Why Community Management is the key to Commerce through Social
Most people today use What’s App, or Messenger in their normal everyday lives. But when those same people are asked to talk to a business, the company suddenly expects them to only want to use the phone, or snail mail.

The reality is that most people want to connect with a business using the communication channel that they’re most familiar with, and today that is online via messaging apps. 

Whether they’re seeking product information, gift advice, looking to find your shop location, see how flexible your delivery options are, make a dinner reservation or perhaps they just want to make an impulse purchase, … people want to chat with businesses online for a wide range of reasons.

In the smartphone era, this behaviour has rapidly become mainstream right across the globe, so much so that it now presents brands with powerful chances to engage shoppers in fresh and exciting ways.

As an Official Facebook Marketing Partner, our team here at Remap Online get direct access to some of the research & intelligence that Facebook are generating in this space. 

One of their recent efforts (Sep 2019) involved a survey of 8,864 social media users across nine global markets to discover what these potential buyers could reveal about the future of shopping through Social Media. 

Some very interesting statistics came out of that exercise;

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The Top 5 x Reasons that your audience on Social wants to message your brand directly are:

 

  1. 45% said they wanted product or pricing information.
  2. 35% use that channel because they’re looking for an instant response (at any time).
  3. 33% said it was simply the easiest way to shop (whether that’s click & collect or home delivery). 
  4. 31% were looking for more personalised advice. 
  5. 30% said they were looking to engage with the business to discuss promotions, take advantage of their offers, or negotiate price.

These points are no longer “nice to have”; they are “must haves” for any business to be successful today, and it is Community Management that is the fundamental capability that allows a brand to deliver on these consumer requirements. 

By building your own community online, you can not only deliver direct B2C communications from your business to your customers, but you can also create many, many advocates of your products and services who will gladly offer your future / less experienced customers with insights and feedback on your behalf. Dramatically increasing the power of your brand to respond on time, without dramatically increasing the cost.

A Community is a space where members connect and collaborate with a feeling of belonging amongst a network of other like minded people with whom they can connect with. Members of any Community base their inclusion on having shared interests, personality traits and many other human characteristics. 

That’s why today’s most successful brands are investing in the creation (and maintenance of) these Communities for their current and future customers, and even their employees.

Businesses that actively build their communities — or implement community management tactics via their Agency — are able to build authentic 1:1 relationships with their online audience (past, present and future customers, fans & followers) and their internal audience (employees, partners, and other stakeholders). 

It’s this investment that helps their brand become what today’s customers are asking of it, and that is for it to become more human — if you can show that your brand actually cares deeply about the people who support it, work for them, and interact with them, you’re on the path to growth and success.

To find out more about how Remap Online can build a Community for your business, contact us today info@remap.online