTube, the easier it would be for you to drive traffic to your online community. Also, as the engagement rate increases on your YouTube channel, it would become easier for you to gain more traffic for your online community. On your YouTube Channel, you would be able to easily promote your online community.
Some of the tips which you need to follow for increasing views as well as activity on your YouTube Channel are:
- Uploading videos consistently
- Uploading interesting videos
- Avoiding the filler videos
- Encouraging viewers to subscribe and comment
- Asking viewers to share their videos
When you’re able to follow these few steps in each and every media which you are uploading, it would become easier for you to make your YouTube videos go viral. Since you would be promoting your online community in your YouTube videos, automatically a certain percentage of those visitors would end up as members of your online community. This would automatically give an impetus to your online community.
7. Twitter:
Twitter is one of the social platforms which enables you to connect with your followers almost on instant basis. This ensures that when you’re able to build a proper following on Twitter, you would be able to update your followers almost instantly on the updates in your online community. This would help you in generating the proper engagement for your online community.
This would also help you in remaining in touch with all your followers on a consistent basis. Moreover, if you are syndicating different social media platforms, you can be sure that each and every social media channel would be sending you a significant amount of traffic. That is why you have to consistently utilize Twitter as well as Facebook as well as Instagram. Using a visual approach which is similar to how you are doing with Instagram can make the content creation simple, also increases the value of each piece of content you have with multi channel promotion.
8. Forums:
In each and every niche, there are quite a few established forums which you can utilize in order to gain traffic. You need to understand that instead of spamming these forums with the URL of your online community, you have to contribute to these forums on a consistent basis. When you’re able to contribute to these forums on a consistent basis, it becomes easier for you to divert some traffic to your own online community.
Some of the tips which you have to follow in order to get traffic from online forums are:
- Branding your username
- Including the URL of your online community in your signature
- Contributing sincerely
- Following the rules of the forums
- Contributing consistently
When you’re able to follow these steps, automatically you would be able to gain some traffic from these forums. Once you’re able to get a consistent amount of traffic from these forums, it would become easier for you to increase the membership count of your own online community.
9. Holding giveaways:
If you really want to take your community membership to the next level, you have to provide some incentive to the visitors to sign up for your community. One of the best options which you have got to do so is to ensure that you are holding a contest and the giveaway.
You have to market this contest on all social media platforms possible, understand why you are using the specific platform. Once you’re able to do that, it would become easier for you to gain the attention of the visitors which are interested in your niche. You can easily keep a condition that in order to qualify for the contest, the visitors need to sign up for your online community. This would ensure that the number of members in your online community would increase significantly.
Be aware that in quality of your community doesn’t necessarily correlate with the quantity.
10. Posting exclusive content in your online community:
You need to make sure that the members who are active in your online community are able to get some benefit out of it. Instead of posting the same content which is available on other online communities as well, you have to post as a unique content. In order to build the unique content, you would have to devote a lot of time and effort. However, when you’re posting exclusive content, you would have a greater chance of making the content go viral. This would not only benefit your current members but would also get new members. On the other hand, when you’re consistently posting exclusive content on your online community which is useful to the members, the members would also be remaining active for a longer period of time. When the members are remaining active for a longer period of time, not only the community would remain active but also the community would become self-sustainable as well as more and more members would share the content. This would ensure that it becomes easier for you to not only grow your community but also to sustain it.
Some of the tips which you have to follow in order to produce exclusive content for your online community are:
- Checking the problems of the members
- Taking the suggestions from the members
- Researching the content
- Backing up the content with the research
When you’re able to follow the steps, it becomes easier for you to produce good quality and exclusive content for your members.
11. Holding webinars:
Instead of just posting text content, you have to opt for different mediums which you can utilize in order to grow your community. You can hold webinars on a consistent basis.
You have to make sure that the details of the webinars are just shared among the members of your community.
This would ensure that more and more people are signing up in order to attend the webinar.
This technique would only work when you’re able to share some good quality information in these webinars.
12. Commenting on other blogs and groups:
You need to understand that if you’re genuinely interacting with other people in your niche, it would become easier for you to get noticed. However, instead of just spamming the comments you have to genuinely comment. If they have written a good piece of content, you have to compliment them as well. There are a few guidelines which you have to follow when you’re commenting on other mediums.
Last remarks: A few guidelines to follow for making it successful
- Do not spam
- Subtle marketing
- Genuine comments
- Beneficial comments
When you’re able to genuinely comment in groups as well as blogs, it would not take a longer period of time for your online community to get noticed.
You have to always sign off the comments with the brand name of your online community.
So, if you really want to grow your community rapidly and make it self-sustainable, these are the 12 ways in which you would be able to do so consistently. Sure enough, these are not easy to follow day in and day out but if you’re able to do so, you would not only be able to create a large online community of people with similar interests but also you would be able to make that community self-sustainable.
