First, think of how vast the internet is, and how impossible it is to reach every crack, corner, and crevice.

Now, imagine a place where millions of people endlessly sift through this vastness, promoting what’s worthy of the front page and removing what’s rubbish.

That’s Reddit.

If you’ve spent only a few minutes redditting, you may be thinking it’s a place for cute cats and ridiculous memes…

However, Reddit is also a place for the president, for customer support, and just about anything else you can imagine. Reddit pulls at least two billion unique visitors a month and normally powers thousands of active communities per day, ranging from science, music, and politics to specialties like tech support and homebrewing.

If you are not paying attention to your niche subreddits, you don’t know your audience.

But there is more to Reddit than its own huge audience you need to be listening to. Reddit is getting a huge visibility in Google’s organic search.

Reddit is becoming an inevitable part of just about any buying journey. Just about any brand triggers [PRODUCT/BRAND NAME REDDIT] suggestion in Google’s Autocomplete results:

[Reddit] comes up in many brand-driven Google’s Autocomplete suggestions prompting consumers to search it even if they didn’t initially intend to.

There’s also a new SERP feature for Reddit called “Discussions and forums”:

Not being on Reddit means missing this huge organic search opportunity and failing to control this narrative.

Four More Reasons to Use Reddit for Digital Marketing

1. User-testing and New Product Feedback

Do you have a new website or product coming out soon? Is there anything in the beta stage? 

Reddit is a great place to get quality (and free) feedback.

Continuing from the previous example, find the proper subreddit relevant to your business. Make sure you are operating within the subreddit rules and guidelines before submitting anything. If you’re unsure, consult one of the moderators by sending them a private message.

Here’s an example:

Further down the comment section, we see real feedback:

Boom! Redditors are happy to help each other in more niche subreddits – pretty cool right?

2.  Extend Customer Service Reach

In the same vein, we can extend our customer service efforts by researching threads where our business or product is mentioned.

Be optimistic – sometimes Redditors are complimenting your service! Find them, thank them, and contribute to the positivity. This ties into increasing brand reputation as well.

A word of caution: do not jump head-first into the comment sections, especially if you’re representing a company. Instead, get your feet wet by observing how people talk about brands and how a representative responds. 

Practice reddiquette (which is often different from subreddit to subreddit) and combine this with your observations. There are many stereotypes about redditors, but these only apply to the masses. 

When you’re in a niche subreddit it’s much easier to identify the tone of voice and sentimental atmosphere. Plus, we’re able to target potential customers who have already expressed interest in our industry.

3. Community Building

Creating a subreddit (a sub-community) is practical for many reasons. We can create private subreddits for an internal office team or an exclusive community for your clients. Public subreddits allow anyone to view content and comment if you allow it.

With an active subreddit, businesses can provide useful information (such as resources, advice, guides, and feedback) to current and new customers. Expect to see a detailed post on creating and maximizing a subreddit from me in the future.

4. Increasing Awareness

While not every business will adopt a whale and host a naming contest, Reddit is a vast opportunity mine.

Take note of which content gets upvoted the most and ask your team, “Can we do something like this?” If the answer is yes, go for it.

There’s even a subreddit for small businesses where you are allowed to promote your business.

Step 1: Start Monitoring Reddit

Products and brands are being talked about in every corner of the internet. Identifying all of these mentions is a pretty simple process; it just takes a bit of time to set up.

Reddit is an excellent medium for providing current social monitoring tactics to aid in brand management and data collection.

I constantly see social media marketers saying they don’t “get” Reddit. They always say it’s too confusing or a place all businesses should avoid. If you call yourself a social media marketer and you don’t at least acknowledge the value of subreddits, you’re doing something wrong. It’s one of the top 50 websites in the world. The branding, social monitoring, and community benefits are undeniable.

Reddit is a medium that doesn’t have everything spelled out. So, some users give up easily after having a bad experience which could have been avoided if they had invested enough time to learn the social norms and history of the platform. By dismissing the platform, they’re dismissing target audience groups that are:

• already bunched together
• already talking about relevant industry topics
• asking questions YOU know the answer to

There are inside jokes, thematic content (i.e.; weekly contests), in-depth quality discussions, beginners looking for help, and much more. A local business – a plumber or an HVAC, for example – can be incredibly useful on subreddits. It’s an extension of customer service.

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The challenge: Social media marketers and business owners need to be flexible when experimenting with new platforms. Becoming a community member in a subreddit is the perfect way to get started. It’s such a simple concept but it gets twisted when you try to approach it from a traditional marketing perspective.

The benefits of being a contributing member include being able to extract social data, learning more about potential customers, the market, the interests, and demographics, and once you’ve gotten your fill, putting it all together in an accepted form of advertising. Or a contest. Or a game. 

Every subreddit is different.

Take advantage of free tools. Here are some useful options:

• Google Alerts and Search Operators + Google Sheets/Excel
• Buzzsumo Alerts

Start off by opening up your preferred spreadsheet program. I recommend Google Sheets because it’s free and in the cloud, but Excel is also fine.

