I am often asked what’s the point or value of building an online community especially when compared to more traditional online advertising options that are a guarantee at driving traffic and awareness to your website. How do I justify the time and energy it takes to develop and serve these communities, when the alternative is only a few clicks of a button and a CC statement away.
A client recently asked me why they should focus on building an engaged online community when they can run ads (google, facebook, twitter, linkedin) and drive relatively qualified traffic directly to their site with less time and energy.
My answer was simple…
The first interaction someone has with your brand is so important. How are you showing up?
This is the first opportunity to humanize your brand, to begin building a real connection, an emotional connection with that person who has shown at least a sliver of interest in who you are and what you do. Even a seemingly insignificant action, a “like” or “follow”, is a request to hear more of your story and engage at a deeper level.
And voila, through each individual human interaction the opportunity for a meaningful relationship is born…
Of course, this is only where the relationship starts – and to make this strategy truly valuable you need to continually invest in cultivating those relationships through a content strategy that connects with your audience, and more importantly, showing them that you genuinely CARE.
I love something that Srinivas Rao said on a recent BlogCastFM interview. When talking about his new book, Small Army Strategy, which is all about building your tribe Small Army of loyal engaged connections, he said his book could be summed up in one sentence “show that you give a damn”.
This resonates with me. Deeply.
Of course,
this will take more energy.
it will take more time as well.
it even means you will have to ‘show up’, tell your story, and be authentic in the conversation.
But if your up for the challenge, what you will end up with is a growing community of fans and followers real connections, real relationships, and loyal supporters who know who you are and more importantly why you do what you do. They have connected with your story, they have appreciated your human touch.
So, while you won’t be able to show off your massive ad traffic via a fancy google analytics report (why did you define this measure as valuable again?), you can be sure that when your community does choose to visit your site, they will be qualified, highly interested, and enaged. I would argue that this is significantly more valuable in the long run.
And as nice as you think you can make your Google adsense or facebook ad, it will never compare to the impact that a personal “thank you for following/connecting” will have.
And it never will.
Authentic human connection remains the ultimate trump card. (Tweet this!)
the bottom line
Telling your story and building your community and tribe online isn’t for everyone. But, if you are ready to show up, tell your story, facilitate and engage in meaningful conversations and interactions… oh yea, and GIVE A DAMN.
Than this is where you want to play.
Photo credit: Kevin Dooley
