Harnessing the Power of Virtual Communities
Virtual communities have blossomed in recent years.
Sometimes, they are unaffiliated with an organization, but more often than not, they are established and nurtured by an organization to support a specific business goal. The benefits of a vibrant virtual community are so compelling that more organizations are putting it on the top of their to-do list or at least considering it.
Consumer-centric organizations use online community management software to create shared purposes and common goals that unite people.
What is a Virtual Community?
A virtual community is a group of people who share a common interest or goal and use the internet to exchange words and ideas through digital communication networks.
Before diving any deeper, let’s address a common mistake—virtual communities and social networks are not the same. While virtual communities share some similarities with social media platforms, such as connecting people online, there are extensive differences regarding experience, strategy, and behavior.
People join social media networks to build relationships, and these interpersonal relationships hold the network together. Social networks offer a more individualistic experience, where users seek “likes” or “views,” whereas virtual communities provide a culture of sharing and authentic exchanges.
Why consider virtual communities over social networks
The propagation of fake news and hate speech, privacy concerns, and ad fatigue are just some of the reasons that an increasing number of people are moving away from social networks like Facebook.
Savvy companies have observed this trend and created private communities where members can develop deeper relationships and engage in a safe space. Many organizations, including Meeds DAO, have created an engagement platform for collaboration, communication, and engagement.
Indeed, ample evidence shows that virtual communities can give organizations a significant competitive advantage. The power tool company DEWALT saved $6 million in research costs by launching its community. The University of Michigan found that customers spent 19% more after they became members of a brand’s online community.
Organizations such as Meeds DAO, Dell, and Adobe have launched virtual communities to strengthen their brands, generate buzz, and increase loyalty among members and customers.
So, let’s examine some of the key benefits of a virtual community and how to create one.
Benefits of a virtual community
Virtual communities enable user discussions and provide a dedicated space for businesses to interact with customers, elevate the customer’s voice, and develop a centralized location for feedback and questions.
Let’s discuss some of the core benefits of creating a virtual community for your business needs.
Increase the customer lifetime value
We are now in the age of customer-centric businesses where loyalty is key to an organization’s success.
Many businesses still think that loyalty is built through sending emails that talk to the customer and focus on upselling. In fact, loyalty is about creating meaningful relationships based on trust.
Private virtual communities foster constructive customer-to-brand and peer interactions.
Customer communities enable customers to share insights and feedback on products and services and shape the direction of the business. This transforms the customer into an advocate and an integral part of your business — strengthening your relationship with them and enhancing their loyalty.
Understand user needs in a better way
Authentic feedback and conversations in virtual communities help organizations better understand their customers and needs. The great thing about this information is that organizations can get it quickly and easily. There is no need to wait for the annual customer conference or the feedback survey results!
Armed with this information, organizations can refine their marketing and sales strategies and roadmaps for future products and services.
An example of this use case can be seen in meeds community support efforts. The organization regularly surveys members about the community’s usefulness.
The trends and challenges identified in the community, as well as feedback, help refine a business's overall marketing strategy and drive product innovation. Virtual communities are important for companies to receive feedback that can improve their operations and further customer-led growth.
Lower customer acquisition costs
A happy customer is a compelling asset for your organization. It’s one thing to have a satisfied customer. It’s another to have a customer who will recommend you to others, and it is something else to have a brand evangelist who loves your product or service so much that they indirectly indulges in advocacy marketing for your brand.
Engaging your customers on a human level through virtual communities is an excellent way to cultivate brand advocates and encourage word-of-mouth referrals. Virtual communities also offer a platform for customers to voice their opinions on your offer and answer any questions from a potential buyer.
Increase diversity and global reach
A virtual community can also expand your company's global reach. The Sabin Vaccine Institute created a community called Boost to better support immunization workers worldwide. The community has helped increase the organization’s international reach, particularly in Asia and Africa, and its diversity.
How to build a thriving virtual community?
Creating a virtual community is one thing, but ensuring it doesn’t fall flat and delivers the impact you thought it would bring to your business is a different ballgame.
Let’s go through how actually to ensure success with a virtual community.
Align community with organization needs
For a community to return maximum benefits, it must be designed as part of a high-level strategy supporting company-wide goals. To get the buy-in from your executive team, you need to focus on your organization’s strategic goals and highlight how a community could help.