Let’s say your business is a homebrewing supply store – a local business with a large enough operation to handle online orders.

Run searches using site:reddit.com “keywords” in Google. Record each thread link on Reddit that you can contribute to, such as offering expertise, solving a problem, asking your own questions, or being a part of an event/evolving discussion. Then make a column to keep track of which threads you haven’t responded to yet. For more collaboration capabilities, consider using tools like Slack to make Reddit marketing a cross-marketing strategy.

The tools you can use are:

• Google Alerts
• Buzzsumo

Here’s a screenshot of creating a new alert using Buzzsumo:

Step 2: Create a Brand-Driven Subreddit

Owning a subreddit is your first step to owning a brand-driven narrative. Luckily anyone can create and moderate a subreddit.

If your customers are going to discuss your product on Reddit, they’d better do it in a space you can control.

Here comes the SERP management benefit of that: This should help you control [your product name+Reddit] results better. Some brands are doing that very well, e.g.:

• CloudFlare subreddit
• Comcast subreddit

Comcast-driven search triggers “Reddit” suggestion at #2.

As a result, Comcast owns those search results thanks to their official subreddits:

Controlling your brand-driven SERPs is the only way to ensure your customers will end up buying from you. It is your ultimate digital business card.

Additionally, they also successfully show up in Google’s AI snapshot (SGE) answer:

That’s your goal.

It takes time and effort to maintain a quality subreddit but your customer support team will likely enjoy it because it has a rewarding community-building aspect to it.

Make sure you set up your GA4 correctly to be able to measure the traffic from your new subreddit.

Step 3: Participate Outside of Your Subreddit

After you do some thorough reddit monitoring, set up your brand-driven subreddit and learn to talk to your customers in that space, you can start participating outside of it, in other relevant subreddits.

Reply to questions, make comments, and be genuinely active. Consider hosting an AMA (“Ask me anything”) to tell your story, use Reddit for content brainstorming, and learn more about your target audience.

Reddit is great for link building once you get a feel of it and understand what your niche reporters and bloggers are looking for when monitoring Reddit. It is great for competitors’ evaluation, product gap analysis, email marketing strategy and so much more. Stop ignoring Reddit as a marketing tool but approach it with care.

Results

We have been doing all kinds of Reddit analysis and strategy implementation for clients. We managed to control [brand name reddit] search results within 2 months of setting a brand-driven subreddit. For another client, our Reddit-driven viral marketing campaign brought in hundreds of clicks, links and shares, as well as positioned it as a trending search in Google:

Our client was a brand-new startup that barely produced any results for brand-driven searches. Google associated our client’s brand name with the biggest brands in the industry within a week of the Reddit-driven marketing campaign. This is the strongest signal you can build.

Reddit is one the most powerful tools you can use for brand awareness and beyond!

The post Mastering Reddit for Brand Awareness & Reputation Management appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Are you looking to build a career in digital marketing?

You are on the right track!

According to Grab Jobs, digital marketing specialists are among the top in-demand jobs in the US.

Which skills do you need to become a successful digital marketing specialist?

Digital marketing is a broad feld that includes lots of customer-attraction tactics and platforms, so the list of required skills may be diverse.

Here are top marketing skills that will be in high demand on 2023:

Search Engine Optimization

Organic visibility is the most sought-after marketing channel out there. In fact, if you search Linkedin Jobs for “Digital Marketing”, the results page is dominated by SEO job openings:

And it is understandable: Every brand, big and small, is seeking traffc from organic search for two main reasons:

• It is highly relevant and intent-driven: People typing queries in Google’s search box are there to fnd answers and solutions
• It is not interruptive. Unlike just about any other channel, SEO does not interrupt browsing journeys: Search users are there to fnd you, they are not browsing feeds or checking emails.

On top of that, organic traffc is likely to keep coming even if a company stops active campaigns. It may slow down unless a company maintains it, but it doesn’t require active daily budgets, only a strong team to support what is there.

For all those reasons, having SEO knowledge and experience is likely to be a strong boost to your resume. You can start building that skill now by actively researching, taking SEO courses and volunteering to help charitable organizations achieve their SEO goals.

Content Planning

Content is fundamental to most digital marketing campaigns. You need a good copy for just about anything, including organic or PPC landing pages, social media updates, email marketing, etc.

Good writing is a skill that can be developed. It helps if you have a well-written blog or contribute to well-known publications.

If you are looking to build a career in digital marketing, start by applying for paid blogging gigs. You may also make some income while setting up your writing resume.

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Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is a fast-growing field that can make any marketing strategy more productive and effective. Marketing automation can boost just about any tactic:

• In SEO you can achieve better results by setting up automated alerts and reports

• In social media marketing automation helps create better-timed updates and responses
• In email marketing it makes personalization possible: You can set up smart user fow to reach your customers at the most suitable moment. Cart abandonment email automation is a great example here.
• In sales, automation can streamline follow-ups and lead nurturing.

