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Over the last few weeks, several clients have asked me to consult with them on starting an online community.<\/p>\nEveryone knows it\u2019s 10 times easier to generate a sale by a loyal\u00a0customer than to persuade a new prospect to make a purchase. Which is\u00a0why any smart business owner, allocates 80% of their marketing to\u00a0increasing loyalty and repeat sales.<\/p>\n
Just use these 9 simple steps to ramp up your repeat sales\u2026<\/p>\n
Over the last few weeks, several clients have asked me to consult with them on starting an online community.<\/p>\n
Most of these inquiries come from either industrial B2B organizations or associations.<\/p>\n
And what these organizations have in common is that…
\nthey are people who would love to use social media, but aren\u2019t sure that it\u2019s exactly the right idea to share their information on open communities like Facebook, LinkedIn or even Twitter.<\/p>\n
Another great reason to consider creating your own online community is that you participate in a super-niche that might get completely lost inside the giant social media sphere. One of my friends runs a professional embroiderers association. Their Ning group is over 20,000 people strong. That\u2019s a terrific example of how creating an online community can turn into a rather profitable venture for both the owner and their members.<\/p>\n
There are several sites where you can create your own online community. The most popular has been Ning but since then, there are several others you might consider, such as Social Go or Buddy Press if you have a WordPress Blog.<\/p>\n
Building Your Community<\/strong><\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve decided on a platform, it\u2019s time to get the word out about your community and start driving people there. Here are a few tips to get your community growing successfully. The biggest mistake that people make is that they treat their online community as just another email list.<\/p>\n This would be like deciding to have a party and just telling a few people about it and then saying nothing more. An online community is a daily get-together. It\u2019s like having people at your house \u2013 so don\u2019t ignore it and treat it as a real event.<\/p>\n 1. Tell people that you\u2019re starting a community.<\/strong> The first step is to start telling people that you are considering creating an online community. Build interest and ask them what they would like to see in a community that you should include.<\/p>\n 2. Create your community.<\/strong> Now use that input and create your community on the platform that you\u2019ve chosen. Be sure to include the feedback you\u2019ve received from your community members and if the platform includes a blog \u2013 document the ideas you\u2019ve included and who they came from.<\/p>\n 3. Recruit some beta testers from every aspect of your business.<\/strong> Select a few people to become beta testers of your community. Select the kinds of people who are willing to play along, try the community out and give you feedback. You want to recruit people who are friendly to your cause. DO NOT make the mistake of thinking that you are going to convert the most oppositional person to on online community by inviting them early. Recruit people who are open to your cause and who will give you good and honest feedback as well as participate in doing what you ask them to do.<\/p>\n 4. Specifically send your beta testers to the site daily.<\/strong> This is where most people fall flat. They forget to invite people to the community. This is something new and isn\u2019t part of anyone\u2019s schedule \u2013 so you will have to drive them there. Email is the easiest thing. I would recommend that you create a group or a list and send them an email reminder with a question or comment that includes a link to the community where you are supposed to start this discussion. You can actually automate this by creating and scheduling emails out using Outlook, your email marketing program such as Constant Contact or aWeber or if you use Gmail, try Boomerang. The idea is to simply get into the habit of using the site.<\/p>\n 5. Start asking your beta testers to invite members to test.<\/strong> Once you\u2019ve had some experience and seen the value that the community offers, you can tell your beta testers to invite other members to the site. This will slowly increase your membership and allow everyone to become fairly proficient at using the site \u2013 as well as serve as a coach or buddy to the new members in driving them into the site.<\/p>\n 6. Launch on a specific day.<\/strong> Decide to have an official launch of the community for a specific day. Treat it as an event and a party and actually have the party online. You can have conversations online, upload pictures from your locations, ask questions of other community members and really put the system through its paces. This will also drive people back to the site to see those conversations that were started.<\/p>\n 7. Send direct mail invitations.<\/strong> Your members will need reminders. Send a direct mail piece to your members and your audience that outlines the specifics of using the site. Create tutorials that will help them sign up for the site and keep reminding them to visit.<\/p>\n 8. Talk about it \u2013 make it important.<\/strong> Make your online community the forum where most questions are answered. Keep it part of your daily conversation and keep reminding each other to join. The shear frequency of communication about the site will encourage others to join and get in on the fun.<\/p>\n 9. Promote the community address.<\/strong> Put the community address in your email signatures, business cards and every piece of literature or communication that goes out from you. Challenge yourself to visit and interact on the site daily.<\/p>\n Rather than include this last tip as a numbered item, I\u2019m including it as a paragraph because it\u2019s so important. <\/strong><\/p>\n Manage your email settings.<\/strong> Yes \u2013 most people register for a community and then don\u2019t participate because they haven\u2019t properly set their settings for their profile. Be sure to adjust your email settings so that you get a notification anytime someone sneezes on the community site. And advise your beta testers as well as any other members to do so as well.<\/p>\n Most people ignore these settings or turn the email notifications off because social media communities are so prolific, that you\u2019d get hundreds of notices. In this case you want your settings turned on for every notification because you are trying to send people to your site.<\/p>\n And there is your quick and easy plan for building your private online community. This option isn\u2019t for everyone, but if you participate in a specific community with unique interests and can\u2019t find each other inside of social media communities \u2013 this is a terrific option.<\/p>\n