The beginners guide to community management

If you aren’t investing in community management, you’re running the risk of getting left behind. Nowadays, audiences are expecting brands to be present through social customer service – in their corner and always contactable.

Of course, we’re not talking every hour of the evening, but being there for them (and managing expectations as to when you’re not) isn’t as complicated or time-consuming as you think.

So, if you’re looking to get good at community social media management, look no further as we address:

What is community management?
Why is community management important?
Community management best practice
Brands that do community management well

What is community management?

What it says on the tin – managing your communities! Social is an online platform bustling with opportunity for existing and new audiences, so it’s important to respond to them in a timely manner, resolve their queries and generally be a helping hand.

It’s important to mention that throughout this article, the focus is reactive management of incoming responses – it’s different to community engagement, where we proactively find and participate in relevant conversation. More on that and how to take your engagement and proactivity to the next level soon!

Why is social media community management important?

Social is a shop window for your brand. Particularly as social search climbs – with one in four (25%) primarily using social media for search discovery (Source: Emarketer) – there’s a huge opportunity to show your brand personality and values through your online presence.

Being on the right channels at the right time is key. Audiences are expecting you there, always. Imagine going into the Apple Store and no staff were there – that’s how they feel when brands’ social channels don’t have community management in place.

Community management best practice

If you’re wondering how to manage online communities, you’ve come to the right place. There’s no silver bullet to nailing community management overnight, but here are 4 tried and tested tips that will generally help improve your presence:

Be organised

Respond to queries in a timely manner. Be as helpful as you can and generally be very organised. Audiences don’t like to see you posting if you’ve left them without a reply, so allocate specific time every day to give your community love, and leave holding messages when you’re out.

Stay true to your brand

Do it your way. What works for innocent and Aldi may not work for you. Don’t feel the need to be sassy or silly if it’s just not on brand. Pushing it to the extreme may come off desperate or cheesy, so always strike a balance to ensure you’re always staying on-brand and relevant.

Personalise your messaging

People buy from people. Building connections with audiences is really key, so get to know your top fans, understand what makes your audience tick (and also ick!) and always craft bespoke messages. Get on a first name basis with your customers and you’re sure to increase loyalty.

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes

When it comes to complaints, hear your audience out. Empathise, apologise where necessary – don’t shift the blame elsewhere, take too long responding or try to avoid situations. Own up and help them fix the problem, they’ll thank you for it.

Brands that do community management well

Brands continue to raise the bar with community management, meaning audiences are seeking more and more engagement in return. I’m talking same-day replies, actual resolution management, non-robotic conversations and generally helpful staff.

Here are 3 brands that, in our opinion, nail community management and take it one step further to truly engage with audiences:

Aldi – Ever Present

Aldi is always on the social beat. Rather than liking comments, they take the time to reply to as many as they can, and personalise them too. It’s so great to see such an investment in generating two-way dialogue between the brand and its customers on social.

I bet you’re thinking ‘of course she said Aldi…’, but I stand by it! I’m not talking about their brandter or viral posts, I’m talking about how they engage with their followers. And, whether they’re trying to be funny or just outright, they’re always there.

Jubel – Taking Fan Engagement to the next level

@jubelbeer

We surprised a superfan on his 28th birthday with an epic party

♬ original sound – JUBEL Beer

Jubel threw an actual party for their biggest fan, Steffan! (REFY also recently did something similar, taking their top fans on a trip abroad – see here).

He has a tattoo of the brand, every piece of merch ever made, bespoke branded birthday cakes, and even his own Instagram Highlight dedicated to the beer! Definitely top fan material.

He’d built a great relationship with the community managers of Jubel’s social channels over the years, and they finally repaid him in the best possible way. Jubel continues to shift the needle with brand loyalty through social media, so definitely check them out.

THIS – Building connections with fans

THIS has been known for its loyalty to its customers over the years. Despite still being in its infancy compared to some of the meat-free players, they’ve certainly made a name for themselves on social.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by THIS – Plant-based Food (@this.uk)

From asking their audiences to submit copy lines for the new packaging, to coming up with names of new products, they actively involve their audience and make them feel special. To read more about our work with THIS, see our case study.

So, there you have it! A beginner’s toolkit to getting started with community management. I hope it’s helpful and can guide you on where to start making small tweaks to improve your social presence.

Finally, I’ll wrap this piece up by offering a piece of advice for those new to social media community management…be patient and give yourself some space. Online communities can be daunting (and sometimes hateful!) places, so please take every comment in your stride and focus on the amazing, uplifting communities out there.

Success doesn’t happen overnight, but small, continuous wins will help make all the difference to your followers. Good luck, and if you ever want to chat about taking your social media strategy to the next level for your brand, get in touch today.