Having experience in using marketing automation software is often required for high profle digital marketing positions. You can get some basic automation skills by using email marketing services which all come with some level of automation features.

No-Code Development

Most brands are looking for digital marketers who are able to use their content management platform independently. The most common CMS is WordPress but there are a few alternatives to be aware of as well. When it comes to WordPress, it is always a plus when you are familiar with most popular plugins, like Yoast and Akismet.

The good news is, you don’t need much technical knowledge to use any of those content management platforms which are designed for no-coding experience. In most cases, it takes a week or so to fgure out a new CMS.

Besides, all of those platforms have extensive knowledge bases and all of them provide free trials or free plans that come with free domains. So it helps if you start exploring the top CMSs to be able to claim basic knowledge of all of them in your resume.

Graphic design is another essential skill that will turn out to be quite useful for an effective digital marketer because visual marketing is on the rise these days. Again, no need to learn

to use any professional graphic design software though. There are quite a few online tools that will help you create images and videos to use across multiple visual marketing channels. Canva is the best known one.

Community Building

Most brands realize the value of having a community of loyal customers and brand ambassadors that can drive sales and trust signals.

Community building can come in a few distinct forms:

• Infuencer outreach and relationship building

• Customer relationship management (CRM)

• Journalistic and blogger outreach

Community building is not a skill you can claim unless you have real experience but you can volunteer for online community building opportunities and gain real experience while making an impact.

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Communication and Collaboration

Digital marketing is often well integrated into an organization. It is well connected with sales and customer support teams, product development department, IT, etc. You need to be able to clearly communicate your goals to those teams, explain why certain things and changes to a site are important and collect feedback.

On top of that, digital marketing is not easy to report, so you need to have good communication skills to “sell” it to the management.

It is a good idea to note in your resume what kind of cross-team and collaborative working experience you have, even if it’s limited to working with freelancers.

Project Management

Any digital marketing strategy consists of lots of pieces. Some of those tasks are quick, others can take weeks to complete, and most of them are on-going.

Getting things done is a key skill required for an effective digital marketing process. A good project manager has the ability to articulate even the most complicated messages via email,

phone, or in-person meeting. They know what communication method is the most effective and what will work best for their audience, based on the situation. Successful project managers know when to keep silent and listen.

They are able to understand not only the clients’ needs but also how to meet those needs by taking into account the suggestions of their team. There are quite a few tools and apps helping teams manage projects and get things done. Getting to know some of them is a good frst step to mastering this skill.

Remote Working

If there was one distinct and long-term way COVID impacted business lives is that remote working has become much more widespread and popular.

Prior to worldwide lickdowns, many companies were shying away from letting employees work from homes. The pandemic has changed that: These days lots of organizations have realized that they don’t have to invest huge budgets into relocating employees and covering offce costs. Remote employees can be just as productive.

An ability to work effectively from home is essential to virtual career paths, like digital marketing.

Data Literacy

You don’t need to be a professional data analyst to be a good digital marketer. In fact, a data analyst is a separate profession that is in high demand now.

However, you do need to be able to effectively use web analytics platforms in order to measure results and adjust your strategy accordingly. The most common web analytics platform you’ll come across these days is Google Analytics, so start using it for your own site if you haven’t done that yet.

It is also helpful to familiarize yourself with cross-platform digital marketing tools that can consolidate several data sources (Google Analytics, Search Console, Facebook Insights, etc.) These will help you create professional reports, monitor your channels and analyze your marketing data.

Conclusion

While developing your various digital marketing skills is important, don’t wait till you excel in all of them. At the end of the day, your unique personality is your biggest asset. Start working on your personal brand, keep an eye on relevant job opportunities and never stop learning!

The post Marketing Skills You Must Have in 2023 appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Crap, it’s happened again. You’ve arrived at a party where you don’t know anyone, and the host is nowhere to be found. The anxious tango begins. Are you supposed to just walk in? Who do you approach? Is everything in the kitchen? Why is it so loud (yet impossible to understand a word anyone says)? Is that Ashley from college or a doppelganger you have never met who will look at you in confusion when you ask where the punch is?

Then it hits you… OH NO. WHERE IS THE BATHROOM?

Matt catches your eye right before the panic wave crashes over you. Finally, the host, in all his glory and knowledge — he’s here to save the day and your bladder! He greets you warmly and shows you around the place. You note exactly where the bathroom is before he brings you to a group of familiar faces. It’s Matt’s friends you played volleyball with that one time! You’re instantly at ease, chatting with people who share your interests and Matt, the host with the most.

Walking into a party without your host can feel confusing, alienating, and frustrating. And for your customers, joining a new community without onboarding is just as bad.

You want to make sure your new members…

• Don’t feel lost or overwhelmed
• Have the information, resources, and tools they need at their fingertips
• Discover new facets of the program or community they weren’t aware of before
• Connect with the Community Manager, so they feel supported
• Have the right expectations and understand what the journey holds for them

Here are 5 easy ways to engage your new community members from the beginning and ensure their long-term success.

