SEO Glossary: Community Management

 

Why is community management relevant for companies?

 

Community management is an important strategic tool for building and maintaining an online community.

 

With the help of questions, discussions and moderation, a company comes into direct contact with the end customer.

 

With the right strategy, this online marketing tool therefore has a positive effect on sales and helps to acquire new customers.

 

If you apply a well thought-out and clever community management strategy, you will turn your customers into satisfied brand ambassadors, who in turn will generate new members.

 

We at Timo Specht are happy to support you with our expertise and help you with the long-term optimization of your website and social media channels - for your company and your followers.

 

Community management: these are the advantages

 

Building an online community on social media has the following advantages for companies:

 

• Collecting feedback on own products and services
• Strengthening brand loyalty through personal interactions
• Creating desire for new products, which boosts sales
• Adapt new products to customers' needs and wishes
• Increase your own popularity with user-generated content

 

 

What types of community management are there?

 

Depending on the objectives of a company, the following types of community management can be distinguished:

 

• Community support for open questions and problem solutions
• Community management for products
• Community management for content

 

 

The role of the community manager: link between companies and online users

 

A community manager acts as a link between their company and the online community. Their tasks are as follows:

 

• Interaction with the social media community
• Support for one or more online platforms
• Moderation and monitoring of discussions on social media
• Collecting and forwarding feedback
• Creating and sharing content
• Analysis of community interactions and derivation of strategic measures
• Organization of webinars and other social media events

 

A community manager is not necessarily a social media manager, although the two areas of activity have common points of intersection.

 

A social media manager is mainly responsible for creating content and often focuses on a specific platform.

 

A community manager, on the other hand, acts independently of a specific social media platform. However, they work closely with the social media manager and are responsible for the maintenance and growth of the communities.

 

What is necessary for a good community management strategy?

 

As with other online marketing measures such as content marketing, a good community management strategy is essential.

 

To ensure that communication and exchange with users works, you should know and implement the following options.

 

Objective

 

The first step is to define the goals for your community management. Do you want to make your brand better known to users, strengthen customer loyalty or receive tips for new products?

 

Then formulate your goals using the SMART method.

 

Select platform

 

Take a look at social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook and decide on one or more options.

 

Consider your company's goals and evaluate which network best suits your strategic direction.

 

In the B2B sector, LinkedIn and Xing are a good choice. TikTok should be on your radar if you want to target a young audience in particular.

 

Channels such as Instagram and Facebook reach a large, mixed audience and are suitable if your brand wants to appeal to a broad target group.

 

Define target group

 

The next task is to define your target group. Decisive factors are, for example, demographic composition, gender, professional background, hobbies and interests.

 

Based on this information, you can develop a so-called persona. This is a fictitious prototype for your target group, which you use to derive the needs and wishes of your (future) customers.

 

These assumptions about your customers will help you to define your community management strategy.

 

Competitor analysis

 

Taking a leaf out of the competition's book is perfectly acceptable. Take a look at what the community managers of other companies are doing.

 

Competitors' social media channels provide you with important information on positive developments, but also reveal weaknesses. You can adopt profitable aspects as long as they fit your brand and strategy.

 

Define KPIs

 

After analyzing the competition, the next task is to define key performance indicators. Work with your team to come up with KPIs for measurement and review.

 

For example, the number of followers, interactions such as comments and likes, and the conversion rate are meaningful.

 

Define manners

 

Formulate a netiquette and publish it on the social media channels or on your company website.

 

 

Best practice tips: How do companies operate successful community management?

 

Successful community management requires not only technical expertise but also empathy and sensitivity.

 

The following tips will help you to interact confidently with your followers and make the most of your potential on social media.

 

Monitoring

 

Sophisticated social media monitoring plays an important role in your community management.

 

After all, online communities are dynamic and fast-moving entities that are subject to changing trends. With the help of monitoring, the wishes and needs of customers can be derived.

 

You can plan and align your community management based on these principles.

 

Speed

 

Prompt responses are the be-all and end-all when interacting with people on social media. On social networks in particular, most customers react impatiently and do not want to wait long for a response from a company.

 

A community manager should therefore be able to react quickly and reply to a comment or post promptly.

 

Communication strategy

 

A key success factor in community management is a uniform communication strategy that is tailored to your brand and target group.

 

The wording should correspond to your corporate image so that it appears authentic and trustworthy to users.

 

In addition, the language used on Instagram and other channels should be consistent. This creates clarity in corporate communication and strengthens trust and thus also (virtual) relationships with users.

 

Clear rules, clear responsibilities

 

The rules that apply in the community are directly linked to the communication strategy.

 

Every company should speak out against any form of discrimination and take a clear stance in the event of abuse or trolling, and not just for its own sake.

 

By defining a netiquette , you offer social media members the opportunity to exchange information under positive conditions.

 

Always pay attention to internal responsibilities and designate a fixed contact person for users.

 

Varied interactions

 

The virtual community thrives on exchange. The opportunities for interaction should be correspondingly varied. A FAQ section, but also surveys, live videos and polls encourage members to exchange ideas.

 

Be empathetic (also towards critics)

 

(Negative) criticism is an integral part of every social network. The challenge in community management is to treat critics with empathy and make them feel that their concerns are being taken seriously.

 

This can be achieved with concrete help, but also with empathetic words. Sometimes a funny post with a dose of self-irony can lighten the tense atmosphere.

 

However, you should always remain honest and play with open cards when mistakes are made. Deleting or censoring a comment is not a solution, but always has a negative impact on a company's credibility.

 

At worst, this measure can lead to a shitstorm. Instead, you should see negative criticism in a conversation as an opportunity to communicate confidently and appreciatively in a crisis situation.

 

Share posts

 

Show your community appreciation by sharing their contributions. In this way, you use user-generated content for your company and increase the authenticity of your brand.

 

However, you should first ask for permission to share the content in your online forum or on your channels.

 

Using community management tools

 

Professional tools are a must for successful community management. If you want to create a post or analyze the key figures, then use special tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook Business Manager or Instagram Insights.

 

Furthermore, management tools such as Hoot Suit or Sprout Social help to plan and implement content for the social media channels.

 

Use special channels

 

Social media community management is no longer limited to well-known platforms such as Facebook or X (formerly Twitter).

 

It benefits your company if you also reach your community via other channels. Your team can use new platforms to intensify relationships with customers.

 

One useful channel for communication is Discord, for example, which was originally intended for gaming communities. Today, the app is used by more than 150 million users.

 

Many international companies are now represented on Discord and share content such as voice messages, images or videos with their community.

 

WhatsApp is another channel with potential. It offers companies the opportunity to build an active community with their own channel.

 

Community events that take place offline and only have a limited number of guests are even more personal.

 

Added value for users

 

In lively communities, members are active and benefit from the community. Therefore, one goal should always be to create content with added value for users.

 

Regardless of whether your community is more entertaining or informative: always keep the added value for users in mind and make sure that your online community is not all about advertising.

 

Always stay on the ball

 

Community management is not a sprint, it's a marathon.

 

Therefore, always keep your planning up to date and regularly review your strategy to keep your members interested.