With the power of a Six Circles platform at your fingertips, you can build an inspired and focused community around your business. It’s up to you who you choose to invite into your community, but it’s also down to you to keep them interested and engaged with what you have to offer.
Here are six ways you can keep your community growing.
Encourage content creation
Don’t just talk about yourself – let people talk about you… and themselves and others, too. Ask questions, start conversations and maybe draw up a poll or two to get them thinking.
However, more than anything, you should encourage people to get creative and add value to your brand with their own thought-provoking and entertaining content. If you do this reciprocally, too, you’ll likely find that you don’t have to work too hard to encourage content creation – people will become glad to create content for you.
Encourage content creation
Let your community be the place where people come to discuss and share opinions. React with follow-up questions and appreciative reactions, and work out what else you can do that will help to solve problems and add to the discussion.
Even a divisive subject can be useful for understanding more about what is motivating a certain audience, so you shouldn’t be afraid to test them with the odd surprise or sensitive topic.
Be open to their ideas
If you carry on listening, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much knowledge you can gather about what is going on in your community right now. Make sure they know you’re listening, so that their comments and ideas don’t fall on deaf ears – or in this case, blank screens.
Don’t be afraid to be critical, as this displays confidence, but try not to be overzealous when it comes to negativity. A strong community needs a strong leader who is capable of creative thinking.
Set and maintain boundaries
Bear in mind that some people are likely to be more forward with their ideas than other people, so you should set and maintain community boundaries and look out for the next ‘devil’s advocate’ in your feed.
Even if you have to step in to remind others of the boundaries, this will be another indication that your community is one of integrity.
Give power to your people
Don’t let your business be the driving force of your new community, as it is the people who make it what it is. You will, of course, have a strategic purpose behind starting and growing your community and shouldn’t lose sight of this, but people won’t respond positively if you merely bombard them with advertising.
You should therefore find an equilibrium between brand promotion and community management, and let people talk about what matters to them, rather than merely what matters to you.
Become a story-telling expert
Even the most powerful communities need guidance, and it is your job to provide it. By regularly starting discussions and engaging with the content created as a result, you can guide your community towards shared goals, as opposed to simply what benefits you or other individuals within the community.
Build your community with the mindset that you are a combination of author, narrator and even character, simultaneously capable of informing, inspiring and entertaining. You’ll find that the more you play all of these roles, the more you and your community enjoy it.
To become the leader of your own powerful community or to learn more about what the Six Circles platform could do for your business, contact our team of experts today.