Building, growing, and fostering a community across the social media platforms and ensuring your brand is active in community management is a virtual part of social media marketing. Community management includes not only guest services but also engaging with customers and fans, monitoring for crises, measuring how people respond to your posts, products, and services, as well as moderating any undesirable conversations such as hate speech and scams. 

The Consumer Experience is More Important than Ever 

Community Management helps to form a bond with your consumers to help funnel them into the loyalty and advocacy stage of the marketing process. According to a study done by Khoros, 83% of consumers pay just as much attention to how they’re treated by a brand as they do to the brand products, and 73% of consumers are willing to pay more for a brand they love. 

Several decades ago, James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II coined the term “The Experience Economy,” which is an economy where experience creates value. Products are what enhance the experience. A study from Super Office found that 46% of business professionals surveyed believe that the consumer experience will be a top priority over the next five years. 

Consumer Interactions are no Longer Private

With social media, everything can be public. Any time a user has a grievance with a company, not only is that complaint public but so is that brand’s response- or lack of. Every question, concern, and compliment is available for the world to see, which is not necessarily a problem. 

Publicly handling complaints and concerns about brand integrity and ethics is an opportunity for companies to show everyone looking at the comment section how their team handles negative situations and, ultimately, what their values are. Does your company police hate speech? Does your C-Suite team believe in “people over profits”?

Monitoring the conversation around your brand also gives you an opportunity to get ahead of anything that can impact your brand’s reputation. There is more accountability than ever during the era of Cancel Culture, and bad actors may try to capitalize on a negative situation for clout. 

If you need help creating your community management strategy, finding your brand’s voice, or are interested in learning more about how we can help with crisis management and brand reputation, contact us for a free 30-minute consult.

What we’re reading:

• 5 tips to develop a social listening strategy
• How To Choose The Right Social Listening Tool [Checklist Included]
• Social Media Platform Updates June 2022
• Why Community Management Matters For Your Business (And How to Do It Right) (Shopify)
• Six Examples of Great Community Management (Ignite Social Media)