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Welcome Emails

Never underestimate the power of a good welcome email series. In most cases, it’s their first impression, and we all know you don’t get two of those.

In the first email, you should welcome and congratulate them, re-introduce yourself, and inform your new member about what to expect. Sure, they know who you are, but give them a bit more insight so they can truly start to feel that connection build. Be the reason they’re excited to dive in, in fact — be their hype-human! Make sure they know you’re excited to meet them and make it as simple as possible for them to access what they’ve signed up for — and in some cases, paid for.

In the following emails, you should aim to empower them and set expectations. They’re in a new world, and with the help of your emails, they will become self-sufficient and be more willing to establish connections with members on their own, rather than having you establish those connections for them. There’s nothing like seeing someone dive in headfirst!

Use these emails as an opportunity to share resources, invite them to events, challenge them to perform an action like introducing themselves to the community, and implement exercises to help them stick to their goals. Do this throughout a couple of weeks, don’t try to fit this all into one email unless you want them to ignore 75% of what you say.

By the end of your series, they should know exactly where to start, the next steps, where to go, who to talk to, and exactly where all of the amazing value in your community comes from!

Video Calls

By now, Zoom has infiltrated every other part of our lives, so why not onboarding too?

If you have the bandwidth, a weekly onboarding call can be a fantastic way to welcome new members. With a video call, it’s easier to connect with your members because you’re practically face to face, and they can get questions answered by a real, live human. Or aliens, I won’t judge anyone from Mars trying to get in on the onboarding game.

For a simple structure, try…

• Introduce yourself, how they can expect to interact with you, and the help you provide.
• Set expectations for the call, including time, etiquette, and participation.
• Create a portion specifically to have them introduce themselves, let them brag about how great they are, and share why they joined. It’s a wonderful way for them to meet other new members and for you to understand their “why.”
• Walk them through the best way to get started. This could be a set of videos they can watch, community resources they should check out, exercises to complete, or even something as simple as a challenge to participate in 5 discussions their first week.
• Discuss Community Guidelines and what the culture looks like.
• Bonus points if you can have them leave with a small win like earning a badge, a highlight in a future post, or even just a shout-out!
• Set aside time for questions at the end, great for feedback!

After the call, your new member should feel well informed and have a task or three to complete for a nice sense of direction. Introducing them to other members and giving them the rundown you’re setting them up for success helps prevent churn and instills a feeling of belonging.

Self-Guided Video

This strategy is a new one to me but an easy favorite. You can use a video service to allow your member all of the benefits of a live onboarding call without commitment.

Using Tolstoy you can provide your newbie with a smiling face, easy-to-understand instructions, interactive conversation, and an easy way to get started on their own schedule and comfort level. It’s a Choose Your Own Adventure without turning to page 374 for the big payoff at the end.

Use the video adventure to empower your members with knowledge, introduce yourself and other moderators, show them where to go for their needs and what to expect moving forward, show off some of your favorite areas or conversations, and leave them with a plan to start engaging. By the end of the video, they will clearly know what’s next and how to be your new best friend.

Self Introduction

Encouraging your members to introduce themselves in a comfortable environment without a big commitment through an introduction thread is a simple and common way to accomplish your goal. Personally, if onboarding means I don’t have to be on video, then it’s even better, and I’m more likely to jump in headfirst.

You can create a discussion channel dedicated to introductions or a ritual post that welcomes new members and encourages interaction. It’s great for a small win; every win makes churn less likely.

Going back to the imaginary party from earlier, this thread is the host’s first stop when someone walks through the door. You want to let your guests know where to find the refreshments and essential facilities and help them find people they’ll vibe with.

An easy way to do this is to tell them exactly what they need to know and what you want to know.

• Introduce yourself
• Direct them to any goodies that are helpful for newbies
• Encourage them to introduce themselves and provide some points you would like them to hit.

I am a big fan of simplicity, so I have a nifty welcome video with a CTA in our main Group, DM Engage for Lab Members. I tag in all new members to chime in and just give them an idea of what they’re about to get into. 

For some additional inspiration, check out what Orbit asks when you join their Discord Server.

This is a wonderful way to dip your toes in the community water and build rapport.

Additionally, the Orbit team practices something I consider to be non-negotiable…

They respond, and not only with a “welcome,” but with a thoughtful response to what you’ve written! It showcases they’re listening and if I had written something they could have helped with, I guarantee a resource would have been sent my way.

If you encourage your members to share but then don’t acknowledge and engage yourself, you’re leaving them hanging, and the coolest kids at the party know you never leave a bud hanging.

Peer Welcome Wagon

A wonderfully effective way to onboard new members and make sure they’re fully immersed is by setting them up with others. Your secret weapons even…

Collect a crew of Super Users, Volunteers, Moderators, Evangelists, and other words for people who are invested in the community and raised their hands because they want to help others have the same warm fuzzies.

Have these volunteers be an extension of you by being your eyes and ears when you’re doing something important, like making your sixth cup of coffee.

