Community management is about building and maintaining relationships

No matter the size of your brand or business, community management can seem like an overwhelming task. You don’t have control over who is saying what, but that’s okay! You can foster an active community, help direct the conversation, and reinforce your brand’s presence in the social space. 

Be Timely

Respond to your customers, and respond often. Dedicating time to sifting through comments and responding to any questions, complaints or positive stories each day is essential in retaining your audience. If someone has a question, answer it before they choose to take their business somewhere else whose response was maybe more readily available. You also don’t want let a tweet citing a poor experience sit unanswered for a few days.

Reaching out too late may result in a missed opportunity to turn that negative experience around. Thanks to the power of social media, that could mean more that just one lost customer. Creating an effective community engagement strategy can help save time, and you can find more of our tips on how to do so here.

Be There Through the Good and the Bad

I know it’s hard, but fight the urge to only focus on the positive and ignore those unflattering comments. Instead of seeing a complaint as a negative, use it as an opportunity to respond and showcase your business’s remarkable customer service. If you just received a negative tweet, don’t panic. We talk more about how to handle those not-so-nice comments here.

On the other hand, depending on the nature of your business, you may feel like you’re too busy responding to questions and concerns to engage with positive brand stories too. You’re not! While ignoring a compliment might not mean the loss of a customer, these kinds of posts are still just as important. Our CEO experienced this first-hand after receiving an unexpected response from Mercedez Benz. Customers get excited when you retweet their favorable review or respond with a silly .gif (if that’s on brand for you). It reinforces that you’re listening and that you care. This personal experience encourages your followers to continue to promote your brand and engage with you online.

Be Proactive

Not everyone who talks about your brand online is going to send that message to you directly. In fact, they may not even mention or tag you in their post. Regardless, their opinion is still out there waiting to be seen by potential customers. By only reviewing mentions on Twitter or comments on your Facebook wall, you’re missing out on the chance to engage with your customers proactively. Responding to a question or complaint about your company that wasn’t posed directly can make a big impact. Maybe this customer didn’t know you were on social media or figured you wouldn’t respond. Exploring different channels or using social listening tools to increase the scope of what you’re seeing on social median and then reaching out proactively shows your customers that you hear them and are available to help.

Think of community management as its own marketing strategy.

Beyond Facebook ads, tweets, and Instagram content, your online interactions (or lack thereof) have potential to leave a lasting impression on your customer base. If you could use a little extra help, reach out to us!