Monthly Archives: March 2023

Content creator is a job title that didn’t exist a decade ago. Now, 50 million people consider themselves creators, following their passion in a billion-dollar industry.

Thanks to social media, it’s easier than ever to create, share, and monetize content — flipping the “starving artist” trope on its head. And with massive demand for original and engaging content, there’s never been a better time to jump in.

Of course, turning a side hustle into a full-time gig is no easy feat. After all, creating content is just one small part of the equation. You also need to engage in community building, social media promotion, audience research, and networking.

And while the business of content creation seems simple enough — create content, build an audience, then make money — these things take a lot of time. In other words, the dream of recording a video, hitting “upload,” and making millions is exactly that — a dream.

Despite the challenges, there are people who’ve succeeded in becoming full-time content creators. Here, I spoke with three creators to learn their biggest tips for quitting your 9-to-5 and becoming a full-time creator. Let’s dive in.

1. Craft an exit strategy.

“Sometimes, it’s not about knowing exactly what you want. Instead, it’s about uncovering what it is you don’t want any longer,” says Jenna Kutcher, author and host of the Goal Digger Podcast.

Kutcher’s revelation drove her to entrepreneurship, but it didn’t happen overnight. She knew she had to be strategic to get there.

As she puts it, “One day my corporate boss handed me my five-year plan. It felt like my entire life was being planned out for me, without me. While I wanted to put in my two weeks’ notice right there on the spot, I had bills to pay, student loans to get rid of, and a wedding to fund. I had to figure out a way to plan my exit, even if it couldn’t be immediate.”

It’s never easy to leave the security of a steady paycheck, but Kutcher argues that you don’t have to. Instead, you can craft an exit strategy that provides enough security for the transition.

For Kutcher, her exit strategy started with a $300 camera from Craigslist and endless weekends spent building a clientele. In her own words: “Nights and weekends were devoted to starting my photography business, and my 9-to-5 was funding this new dream of mine.”

A year later, Kutcher had booked enough gigs to feel confident leaving her corporate job. “In hindsight, I’m glad I didn’t just abandon my job to go after what I wanted. Instead, I leveraged where I was at to get to where I wanted to go,” she told me.

Everyone’s exit strategy looks different. For instance, one person might keep their 9-to-5 and work on the weekends. Another person might freelance part-time and create content the rest of the week.

Remember that entrepreneurship is a journey, and it takes time and effort to build a successful business. With the right exit strategy, you can take calculated risks and leverage your current situation to reach the next step in the journey.

2. Make consistency your golden rule.

Are you more likely to follow a creator who posts once a year or once a week? Chances are, you’re following the creator who gives you more value on a regular basis.

Jay Clouse, founder of Creator Science, knows this all too well. When he started as a content creator in 2017, he wrote an email newsletter every day for a year. That’s hundreds of opportunities to connect with an audience and build their trust. No shortcuts, no quick schemes.

He told me, “Every day, you should be creating helpful content that attracts an audience. You’ll quickly find that you need to be disciplined with how you spend your time so that you can create consistently.”

Consistency is the golden rule for content creators, but it’s often the hardest part of the job. Life can get in the way, or you may run into a creative rut. As Clouse points out, “This is a long game. You need to be remarkably consistent while also being incredibly patient.”

To keep pace, many creators commit to a posting schedule. If you’re just starting out, be realistic about how much content you can pump out each week. This might be twice a week or every day. Then, leverage a content calendar to help you organize your ideas, plan content in advance, and avoid missing deadlines.

Above all, content creation is an exercise in determination. Try to challenge yourself here, but know your limits to avoid burnout.

3. Approach content creation as a science.

Content creation is both an art and a science. Most content creators enjoy the art-side of the equation. It’s exciting to brainstorm new ideas, create content, and share it with the world. But that alone isn’t enough.

Content creation is also a science, which requires experimentation, testing, and analysis — which isn’t always glamorous, but is just as necessary.

For instance, if you’re posting the same type of content but getting zero engagement, it’s time to experiment with different types of content, platforms, and topics.

Nicaila Matthews Okome, host of the podcast Side Hustle Pro, also recommends looking at your competitors.

