The answer is: IT IS VERY important! If you have any desire at all to continue expanding the visibility of your business, products and services, and getting in front of new eyes, social platforms are still a great, inexpensive way to connect with your audience!
Even if you have a wonderful, very user-friendly and popular website that your customers enjoy using more than any of your competitors’ sites; if they don’t know that your business exists, then they’re not likely to do business with you. Think of it this way: If you have a shop in the mall and your neighbor has a shop on some side street in an industrial complex across town, you’re going to get a lot more business than your competitor. Even if they have a better, cheaper product than you… that’s because your shop is where the action is, and your competition is not in the same situation. The best way to be a part of the action, is to be where the action is already!
So what if you want to build an online community instead?
That’s a good question, and an interesting idea! We find that private communities can work well if you have a committed group of users already. We’ve had plenty of folks come to us imagining a brand new social community for their visitors… somewhere their visitors can go and discuss a specific topic. We wouldn’t recommend trying to create your own version of Facebook, but where we have seen the most success is with smaller groups of engaged individuals — like gaming guilds or educational groups — where the group is already interacting offline or on social media.
It’s usually most helpful if the community site has a tight scope, meaning that there is something special that can be provided on the site that can’t be provided on social media or in person. It’s also important to have someone who is committed to curating the site and moderating the group — because online communities, like any other group of human beings, can get easily pretty wily, or fall apart quite easily, if there’s not someone at the helm.
For most people looking to build their own online community, I’d ask this: What would this community need to provide to your users that an established social platform doesn’t offer? If you can’t answer that question, then perhaps it would be best to choose a social platform that already exists, and build your community there. Even if you CAN answer that question, if you’re looking to grow your private group, I’d still recommend having and maintaining a presence on social media too… if you want to find more interested people, go to where they are hanging around already!
Please let us know how we can you and your business or project!
