Bringing brands and consumers closer through community management
Community management, a strategic tool for brands
Community management has become an essential role within companies. In the era of 100% digital, brands realize that a good image on social media is a sine qua non condition to sustain their business.
According to a study conducted by Hootsuite, LinkedIn found that a company’s employees tend to have 10 times more followers than the company itself. This is an opportunity for brands to have their internal ambassadors carry their voice.
The community manager's main mission is to represent a brand whose digital presence they manage. They are responsible for uniting an online community while placing the internet user and the customer at the center of communication. They can also detect emerging trends and identify the start of a crisis. But it is also and above all a way to turn negative mentions into an advantage, by taking the time to respond. This is where the community manager shows their full value.
Creating meaningful connections with consumers
To generate engagement, one must be authentic and provide added value with relevant content. This is what online users are looking for, increasingly aware and demanding about what is being offered to them.
Some best practices make it possible to create these meaningful connections with the community:
As highlighted by Laurent Bour, expert in community management, the important thing is to establish a dialogue that “brings people closer and leaves room for dialogue. Twitter is the tool that truly shows that a dialogue is being promoted, and many study this role to respond quickly and stay in touch with the customer.”
The example of Nike, champion of engagement on social media
Among the brands that have understood the strategic importance of community management, Nike stands as a reference. The American sportswear brand has deployed a particularly effective ocial media strategy based on several principles:
Jesse Stollak, digital director at Nike, summarizes their approach as follows:
“Our ultimate goal is to connect with the consumer where they are. We plan to achieve this by delivering the right message to the right person at the right time, encouraging our fans to participate and interact with us in a spontaneous and direct way.”
Success has followed, as Nike’s communities number in the millions of very active and engaged fans. The Swoosh brand has succeeded in its goal of bringing the brand closer to consumers by offering them a unique experience, both online and offline, with innovative concepts like personalization.
Introduction to the role of the community manager
Importance of the community manager in the digital age
In our ultra-connected society, consumers expect direct and personalized dialogue with brands. The community manager then becomes an essential mediator to establish a relationship of closeness and trust.
According to a study by Hootsuite, "employees of a company tend to have 10 times more followers than the company itself." Community management therefore makes it possible to significantly amplify the reach of messages by relying on engaged ambassadors.
At a time when digital word-of-mouth builds and destroys reputations, the community manager also plays a key role in managing e-reputation. By ensuring constant monitoring and responding reactively and empathetically to user reviews, they help convey a positive image of the brand.
Their goal: humanize the brand and build authentic connections with consumers.
Advantages of community management for brands
Strengthening the brand-consumer relationship
Community management offers a tremendous opportunity to build a strong and lasting relationship with consumers.
By engaging in authentic dialogue and providing value through inspiring content or useful advice, brands:
- Build strong emotional ties
- Increase loyalty and engagement
- Create a strong sense of belonging
Examples of successful interactive strategies
Among the most effective interactive strategies, we can mention:
Starbucks, for example, has implemented the collaborative platform "My Starbucks Idea". Consumers can share their ideas to improve the in-store experience. More than 300 suggestions have already been implemented, significantly strengthening customer attachment to the brand.
Suggested tools with links to resources or tutorials
- Hootsuite to manage and schedule posts, track mentions, and analyze performance (https://www.hootsuite.com/fr/)
- Agorapulse to engage with your community, identify ambassadors, and generate reports (https://www.agorapulse.com/fr)
- Canva to easily create attractive and engaging visuals (https://www.canva.com/)
- Mention to set up effective monitoring of your brand and competitors (https://mention.com/fr/)
- Sparkcentral to ensure quality customer service on social networks (https://sparkcentral.com/)
The combined use of these tools helps optimize the impact of your actions, continuously analyze performance, and adjust your strategy based on results. This can significantly boost engagement and community satisfaction!
Consumer expectations and effective response strategies
Understanding the expectations of modern consumers
Today's consumers are increasingly demanding and connected. They expect fast, personalized, and responsive service from brands. According to a study by Statista, 44% of the world population spends more time on social networks. Young adults aged 18 to 25, Treez’s core target, are particularly active on these platforms.
