How to Build a Community around Your Company

Building a community around your company may be a lofty goal, but it is one that is well worth your time and attention. No, there’s no easy way to achieve a community, and it will likely take some time to achieve your goal, but with your hard work you can make it happen.

If you’ve heard about the idea of building a community around your company or brand, but you aren't quite sure what it is and what it takes to accomplish this task, we have outlined some of the most frequently asked questions:

What is building a community all about?

Building a community means building awareness about your brand or company. It means lending credibility to your name and establishing yourself or your company as being valuable in some sense. Building a community is accomplished using a number of components, including SEO, social media marketing, and the integration of quality content.

Social media is, well, social, so if you want to utilize social media as a platform for your business, you must be able to build a community around it. You must be able to share something of value with your readers.

How do I know if I am offering something of value?

Simply put, if it serves a purpose or is important to a particular group of people then you have created something of value. The information you provide must be valuable to your audience, of course, so you must know your customer and know him well; which brings us to the next question.

Can my services or products be that something of value?

There is a clear line between self-promotion and providing your audience with something valuable. In other words, talking yourself up won’t translate into something useful and certainly won’t build a community, but

sharing things that your audience deems important will. What does your audience want to see? What are your audience’s interests? What do they need? If you can answer these questions then you know what you need to share with them. For example, a fitness club doesn't spend all of their social media time touting how great their facility is; they share such things as fitness tips or healthy eating tips with their audience because they know these things are valued by them.

Are there other ways to build a community?

One of the best ways to continue building your community is by engaging your audience. Ask them to get involved so they feel like they are part of a community and not just a bystander. Take the fitness club, for example. A great way to encourage participation from their community would be to post a question, such as: “Where is your favorite place to run?” Chances are their audience would begin weighing in on the best outdoor spots in the city to run, which therefore gets everyone involved and interested.

How will I know what my audience wants?

The only way to get a handle on what your audience values is to take the time to learn. Read the blogs and Facebook pages of your competitors and read the abundance of useful information on such platforms as Google+.

Richard is the Broker of VIP Realty, The Premier Firm in Real Estate. We focus on the Coppell real estate and downtown Dallas markets.