Now that you’ve identified the type of community you’re building, you need to decide how and when members are going to interact, to strengthen their relationships with you and each other.
The traditional definition of community is having a shared physical space in which people frequently meet and interact. However, with the rise of technology like mobile phones and the internet, the online space you create for your community is just as important as what you offer offline.
If you have a physical location, then frequently using your shared spaces and event facilities is an important way to create a sense of community. Giving your community a space to interact within your store/building/gym/facility creates a sense of belonging and exclusivity that strengthens the internal connections between your customers.
Whether you have a physical location or not, your community needs a safe space to interact online. Whilst a physical space gives you a set time to come together and interact, and online space opens up the possibility of interacting in between their day to day lives, such as early in the morning, at lunch break, or in their free time.
The best communities are the ones that have a combination of both physical and online spaces to interact with because they keep their people engaged and form stronger connections that outlast any particular event, competition, or season.
It also alleviates a lot of pressure in people having to adjust their schedules or priorities to be able to attend a physical event. This way, even your customers who are busy or have other priorities can still be engaged in your community, and you can reap the benefits of having them connected and continuing to interact with your products and services.
There are a variety of options for both physical and online spaces that you can create for your community.
If you don’t have a physical location, consider:
- Hiring out an event hall (you can charge a little money for tickets to cover the cost)
- Partnering with someone who does (buddy up with a sponsor or another organization and you can help each other)
- Utilising public places like a local park or coffee shop
If you want to create an online space consider:
- Creating a Facebook groups page and an event calendar or a combination of other social media platforms (this can be time consuming and hard to keep private if you need to)
- Get an all-in-one community engagement platform that’s private, and can be customized to have your own logo and brand colours (there are some highly affordable options out there, for example our plans start at just $48 a month)