Building your brand means growing consumers committed to your company’s success; people interested in your products and services. These are your evangelists, your biggest fans, your experts. If you want people to shout about your company from the rooftops, you have to start building a community. Learn how to turn community growth into your business.
Look at Harley riders, Mac and Red Sox fans, people are absolutely obsessed. They arrange meetings, stand in line for hours and will fight to the death to prove their case to someone. What motivates them?
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Your brand gives them meaning
To build a loyal following for your brand, you must give people something to rally around. Whether it’s the cool guy lifestyle on a motorcycle, the hottest technology, or the diehard city of Boston, people need to feel connected to something. When they start connecting with other people who feel the same way, you have a community.
As a company, you must connect with your customers and make them feel connected to your brand. Harley racers identify with their brothers, Mac users love to fire up their little Apple at an internet cafe, and Sox fans love to wear the same stinky baseball cap every day of their lives.
Your customers advertise themselves
The best type of brand evangelism happens when consumers themselves identifying with your brand. This is how you really contribute to the growth of the community in your brand. Brands seek that connection with other runners when you lace up your Nikes or feel a little more elegant when your polo shirt features a man on horseback. The guy reading Under30CEO magazine is sure to impress the ladies. See the lady reading U30? She instantly pins herself up as a potential Sugar Mama. People connect with the Under30 brand because we create something to identify with. We want people to have a natural sense of belonging when they think of Under30CEO.
Making customers feel warm and fluffy inside is just the beginning. Your customers need a connection to all parts of your brand: your product, people within the company, and other fans of your brand.
Try These Community Growth Tips
- Let people know what’s happening inside your brand – ask your consumers to share information, tell them about what’s happening inside your brand – write a blog or chat with them on Twitter. The key here is engagement. Building a community is not a one-way conversation: first you need to listen, and then respond.
- Arrange a meeting. Gather your fans. Squeal! throws huge parties for its biggest users. It makes the client feel valued, feel like part of the team, and allows you to get to know your biggest fans.
- Do good – start some kind of socially significant project in which your fans can take part and feel like a part. Sure, it’s great to use your followers to make money, but by encouraging them to make the world a better place, you create a stronger connection and a more cohesive community around your brand.
“You don’t need clients, you need fans with money.” -Frank Kern
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