“Perform competitive analysis of people who make similar content. Don’t do this to copy, but to assess what your audience resonates with and the best way to present the information so they’ll interact with your content,” she told me.

As you look at your competitors, pay close attention to what topics they’re covering, what formats they’re using, how frequently they post, and how they’re engaging with their audience.

For example, you may find that your competitor only posts on a specific day — or gets the most engagement from a specific topic. As Okome mentioned above, the goal isn’t to copy your competitors but to identify any tactics that can elevate your own strategy.

4. Diversify your revenue streams.

Remember the phrase, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”? This is especially true for content creators.

For instance, if you rely on revenue from a single platform — and that platform undergoes a major algorithm change — it could affect your entire income model.

For Okome, the key to income stability is diversifying your revenue streams. That way, your income doesn’t rely on a single platform, partnership, or season.

She says, “Write down what you want to do and how you plan to make money from it. Then research different ways to monetize your content, whether it’s with sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, or selling your own products or merchandise.”

As a content creator in 2023, you have more avenues to create and monetize content than ever before. However, not all revenue streams are created equal. Some require more work on the backend, while others are easy to get off the ground but need upkeep (i.e. an email newsletter).

This isn’t about choosing the most lucrative option, but the one you can realistically handle right now. For example, a YouTube vlogger might supplement their income with a membership program on Patreon where they offer bonus videos and exclusive content — rather than a merch store with high start-up costs.

When diversifying your revenue, Okome recommends aiming for two additional streams. “As a content creator, your revenue can be unpredictable due to factors out of your control. Make sure you have at least two revenue streams so if one isn’t reliable, you can still pay your bills.”

5. Invest in yourself and your skills.

At the beginning of her career, Kutcher had to learn how to code her own website from scratch. This is a familiar scene for new content creators — one that involves learning a new skill on the fly with little help.

However, this is a challenge for veteran content creators, too. After all, it’s impossible to “master” content creation when the landscape is always changing. Trends come and go, platforms evolve, and new tools and technologies emerge all the time.

To future-proof yourself, don’t run from learning — embrace it. Okome underlines this point, telling me, “Invest in yourself, take classes, attend conferences, and learn from people who are further ahead of you on this path.”

Whether you join a workshop to improve your video editing skills or attend a networking event, prioritize learning and treat it as another part of the job.

Back to You

Many people assume content creation is an easy job that can turn you into a millionaire overnight. The reality is much different. However, with enough patience, determination, and these tips, you’re well on your way to turning your creative side hustle into a full-time gig.

Artificial intelligence is a hot topic, and a recent study shows over 61% of marketers have used AI in their marketing activities. By now, you’ve probably heard all the ways AI can assist you in crafting and executing your marketing strategy, but are there any drawbacks?

To help you avoid missteps as you explore the world of AI, here are four cons of AI that marketers and brands should keep in mind.

The Pros of AI in Marketing

Before we get into AI’s drawbacks in marketing, we must look at the positives.

One helpful aspect of AI is that it can automate repetitive parts of the marketing process, such as task automation, data analysis, and campaign personalization.

Automating the above tasks allows marketers to spend more time crafting their strategy, brainstorming content, and finding new ways to connect with consumers.

AI can also significantly reduce errors made in the marketing process by avoiding missed deadlines, spelling and grammar mistakes, and incorrect math or data entry.

Speaking of data, AI can also analyze large sets of data 24/7 without needing rest or getting burnt out.Ultimately, AI is a great tool that can be used to carry out tasks that would otherwise be difficult or impossible for humans to do.

4 Cons of AI in Marketing

While there are many benefits to integrating AI into marketing, it does come with some disadvantages marketers should know.

1. Machines can’t replace human connection.

While AI can personalize marketing campaigns using up-to-date data, this doesn’t remove human connections’ importance. For example, chatbots are a common form of AI used in marketing to automate customer communication and troubleshooting.

In fact, 89% of consumers appreciate customer service chatbots for their quick responses. However, unlike humans, chatbots cannot display emotion and are unlikely to respond to a customer’s inquiry with empathy like a human agent.

Chatbots also have limited responses and may not have the data necessary to answer every customer’s question.

