by Mari Smith
There’s no question that technology continues to move at warp speed, especially most recently in artificial intelligence, as we all know. This is enough to make most marketer’s heads spin. It’s not humanly possible to try and ‘keep up’ with the rapid evolution, although some marketers will go crazy trying!
But what about the consumer? Where are they in this dizzying world of lightning-fast technological changes? (Even if you’re exclusively B2B, we are all consumers.)
Although tech is moving at warp speed, fundamentally, human beings have not changed all that much. As consumers, we want to know that we matter when it comes to relationships between companies and customers. We never want to be treated like ‘just a number on a list.’ We want to feel important and valued by the brand and like they genuinely care about us.
Social media, and now AI, makes us feel more disconnected than ever while creating an illusion of hyperconnectivity.
What can marketers do to leapfrog the competition in this whirlwind world?
The answer is simple: strive to authentically incorporate community-driven marketing into your marketing strategy at every opportunity.
As the ‘Queen of Facebook’ since 2007, one of the quotes I’m most known for in social media for over a decade now is, “Content is King, but engagement is Queen, and she rules the house.”
However, in the past six months or so, I’ve changed my tune. See, with not only organic reach declining, engagement rates are also declining across most major social platforms.
Sure, there will always be outlier marketers who manage to achieve wonderfully ‘viral hits’ with some posts. But, on average, engagement rates across the board are declining.
So, what’s more important than trying to woo your followers to engage with your every social media post is building a solid community that people feel compelled to join. Hence, I’ve adjusted my famous quote to: “Content is King, but community is Queen, and she rules the house.”
Picture this: You’re a dedicated Human Design/BG5 professional, spending years learning this profound system and building your practice. You pour tons of resources into mastering your craft.
Yet you watch as the latest “pop HD” self-proclaimed expert creates a human design course that she makes bank off of and brags to her followers about it in her bikini. Gasp. “And without any IHDS or BG5 qualifications!” you think.
Conceptually, you know it’s a fractal-based world, and the right people will find you when you’re both ready. BUT you keep waiting and wondering, “When will it be my time to shine?!
Hone your soft skills – and those of your entire team – and lean into building community like never before.
Soft skills are vital in today’s world. Soft skills include deep listening, compassion, empathy, and reading between the lines. They also include making people’s day by using their first name, going the extra mile, solving their problems, and/or paying them an authentic compliment.
Yes, we do have advances in AI that can already integrate empathy. More and more, marketers and businesses will pass content through an ’empathy filter.’ Still, nothing beats interacting with an actual human and being on the receiving end of genuine empathy!
When you and your team clearly value your customers, prospects, and audience, it shows in everything you do online. People can not only feel it, but they also respond to it and tell everyone they know who is in the market for services like yours.
People don’t do business with an office building, a logo, or a company sign. Whether you’re in the B2B or B2C sector, I’ve always said it’s all P2P: People to People.
Brands wanting to adopt a community-first strategy should look to humanize, personalize, and customize customer interactions, whether in a private or public forum.
Make sure you have real people representing your brand. For example, Canva does a great job with this in Canva Design Community, the company’s popular private Facebook group with well over 400,000 members. Several group moderators have their Public Page (not personal profile) in their name, such as ‘Charmaine from Canva’ and ‘Ed from Canva.’ These team members are so personable and even post helpful and welcoming videos of themselves on camera in the group.
Always use people’s first names when interacting with your online community and engaging in public or private social chats. A person’s first name is the sweetest-sounding word in their entire vocabulary. It feels more informal and intimate, in a way, to address people by their first name.
(By the way, for most social media platforms, you can @tag a person and then hit backspace once, removing their last name. So now you’re addressing the person by their first name only, and they’ll receive a notification that you tagged them in response to their comment or post).
Equally, ensure your community managers and moderators sign off posts and comments with their first names. I see some brands’ social media pages where community managers sign off with their initials or the company or team’s name, but I feel that’s very impersonal. Signing off with your first name goes a long way to bridging the digital connection gap and building virtual rapport. Social Media Examiner does an excellent job with this on their Facebook Page; you always know who’s posting and commenting from their team.
