Measure the True Value of Your Online Community
Why is having an online community important for my business?
How can I measure the value of my online community?
How can knowing the value of my online community help me grow my social presence?
Everyone likes to be liked. It’s human nature. But when you think about it, it’s better to have a few good friends than 1,000 acquaintances.
Why? Because friends play an active role in your life, have your back, and like you for who you are and what you stand for. Acquaintances might hang out with you once in awhile, but if you ask them to help you move, they’ve gone MIA.
The same goes for your online community. You want to build a community of people who not only like what your brand stands for, but who also actively engage with your brand across your marketing channels.
The first step to make sure you’re building an effective online community is to look at your return on investment (ROI).
Measuring your online community’s ROI is less about a mathematical equation and more about making sure you’re investing time and money effectively to encourage your audience to engage with your brand.
Basically, you’re measuring how people are interacting with your brand versus counting dollars, cents, and more. This can get tricky, but there are a few ways to measure whether your social media efforts are hitting the mark.
LISTEN UP
There are 3 main factors you should use to measure the strength of your online community: growth, engagement, and brand love.
Let’s look at growth first. Having a small and mighty following is great, but the bigger your brand’s community is, the more exposure it can get.
The secret to measuring growth isn’t just looking to the future, but also looking at the past: Did you attract a large audience at the beginning, but then the numbers tapered off? Is your growth steady or is it erratic?
If you’re not seeing consistent growth, consider exploring partnerships with other brands or influencers to grow your social media presence. You can also work with a social media agency to develop an influencer strategy.
Growth is also about the quality of your followers and their social influence. To look into this, select a sample of your social followers and analyze their profiles with tools like Audiense.
Next, measure engagement. This shows whether your posts are inspiring your community to take action or if you’re just attracting tumbleweeds.
Start by looking at your community’s activity on your social media channels. Are people commenting and/or sharing your posts?
Then, look at your interactions-to-followers ratio by using a social listening platform, like Hootsuite. If you have a lot of followers but few interactions, you might not be offering content they care about.
To help create better content, reach out to your closest customers to learn what kinds of content they find valuable. It’s not always about finding that #trending post, but about experimenting, adjusting, and improving over time.
You can also discover what types of content your target audience likes by looking at your competitors’ posts on social media.
Lastly, measure brand love. This is spontaneous and unsolicited positive feedback you get from your community.
Look online for positive testimonials, 5-star ratings (okay, also 4), and other favorable mentions by your audience. Also, perform searches to find third party blog posts or articles that feature your brand.
Keep an eye out for bad reviews. Respond to them promptly to try and resolve the situation amicably. This will show your community members you’re listening, which will improve their perception of your brand even in negative situations.
Find brand advocates in your community who share and promote your content. Some might have even created user-generated content (UGC), like images or videos that you can use in your marketing, with their permission.
You can also measure how much attention your brand is receiving compared to your competitors using services like Hootsuite or Brandwatch.
DO THIS NOW
It’s important to measure growth, engagement, and brand love to determine the value and strength of your online community. But, let’s see which factor you should prioritize right now.
If you’re participating in the course, go to the next section to access your self assessment.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Having a small but active and engaged community can be more valuable to your brand than having lots of passive followers.
Measure the value of your online community by looking at growth, engagement, and brand love.
Find out what content your target audience likes by directly engaging with them and by looking at your competitors' social media presence.