They should…

• Participate in every welcome post
• Introduce themselves to new members once they raise their hands
• Respond to “lonely posts” that don’t get the love other posts do

Walking into a room where you’re the stranger is difficult, but then imagine doing that and getting up the courage to introduce yourself to everyone you see. Very scary. If all your brave newbie hears is crickets, it’s a terrible experience and makes them less likely to interact or post again. With a welcome wagon, that scenario is a thing of the past!

Mix n’ Match

For a truly powerful experience, do more than one of these. In fact, customize this until you have your own beautiful Franken-Onboarding.

Everyone interacts differently. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, and there shouldn’t be! Test, measure, and experiment until you have something totally unique that works for you and all of your new best friends.

What Happens After Onboarding?

The next step after onboarding entirely depends on your community’s needs and your mission for your community, but here are some tips that can help inform the best path to take.

• Collect feedback and act upon it, or explain the why behind your choice not to make a change. Feedback is only helpful if you use it to make informed decisions and it fits your goals/mission.
• If you have a perfect member, someone you would clone if you could, collect their feedback specifically. What did their member journey look like? What made them stay? Where do they get value? What would they change? Etc…
• Continue to empower your members with knowledge. Remind them about the extras in your community like events, tools, and resources.
• Create a 30/60/90 day plan of what they should accomplish or complete based on your research, and include how you can help.
• Never stop onboarding. That’s right, continue to engage them, check in, interact, and make sure they feel heard. Onboarding happens all the time, you just have to keep an eye out.

Communities constantly evolve, so review your onboarding process every now and again to ensure it’s still accomplishing what you want it to. Take the feedback seriously but also with a grain of salt; not all feedback aligns with your mission, and that’s fine.

Remember that not every community is for everyone, you will experience churn, and it’s all a part of the learning process. As long as you take care of your members and give them what they need, you’ll have a party that no one stops talking about and can’t wait to attend again.

The post The 5 Secrets to Community Onboarding: How to Reduce Churn and Create Super Fans appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

A little birdy told me you want to know what this “Community” stuff is you keep hearing about. I promise it’s not scary, at least not as frightening as Data Tracking and Analytics. 

Ahh, Numbers!

No need to worry, you’re safe here, and the data can’t get you. At least, not in this particular post. 

Community is a tale as old as time and is simply evolving along with humanity; perhaps it’s time you join the party! 

I like curiosity so allow me to be your guide through the magical and underrated world of Community Building. By the time you finish reading, you’ll know what a Community is, why you should want one, and what a Community Builder can do for you.

What is Community, and why is it important?

If you ask the peeps at Merriam-Webster, the TL;DR version is that a community is people with common interests living in a particular area, or a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society. That’s not a bad definition if you ask me, but I think we can do better in this case.

Community is not a place—not even that arcade you and your friends used to frequent—and despite the common misconception, it’s not an exchange of information over the internet. Community is about a feeling and relationships built among people. As DigitalMarketer says, it’s “a segment of people who form relationships due to shared goals, experiences, and interests”. 

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Community members will have built a sense of trust, belonging, and caring for each other. 

That warm, fuzzy feeling of community comes from shared experiences and shared history… uncommon commonalities, you could say. 

Like I said, a tale as old as time. We’ve all been a member of communities in one way or another, even if it wasn’t in a platform or forum.

How can this benefit your business?

When done right, the community can most commonly decrease costs and increase revenue through higher retention, brand awareness, brand loyalty, ticket deflection, content development, and member advocacy. 

When a sense of belonging is created, a relationship is built between your members and each other. Even better, one between you and your members. We’re all partying together!

A Community can be the most potent customer feedback loop you’ve ever seen! In our largest Community, DM Engage (for our DM Lab members), I know I can always count on honest and constructive feedback from our members, and they’re not shy about asking for what they want. 

The power of user-generated content? Unmatched. Imagine seeing this testimonial on a landing page.

I don’t mean to toot our horn, but you can bet that after an experience like this, Michael “Buzz” Buzinski will be a lifetime DigitalMarketer member. With the right environment, you can grab tons of screenshots like this and, even better, videos! 

As a bonus, Buzz and I will be buddies for life!

What is a Community Builder?

This one is a doozy, not because it’s difficult to define, but because there can be so many definitions! 

For me, it’s someone who nurtures connections and relationships on a small or large scale. It can be one to one or one to many. They’re strategic, semi-organized, unafraid to be the bad guy, and empathetic. They create a “home” for people to gather.

If you ask one of my favorite Twitter people to follow, it’s…

“A community builder can be someone who works to create a structure that will hopefully enable a community to thrive. The platform, the processes, and the important, sometimes difficult choices.” Patrick O’Keefe, Community Lead at CNN

A Community Builder is an architect of experiences and relationships, as cheesy as that may sound. Without one, you’re probably not achieving what you set out to do. 

A Gatekeeper, a People Manager, a Content Moderator, a Ring Master in your circus…whatever you call them, are the ones building the house your members will live in and that your members will help decorate to their needs and tastes. 

