Unlocking True Community Potential With a Two-Way Knowledge Exchange: An Exclusive Panel Discussion, Chapter Rewind

Online communities are a channel for brands to know more about their customers, keep them in the center, and make product enhancements as per their unique needs. But is there a right way to access all this information?

Sure, communities are an open platform where customers participate in conversations, engage with each other, and more. But the most ideal way of getting deeper insights into your customer’s expectations is by facilitating two-way communication between your brand and your customers.

Community experts from diverse industries discussed all this and more in Grazitti’s recent panel discussion on ‘Unlocking True Community Potential Through a Two-Way Knowledge Exchange’. Our speakers for this session were:

• Imi Read – Brand, Community & Performance Marketing Manager, Contact
• Sydney Sherman – Senior Community Development Manager, Serhant
• Parul Gupta – Community Manager, The Community Makers
• John Summers – Senior Manager, Community Practice, Grazitti Interactive

Let’s take a deeper look at some of the key highlights from the session and explore why open communication is the key to build robust and dynamic online communities.

The Importance of Implementing Knowledge-Management Strategies and User-Sharing Initiatives Into Your Company’s Goals

Today’s digital landscape is complex, so you need to take a strategic approach to ace your organizational goals and improve the revenue charts. Besides the traditional marketing and sales efforts, brands must have a robust Knowledge Management Strategy to better manage the complex and unpredictable environment.

Your customers are constantly looking for answers. So, how do you ensure that they have the right information to make their decision?

Sydney shared her take on the topic and stated that be it your community users or website visitors, you must ensure that they can easily find relevant information and resources when faced with a need. You can create a better knowledge base that includes FAQs, how-to videos, articles, or blog posts to create a seamless self-service experience for your users.

Another thing to introduce in your knowledge-sharing practices is, motivating all users to share their take. This can help you to identify existing knowledge gaps within the company so that you can work together to build strong knowledge-management strategies and improve your organization’s productivity.

Such interactions can help foster cordial relationships and trust within a group. And that’s why knowledge management should be a part of your community’s goals.

What Role do Community Influencers Play in Amplifying Your Brand Value?

Influencer marketing is an age-old concept that has been used by organizations to create brand awareness and leave a lasting impact on the users.

According to research[i], it is projected that 51% of marketers believe that influencer content outperforms brand-created content. Influencer marketing is a cost-effective method of boosting brand value as companies of all shapes and sizes can leverage it to effectively market their products and services.

In the knowledge-sharing session, Imi mentioned that brands can leverage social and experience a plethora of advantages. Being associated with social media influencers with a huge follower base, brands can run contests and related activities in their communities. It provides a bigger platform for people to collaborate and grow their network.

Not just this, via communities, brands can execute a wide variety of marketing activities such as referral programs and generate awareness through rich media content.

How to Ensure Data Security to Win Your Customer’s Trust and Generate Loyal Brand Advocates?

In our digital world, we see data playing a big role in transforming businesses. But data breaches are still on the rise, becoming bigger and common these days. Users are skeptical about sharing their data. Brands need to ensure that they keep trust among their customers by practicing robust security measures.

In order to build trust, you must be upfront and transparent with your customers. Clearly communicate the purpose of data collection and convey what robust security processes you have in place to ensure its safety. Also, make sure that your practices comply with all the global privacy and data protection regulations, like GDPR and CCPA.

For instance, use opt-in checkboxes to gain customer consent before collecting and storing data. Also, give them the option to easily opt-out if they wish to unsubscribe.

Regularly conduct testing to ensure that there are no vulnerabilities in your community or website that hackers can use. Also, be sure to conduct risk and regulatory compliance assessments, and cybersecurity framework assessments.

Effectiveness of Gamification and Leaderboards for Reaping Community Engagement

Gamification is indeed a proven way to reap community engagement. However, community gamification can mean a lot of different things for community users.

In the panel discussion, Parul shared that gamification in communities has indeed become a necessity in order to keep the community thriving.

Gamification is a rising trend to engage and delight new-age digital users. That’s why savvy community managers are now incorporating gamification in their community since it is time-tested and a lot of fun too. When applied effectively, the community becomes more active and the scale at which engagement goes up is a feast for the community manager’s eyes.

The trick here is to create a sense of healthy competition in the community by using a combination of different gamification techniques. You can incorporate social gamification techniques, like adding reputation scores, badges, leaderboards, or prizes.

Unlocking The True Community Potential

Wrapping up the session, the four community experts discussed how an online community is the quarterback of seamless customer journeys. They also shared key insights on how organizations can leverage the power of communities to create exceptional digital experiences that not only boost brand value but also bring ROI to the table.

Learn more about building dynamic online communities. Talk to us!

References:

[i] https://www.unboxsocial.com/blog/influencer-marketing-guide/