4 Ways To Cultivate an Engaged Online Community
When you hear the word “community,” what comes to mind?
For most of us, we’re probably highly familiar with the concept of community in terms of where we live.
If you’re a parent with kids, you may have a tight knit school community. If you and your spouse are super involved with your church, you may have a community there. Or maybe you have a close friend group that you consider to be your community.
Community can be defined in various ways, but one definition that I love is: a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.
So, while your community can definitely be made up by those who are physically around you in your day-to-day life, community can also be transferred and created online.
And in today’s business world, I’m seeing that to be more and more evident.
Prior to 2020, the concept of online business was alive and well, but since 2020 the number of businesses that have moved into the online space has increased dramatically.
And three years later, we’re seeing that those online businesses are here to stay!
It’s true that businesses can thrive in a primarily online world, but those who thrive the most have one thing in common: they cultivate community.
Just like your neighborhood, school, or church has a community, your online business can too and it can be the very thing that makes your business stand out among the rest.
If you’re reading this, there’s a chance that you already have an online business and you’re struggling with HOW to foster a community with your audience and if that’s you, you’re in the right place.
In this blog post, you’ll learn how to start cultivating a community in your business so that your business isn’t just viewed as an organization that people can buy from – instead, it’s something that people want to be a part of.
How to Start Fostering a Community With Your Online Audience
Fostering a community with your online audience doesn't have to be complicated, but it DOES require you to embrace your business a bit differently than you might’ve been before.
Below are 4 of my biggest tips for EVERY online business owner to implement to start cultivating an engaged community with their audience and are things that I personally do in my business as well.
1. Create an exclusive, insider element
Think about a time in your life when your community felt the strongest.
Maybe it was back in college when you were a member of a sorority or fraternity. Or maybe it was in high school when you were on a sports team. Or maybe it was at your first corporate job and the office had a really good culture.
Whatever it is for you, at some point in all of our lives, we’ve experienced what it feels like to have community and at the root of all of these things is one thing: belonging.
When you have a strong community, you feel a sense of belonging that you might not get anywhere else and THAT is what you want to create for your audience.
The way that you do this in your business might look (and probably should look) different than how your business bestie does it, especially if you’re running a completely different business.
All businesses will have different modes of creating community (aka belonging) and it’s up to YOU to decide how you do it.
However you decide to do it, you want to make sure that you make it feel exclusive and insider – because remember: you’re giving people something to be a part of.
This can come in the form of a special newsletter filled with content and opportunities they can’t get anywhere else, a free Facebook group where they can connect with you in a different way, a free portal they can join, or a private podcast that’s full of special episodes just for subscribers.
The cool part about this is that you get to come up with the method that makes the most sense for you and your business specifically.
2. Give your audience an identity within your community
The last few months Taylor Swift has taken over the world along with her millions of fans – aka Swifties – with the onset of her iconic Eras tour.
And whether you identify as a Swiftie or not, you know how to pick them out in a crowd. You never have to guess or wonder if someone is a Swiftie.
That’s because it’s a part of their IDENTITY! 💃🏼
They consider themselves to be a part of a community that is much larger than themselves and they label themselves as that very proudly.
Well, you have the ability to do the EXACT same thing within your online business community.
Similar to giving your audience a sense of belonging, you also want to give your audience an identity within your community that they can sport proudly wherever they show up.
An easy way to do this is to come up with a name, word, or phrase that is unique to your business that people can attach onto.
If you need an example of an online business who does this well, look to GUIDE Culture – the sales and communication training that I’ve been involved with for 3 years now. They teach sales skills and the people a part of their community identify as one very clear thing: sales girls.
It really is that simple!
3. Involve them as you build your business
How many times have you followed along with a business owner that you look up to and the next thing you know you see “ANNOUNCEMENT” on their Instagram feed with details about a new course they just launched?
It’s like it came out of nowhere and you had no idea it was even in the works.
While many business owners think that a surprise element like this will excite their audience, it can actually do the very opposite.
Your people want to be a PART of what you’re building. They want to see the behind-the-scenes. And they want to know what’s coming soon.
Does this mean you have to spill every single detail going on in your business? Of course not!
But involving them in different things when you can will create a community feel that they truly appreciate. The way you do this doesn’t have to be complicated, either.
It can be as simple as utilizing polls or surveys to get their input or feedback, running beta programs to test out your ideas, going live to give an inside look to what you’re working on, or simply taking them through the process of your day-to-day on Instagram stories.
If you struggle with this, here are 4 Ways to Involve Your Community in Your Offer Creation.
4. Lead with your vision
The reason that we most often want to be a part of something as humans is because we believe in the vision, mission, and purpose of what a business or brand is doing.
It’s very rare that someone blindly follows along with an organization without knowing the end goal or mission in mind.
For example, a big brand that comes to mind for this is Apple. They are known for their innovation in the tech world and Steve Jobs always led with that in mind.
The company still leads with their innovative mindset and they have some of the most loyal customers that any brand could hope for. And most of those customers believe and align with that same vision that Apple has.
You can do the same with your business and create a strong community by always leading with your vision first.
What are you trying to accomplish? Who do you want to serve? Why does your business exist?
Get clear on all of those things and proudly proclaim them, so that the RIGHT people can get behind you.
Start Cultivating Your Online Community Today
There is a way you can create an engaged and excited online community within your business TODAY, with the audience you already have.
It all starts with deciding that you’re going to do it and changing the way that you typically approach business.
To get started, simply choose one of the following that you’re going to do this week:
Go live on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn
Poll your audience on Instagram stories to see what they want more of from you
Film a day in the life video and post it to your feed
Spend time getting clear on your vision and start incorporating it into your content
Brainstorm ways for your community to identify themselves
Let me know which of these you’re going to try this week, so I can cheer you on and hold you accountable!
Here’s to creating communities that people want and love to be a part of. 🎉