Some business goals that can be met by creating virtual communities:
- Simplifying user onboarding and product adoption
- Improving customer support systems
- Increase members' retention through refined interactions
The best approach is to start by identifying one business need your community can help with. Once you’ve addressed the problem you want to solve, start strategizing on ideas and plans to bring those solutions to life via a virtual community.
Create a mission statement
A mission statement is the most essential part of an organization, and virtual communities are no different.
A community mission statement is a formal summary that outlines why your community exists and the goals you want to achieve. The mission statement is integral to your community’s strategy because it is used to define future goals as well as operational tactics.
By defining the purpose of your community, you can better understand the goals your community is committed to achieving. Once those goals are set, you can create a strategy. By establishing this stable foundation, you can build your community from the ground up and help ensure its stability.
The mission statement is also critical for your members. After all, if you don’t have a clear and specific understanding of the focus and value of your community, you can’t expect your members to (or you risk them defining this for you, which might not be ideal). Potential members can evaluate your community based on its mission statement to decide whether it suits its values and goals.
Set up a community onboarding process
Your community’s onboarding process is essential to member engagement and retention. Onboarding allows you to integrate and excite new members, inspire them to actively participate in your community, and solidify your relationship with them.
When new members sign up (and perhaps pay) to join your community, they are super receptive to your communication. Take advantage of this and provide the best onboarding experience possible.
A great onboarding experience goes beyond a classic welcome email and offers a series of emails for newcomers to steadily onboard. The emails should help members feel more proficient and autonomous using your community and more connected with the other members.
Best practices for engaged virtual communities
“How can I improve engagement in my community?” is one of the most common questions people ask. Although engagement can mean different things to different communities, there are some best practices for enhancing engagement that can work for most types of communities.
Getting people to interact with each other and content in an online community isn’t straightforward. Engagement doesn’t happen automatically. You need to look at it as an experiment, use a test-and-learn approach, and adapt based on your learning.
As your community grows, so should your strategy. You need to regularly survey your members to ensure that the benefits your community brings are consistent with your members’ needs.
Make participation easy
Create multiple entry points into your community, such as your organization’s website, email, and newsletters. This way, members can easily log in, see what’s happening, and get involved.
Explore notification options through user feedback
Remembering that members would return to your community and contribute would be best.
Keeping members updated on the content that matters most to them makes them more likely to log into the community and engage. You can notify your community via email and newsletter, and in-app push notifications for mobile apps can also be powerful.
The Meeds Builders platform uses email and in-app notifications to keep community members updated.
Invest in user experience
Carefully consider the design and user experience of your community as well. Members need to understand how to participate easily, and clear and easy-to-understand calls to action are essential.
Create reward mechanisms and implement gamification for engaged members. This is about more than just motivating them to continue to contribute. It also demonstrates that they are recognized for having a key role within the community, which may indirectly increase their participation in the long term.
Badges and swag are great rewards, providing business-orientated rewards for your top contributors. For example, invite them to beta test products, give them early access to top content, offer discount event prices, and give them access to executives.
Improve user support processes
If a member asks a question, reply to them promptly. Boost the quality of your responses by soliciting the most expert person in your team to reply to them. Let your community know that you are listening and there for them. You could even ask members to share an answer if it solved their query.
Remember that most members don’t show significant engagement initially. Most community members start observing and then become gradually more and more involved.
Create a targeted content strategy
Content is an essential ingredient for growing and maintaining a healthy online community. The right type of content will also help you engage and grow your members, build trust, and strengthen relationships.
Define who you are talking to, what you should discuss (their challenges, interests), and how you should do so.
Measure success metrics regularly
Remember, success is not all about clicks and comments. You need to go beyond and look at business metrics directly related to your goal(s). For example, the impact of the community on the number of new members, you need also to measure the impact of the community on the organization
Using the Meeds DAO Hub to Create a Virtual Community
The Meeds Hub offers a decentralized, transparent, and incentivized platform for creating a vibrant, engaged virtual community. With its emphasis on collaboration, transparent governance, incentivized participation, seamless collaboration tools, and privacy and security features, the Meeds Hub is the right choice for any organization looking to build a thriving community where members can connect, collaborate, and share knowledge in a decentralized and inclusive environment.
Get a Hub today and unlock the power of decentralized virtual community-building. Start here
About Meeds: Meeds is a decentralized engagement platform for the future of work.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Meeds DAO or any affiliated organizations
