The Importance of Community Growth

What are we without the people around us that support, endorse and become part of our everyday community? This counts in real life face to face situations, as well as in online groups and of course social media.

Without nurturing your community and being proactive within it you will see it suffer and perish. For those that have left their accounts unaided and unloved throughout the pandemic, they will find it much harder to have their posts seen and will see a lack of engagement. It’s about making people feel involved and that your comments are worth something. Two influencers that really stand out for this are @londonpaleogirl and of course the ever-engaging @lornaluxe. They are both dedicated to their fans and community and will always respond and engage with as many as possible if not everyone.

How to grow your community

• Engage with your audience and seek out relevant new people to grow your community. This can be done on location, hashtags or finding others similar to those that already engage with your posts.
• Respond to all comments and dm’s, there are so many brands that we have worked with that haven’t been monitoring their dm’s and didn’t know Instagram had an inbox so do check it frequently.
• Work with other brands and people that share similar interests to you, it’s all about collaboration. One of our local favourites NOSH often partner with others on flavours and competitions to grow their reach and community.

• Be personal, keep it authentic and relatable to your audience and you will gain a greater community feel amongst your followers.
• Follow others that may be interested in your brand and continue to engage with them to build a relevant following. It’s quality over quantity here. You’re best to have people who will value your content over spammy accounts following you, as it will damage your engagement rates.

Tone it

We’re not talking about doing squats, although they may give you a boost if you’ve been working from your desk for 8 hours straight. Make sure your tone of voice is relevant to your audience. One of the key things we always aim to get across is to be social, write back as if you’re face to face and having a chat. This can vary hugely, luxury clients we’ve worked with are far more corporate in their responses, we’ve even had to respond in Arabic, German and Dutch for some brands. Whereas others can be far more fun, friendly and add a little banter to the mix. Think about who you are, what purpose you serve and what tone of voice is right for you.

SproutSocial put together what behaviours consumers want from brands on social and honesty is always the best policy. Never lie to your followers, if you’re unsure say you’ll look into it and come back to them.

Sprout Social

Content with purpose

Please don’t post for the sake of it. Post because there is a meaning behind it and it is of actual interest to your followers. Look at your content every month, for the last quarter and six month periods to see what has performed best. Then post more content like the posts in your top 10.

Facebook lives are great for getting engagement and moving up the algorithm but if they’re repetitive or not well thought out people will soon stop watching. Have a strategy and stick to it. You’ll see your community will like a formula, I know that our local and favourite coffee shop Common Grounds will always post about cinnamon swirls on a Thursday. and it’s only after a year of seeing this do I now know that’s the day to go in and if you really want one or to dm them to save one for you.

If you’re unsure if what you’re doing is working then set up a weekly spreadsheet and track your engagements, followers and traffic to see what’s hitting the spot and when.

Good luck in growing your community and get in touch if you ever need some support or a cinnamon knot in the park over coffee.