The Importance of Social Media Community Management to Your Brand

Creating a sense of community is among the very essence of social media. For brands, having a solid community also means having more meaningful engagement among your followers and having a more receptive audience.

It remains a fact, however, that a lot of activities are involved in social media marketing. And along with regular content creation, managing your social media community is an additional yet essential part of your strategy.

How is social media community management important? Is it worth getting a community manager for your business?

What Is Social Community Management?

Social media community management, as the term suggests, is the ongoing process of establishing and maintaining relationships with your customers through social media.

Whereas social media management encompasses all activities in handling a brand’s social media presence, community management is more specific and focuses on creating strategies to interact with your community (followers).

It also involves planning and implementing strategies to encourage meaningful conversations about your brand.

5 Reasons Why Community Management Is Important for Brands

Just as content is important in social media and digital marketing, so is having an engaged following — and community management is at the core of establishing this. Being able to manage your social media community also leads to:

1. Increased brand reputation and trust

Communicating with each of your customers humanizes your brand. It gives your customers the idea that you value them as unique people, not just a transaction.

On a similar note, the more that customers feel connected to your brand, the more they trust you over all their other options.

2. Better customer experience and insights

Cultivating meaningful conversations within your online community allows you to get a better grasp on what your customers feel about your brand, as well as their needs and pain points.

This ultimately leads to a better customer experience as you gain deeper insight into what makes your customers feel more valued.

3. Improved SEO

An engaged following also translates to higher engagement rates, and it has been found that social media engagement can indirectly improve your SEO ranking.

Aside from building a solid brand presence, an active social media community can lead to higher click-throughs to your website, increasing your organic traffic. Social media shares also count as backlinks, which can also positively influence your SEO.

4. Better lead generation and conversions

In the same vein as the previous point, establishing a good relationship with your online community can also mean getting better-quality leads — that is, your followers are more likely to convert than those that you’ve never interacted with before.

With better leads, the better are your chances of converting your prospects to paying and returning customers.

5. Stronger customer loyalty

With the combined benefits of increased brand trust and better leads, your online community is more likely to stay loyal to you, and may even recommend your brand to their friends and family.

This is a win-win situation, as it’s also been proven that customer retention is far more cost-effective than customer acquisition.

Quick Tips to Effectively Manage Your Social Media Community

Here are some social media community management tips to help you get started:

• Be proactive: Social media users typically expect quick responses to their queries. While it’s not always realistic to be there for them 24/7, a key strategy to mitigate this is to be proactive. Use social listening tools such as Buffer and Hootsuite to help you check how your community is doing in a timely manner.
• Be human: The modern consumer craves authenticity, especially in today’s often superficial online community. It’s important for brands to personalize their approach when interacting with their audience. It may be as simple as mentioning their name, but a more effective approach is to actively listen to their concern and provide empathy and a solution as promptly as you can.
• Set goals and measure: An overlooked aspect of community management is setting metrics for your efforts. It’s not enough to just look at the numbers, especially an increase in followers. Take time to regularly measure your engagement rate, click-throughs, and impressions — to name a few — and see if these metrics are helping you reach your social media community goals.

Is It Worth Getting a Social Media Community Manager?

The quick answer is yes. Social media content creation, on top of your usual business tasks, can be quite overwhelming, especially for startup businesses with limited resources.

While it’s not always feasible to hire a dedicated community manager for your brand, you can choose to outsource it to full-service digital marketing agencies like Ilfusion. You can also use automation tools to help you ease the challenge. Some tools you can use are:

• Social media management and listening tools, such as Buffer and Hootsuite, as we mentioned earlier
• Chatbots that you can configure on platforms like Facebook and Instagram
• Built-in audience insight tools on your chosen social media platform
• Tools like NapoleonCat and Social Bakers to streamline your social inbox

Social media community management is but one of the many aspects of social media marketing that requires both time and effort. If you need help with any of your social media needs, whether it be community management or content creation and strategy, head on to our website at https://www.ilfusion.com/ to learn more.