Social Media Community Management: What you Need to Know

It’s no secret that brands of all shapes and sizes are investing more and more time, effort and resources into social media marketing. With seemingly countless users taking to these online platforms on a daily basis, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter (just to name a few) have become fertile ground for building brand awareness and boosting conversions. For many companies – perhaps the most successful – the process of capitalising on these online platforms is underpinned by a comprehensive social media community management strategy. But what is social media community management? How does it differ from social media management? And what does it involve? In this article we break it all down, as well as the benefits brands stand to gain from working with a dedicated Sydney social media management agency. 

What is social media community management? 

To understand what social media community management is, it’s best to start by looking at what social media management is first. In a nutshell, social media management is the whole process of analysing where your audience lives across different social media networks and developing a strategy oriented around creating and posting content across those relevant platforms to connect with your audience and enhance reach, engagement, traffic, conversions, or a mix of all four. You can think of this as step 1. 

Step 2 is where social media community management comes in. This refers to the process by which a brand interacts with their audience across social media platforms. This often takes the form of the brand’s main social media profile engaging with online audiences, but can also involve additional accounts acting as brand ambassadors as well. Community manager responsibilities are typically concerned with monitoring and chiming in on online discussions, replying to user questions and comments, and asking for audience feedback. 

What are the benefits of social media community management? 

When done correctly, a community management strategy, headed by an experienced community management team, can yield a number of benefits for your brand. This includes: 

• Gather valuable feedback from your audience 

• Bolster brand awareness across digital platforms 

• Enhance user loyalty 

• Forge an esteemed online reputation 

• Increase conversions

• Promptly manage complaints and other unforeseen crisis events

Community management in practice 

To give you a clearer picture of how social media community management can play out in the real world, let’s have a look at how a few big name brands have gone about engaging with their audience in the past. 

• KFC: When the fast food franchise made a post to Facebook advertising its limited-time-only ‘Hot & Spicy chicken’, one user commented “I think we should get this tonight instead of cooking”, to which the brand’s profile replied with “me thinks so too” 

• Nespresso Australia: Among the many comments that accompanied one of the brand’s previous Instagram posts, one in particular pulled no punches about the user’s dismay in having “the most unreliable Nespresso machine”. After expressing their dissatisfaction, the brand promptly attempted to diffuse the situation with a compassionate reply: “we are sorry to hear you have been having troubles with your Verturo Next machine. Please send us a DM with your membership details so we can locate your account and let us know what is happening with your machine now.” 

• Specsavers: Other times engagement can be as simple as providing a helpful answer to an audience question in the comment section. This was exactly the case when a Facebook user enquired about a Specsaver promotion, to which the community management team at G Squared promptly replied on the brand’s behalf:

Whether it’s a playful replyrely of encouragement or a quick resolution of  customer dissatisfaction, community management is an invaluable part of a brand’s digital marketing strategy.  

Should you hire a community management agency? 

There’s no doubt that a comprehensive social media community management strategy can do wonders for your brand’s digital reputation and engagement. However, implementing such a strategy is not as easy as it might seem. Aside from the need to be exceptionally social media savvy, there’s also the need to maintain TOV, strategise community development and measure success through various analytics tools. It’s no walk in the park.  With your brand’s reputation on the line, you don’t want to take any chances. Working with an experienced and professional digital marketing agency in Sydney who has a team of community management specialists will ensure that your brand’s interests are in capable hands. At G Squared our industry leading social media community management team operates 24/7 out of our Sydney digital marketing office. Whether you’re looking to mitigate risk, engage with customers or deliver a customer service channel, we always work closely with our clients to develop a bespoke solution to your unique goals and challenges.