5 ways to promote your community.
WITH REBECCA AND ANDREW.
Who are we and what do we do?
! We are community managers.
! Contact info: [email protected]
! Telephone: 312-869-9870
THE PRE-STEP:
! Ensure you have your community’s ‘overview’ and ‘about’ completed.
The Fabulous 5 promotional tactics:
1. Use existing networks.
2. Avail of social media outlets.
3. Encourage member activity.
4. Reach out to likeminded people.
5. Take advantage of blogging.
STEP ONE: Use Your Existing Network.
! Notify email contacts and invite to join.
! Result = word of mouth and community growth/webinar response.
! Plug your community with your existing social media outlets, e.g. Twitter, Facebook.
STEP TWO: Avail Of All Social Media Outlets:
! Statuses and tweets about your community’s events will help to:
1. Keep your friends and followers informed of upcoming events.
2. Circulate your community’s name amongst people’s newsfeed that you are not connected to.
! Retweets, likes and sharing will all help broaden the scope of your reach.
Other Social Media Outlets:
Handy Cheats:
STEP THREE: Find like minded people:
! If your community is about bird watching, reach out to fellow bird watchers that have a strong online presence. E.g. bloggers, people with multiple followers or likes etc.
! Having their support may result in more traffic being generated for your community.
! Reaching out to strangers may not always result in an acknowledgement, but all it takes is one person.
STEP FOUR: Encourage Member Activity:
“A community is like a ship, everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.”
-Henrik Ibsen
! Without your members continued support, your community can become stagnant.
! Take on board topic suggestions for webinars.
! Addressing topics of interest will encourage continued support from your members and a good attendance.
! Ask members to share details of your community on their personal social media profiles.
! Use the community bulletin to engage with your members and stay connected through threaded chat.
STEP FIVE: Blogging:
! Having an active blog that is reflective of your community and up to date with news of your community is a valuable promotional tool.
! Refer to conference recordings to ensure that the information you use for your blog is correct.
! Discuss the topics you have used in webinars.
! Remember: a blog doesn’t have to be a literary work of art.
Hosting A test webinar: pros and cons:
! When you have generated some interest in your community, you may wish to host a test webinar.
! BigMarker has certain browser and system requirements so this will allow you to ensure participating members are set for an official event.
! A test will help you and your members feel comfortable with our technology.
! Your members may be deterred if they experience any difficulties in a test.
! Your members may feel the community is too time consuming if you are trying to run a test before you have established a loyal following.
Recap:
! We will have a blog published at http://bigmarkerblog.bigmarker.com/ . Check it out for a hard copy of what we have discussed today.
! We are always on hand to help with community and webinar promotion so feel free to contact us for further promotional assistance.
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