What does a Community Builder do?

A better question is ‘What don’t they do’?

Your ironing, probably. Their own ironing, maybe. (I am both of these people.)

They plan, write, structure, promote, burn out, create momentum, are really in their feelings, and don’t do anything without a reason. 

No matter how silly or unnecessary something might seem, there is a reason behind the madness.

Note: Don’t talk to your Community person when they’ve got that look on their face, they’re plotting, they’re in the zone, and something amazing or horrific is about to happen. You’ll love it. 

The big thing here is that everything in Community is about intention. It’s in how your members choose to show up and interact, and how your Community Builder architects the conversations, events, and overall experience. They’re like mad scientists, only they’re not angry, just lots of heart and not enough caffeine yet.

In Community, some things happen by chance… or do they? If you intended to start a conversation that ended up being a meaningful moment of connection between your members… is it really just luck? This is what I call vibing together.

This is where the magic happens; your Community person sets the stage for the right conversations. How? Well, with a sprinkle of inviting copy, a dash of one-on-one chats, a pinch of puppy posts (because puppy posts always get the job done), and a whole bunch of strategic content that guides your members to complete the actions you intend them to… 

…Just call me Community Witch because that’s a potion that will provide.

What skills or traits does a Community Builder need?

If you’d like to replicate yourself a Michelle, it’s about: 40% irreverence, 40% hard work, 10% wanting to show the haters they’re wrong, and another 10% of hard work (just not on Friday afternoons). 

What you’re looking for is a people person who enjoys the freedom of creativity, has a curious streak, and knows how to get shi*t done. Imagine a customer service professional with project management and content skills. Sounds cool, right? That’s because it is. 

Let’s talk about skills.

This may sound like an oxymoron, but it takes strong soft skills to make a great Community Professional. Let’s start with some of the more obvious ones. 

• Organized. Community can be messy. You’re in twenty different tabs, three different platforms, with multiple conversations running, and Slack pinging all at once. You’ve got to be organized enough to know what is going on at any moment. Sure it can be exhausting, but boy, oh boy, is it fun!
• Communication. How can you build relationships with someone if you can’t communicate? I’m sure it’s possible, but imagine the difficulty! Excellent written and verbal communication is essential when you’re the mouthpiece for the brand. Let’s not accidentally promise 3k worth of bonuses when it was actually 1k. 
• Empathetic. It’s similar to Customer Service; you’re not always hearing from people on their best day. You must be able to take in what the other person is saying, listen, and understand their point of view. That way, you can provide them with honest response to their issue. Often in Community, the bond and relationship become so strong you deal with things you wouldn’t expect. You’re an advocate for members and an advocate for the brand. It’s a balancing act; the base is your ability to empathize and communicate. 
• Leadership. As a Community Professional, you’re building paths for your members to take, and you’re leading by example. Members look to you to calm the chaos, enforce the Guidelines, and to learn how to interact in the beginning. 
• Boundary Setting. Because Community roles are so heavy on emotion, we also need to be fully aware and able to set boundaries with not just members but also our coworkers and ourselves. It’s okay to be the bad guy once in a while if you’re protecting what has been built. While the community is for the members, it’s your house, and they’re just living in it. Your Community Professional should know when to advocate for the community and when to advocate for the brand. 
• Creativity. You’ve got all this feedback, so now what? Time to get creative and put that feedback to work! There is no one-size-fits-all solution to Community, and they should be able to whip up some short-form copy and think up new opportunities when needed.
• Curiosity. One of our old core values here at DigitalMarketer was to “know the why,” and I think that applies to Community. Adaptability is the game’s name, so when you see something wonky with the Community, your KPIs, or member interaction, you have to figure it out ASAP. Not only that, but the world of Community is developing at a break-neck pace. You have to be able to keep up with the progress and roll with it. 
• Storytelling. You may not be able to tell from this post, but I can spin up a mean story here and there. You want someone who can paint a picture, set the stage, and control the narrative. You want all the things that require wordsmithing so they can tell a story that brings forth action. The other important part of storytelling is how your Community person will bring stories from the community that leadership and stakeholders care about. Testimonials, feedback, content ideas, etc..… You know, all the good stuff. 

Where can I find one?

While this one might have found her forever home, many Community Professionals are available to be adopted hired!

• Remote Digital Jobs
  If you’re remote-friendly, I highly recommend this one. It’s not Community specific, but the Group is, as they say, fire. Quality candidates, quality group, and a world of opportunity!
• CMX
  The company responsible for my Community spark has a few options. There is a job board, a Slack group, and a Facebook Group; all are free job postings!
• Community Club
  Another company offering the trifecta, job board, Slack group, and a Community!
• The Community Roundtable
  A staple in the Community world, and they have their job board!
• We Support NYC
  Let me just preface this with; I am obsessed with their newsletter. Sign up for that while you’re emailing them your job listing. 

While I’m sure there are more, these are some of my favorites! Now go out there and find yourself a perfect match for your brand and your members.

