If you‘ve seen other posts I’ve written about community management, you know I used to manage a Facebook community for a TV station where I worked as a digital journalist.
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My experience gave me first-hand knowledge of why community management is important and why brands should invest in it.
Don’t believe me, well consider this: 86% of social media marketers believe having an active community is critical to brands’ success on social media in 2024. Furthermore, 60% say their companies are already building such communities.
Still not convinced? Keep reading, and I‘ll share five reasons community management is integral to marketing based on my experience and that of HubSpot’s Principal Marketing Manager of Community, Erica Finley.
Let’s get into it.
My Experience in Community Management
For context, my experience in community management stems from my time as a digital reporter for a television news station called First Coast News.
The station has a popular Facebook Community page called First Coast Weather Watchers, where viewers can speak to the station’s meteorologists in real time, discuss local weather, and share interesting photos and videos of weather phenomena.
My responsibilities included engaging with our audience, answering questions, facilitating discussions, keeping the online community safe and welcoming, and gathering user-generated content.
Now that you know my credentials, we‘re ready to learn what I’ve learned!
5 Important Reasons for Community Management
1. Community management builds trust and brand loyalty.
When I managed First Coast News’ Facebook community page, I noticed a rapport being built between our audience and our meteorologists.
We often saw the same faces popping up on the page, sharing content, asking questions, and welcoming new members.
And that trust lent to higher viewership for our weather segments and visitors to our website.
“Consumers make decisions based on opinions from people they know, like, and trust,” says Finley. “Word of mouth has never been more powerful, and seeing real-life use cases, being able to ask questions, and hearing earnest reactions to products and services are no longer just ‘nice-to-haves.’”
Building trust via dedicated community spaces can be intimidating for companies because it means yielding some power to audience interactions.
Still, Finley says the conversations are happening anyway, so why not join in the fun and use it to your advantage?
“You may as well carve out dedicated spaces that folks can lean into for inspiration, advice, entertainment, and more,” she says.
2. Community management creates a valuable feedback loop.
Finley says that with community management, “You’ll get a bird’ s-eye view of what’s working and what’s not, what people love, and what they’d like to change, and you can use that insight to improve your product or service.”
And I can attest to this in my own experience.
One of the things I enjoyed most about managing First Coast Weather Watchers was getting feedback from our audience in real-time.
For example, we noticed our community loved the candid explanations one of the meteorologists gave about weather phenomena and how he’d often post photos of himself analyzing weather patterns with coffee in hand.
So, we took this feedback and added a segment to our weather forecast called “Science with Steve,” which turned out to be a hit with our television viewers.
3. It humanizes your brand.
This all goes back to the first point I made about trust. 81% of consumers need to trust a brand before they consider buying. One of the most tried-and-tested ways to build trust is to humanize your brand.
Replying to consumers, engaging in authentic conversations, and throwing in a little humor when appropriate will show the human side of your business.
According to Kristen Baker, who put together our Ultimate Guide to Social Community Management, these interactions make audiences “feel like they’re interacting with real people rather than a faceless entity.”
An example that comes to mind is DuoLingo’s TikTok account.
The account frequently engages with its audience by replying to comments under its videos and trading jokes with its followers.
The company’s close relationship with its followers was beneficial when its account mysteriously lost its verification badge.
Followers were so distraught that they made Duolingo trend on TikTok, demanding that its badge be returned. They even came up with theories as to why it was removed in the first place.
Dedicated followers brought visibility to the issue, and after the company had contacted TikTok, the badge was returned.
4. It can generate unique user-generated content.
Another aspect of community management that I enjoyed was the amount of unique user-generated content we received from viewers in the community.
From videos of tornado spouts to photos of a purple sky after intense storms, the station garnered so much unique content that could be found with our competitors.
We’d then share the content on all our social media platforms and include them in our weather segments on TV while shouting out the senders, encouraging more community members to send in content.
So, if you want to gain more UGC for your social media, website, or marketing channels, starting and managing a community around your platform is the way to go.
Still not convinced? A recent HubSpot survey of 500+ marketers found that 92% say user-generated content increases brand awareness of their products.
5. It drives traffic and conversions.
While managing the Facebook community page, I noticed that organically directing our audience to our website was easy.
For example, I’d often post updates saying, “If you want to learn more about why the sky turns purple after a severe storm, go to the First Coast News website.”
As a result, our posts linked in the community would see higher traffic than posts that weren’t.
The fact is organic interactions with followers create natural opportunities to direct them to your website, blog, or landing pages.
As social media and digital platforms become more integral to marketing and consumers’ experiences, brands must build and leverage online communities to connect with their audiences.
Community management ensures your brand is humanized to your consumers to build trust and a loyal customer base. I see community marketing staying strong for a while, so start building your community now.
