1. Practical, Actionable Information
If you can provide information people can put into action right away to improve their lives, they will return to your community again and again. Your content should solve specific problems, answer your community members’ questions, and discuss their issues. How do you know what their concerns, questions, and problems are? Ask them by posting surveys (which you can send via email or sharing a link online) or posting simple questions in your online community.
2. Visuals and Videos
Visual content is not only easy for your community members to absorb, but it also strikes an emotional chord. Visual content includes images, photographs, infographics (think charts and graphs), quotes, and videos. It’s also the most likely to go viral.
The fun thing about visual content is that it doesn’t have to be educational, unlike practical, actionable content, and it can be inspiring, motivational, or funny. Visual content will keep your brand community engaged when mixed in with your valuable, actionable content.
3. Interactive Content
In an earlier blog post, I wrote about how a brand community is an excellent place for people to network and interact—with you and one another. Consider sharing content designed to get people doing more of that! Interactive posts include questions people can answer (people love sharing their opinions), surveys (which provide feedback for you and get people to engage), and challenges, with incentives or rewards (this gives people a task to complete and a topic to discuss).
4. Exclusive Content
Although you’ll likely share content in different places—your blog or your website, for example, it’s a good idea to create content people can access only if they’re members of your brand community. This gives people great incentive to stay in your community, and it also gives you a chance to share your expertise and help people solve their problems, which means that when they’re ready to invest, you’ll be the first person they look for.
5. Personalized Content
When you offer your brand community special opportunities you develop specifically for them (think coaching sessions, seminars or webinars, and training sessions), they’ll love being there. Create a feedback loop where you can learn more about your members and their needs and desires, and then offer learning opportunities designed around those.
Compelling content can empower you to make your brand community an excellent tool for building relationships—and your business. Try one of these five essential engagement techniques, and comment below about how it goes!
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