On most social media pages, I see the audience is treated more like people you push information at than anything else. That misses huge opportunities to get your content in front of more people by using more community techniques. And if you aren’t treating your audience like a community, it is very likely social networks will penalize you.

By building a community instead, you get the added bonus of connection. And what can that connection bring? So much! They will be willing to market for you and get your messages out there. And when things go wrong, they will be willing to stand up for you. That is the kind of gold you need in your marketing life.

So how do you go from push marketing to community marketing? Let’s take a look at it.

Promoting an event

If I see one more flyer on social media for an event, I might scream. Ask any social media professional and they will say the same. Stop putting a flyer on social media.

Okay, now that we have gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about how to promote an event with the idea of community in mind.

• Ask fans why they attend: This is such a simple thing to do and you might be surprised by the responses you get. Knowing why the event is important to your community can help you tailor the marketing to them, instead of pushing it at them. You can use quotes from this kind of post. Just be sure to ask permission first. But you can also find people who would be good for doing videos and not just hit up the same people over and over again.
• Feature fans: Like I said, mine those question posts for people to feature. But also, think of who is important to the community. Who will people be excited to see at an event? Who represents the type of attendee you’d like to see at your event? And who will make people feel like they are missing out if they don’t attend? Feature all of these people in the lead up to an event.
• Think of it in terms of your audience and not you: This seems like a no-brainer and yet I constantly see organizations promoting events without giving their audience any kind of reason why it’s important to them. We covered the people who will be there, which is a huge component of it. But what else will an attendee get out of this? Put yourself in their shoes and give them the reasons why it’s must-attend for them.

Creating Opportunities to Talk to Each Other

How do you get a group of individuals to form a community? You give them opportunities to talk to each other. It’s not completely that easy, but it can be the beginning of great things, especially in a newer community.

• Ask questions: Post questions that will generate conversation and bonus points if you don’t focus on keeping it completely positive. Letting your community talk about their struggles together will bond them in ways that toxic positivity never will. And don’t feel like you have to jump into every conversation. That will make it all about you and not the community, which almost always kills any kind of community building efforts.
• Highlight fan questions: If a fan is going through something, it is very likely that someone else in your community has gone through the same thing and is on the other side of it. Or maybe also in it right now. Share what they’re going through and their question(s) on your social media. This is of course with permission only, as you don’t want to broadcast something that someone isn’t ready to share to a broad audience. What you will hopefully find is a lot of people who are willing to support them, and bonds that are only strengthened because they are going through something together.
• Show care: Check in on your fans’ personal social media as you can to cheer them on and to seem more like there is a person behind the brand. The second fans see some humanity to your organization, their relationship changes. It becomes less person-to-organization and more person-to-person. On social media, that is the whole goal.

Look less corporate

You want to look professional. You want to get your logo onto everything you can, get those graphics looking slick and have everything look perfect. That’s understandable. We’ve all been taught that’s the only way. But it’s getting in the way when it comes to social media.

• Fit into the timeline: What does this mean? It means that things are a little less perfect. You don’t worry about that logo on the photo as much. Your post just kind of blends in with the rest of what’s on the network. That doesn’t mean the content itself blends in. That should still stand out as being very connected to your community. It means the individual components of the content have less shine and look like something your cousin Stephanie could have posted on her timeline. Just use better grammar than that cousin.
• Forgive mistakes: I’m the worst person to give this advice. I see a mistake in anything I do and I stare at it. HARD. I’ll be thinking about it randomly years from now as well. It’s so easy to dwell on those mistakes. In reality, they can humanize your brand. They make you relatable and therefore your fans will be more interested in you. Is there a chance someone will be catty? Absolutely. But relating to fans by being perfectly imperfect is total gold, so ignore the haters. And forgive your mistakes.

There is so much more that goes into building a community instead of a passive social media audience, but these are all great places to get started. And then let your community lead you to where you need to go next. One of the great parts of community-building is that you are so in touch with that community that you get to go on exciting journeys while still getting your message across. You just get to do it together.

How are you building your community?