Monthly Archive:April 2020

3 ways to create an engaging community

 

There’s a difference between an audience and a community. An audience sits, usually quietly, and listens. The communication is usually one-way and they passively receive the information you give to them. If they like what they hear, they’ll come back and listen some more.

A community is a living breathing experience. They talk back. They engage. They interact. They participate.

Here are 3 ways to create an engaging community.

 

  1. Make it easy for people to communicate with you

It’s no coincidence that Community starts with the same letters that form the word Communication – so if you have any hope of building a community (digital or otherwise) that interacts with you, you need to make it easy for them to do that.

In a brilliant survey conducted by Braze and Forrester, it was discovered that as much as 60% of all of our brand experiences happen because of human-like connections. Note that I use human-like. Yes, a lot of it happens through automation – but there is an engagement, an immediate response that helps your user or member or customer get to where they need to be.  It also really depends on HOW you communicate too. Remember that how you communicate on each channel will be different. The way you communicate on Facebook will evoke a difference response if you tried the same method on Twitter. It will fall flat.  So, please, when it comes to your social media activity, think about who you are talking to on each respective platform, and adjust your communication style to suit it.

 

  1. GET FOCUSSED

Sometimes it is entirely necessary to narrow your focus. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine to want your post to go viral, but at the initial stages, when you are trying to build the critical mass of members in your community, you need to narrow the scope of your marketing to include only people who are more likely to adopt your product. And of course, identifying these people will probably involve a lot of research and hard work – including coming up with what we call Personas (examples of the typical person you are trying to attract), or look at the Personas of who your competitors may be targeting etc. That’s why, popping a tweet into the ocean and hoping that someone, somewhere takes a bite, is not, as my dad used to say, impossible, but it’s HIGHLY unlikely.

You will find that you will get a much higher conversion from people who are already interested in your product, and what you have to offer.

 

  1. Get the right people in the right place

Remember that it’s important for a community to know what their purpose is. For that, you, as the host of the community, needs to ensure that you have set the tone of your group. You may choose to create a set of rules or guidelines, or add a really clear description of what you’re trying to achieve. I manage a number of digital communities – many of which have entirely different sets of rules and intentions – and yet each one a living space where members who share a common goal, share their experiences and interact with one another. In fact, I don’t really need to do a lot other than moderate and check that members are acting respectfully towards each other. That’s when you know that your community is alive.

Sometimes you may need to dip in and inspire conversation with new thoughts, ideas, questions, polls etc and sometimes you may need to quieten some members down to allow others a chance to speak – but that all happens as your community grows organically, and you start to get to know your members.

 

If you’re on the hunt for expert help to create engaging communities, get in touch with Katy today.

 

Great Product Alert -> Scripted Video

There is nothing I hate more than searching for something that does a very specific job, and not finding it. Or rather, finding several things that juuuuust don’t quite do what I need.

Today, I was on the hunt for an app that not only records video, but that works as a teleprompter at the same time *and* exports my completed video for me to throw into an independent app to update with a branded top-and-tail.

Already frustrated before I began my search, as so often I am when I look for something specific, I happened upon Scripted Video – just another random teleprompter app in the App Store.

I did what most people do, and read the reviews.

They weren’t bad.

One person had some gripe about it ‘not really being free, is it’ – assuming full well that if this was a reputable company, they wouldn’t be making a great tool for the love and goodwill of everyone else, so there had to be a commercial model in there somewhere.

I decided to download it.

Long story short – within 5.30 minutes, I’d downloaded, signed up, uploaded my script, set the teleprompter speed, recorded my video, and saved my video to my camera roll. (The video itself was just under 5 minutes long).

Click on my inbox, and there’s an email from the creator, Phil Norton, with a few helpful hints to help me get myself up to speed with the app. Nothing glitsy. Nothing annoying. Just a good, honest email (yes, automated) from a chap saying, ‘Hey. I hope you have fun. These tips may help’.

I really appreciate stuff like this. I appreciate users who think about UX. I appreciate creators who take the time to test and work out how to make a product good. I appreciate in-app prompts to help me navigate to the next place. I appreciate good-looking UI and I appreciate non-intrusive, know-it-all marketers (ironic, right?) who deliver a fantastic service.

So, I decided to take some time, and write about it.

Get the app. Pay the little bit extra for unlimited script lengths, and use this.

It makes businesses like Scripted Video work well, and keep developing awesome products.