Creative business owners want engagement from their audiences because it is a great way to facilitate genuine connections.
This connection is what builds trust and encourages prospects to become buying customers because people buy from those they trust.
Essentially, building an engaging community is beneficial to your business, because you have an audience that will become raving fans(insert links) and also patronize whatever product or services that your business offers.
In today’s world where human attention is becoming challenging to attain, we can agree that making humans feel like they are part of your brand and becoming a community can boost your creative business.
Engagement is the core purpose of building a community, which is what business owners strive to achieve, in this blog post we discuss ways to improve engagement for your business community.
1. Develop An Onboarding Process
If we are talking about an engaged community, the first step is to talk about building that community.
Communities can be open or closed, while an open community is accessible to anyone, a closed community requires an invite to join.
Whatever type of community you operate, people are always looking forward to an amazing experience and taking advantage of this can boost your community engagement rate.
Onboarding should be an opportunity to integrate new members and excite them, if a member feels lost when they join your community there is a high chance they will not stick around.
An onboarding process also sets an expectation of what members can expect to happen in the community.
I would recommend you start by posting a welcome video or post that can be personalized for members to understand the essence of your community.
2. Make It Easy For People To Communicate
A common challenge that creative business owners face when building a community is driving engagement.
Even after building a community, you must ensure that the involvement of members within the community is not complicated.
Allow users to be expressive and discuss topics that interest them.
A hostile community also reduces communication this is why it is important to have guidelines for engagement to build a respectful and engaging community.
3. Create Valuable Resources For Your Audience
The essence of a community is to provide members with a sense of purpose.
The best way to build a community is to centre around your customers, which means catering for their needs.
Catering to their needs gives you a competitive edge as they always look forward to having conversations, providing feedback and eventually becoming advocates for your business.
Conclusion
People buy from brands that align with their values, community building is focused on connecting members with similar interests to create a relationship and provide value.
Community engagement happens when you truly understand your audience, while fostering a relationship with them it is important to be responsive.
These three tips are achievable as long as they are put into practice but remember results take time to show so be patient.
What other ways can you build an engaging community? Please share your thoughts.
