Building your online community

MANILA, Philippines–Around 15 years ago, online customer engagement means making the customer sign a feedback form or join a topical conversation in online forums.

Then in 2004 Facebook was born and ushered in the era of Web 2.0 where “customers build your business for you”–a web as platform for users generating content in the form of ideas, text, videos, or pictures that could all be harnessed to create value.

Thus social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and YouTube dominate the sites of online community we know of today where users are king.

If you want to create an online community for your brand or company, Jason Cruz, Social Products Director for MRM/McCann, stresses the importance of having a clear idea of its objectives.

“The online community should create a center of communication expressing the brand’s messages, values and ideas; converse with consumers and brand fans in social media; and curate a community-sourced content,” Cruz reminds the students of Social Media Marketing 102 during a recent lecture in International Institute of Digital Marketing (IIDM).

In the Philippines, the most dominant platform is still Facebook with 34 million users, 22 millions of which access the site through mobile devices. Micro-site Twitter, one of the fastest social platforms globally and used extensively as community- and consumer-support, is slowly gaining ground with around 28 million users.

To run an online community successfully, you need a very good online community manager. It could be you, or a designated digital marketing pro. In any case, Cruz cites the following traits that he should have:

• Personality fits the brand’s desired social media persona;
• Tonality and language match the community members’;
• Deep understanding of the community and offline members;
• Deep understanding of anecdotal stories and community sentiments

Develop your skills in online community management with the Social Media Marketing Specialist Track of the Certified Digital Marketer Program.

Call 927-0096 or 0928-506-5382 or register at imadigitalmarketer.com.