Value will be your key driver in your community. Be sure to create meaningful connections that resonate with your target audience rather than hard-selling your products.
Offer a reward in return for joining your community, such as 10% off their next purchase with your business.
Value Over Sales
As a marketer, it can be difficult to invest time in efforts that don’t necessarily return immediate sales.
After all, most businesses value what is added to the bottom line. For tangible results, it’s imperative to prioritize value over direct sales.
Micro-community engagement requires social media marketers to test their patience – relying on sharing helpful resources, answering questions, and delving into meaningful conversations first.
When members see your brand is an asset to the community, they’ll be more likely to trust you and engage with your products and services.
Let Your Community Do The Work For You
Once you’ve gained the trust of your micro-community, they’re likely to be open to doing some of the hard work on your behalf.
Encourage members of your micro-community to transparently share their experiences with your business, both good and bad.
Keep in mind that perfect reviews across the board are more likely to seem disingenuous to consumers, which is why some negative reviews can actually benefit a business.
User-generated content holds the potential to build credibility and trust among other community members, as well as anyone searching for your product or service that happens to check out your community during the marketing journey.
Measure Your Results
As with any marketing activity, it’s important to determine if your time investment is worthwhile. Regularly measure your performance on a monthly basis at minimum to measure the effectiveness of your efforts and make adjustments if necessary.
Track engagement metrics, monitor feedback, and assess the impact of your micro-community efforts in terms of sales and brand awareness.
Engagement metrics may include likes, comments, awards, and conversations.
How Brands Are Engaging With Micro-Communities
As evidenced, the value micro-communities can provide for businesses is measurable and massive. These communities can help build brand trust, authority, and credibility.
They can also help boost brand awareness, effectively introducing a business to a new, highly motivated, and engaged audience who has the same ideals.
As a result, micro-communities can be an invaluable tool for generating qualified leads and sales.
Many businesses have caught onto the micro-community hype and are already reaping the rewards of more targeted, personalized social media marketing efforts.
Here are a few examples of how brands are successfully reaching and conversing with these focused groups:
Product Launches
By leveraging social listening tools, brands can gain a deeper understanding of what customers crave and need.
Brands are increasingly listening to what customers are asking for in micro-communities.
For example, a beauty brand might see chatter around a desire for vegan formulas in micro-communities or non-toxic cookware from a retailer. These valuable insights can better inform future product strategy and help businesses refine their product portfolios.
User-Generated Content
Many brands are encouraging members of micro-communities to create and share content related to their products or services. This approach not only helps brands build authenticity but also offers free promotion from a third party that other members will more likely trust for recommendations.
User-generated content also empowers users to become brand advocates. For example, a sports retailer might ask buyers to share a picture of their product out in the wild, and reward the best submission as an added layer of encouragement.
Collaborations And Partnerships
Brands may also want to collaborate with influencers who have already built a strong following within micro-communities.
These partnerships allow brands to effectively tap into a pre-existing audience who already trusts the influencer’s audience, making it easier to build credibility among that audience.
Look for influencers who align closely with your brand’s values and goals within your niche.
Offers And Promotions
It’s no secret that special offers and promotions entice consumers to act.
Providing micro-community members exclusive access or promotions designated only for the community can help foster a greater sense of inclusivity.
Members can receive early access to new products, limited edition items, or coupon codes that are only valid to the members.
It’s key to making your community members feel valued and special to encourage brand advocacy and loyalty and to forge stronger relationships.
Relevant Content
Helpful content is key to ensuring a positive customer experience at all stages of the marketing journey.
Often, consumers will be first introduced to your business when they come across it in a micro-community, making it beneficial to share top-of-funnel awareness stage content in this forum.
Whether through thought leadership-type blog posts, how-to short-form videos, or influencer product reels, creating content that speaks to the passions of the community will help establish a stronger emotional connection.
Next Steps For Social Media Marketers
Now is the time for social media marketers to act and devise a strategy to penetrate the micro-community market.
Nearly two-thirds (66%) of businesses cite communities having a positive impact on customer retention. Additionally, the same percentage of brand community members say they’re loyal to the brand.
It’s still a relatively new forum that many brands currently aren’t tapping into, which leaves ample opportunity at hand for savvy social media marketers.
Honing in on niche communities and fostering genuine connections can help businesses build strong relationships with community members while also driving qualified traffic to their sites.
By embracing this rapidly rising trend, social media marketers will uncover a new, powerful way to connect with their audience while driving brand growth and revenue.
As always, it’s crucial to measure and revise your micro-community strategy, ensuring it remains a worthwhile marketing endeavor to pursue.
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