Community isn’t just an important aspect of our personal lives; it’s essential for businesses’ online personas. Community members are your greatest advocates, so it’s important to build their numbers and stay aware of their wants and needs – and they will tell you, clearly and frankly, on their social media pages. Here are three reasons why you should make community building a key part of your social media strategy. 

Chasing the algorithm is out.  

These days, social media algorithms are constantly changing. When your team thinks they’ve figured it out, a new update comes. Instead of trying to beat the algorithm, it’s time to focus on building your online community. Your followers are your greatest advocates, and leveraging them is essential to any social media strategy. Your reach will grow as more followers interact with your content, leading to more brand exposure. 

This is the value of your public relations team. They don’t only keep track of all the important algorithmic changes, but they’re tuned in to niche trends — like online community building. As an added bonus, those PR pros are in the weeds. They’re creating your content and actively managing your social media platforms, keeping a close eye on what your community says, liking and sharing with others.  

Stop trying to be everyone’s cup of tea. 

As a business leader, you know the importance of target audiences, and your social media strategy should reflect that. Your products and services aren’t for everyone, so don’t try to make your online content appeal to all. In addition to creating the content, your public relations team closely monitors all your posts on all your channels. They notice what performs well and what doesn’t land and can make adjustments based on that feedback to create more engaging content for your community in the future. 

Keep people talking.

People like to feel seen and heard, so responding when your community starts talking to you on your social media channels is essential. It shows your followers — and potential followers — you care about their thoughts, and it gives your online presence a more personal feel. Your accounts won’t look like they’re being updated by a robot somewhere — it will show people there is a human behind the screen. 

A public relations team can support this aspect of your online presence and community building in several ways. It can create a general language guide and foundational talking points to drive your organization’s overall messaging while supporting social media strategy. It can also generate comment and response guides to be used by themselves and any of your business’s employees who engage with your online community. Whether it’s behind your brand’s social media handles or acting independently as an employee, they will have a reference of how to engage with and keep your community talking. 

Building an online community can be daunting, but a public relations team — like Obsidian Public Relations! — can take care of the nitty gritty and help implement and maintain an effective strategy. Contact us together to start refining your communications strategy.