Remember, social media and community managers are often the first point of contact for public-facing communications. Any time you engage with someone online, you’re the voice, the face, and the name of your brand, even if dozens of people are on your team. That’s where the soft skills of deep listening, compassion, empathy, and understanding come in — people will remember your brand when you use those skills to shape how you interact with them online.
We especially love belonging to communities where our fellow members and the brand share values. And, ideally, where the business is making a difference on the planet and pursuing a sustainable mission, if possible.
Brands can build long-lasting customer relationships with a single, mission-driven focus where people feel compelled to join. Ideally, you want your prospective community member to say, “There are so many people here who are just like me; I feel like I belong here!”
An excellent example is Daybreaker, an organization founded in 2013 by Radha Agrawal that brings people together in iconic locations worldwide for morning dance parties, with no alcohol ever served. In 2018, Radha became the bestselling author of Belong: Find Your People, Create community, and Live a More Connected Life.
Similarly, my longtime friend and colleague Mark W. Schaefer published his eleventh book in 2023, Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy. Schaefer states, “Every trend is aligning to make NOW the time for a community-based business model that provides both economic and social benefits.” And, “Community is good for companies, and it’s good for customers. A mountain of research shows how belonging to a brand community enhances a person’s self-esteem, self-identity, and pride.”
Public vs. Private Communities
We can think of communities in two categories. There are public communities, such as all the people you engage with publicly on your Facebook business page, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. There aren’t really ‘walls’ around this community; anyone can observe or join the conversations.
Then, we have private communities such as closed groups on Facebook or LinkedIn.
Private communities can also easily be housed on third-party platforms focusing on all the most powerful community features. These include Mighty Networks (our personal favorite!), Tribe, Circle, Hivebrite, Heartbeat, Disciple, and many more.
We’re also seeing growth in group chat applications. Facebook has a Community Chat feature inside groups for group members who want to go deeper with specific topic discussions. I recommend against using this feature too liberally, though, as it can overwhelm members.
Other private community chat forums include Telegram, Discord or WhatsApp. There are also Instagram and Messenger Broadcast Channels, but these are for one-way messaging. All your subscribers can do is react to your content and vote in polls.
In summary, community-driven marketing can deepen brand loyalty and trust, increasing customer retention and lifetime value. It can also build word-of-mouth; the happier people are with you and your product and/or services, the more likely they are to share their experience with others.
Even if a customer is having trouble or something goes wrong, they’ll remember the support they received from your company as a valued community member.
I believe so passionately in the power of community that I’ve dedicated an entire module to this topic in my upcoming program in collaboration with BG5 Instructor, Michael Brown:
Blueprint for Social Media Success for Human Design and BG5 Professionals. Class #7 of 10 will be on how to build a thriving community of people who love you and love to buy from you!
I have built thriving, community-based professional services businesses. And I would love to help you align to your innate gifts using your design and our social media marketing know-how!
Please join Mike and I for a complimentary Open House on July 9th for taste of this course! We hope to see you there.
Are you ready to build your practice and be the difference you want to see in the world?
Often referred to as “the Queen of Facebook” since 2007, Mari Smith is widely known as the premier Facebook marketing expert and one of the world’s top social media thought leaders. She is an in-demand keynote speaker, corporate trainer, live-streaming expert, and a popular brand ambassador for numerous renowned organizations. Mari is also the author of The New Relationship Marketing: How To Build A Large, Loyal, Profitable Network Using the Social Web. In addition, since 2020, Mari has been passionately studying The Human Design System and BG5 Career and Business Design System. She is an IHDS Certified Living Your Design Guide, an analyst-in-training, and a BG5 Business Consultant-in-training. Mari integrates aspects of Human Design into her social media marketing courses to help entrepreneurs and SMBs grow their businesses in a much more authentic, impactful, and successful way.
