4 Ways To Grow Your Online Community

Growing an online community for your business or your personal self is a challenge and something that won’t happen overnight. You need to work hard at it, remember that it takes time and that the steps you apply will benefit you in the long run. Luckily, there are a number of tips that we can give you now to make the process that little easier. From getting honest feedback, being authentic and rewarding your members, below we have put together four ways to grow your own online community. 

Be authentic 

One of the biggest ways that can grow your online community is by being authentic. Just think, if you are copying what others do, what incentive does their audience have to follow your community instead of theirs? Try to think of a unique social media campaign that you can run that is different. Something that will draw people's attention to you and have them following you for future campaigns. Don’t be afraid to voice your opinions online in a healthy way and pursue campaigns that you are passionate about, these are the best ways to be authentic. 

Ask your members for honest feedback 

Throughout life, in order to grow, you need to receive feedback from others. This doesn't change for your online community and helps it grow. Ask your members what you do well, what they would like you to start doing and things you don’t do very well. By getting honest feedback you can apply this to your campaigns moving forward in order to engage with your audience. It could be really simple things that you aren’t doing but can start doing. Maybe set up a poll or send out an email to your customer asking for feedback. 

Reward your members 

Another aspect that is important in life, as well as work, is loyalty. Reward your loyal members for being loyal as this will keep them happy, and motivate them to spread the word about you. Your reward doesn't have to be huge, a small gift each month or a discount on your product. The longer they have been loyal to you the greater the reward can be. You could offer a small gift on their birthday or a Christmas gift. If your budget is restricted, even a small email to say thank you to them can make a difference as they will feel recognised. 

Experiment with new content 

If you have an idea, don’t be scared to try it. You never know it could be the best thing you have ever done. Part of being authentic (as mentioned above) involved experimenting and trying new things. If something doesn’t work, try something else until it does. At one point we are sure your audience and community will love it. You don’t have to completely switch things up, you can make small changes to your content, maybe start using video, using polls or adding more images. 

What tips do you have for growing your online community? Are there any tips that you would like to add to the above list? Have you tried any of our tips and been successful? Let us know in the comment box below. 

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels