In the past, organizations biggest fears of launching a social community was that the community would be misused, abused and have vulgarity they couldn’t control. But, that isn’t the case – customer communities exist for a purpose: to find answers, share experiences, share feedback and connect with the organization and other customers.
Many organizations realized that their biggest fear (negative feedback) was in fact their greatest opportunity. Providing customers that were passionate about their products a way to capture that feedback and interact directly with them.
Customer communities are maturing and for most organizations their biggest fear is creating something that is unused and becomes a ghost town. Here are some tips to ensure your community is used by your customers:
- Engage Your Audience.
If you are not engaging your community user group then you will not have an active community. You must focus on getting to know your audience. This is key to overcoming the fear that your community won’t thrive.
- Recognizing your customer needs is a key factor.
You probably know your stuff but you need to understand what your customer needs are, identify and address those needs within the community and it will flourish.
- Show appreciation to users that are active on your site.
This is shown in forms of encouragement and acknowledgement for those that engage with newbies, to replying in a timely manner to questions or inquiries. Be sure to always thank your community members when you get the chance!
These simple tips will help you well on your way to overcoming the fear of having a community with no shows, to an online #community that will grow consistently!