The (unofficial) guide to community management

Online marketing—especially through social media channels—requires identifying, locating, and engaging with your target audience. Just getting ‘likes’ doesn’t cut it. Here’s some guidance.

Ragan Insider Premium Content
Ragan Insider Content

Community management has become an integral part of online marketing and social media branding—if you do it right, that is.

With that in mind and based on my own firm’s experience, I give you “The (unofficial) guide to community management”:

Time online should be time well spent: Working regularly with startups and nonprofits means we’re used to working with limited hours and budgets. To maximize those hours (and dollars) when we set their social media strategies, we typically home in on just two or three networks—focusing only on those we think will drive the best results. Once we feel our presences on those networks are thriving (or we see that our audience is spending time on other networks), we add more. This ensures that all our time spent online makes a meaningful impact.

Build a community, then activate it: A “like” doesn’t constitute community. It’s just the first step in a longer journey toward becoming a true brand advocate. We don’t just help our clients amass fans and followers. We also help them drive conversations, build relationships, and inspire community members to take action.

To read the full story, log in.
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today

Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.