People join country clubs, gangs, and more in an effort to feel special. They want to feel that they have the ‘in’ with influential members of their community and know that they get things done. People want to know that someone has their back, and that with one phone call (or email, or text) that bad situations will be resolved. In other words, people want to become members of exclusive communities.
As members of the ‘club,’ power comes with knowing the secret handshake. Real answers come from the members in the forums, not ‘nice post’ and ‘buy something unrelated.’ Someone actually cares about your livelihood and you dreams in that exclusive community. In social media marketing, making people feel wanted is a stepping stone toward sales.
Steps toward developing an exclusive online community
1. Focus
Before the first piece of code is written, before the first email is sent, the community manager must have a focus for the online community. Each community and forum has their specific focus and reason for joining which goes beyond ‘buy our stuff,’ and that goes into the recruitment drive. The forum must have a mission statement which determines the overarching purpose for it. Knowing the purpose of the community makes marketing and recruiting significantly easier.
2. Naming
Renaming is an old trick used by marketers, though it is highly effective. Instead of calling a forum ‘The Apple Forum for People who Absolutely Adore their MacBook Pro’, a simpler name might be ‘Apple Warriors.’ This leaves a little bit of mystery in the name, and curiosity brings visitors and applications to the club.
3. Branding
Branding and naming must be consistent overall. Let’s take ‘Apple Warriors,’ for instance. This name would do well with a military or militia themed forum, where the leaders have appropriate military names. If the club revolved around great food, the branding and naming might turn to types of silverware or great dishes in history.
4. Marketing
After deciding a name and a brand, then it’s time for marketing the exclusive product. No matter which method of marketing is used, that marketing should be geared toward the target audience. Look toward the already existing forums to find seed members for the new forum. Give those individuals an exclusive opportunity to move up within the social standing.
5. Participation
A lot of forums fail because there is not enough participation. Participation, unfortunately, is a vicious circle. It is difficult to have participation when there are no members, and potential new members shy away from empty forums. The key to getting around this is to instigate a lot of conversations and market enough to win over one or two loyal fans. In the beginning, the site’s owner will need to talk a lot.
6. Standards
The club must have standards for admission. Not just anyone can join this club, there is a threshold for conversation. For an iPad lover’s app forum, has the owner of the forum tried a lot of the apps in question? The standards are important in determining who receives membership. As a note, make sure that the administrator rises above these standards.
7. Guidelines
Nobody enjoys rules, but owners of an exclusive community need to have a way to expel members who are not living up to the expectations. These guidelines, such as proper english, affiliate link guidelines, and more, provide the boundaries of the exclusive community. The exclusive community is something which requires a lot of time and moderation, but it can yield great benefits if it has guidelines and standards.
Developing an online community is not the fastest way to riches. It is, however, one of the most lucrative and rewarding. These exclusive online communities are where the real conversations take place, and these real conversations are where a social media marketer can receive authority and respect.