The post Community Building for Retention, Awareness, Loyalty, Content, & Member Advocacy appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

A community manager is the person you hire to talk to your leads or customers—and chances are they’ll spend MORE time talking to them than you do.

Which means… this is an important hire. You’ll need someone with a proven track record of being an awesome community manager, so you know that your leads and customers are in safe hands.

This can sound scary at first, but once you find the perfect community manager for your business—you’ll be so grateful that you outsourced community management to someone passionate about making your community the best place it can be.

But who is that person?

6 Things to Look for When Hiring a Community Manager:

#1: Someone Who Knows the Importance of Filtering from the Very Beginning

Your community manager is in charge of making your community a fun place to be. Online communities can either be awesome places to hang out… or a black hole of self-promotion and spam that turns your community into one of the least enjoyable places online.

Obviously, we’re aiming for the former. That means you need a community manager who knows the importance of filtering your community from the very start. They’ll understand that 100,000 members doesn’t mean anything if half of those people are just trying to promote their own offers without adding any value to the group.

Ask your community manager candidates: How do you vet new requests to make sure they are aligned with our group and will be a valuable part of our community?

#2: Someone Who Has Experience Creating Community Policies & Guidelines

On the topic of creating a high-quality group, your community manager is going to put together your community’s policies and guidelines. You’ll want someone who has experienced creating policies that ensure your group is a positive and safe place for your members and has clear rules as to what is and isn’t allowed by members.

Here’s an example of what our guidelines look like for the DigitalMarketer Engage Group:

Ask your community manager candidates: Do you have examples of policies and guidelines you’ve created for communities you previously managed?

#3: Someone Who Has Experience with YOUR Top Channels that You’re Using

Community channels are not created equal—a community manager who has nailed managing a community on Reddit might not be able to do the same on Facebook. While this isn’t always the case, you do want to be aware of the specific channel experience your community manager has.

Here are a few different channels you may see on a candidate’s resume:

• Reddit
• Facebook
• Slack
• Community on a website

Ask your community manager candidates: What channels do you have the most experience with?

#4: Someone that Understands Your Brand Voice

This is a CRUCIAL part of your hiring decision for your new community manager—you need someone who is going to create a consistent brand experience with your members. If you have a very specific brand voice, your leads and customers are going to feel less trustworthy of your brand if they’re reading an entirely different brand voice in your community.

To make sure your community manager is nailing your brand voice, give them access to your branding guidelines so they know exactly what they’re aiming for.

Here’s an example of our Community Manager Michelle Dalton absolutely nailing the DigitalMarketer brand voice:

Ask your community manager candidates: Do you have examples of posts you’ve written from a similar brand voice to ours or are you willing to give us 1–2 examples of posts you’d write in our community based on our brand voice?

#5: Someone Who Can Show on Brand, Mature Responses to Difficult Posts from Unhappy Community Members

One of the hardest parts of being a community manager is dealing with unhappy community members. Unhappy people are hard to talk to and your community manager has to be willing to have difficult conversations to keep your community safe and a positive experience for your members.

You’ll want to make sure your community manager has experience with these difficult conversations and is able to maintain your brand voice while talking with them. This isn’t to stay that if your brand voice is fun and playful that they have to stick entirely to that script—but if they turn full corporate your other members are going to feel like they might not know you as well as they thought…

Ask your community manager candidates: Do you have examples of difficult conversations you’ve had with unhappy community members?

#6: Someone Who Has Ideas About Growth

Since your community manager is going to be talking with your leads and customers every day—you want to hire somebody who’s going to be opportunistic with these conversations. Ideally, your community manager is coming to you with new ideas for content or offers based on the conversations that happened in your community over the week.

Extra bonus points if they’ve run a community growth campaign before—but that’s just a cherry on top.

Ask your community manager candidates: Are you able to give us new content and offer ideas based on the conversations you’re having in the group?

Your community manager is such an important hire—they’re going to represent your business on a daily basis to a group of your leads or customers. Finding the right community manager can seem scary, but it’s not once you know what questions to ask them that showcase their expertise and ability to absolutely smash their role.

Ask your community manager candidate’s these 6 questions to make sure you’re hiring the perfect manager for your community.

The post What to Look for When Hiring a Community Manager appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

We’re assuming by the point that you’re reading this article, you’ve heard about a community creating traffic, conversions, and customer advocates for a product or business and you’re wondering—how do I do that?!

And we’re with you. We have our own Facebook group because we realized several years ago that creating a community was a huge value-add to our Lab members and our business.

Regardless of what type of community you’re trying to build, there is a 100% chance that you’ll be able to find the platform to host it. You can create communities on Facebook, Instagram, Patreon, your own membership platform, etc.

Our Facebook community has been able to foster incredible relationships between community members that have helped them nail their marketing strategies and business endeavors. We’ve also created an open line of communication between our members and us so we can always see what we could be doing to help them out more.

Using this experience, we’ve figured out there are 6 questions that every business owner needs to ask themselves before they invest time and resources into their online community.

