Companies with active communities focused on their products tend to enjoy higher brand credibility, corporate integrity, and customer loyalty. — Entrepreneur.com
Here’s a fun fact for you: Did you know that being a part of a community increases your likelihood of success by volumes? If you didn’t know, then you do now. However, you may be a little foggy on why, and that’s totally okay because I was too for the longest time. In today’s post, I’m diving into exactly why you need community in your business and/or blog, and why you need to be a part of one yourself.
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The thing is that as much as we think can, we can’t do it all by ourselves. We live in a society, especially as women, where we’ve been programmed to be a ‘one-woman show’. In addition to that, we live in a very selfish society where sharing and helping are few and far between these days.
For some reason, we’ve also been led to believe that we can’t share our secrets and best practices, for fear that someone will take them and capitalize off of them, meanwhile, leaving us to wallow in our failure. These notions are unfortunate and inaccurate and are detrimental to our growth as successful businesspeople.
I’ll admit that it took me a long time to come to this (mature) conclusion. For one, two heads are better than one, so naturally being part of a community is better than going at things solo. We’ve all heard that age-old phrase, and it’s one of the most long-time proven facts in history. As much as we’d like to believe we can go at thing all by our lonesome, it’s better when we involve others’ constructive and valuable feedback and contributions.
[Tweet “Don’t go at things solo, two heads are always better than one.”]
In many cases in which people had incredible success, community played a huge role in contributing to it. The reason being, it’s simple; multiple ideas and perspective make things better. They give us options, and the ability to try out different ideas and arrive at the best one for whatever it is that we are working on.
In a community, everyone typically has something valuable to contribute. It builds partnerships and connections that can not exist outside of it, and one’s that are invaluable.
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As a mom, I can truly say that it takes a village to raise a child, and much like that, it does so to run a business. Running a business is something you simply can not do all by yourself, no matter how hard you try or want to. You will, inevitably, burn out, lose passion, feel very alone, and worst, overwhelmed. If you’re not seeing a trend here, those are all qualities that no successful businessperson wants to possess.
To tell the truth, business owner or not, no one wants to possess those qualities just trying to get through a normal day of life. You need community for support, stability, and as a place to connect with like-minded others. A community will help you establish yourself, network, and get yourself out there for people to know.
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The number one point of an online community is that it be a place where like-minded people engage with each other. — Entrepreneur.com
An essential part of growing a profitable and successful business is being able to connect well with others and bounce ideas off of them. This is one of the main goals of the Bliss & Faith community, and what prompted me to create a Facebook group, the Dream Makers Creative, to serve as a hub for it.
My goal in creating the group was to create an engaged and loyal community for creative women and mothers, in which they support, promote, and provide constructive feedback to one another. It goes without being said that this community will be the backbone of Bliss & Faith brand. Furthermore, it will aid in it becoming a strong and well-respected brand, both within my niche and outside of it. This should be your goal as well in being part of a community and creating your own.
[Tweet “Join the Dream Makers Creative, a community where you can share ideas + get feedback & support.”]
5 Steps for Using Community to Build Your Brand:
1. Join online communities.
Facebook and Slack groups are great places to start. I, of course, highly recommend my private Facebook group, the Dream Makers Creative (shameless plug). – Try your best to be wherever your target audience already is or others who do similar work as you.
2. Be active on social media.
Online platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are great for becoming part of a community and fostering your own. Twitter chats are great for participating in on a weekly basis, whereas Instagram and Snapchat can be daily.
3. Comment on others’ blogs.
No matter what they say, commenting isn’t dead. The comments area on your blog or even someone else’s is a great place to foster community.
4. Frequent online forums like Reddit or Quora.
Forums have and always will be a great place for finding and fostering community. They’re the one place, outside of in real life, that people seek out to discuss specific topics. The great thing about forums is that they are usually very niched, many times the people participating on them have authority and expertise on whatever the topic of the forum.
5. Attend conferences, meet-ups, and networking events.
In the online world, community extends far beyond the computer, and this must not be forgotten or put on the backburner. If an opportunity comes up to connect with like-minded others in person, take it! Nothing takes the place of being able to physically connect with someone in real life.
[Tweet “Community is essential for your brand. – Learn 5 Steps for Using Community to Build Your Brand”]
Download the 5 Steps to Using Community to Build Your Brand Infographic here — No email necessary!
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Are you using community to build your brand? If so, how are you doing so?
