5 Ways Your Community Can Help Market Your Business
NOTE: If you want more on this topic, join the Dear FoundHer… Facebook Community. I did a live video and Q&A covering this topic recently. The replay is available to everyone in the group.
Building, growing and nurturing a community to surround your business may be one of the best strategies that you can implore to impact your business and your bottom line. Your community are the people who subscribe to you and your brand—-what you’re doing, what you believe in and they KNOW that you can help impact their life in a positive way.
But, your community doesn’t just happen over night. Building a community who trusts you takes time and effort—-but in the end it is well worth it. Since community is a two way street, EVERYONE WINS. Your community reaps the benefit of what you’re offering, but YOU benefit from what they can offer you. Read that again, because often times you can overlook this—-and it really is important.
When I started my first company in 2010 I showed up at the events we hosted and on my personal Facebook to share about my pregnancy. I was honest and asked questions—-I shared my own experiences and asked those who were showing up to do the same. What we created was a COMMUNITY.
A community differs from an audience. How? It’s a two-way street. You provide them with information, knowledge, a service. BUT, they provide you with the same. When you and your community BOTH show up you can ask each other questions, favors and for information. An audience is simply a group who sits back and consumes. A COMMUNITY is a group who shows up and engages.
A few important facts about your community:
Your community is your best business asset. Everything you do and the decisions you make should come back to serving your community and filling a void or a need of theirs.
By showing up everyday as yourself, and sharing your story over time, eventually, other people will share it for you. This won’t happen over night, but it WILL happen.
Your community subscribes to you and you have the right and ability to talk to them and ask them questions—just like I do every day.
Its important you listen to them! When you ask something of your community, make sure that you follow up in response to what they share. For example, in the Dear FoundHer… Facebook Community, I ask what you want me to talk about when I go live. I make sure to listen to you, and you should do the same for your community.
Recently I had an interesting conversation for the Dear FoundHer… podcast. in which we discussed utilizing community for staffing solutions. In my upcoming interview with Jill Smokler, founder of Scary Mommy, we both share how we tapped into our online communities of moms to help moderate chat rooms and live events. Eventually, in both of our cases, these women went on to become some of our first employees . Why did this work for us? It worked because we had put ourselves out there and these women were our community. They subscribed to what we were doing and wanted to help carry that forward.
Your community is an incredibly powerful tool and one that you should absolutely be utilizing to the benefit of your business growth and bottom line.
Here are five ways to use your community to market your business:
Ask questions/run surveys to help formulate products, services and offerings. IF you bring them what they need and you fill a void, they are more likely to use it talk about it and share it naturally with others.
Create a Brand Ambassador Program: Your community loves your brand and they love you. Approach die hards and offer them product or your free service, in exchange for something (you set the terms and make it an official program.). It’s important that you approach or ask people who are already subscribed to what it is you’re doing, NOT ask people to become a devotee. Think about it—-the last thing you want is to sign someone up just because they want your free stuff.
Do a giveaway: Ask them to be a part of a giveaway and help promote a giveaway in exchange for product/information. Similar to a Brand Ambassador Program, this would be more of a one-off vs. something long term. But as you set up a giveaway, think about who can help support it and get the word out. Offer them something in exchange for sharing it or being a part of it. There are many levels of involvement, but you have to think about what you want. You can ask them to simply share OR you can ask them to be a partner. Obviously the more involvement they have, the more you’ll have to offer in exchange. NOTE: Make sure that when you set up a giveaway you use an application such as Rafflepress, Woobox, Shortstack or Rafflecopter. Take a look at these and see which one works for you.
Take note of some of your biggest followers and customers—what do they have going on that YOU can help promote. Talk to them, TRADE with them. How can you benefit from each other’s audiences and platforms. Don’t forget, many of them have business needs as well. Supporting and trading with one another is a great way to benefit from your relationship.
SIMPLY ASK THEM: As is the case in any aspect of business, it never hurts to ask. And it NEVER EVER hurts to ask nicely. Ask your community to share, ask them to review, ask them to rate. If you do not ask they will not do. It is really simple. Your devotees will do so if you simply ask them politely.
I go live a few times a month in the Dear FoundHer… Facebook Community, but if you want more from me (as a lot of you told me you do) I am putting together my first workshop in February——Lindsay Pinchuk’s Small Business Marketing Bootcamp. In just one month you’ll come away with an actionable plan and knowledge to simplify this process so that you can focus on your expertise and bottom line. You can find more information about this amazing opportunity here.
