3 Ways to Nurture A Strong Community on Social Media

Whether you’re using Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter, building a community is key to long-term success. There’s a reason why social media has “social” at the beginning of its title. These platforms are fertile ground for engaging with customers and fostering strong relationships with them.

Therefore, it’s imperative that you, as a marketer, take great advantage of the tools and features within each respective social media platform so that your brand is able to nurture a strong brand community.

By exchanging interesting topics, answering questions, and bringing your target audience together through engaging content, you’ll be able to make the most of your marketing efforts.

Here are 3 effective ways to foster a strong brand community within social media.

1. Encourage your audience to create user-generated content (UGC).

User-generated content (UGC) sounds like a tricky word but it’s actually a simple concept. UGC is defined as any type of content like blog, video, or social media posts, that a user may create and distribute through social media.

User-generated content is a fantastic way to create buzz around your brand. It also helps you build brand awareness, leading to a larger social following. You can even use any content your target audience creates as repurposed content for your social media channels.

Implementing user-generated content into your social media strategy ensures that you continually engage with your target audience. It’ll also show them that you are listening to their concerns and want to be a part of their lives in some way. This will lead to a stronger community to support your brand in online spaces.

2. Engage your target audience regularly.

Social media has always involved two-way communication with target audiences. You cannot create and post social media content without keeping your audience in mind first. Additionally, you can’t leave your followers hanging when they ask you a question or leave a comment on a post.

The best social media strategies have always put their customers and their engagement with their brand first. If your customer leaves a question that’s been answered many times, don’t hesitate to give them an answer.

The same goes for your captions. Try to bring something new to the table about your brand. Pose questions. Make relevant statements. Get your audience’s attention. If your followers leave comments, give them a like or comment back.

It’s good manners to do so. Your followers will surely appreciate the kind gesture. And best of all? It gives your brand a humanizing quality that allows your audience to strengthen their connection with it.

3. Include other brands in your posts and content.

It’s easy to leave competitors out of the game—they are your competitors after all! However, you can definitely view your brand’s competitors as assets for your own marketing efforts. Rather than exclude them from your narrative, include them in your social content.

Treat them as your brand’s allies. If you’re using your target audience’s user-generated content, you can tag competitors into the content’s posts. This can further humanize your brand and can even earn you a tag or mention back, further cementing your social media presence and community.

Building a brand community and leveraging it for your marketing needs is something that takes time to grow. You need to be consistent and patient before you see any results from your hard work. I guarantee that with enough persistence and understanding of your audience and content efforts, you can build a strong community that will back up your brand for years to come.

For more social media-related posts, check out my blog, Why Like and Comments Don’t Matter in Social Media.

Make sure to stay in touch with me to learn more about content and digital-related topics.