If customers feel like their concerns aren’t taken seriously or aren’t getting the answer they need, they could become frustrated, and their relationship with your brand can sour.

According to a recent study, 53% of consumers have cut spending after a single bad experience with a company.

Quality customer service is integral to retaining customers, so you shouldn’t over-rely on AI when communicating or connecting with your consumers.

2. AI predictions and analyses can sometimes be wrong.

“Reliable sentiment analysis (i.e. figuring out if a sentence is happy, sad, or sarcastic) is really hard for artificial intelligence, along with reliable sentence parsing,” said Pawan Deshpande of Scale AI.

“Visually recognizing a teacup reliably is challenging for current machine vision algorithms,” he said.

In other words, AI doesn’t possess the human intuition to understand and carry out specific tasks — such as analyzing feelings and intentions. An AI can get something wrong without the guidance of human experience and perception.

“The human intuitions underlying what data to look for and what questions to ask are some of the biggest limits now,” Deshpande said.

3. They require huge sets of data and human intervention.

Speaking of data, an AI is only as capable as the data it’s given, and it needs massive data sets. So, you may need to hire someone who understands AI well enough to train and upload these large data sets.

Or, your current team will need to train and expand their skills to work with AI.

If the process seems too tedious and costly for your brand, consider if and how you want to integrate AI into your strategy.

4. AI lacks human creativity.

AI tools can be used in customer segmentation, recommendations, and other parts of the marketing process. However, humans are still needed to brainstorm creative and innovative content strategies that will reach audiences.

For instance, regarding social media marketing strategies, consumers gravitate to content that shows the brand’s values and how it aligns with their own. Funny, trendy, and relatable content is also popular among audiences.

Only a human marketer can spearhead touching, relevant content that fosters connection.

A content strategy that is too reliant on AI-generated content and algorithms may come as dull or disconnected.Consumers want to know a person behind the brand empathizes with their concerns.

Ultimately, AI can be an excellent tool to automate and streamline aspects of the marketing process, but companies should be aware that AI shouldn’t replace the human element.

Post Content

Looking for a way to supercharge your marketing campaigns and boost conversions? Well, then it’s time to start running a conversion rate optimization test.

It’s an incredibly powerful toolset that can help marketers unlock valuable insights from user behavior – and significantly optimize their campaigns in the process.

In this blog post, we’ll explain what a CRO test is and the steps to run them for maximum impact.

CRO tests involve adding, re-arranging, and redesigning elements on your website. They can focus on optimizing the copy, design, or placement of your CTAs, or the length of your headlines, among other elements.

When done right, a CRO test will help you identify where to make improvements and maximize the return on your investment.

At worst, this test will serve as a gut check to ensure your current path is optimized and at the best, it will unlock new opportunities.

How to Perform CRO Tests

1. Research.

One step marketers often miss before running a CRO test is research, jumping straight from the idea to the test itself.

Once you have an idea for a test, you’ll first need to validate it through research. This can be both internal – reviewing past experiments, user research data, and analytics insights – and external by reviewing your competitors’ strategies.

The goal is to discover what has resonated with your audience in the past and if your suggested test aligns with that. 

2. Design your experiment.

While you’re in the planning stage, it’s helpful to write an experiment doc.

It should include:

Your objective – What do you aim to achieve with this CRO test?
Your hypothesis – What do you anticipate will happen with this test? Be as specific as possible by stating the current state, what you want to test, the metric you’re measuring, and your anticipated outcome.
Your design – This is where all the details of your experiment will live, such as:

The type of test it is (E.g. A/B, A/B/n, multivariate)
The pages on which the test will run
The control and variant groups
Duration Estimation
Primary and secondary metrics
Predicted impact
Special considerations.

Results – Once your test is complete, you can drop details of its performance in the document.

This document will serve as your source of truth for your CRO test and keep stakeholders in the know. Plus, you can reference it for future CRO tests.

3. Design your variants and build the test.

Now that you have all your ducks in a row, you can get started with building your experiment.

This step will likely take the most time as it will likely require cross-collaboration between your team, designers, and developers.