Ask yourself these 6 questions to see if an online community is right for your business.

#1: Is a Community a Good Value-Add to Your Offer?

For some products and services, having a community is a huge value add to your current offer. For example, a one-time purchase YouTube coaching program can come with access to a Facebook group.

Sunny Lenarduzzi, creator of the Authority Accelerator program that helps her clients get sales on YouTube has a value-add of access to the Facebook group with purchase of the program.

Using her community, she can showcase that her clients aren’t just getting a course that they have to figure out on their own—they’ll get access to Sunny and other Authority Accelerator members who can help with challenges or cheer them on when they need some motivation.

#2: Would Your Customers Benefit from Talking to Each Other?

For some products, bringing the community together creates even more success for customers. DigitalMarketer is the walking and talking example of this. Part of being a Lab member at DM means that you get access to our Facebook group, DigitalMarketer Engage.

This is where our members can get advice from each other, collaborate, and have their mastermind of savvy marketers, agency owners, and entrepreneurs who can offer help that’s backed by experience. By giving our members access to each other, we can foster those valuable relationships.

#3: Could You Use Your Community to Answer the Same Questions at Scale?

Using a community, you could help out a lot of people with only one message. For example, let’s say an online fitness trainer has their community on Instagram. They can answer the same question at scale, by publishing the answer to their community.

For example, Kayla Itsines uses Instagram as the main hub of the lead generation side of her community. Once someone buys her fitness app, Sweat, they’ll have a community inside of the Sweat platform. For now, we’ll focus on the Instagram community.

If Kayla keeps seeing that community members are interested to see what she eats for breakfast, instead of answering each person she can create a post that everyone will see.

This helps her answer the same question at scale. If you’re finding that you’re constantly answering the same question but for different people, a community can create a space where you can answer those questions and then point people to the answer as the question keeps being asked.

#4: Is Your Community a Good Place to Host Events?

Using your community as your digital headquarters, you can host events inside of your community. These events can range from one day to one week, or longer depending on your incentive.

For example, if you’re about to come out with a book, you can start to host events around the topic of your book a few months before it’s published. Using the events, you can create excitement around your book launch and all of the juicy content inside. Another option is to go live and have conversations with your community members.

Rachel Hollis is a great example of this; she and her husband went live every weekday morning to foster a deeper relationship with their audience and to promote their products. They used Rachel’s Facebook page to go live, which meant that everyone watching could interact in the comments during the Start Today with Rach & Dave Morning Show.

Rachel talked about how this was a huge part of her businesses success during her interview at the 2019 Traffic & Conversion Summit.

#5: Would Your Customers Want to Learn About New Products & Services in the Community?

Having a community gives your customers a place to learn more about your future products, new services, and epic offers. It’s like having the ultimate Facebook audience—but you don’t have to pay to run ads to them.

Using your community, you can tell them about new things that are coming their way. You can also create funnels that help excite them about the purchase (ahem, like the book example from above).

Another example is the email newsletter Trends, which has a value-add of a Facebook group community for all subscribers. When the founder, Sam Parr decided that he was going to launch a new product: The Ideation Bootcamp for $599, where was the first place he posted about it? Inside of the Trends.co Facebook community (he also created an email funnel for it).

If your customers love the current product or service they have from you, they’re going to be beyonddddd excited to have first dibs on the next projects that you’re rolling out.

If this could be of use to your business, you can consider creating a community that you can bring into the Excite stage of the Customer Value Journey, again and again.

#6: Does a Community Foster a Relationship Between You & Your Customers?

This is the ultimate question to ask yourself before starting a community. In the best-case scenario, could this community build a tighter relationship between yourself and your customers? If the answer is yes, you can pretty much green light your community now.

For example, members of our DigitalMarketer Engage get access to Ryan Deiss. When he can, Ryan can help them out with their questions (see below).

People want to buy things from other people they know. That’s why a huge part of marketing is getting over the Know, Like, and Trust factor. People don’t necessarily want to buy from complete strangers.

They want to feel like they know you through reading your content, following you on social media, having a friend refer them, and getting to talk to you directly in the community. The deeper you can create that relationship, the easier it will be in the future for you to get the traffic and conversions that you’re looking for.

Become a Certified Community Specialist

Learn how to develop meaningful relationships with your customers and automate the customer acquisition process.

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This also works two-fold. Your community will get to know you, and YOU will get to know your community. This means that the products and services you create for them are perfectly tailored for what THEY need and marketed exactly how they would need it to be.

Count that as Double Jeopardy.

Online communities are the place to connect your customers, scale your conversations, create a stronger relationship with your customers (or leads), and more. If you’re wondering if an online community is still for you—you can use Facebook groups to create a free community and test it out.

Just remember the golden rule of marketing: if there’s no value in it for your customers, they’re not going to be interested.

So make your community useful, value-driven, and exciting.

The post 6 Questions To Ask Yourself If an Online Community Is Right For Your Business appeared first on DigitalMarketer.