Possibly the most important thing about being part of an online community is knowing that community. Both the forest and the trees.
Knowing your community dictates your blogging content. It drives and directs your marketing, whether you’re a small business or a large corporation. It certainly should drive your customer service.
There are several main steps in knowing your community:
- Listen – Find out what they are talking about
- Engage – Talk to them. Share. Dialogue.
- Inquire – Ask questions. If you want to know something, be direct.
- Listen again – Never stop listening.
This goes for the community as a whole, and the individual members of the community. By engaging the members of my online social community I’ve developed some real friendships. I’ve found people who share many things with me in common.
Those who share community with me, the ones who interact with me and have taken the time to get to know me, know a lot about me. They know about my family. They know about my dog. They know of my love of sports, particularly the Phillies, Eagles, and PSU football. They know of my love of music (and the particular bands I like most). And they know of my love for coffee. And food…and so on. And some who really know me, sense my excitement when I start talking about things like radio and social media (I’m a total radio geek).
And it’s these things that my friends will often use as means of engaging me (yes, I’m more than happy to be engaged by food).
How well do you know your community? i.e. customers, potential customers, clients, constituents, members….
In fact, it is here that we can even take a lesson from the old school. My father-in-law used to be in sales and had to call on clients on a daily basis. When he would go into their offices he would look for clues. Perhaps some sports memorabilia…a photograph…a college pennant. Something…anything, that would give him a clue as to what makes this person tick. Something that would give them some sort of common ground.
Listen and look for those clues. Then build relationships.
Worst case scenario? You end up with some very cool friends. I can live with that.