Timeline-wise, it can look something like this:

Work with designers to develop the look and feel of the test.
Develop copy, if necessary.
Create tickets and assign them to team members.
Work with developers, if applicable, to determine dev work and timeline.
Set up the experiment in your testing tool (like HotJar or Convert) and the analytics to track results.
Perform quality assurance (QA) tests to ensure it’s working as expected.

Once these steps are complete, you’re ready for launch.

4. Launch your test.

Once your experiment is live, the first thing you’ll want to do is QA it to ensure it’s still working as expected.

Even if you did this pre-launch, it’s not uncommon to catch bugs once the test is live. You’ll also want to check your analytics page to ensure your tracking is set up correctly.

Once that’s done, alert your stakeholders. Your test may impact other teams and their metrics so it’s important to let them know.

This also gives you an extra set of eyes who can report any issues they spot.

5. Review results.

Once your test has reached statistical significance, you can confidently review the results.

How were your metrics impacted? Was your hypothesis satisfied? What insights did you learn?

If your variation won, you can then work on implementing it. If it didn’t, there’s still opportunity there.

Even if your test produced negative results – i.e. your conversion rate decreased – you’re still gaining valuable insights about your audience.

Now that we’ve covered the steps to running a CRO test, see below a few brand examples.

CRO Test Examples

HubSpot’s Content Offer Form Design

The purpose of this experiment was to see if altering the submission form design affects users.

The hypothesis was that by redesigning forms, the user experience will improve and increase user clarity. In turn, form submission CVR would increase. The primary metric measured was form submission CVR.

The test featured four different variations of sign-up forms, which is an A/B/C/D/E design. The image below is the control variant.

Results were significant as variations B and D outperformed the control variables at 96% and 100% confidence, respectively.

The image below shows variation B on the left and variation D on the right.

This demonstrates that, in the future, conversions on the blog could increase if winning form submission designs were applied to blog posts.

Optimizely’s Landing Page Headline

Optimizely was running a few PPC ads with several different types of messaging on one landing page. The landing page did not use the same terminology as the ad – instead, it read “Try it Out for Free.

So Optimizely decided to test the following theory: Aligning the copy on the landing page to the ad will result in more leads (AKA higher conversion).

Image Source

It worked! While the control had a 12% conversion rate, the variation led to a 39.1% increase in conversions.

HubSpot Blog’s Slide-In CTAs

Most successful blogs include a call-to-action at the end of their blog posts. It’s usually full-width – large enough for people to notice the offer and hopefully convert on it.

But are people noticing that CTA, or are they learning to tune them out?

Here at HubSpot, we were curious if our readers were developing static CTA blindness. So, we decided to run a test to see if we could increase our CTA clickthrough and conversion rates.

To accomplish this goal, we tested slide-in CTAs that would appear halfway to three-quarters of the way through a blog post.

Here’s an example of the slide-in:

To test this out, we added slide-in CTAs to 10 of HubSpot’s highest-traffic blog posts. After reaching statistically significant results, we looked at the following stats for the slide-in CTA and the static CTA at the end of the post:

Clickthrough rate (CTR) – What percentage of visitors clicked each CTA?
Conversion rate (CVR) – What percentage of those visitors who clicked ultimately converted on the landing page form?
Submissions – How many total leads did each CTA ultimately generate?

In this test, the slide-in CTA had a 192% higher CTR and generated 27% more submissions – mission accomplished.

Sidekick’s Landing Page Design

This test was done many moons ago when HubSpot Sales was still Sidekick but the value’s still there.

Back then, Sidekick was a chrome extension and the original landing page included a list of all the features from the software:

See Who Opens & Clicks on Your Emails
Schedule Emails to be Sent Later
Access Valuable Information About Your Contacts

But the team was curious to know if those details actually mattered. For a product as low-touch as a Chrome extension, do consumers need a laundry list of features to convert?

To answer this question, the experiment involved replacing the feature list with user testimonials.

The testimonial beat out the feature list by 28%.

Their theory on why this change took place? The former didn’t make people curious enough to click through to the Chrome Extension installation page.

Another theory is that consumers wanted more social proof before downloading a new tool into their browser.

There you have it – a rundown of all things CRO testing. If you want more details on how to run a test of your own, check out our A/B test kit below. 

