What is community management?
The Future of Communication: Community Management
Today, where people and digital technologiescome together, communities that find a common ground seem to be the reality of the future. At this point, community management plays an important role. In addition to personal relationships, all our business relationships, from brands and customers to our employees, are becoming a part of community management, the communication method of the future. So why is it so important to build a community and grow it digitally? Let's start with community management first.
What is community management?
Why do people need community management? Is building digital communities really that important? What awaits you when you cannot properly manage the future of your community?
The questions go on and on. Although it is still in the development stage, we now meet our communication needs on digital platforms. When we look at the developments and examples in the world, we know, see and realize that one of the most basic needs of the 21st century is communication.
The definition of community management covers a number of different things around the world. But at its core, it's about developing the practice of two-way conversations between followers of brands, corporations, or nonprofits online. The business world has been nourished by the one-sided relationship between brands and their consumers for years. The education system caused students to remain in a standard perception. People began to break away from each other and could not find a common point. Because no one tried to understand each other, on the contrary, the truths that we thought we knew were accepted as general.
Over time, employees who moved away from their workplaces, students who could not connect with the school and their teachers, and people who could not feel belonging anywhere increased. People started to feel disconnected both to others, to themselves and to social life. What was missing was communities. The need was a community where you could be involved, where your ideas would be cared for and where you would work for a common purpose. Because there was no digital world where people with common interests could meet, and people did not have networks where they could feel their sense of belonging. Two-way communication and the existence of digital communities that come with the developing world; showed us that brands and institutions can also be humane.
Why is it important to manage communities?
How sustainable does the sense of belonging make you feel in a setting where there are no discussion channels like social networking groups, forum pages, FAQ documents, customer support channels and community websites that we are used to now?
Let's think individually. It is possible for us to be in complete control and to act under our own control when using our social media accounts and other communication infrastructures. However, when it comes to communities, the forms of communication here are quite limited and you have to be in control, isn't it?
Nurturing and developing existing relationships is not as easy as managing our own social media account. But imagine you are a brand. Imagine using the brand's know-how to grow and engage any audience in the social domain, attract potential customers, and generate conversions. It is quite normal that you need support to keep these people from different backgrounds, experiences and expectations together. At this point, projects that enable community-specific social networking such as Octo come into play and facilitate community management. Of course, there are some tactics you should use to keep your community engaged and succeed. We mentioned about some of these tactics in our '5 Effective Tips for Community Managers' article, you can click here to read and establish a strong communication.
