The Importance of Community

Recent events have shown us that community spirit is well and truly alive. Who would have thought that we could be so community focused without actually being able to indulge in face-to-face contact? In these uncertain times, social media has shown the true nature of community; the power of these channels has been fully revealed, when only a few months ago social media was under the microscope for all the wrong reasons. In fact, brands have to quickly pivot to put out more and more content as we are all at home consuming social media like never before.  

Building a strong social media strategy

So why should this idea of community be an important part of your social media strategy? It’s simple: community focused content is the foundation that social success is built on. Without content that goes out every day, and an “always-on” paid media strategy, how else will new followers see your content? How else will follower growth be sustained and stop those followers from leaving your pages? 

Follower growth and brand awareness isn’t achieved by focusing on the latest launch or company news, it is achieved by focusing on the day to day. It is achieved by utilising the skills of many different people to create a social media approach that makes your brand a part of people’s everyday lives. 

A complete social media package 

In recent years, we have seen a shift from community focused marketing - with influencer marketing and “off the page” paid ads dominating budgets and agency time. However, fan growth and brand awareness are still on the radar of many businesses. As an agency we get asked all the time,“How do we grow followers and also see boardroom worthy ROI on paid media?” The answer to that question is difficult to define. The truth is nothing can be done in isolation. It’s all part of the whole package of social media marketing. 

Back in the early days of social media marketing, community management was first and foremost. You engaged with your fans, content was planned and a calendar was produced each month with themes and guidelines for engagement. These days, content calendars are seen as outdated and old school. But the truth is, without a solid (but fluid) calendar as the foundation of your strategy, efforts to increase brand awareness and grow followers through ads may be wasted.

In fact, a more robust strategy is to first develop a calendar, and then pay attention to what content performs well based on your KPIs, followed by actioning those learnings in future calendar production.

Working the algorithms 

Facebook and Instagram algorithms have been widely written about; it’s no secret that Mark Zuckerberg wants the channels to be less about brands and more about people, family and meaningful interactions. However, these platforms are still set up as paid media channels, meaning that in order to be seen, your content will need paid media behind it. This allows you to be sure that the right people are being served the content and engaging with it. But this is where close attention must be paid to the content itself - the right tone of voice, the right visual assets and the right audience targeting are essential for success. 

So for brands without a large social team, this can be a daunting challenge. Not only does a social media manager have to be a strategist and copywriter, experience in psychology, data analysis, media buying and graphic design is also preferred. 

This is where agencies really excel and push your content further. Within an agency, all these skill sets are in one place looking after your account. A community manager will build your calendars and ensure all comments are responded to with relevancy, enthusiasm and customer service assistance. Graphic and motion graphics designers will tell your story visually, utilising all the latest industry trends and techniques. Paid media managers and analysts are there to ensure the right people see your content and make sense of the hundreds of pieces of data to fuel future strategies. Top level strategists are in place to ensure that testing is taking place to optimise your content and get the results you are looking for.

Fine tune your social media strategy with Mighty Social

Does your Community Management strategy need some revision? Do you feel you’re too focused on “off the page” social ads and that your social media foundations need some bolstering? In the current climate, do you need to shift your content production and approach to social media delivery? Why not give us a call to talk through your options and see how we can transform your social media offering.