COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT – CONTENT MARKETING'S BFF
If you're on social media, chances are, you've spoken to a Community Manager at least once.
Complained about your rubbish meal deal on Twitter and received an apology? That was a community manager. Took an amazing photo of your avocado toast for the ‘gram and the café you were at reposted it? Another community manager. That great sense of pride you felt when you got a personal response to the quip you made about your favourite brand’s Christmas advert?
Yup, you’ve guessed it, that was a community manager too.
In its most basic form, community management is exactly as it sounds; managing the community that you have created for you or your client on social media. But truthfully, it’s so much more than that. It has become the 21st century’s call-centre, a place for consumers to reach out and be heard by companies big and small, whether it’s to voice a complaint or make an enquiry.
Community management gives a human voice to a brand’s digital presence, allowing them to interact directly with their customers to build trust and solve problems. The feelings of visibility and inclusion that come from being acknowledged by a brand make good community management one of the most powerful tools in the marketing arsenal.
After all, there’s little point in spending time, money and effort on stellar pieces of content, then completely ignore the audience’s response — good or bad.
Being able to react in a timely and thoughtful way to both positive and negative comments give a brand credibility and humility that simply cannot be achieved through scheduled content alone. But it is not without its challenges!
The nature of social media means that community management can (and in some cases should) be a 24/7 resource for consumers. This is especially important for global brands where time zones mean that their digital doors are always open, or industries where regular office hours don’t apply, such as transport or tech support.
There’s nothing worse than Netflix crashing in the middle of an all-night Gilmore Girls marathon with no way to find out what’s wrong! (Not me, it happened to a friend.)
Realistically for most businesses, this sort of availability just isn’t possible, but there aren’t many problems that genuinely require an immediate response regardless of the time of day.
Having dedicated hours where a community manager is available is more than enough to keep most consumers happy, even if that means waiting overnight for a reply to their question.
Along with well-crafted, relevant content, community management should be a fundamental part of any social media strategy, however small your business.
Here at Sunshine, we're proud to offer round-the-clock community management to our clients. That's 24/7/365 y'all! Thanks to the digital revolution, our expert team is able to work flexibly and remotely, so we can plan community management hours that meet each individual business's needs (and wants).
In essence, good content creates a response, but good community management creates a relationship. Definitely something to consider.
Questions? Comments? Good jokes? We're always up for a chat, so get in touch if you're curious about community management, or just want to hear a smashing karaoke rendition of The Greatest Showman Soundtrack. We're a talented bunch.