We get it. You’ve launched your website. You have a dream, a vision. Are you a blogger? Do you sell fishing equipment? Perhaps you’re a fashion designer or have just launched your online clothing store? Or maybe you’re passionate about health and sell vegan toothpaste. That’s amazing!
In this article, we’ll explore two fundamental questions behind the concept of Community:
1) WHY do I need to create my own online community?
2) HOW can I create one and ensure its success?
PeepSo, as the Social Networking Plugin solution that we are, is your gateway to creating Your Community. Your Way. And it’s not just our trademark, it’s what we stand behind. We wish to empower you to take control over your tribe and take your dream, passion, business, blog – to the next level.
But first, let’s understand the reason and logic behind it all.
Why would I need my own social network?
There’s already plenty of options. The market is overly saturated with social media platforms that demand so much of your attention. Login here, login there, share this, like that. It’s exhausting, not to mention time consuming. Why going through the hassle of creating your OWN community when there are seemingly a plethora of options as ready-made solutions out there?
Online communities are powerful as they have the capacity to bring people from any location and all walks of life together in one centralized place, often based on a shared interest, background, activity/hobby, purpose or noble cause. A strong online community is essential for brand awareness and business development, and can easily amplify your company’s reach and establish a strong sense of credibility.
A strong online community is essential for brand awareness and business development.
In this day and age, the traditional marketing approach has been redefined. We no longer watch informercials to consider a product (or do we?), nor rely on TV ads (who watches TV these days anyways?!) to make a purchase. With the rise of influencers, bloggers, YouTubers and the like, it is more than ever true and evident that we seek for peer validation and connection, a sense of loyalty to a brand in order to subscribe, buy, register, consume.
If you’re one of the thousands of websites out there simply offering a product or service without a community angle, you might be at a loss. While money is fun and everybody would love some more of it, it is not the only thing that matters. Or better yet, when chasing the buck becomes too obvious, your customers might feel it and this is not the strong connection you’d like to build with your tribe. Ultimately, as Tim Sanders smartly put it, “your network is your net worth”. Establish strong connections with your customers and they’ll become your raving fans, thus helping you scale your business whilst still calling in the big bucks. It’s all based on trust and connection.
Creating Your Community. Your Way would be equivalent of welcoming a guest home and taking them to the backyard to enjoy an epic BBQ amongst all your other coolio friends. Will they have a great time? Surely they will. Are they likely to come back? You can bet on it, they will – even if just to know the secret to your honey-mustard sauce!
What are the tangible benefits I can get from building my own community?
Among other points, here are some benefits you’ll experience from driving and keeping people on your site:
- You get direct connection to your members, beyond a simple comment on a blogpost, that’s if you even have a Blog section on your site.
- You get real-time feedback. As easy as a private chat message.
- You can shape your product according to the actual needs. Just as we’ve implemented Brute Force based on our very own customers’ feedback, for example.
- Your get to be real, as users get direct contact with YOU! You are not a guru stuck on a mountain, preaching, they have access to you and your product/service.
- Your community offers tons of social proof and find new ways of converting a prospect into a raving fan and ambassador of your brand.
These are only a few of the incredible benefits you get from creating your own community. We want your community to be a huge success! You might want to check our eBook called “The Secrets for Creating Successful Online Communities” to help you get started and do it right. Find the widget on the right hand side of this post and subscribe. We’ll send you the book to your email.
Now that there’s more clarity around the WHY of your own online community, let’s explore the HOW.
HOW can I create my community and ensure its success?
By adding your own PeepSo based community you can turn random visitors and a faceless crowd into dedicated readers, followers, influencers, supporters of your brand. This is Your Community. Your Way and you have total control over it. This is a priceless opportunity to get to know your audience so much better. It’s all done Your Way! Best of all, it’s easy!
Ok, so we’ve discussed the WHY and the benefits of building my own community but How can I guarantee that even after doing all these things, my community will succeed? Find your niche. Make sure you know your audience.
For example PeepSo’s very own community is growing and thriving. We have built and established a community revolving around people building communities. People come and share ideas, suggestions, we have a dedicated support group where our members help each other in solving issues they’ve already handled. Check PeepSo Community to get a feel for what we do and to get inspiration from others who’ve already successfully grown their communities from the ground up.
In essence, you have 2 options:
Plan A: Just do it.
Listen to your community, get feedback. Adapt. And hope for the best.
Plan B: Just do it. But with a plan.
Have a plan/strategy and know what you want. Find what your community needs.
You can always start with our Free Foundation Plugin or if you’re ready to take the leap of faith, get our Ultimate Bundle with all current and future plugins to create your playground and dream community.
For example, and let’s go back to the vegan toothpaste. If you want to educate people as to WHY they should change from an industrially made, chemical toothpaste to a more eco-friendly, organic solution, you might want to create videos or even a short Free course on the topic. Sharing valuable content will position you as an authority on the matter and will immediately give you the benefit over the competition. Also, you brand is not just monetizing but actually educating the consumer, one which is likely to share your content and help grow your tribe and spread your message to a greater reach. LearnDash is an excellent LMS integration we have, that allows for content creation and course setup. And from there, the sky is the limit. You can create paid membership courses, keep growing your Blog with our Blogpost Integration, and much more.
As you can see, the options are endless and that’s just a few examples of possible uses for your community. It’s up to you where you take your business, hobby or cause. Be sure to connect with us, send us a message and/or join our community and simply ask. Ask others WHY and HOW they’ve done it. Learn, get inspired. We love sharing.
If you’re curious, I invite you to check out some of our most successful communities, how they started and how they built their communities from the ground up. Check out:
- My Disability Matters – A site and community that revolve around bringing hope and connection to people with disabilities from all over the world.
- Imparable – a fitness community that’s now grown to thousands of active members who love sharing their success stories on nutrition and physical conditioning.
- Let’s Skate – a startup community that thrives on the passion for skating and incentivizing youths to make smart decisions.
We’re happy to know where you’re headed and give you some extra honey-mustard sauce of our own. We know you’ll be back for more!
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