Some key consumer expectations:
Survey or infographic on consumer expectations
Here are some figures from a survey on consumer expectations regarding brands on social networks:
- 83% expect a response to their request in less than 24 hours
- 71% are more likely to recommend a brand that provides a good experience on social media
- 64% believe a brand becomes more human and closer by being present on social networks
Techniques for meaningful engagement
To effectively meet consumer expectations on social media, brands must adopt best practices:
- Set up monitoring to track conversations and quickly detect positive or negative mentions. Tools like Meltwater or SparkToro can help centralize listening.
- Define a tone of voice aligned with the brand’s values and the platform’s codes. On Twitter, for example, Nike adopts a conversational tone and responds in real time to tweets on its official accounts. This creates a close relationship with the community.
- Produce engaging and authentic content. Visual content (images, videos) generates more engagement and enables immediate identification of fans with the brand. Nike excels in this area with creative and inspiring content.
- Encourage fan participation by inviting them to share their experiences and photos with the products. Customer testimonials and user-generated content enhance authenticity.
- Offer personalized experiences like Nike, which allows customers to customize their shoes with NIKEiD. This strengthens attachment to the brand.
Towards an effective community management strategy
Planning and clear objectives
Before getting started, any community management strategy must define specific and measurable objectives. Some examples of objectives:
- Develop brand awareness
- Generate engagement (likes, comments, shares)
- Improve customer relations and satisfaction
- Increase the number of brand ambassadors
- Support product launches...
Performance measurement and strategy adjustment
Managing your strategy will require regular tracking of your key indicators. Most platforms like Facebook or Twitter offer native statistical tools. More advanced tools like Hootsuite or Sprout Social allow you to centralize data and offer more advanced analysis features.
Introduction to essential KPIs in community management
Here is a selection of KPIs to track to evaluate the performance of your social media strategy:
According to an analysis by the agency Iconosquare, the 4 essential KPIs are: engagement rate, community growth rate, response rate, and average response time. The choice of KPIs must be correlated with the defined objectives.
How to effectively animate and engage your community?
A study by Mention and Hubspot highlights the importance of regularly publishing quality content, interacting with active members, personalizing exchanges, soliciting participation (UGC), and rewarding the most engaged contributors.
Other notable case studies
Beyond Nike, many brands have successfully leveraged social media to connect with their communities. Among the inspiring cases:
- Red Bull has built a true media empire around extreme sports. Their spectacular content generates strong engagement. They average 55,000 likes, shares, or comments per post on Facebook.
- Sephora relies on mutual aid and passion communities around beauty, notably with its BeautyTalk forum. Users can exchange tips and reviews, with active participation from the brand.
- Innocent succeeds in humanizing its brand with a quirky tone and lots of humor on Twitter. This creates real closeness with consumers.
Recap of best practices in community management
To conclude, here are the best practices to remember for successful community management and to bring your brand closer to consumers on social networks:
- Adapt your presence to the specificities of each platform and the expectations of your communities
- Focus on strong and authentic visual content to evoke emotion and engagement
- Establish a dialogue with your followers by being responsive and attentive
- Humanize your brand with a relatable tone and content that reflects your values
- Involve your fans and ambassadors in co-creation and content sharing
Future vision of community management
As social media continues to evolve, community management must constantly adapt to new trends to stay up to date:
- The rise of ephemeral formats (Stories) and short videos like TikTok requires rethinking content. The challenge will be to capture attention in just a few seconds with creative videos.
- Mobility is becoming essential. 88% of Facebook users connect via smartphone. Your communication must be mobile-first.
- Messaging apps like WhatsApp are gaining ground, and must be integrated into your relationship strategy.
- Voice search and voice assistants will impact SEO and user journeys.
- UGC (user-generated content) will continue to grow. Encourage your communities to create and share your content.
- Personalizing interactions through AI and chatbots will be a must for achieving responsiveness at scale.
To stay up to date, follow expert accounts like @Siecledigital or @AxelleMedia and participate in events such as Social Media Week. Monitoring will be essential to evolve your social media strategy at the pace of innovation!