Marketers say that having an active online community is key to success in 2023, and at the time of our Consumer Trends Survey, 1 in 5 social media users joined or participated in an online community in the past 3 months.

Businesses build communities — or implement community management tactics at their companies — to build authentic relationships among their audiences, both external (customers, followers, etc.) and internal (employees, vendors, partners, etc.)

When businesses invest in community management, they transition from an everyday brand to a human brand — one that cares deeply about the people who support them, work for them and interact with them.

What is the purpose of community management?

Community management has become increasingly popular and recognized by all types of businesses — however, it’s still largely undefined.

So, what makes it so special? Why should your business adopt it? To answer those questions, let’s cover some main reasons why community management is critical to your success as a brand today.

“Brands need to hire community managers because they’re the tone, voice, and human element behind your brand,” said Krystal Wu, former social media community manager at HubSpot.

Community management allows your business to:

Obtain feedback and gather ideas from your customers and audience members through real conversations.
Provide support for audience members, fans, and customers when they need it.
Increase brand and product awareness among your target audience.
Learn about your customers and what they want, expect, and need in terms of content, products, services, and support.
Build one-on-one and one-to-many relationships between audience members and your brand.
Boost customer interactions, conversions, and sales.
Provide value to your customers beyond a product or service.

It’s important to note community management is a broad industry — these are just some of the things community management allows your business to do.

Community management is also an umbrella term; there are many forms that live beneath it. Let’s review the different types to help you determine the best focus for your company.

Types of Community Management

There are seven main types of community management. Some are behind a screen and require no face-to-face interaction; some involve in-person interaction with you and your teams. The easiest way to review the different types is with the SPACE model.

Community Management SPACE Model

The SPACE Model represents different types of community management — this way, you can better understand what works for your business. Let’s take a look.

Important note: This section is an overview of just seven of the many types of community management. We’ve also provided a couple of examples of each.

S: Customer Support/ Success

The first type of community management is customer supper and success, and it can often be in the form of a forum, FAQ document, or community website.

A forum, typically a question-and-answer community-based discussion board, is a great way to connect with your community, answer questions, and give community members a chance to chat and interact with each other. You can also ask for customer feedback on the channel.

Within the forum, you might share FAQ documents for community members to self-help and get quick answers to commonly-asked questions.

A customer success platform or software can help you create a branded website or landing page for your community members where you can focus on supporting them. Here, consumers can help themselves (and each other) communicate with your teams, locate necessary resources (like a knowledge base), and review your FAQ document.

A tool like Vanilla Forms can help you create and customize a community forum, FAQ document, or site page with your relevant branding, and you can manage conversations and create a space where customers can provide you with ideas.

Best For:

This type of community management is ideal for companies with in-depth product lines, like a software company, so users can communicate about tips, tricks, and issues they may run into.

For example, HubSpot’s Developer Forum is a customer support community for users looking to build on the software. Developers can stay connected with the company, other developers, and the resources they may need for working on the platform.

P: Product Ideation, Innovation, and Feedback

Product ideation, innovation, and feedback is a proactive and reactive type of community management, where you create a safe space for customers and your target audience to share feedback and thoughts about how you can innovate and improve upon your products and services.

You can ask people to complete surveys or participate in in-person feedback discussions, or even organize user testing for people to take part in. For example, you might host a focus group at your office to get customer feedback on how you can enhance your product or service after people use it.

Best For:

This type of community management works for all companies — asking for feedback from real customers and users on innovation opportunities is critical to success.

A: Acquisition and Advocacy

Acquisition and advocacy community management allows you to interact directly with people excited about your business, including your leads, customers, brand ambassadors, and brand advocates.

These members will help you build brand awareness and promote your products and services through word-of-mouth, affiliate programs, and social media. A common way to create this type of community is to implement an acquisition and advocacy program like a brand ambassador initiative.

The Skimm, for example, has a brand ambassador program for anyone who gets ten people to sign up for the content. After this achievement, they become a “Skimm’basador,” as a thank-you for helping the business acquire new customers and readers. They also receive exclusive access to the Skimm’bassador community, swag, and access to events.

Best For:

This type of community management is great for delighting your top brand advocates and keeping them at the center of your flywheel. You’ll also promote brand loyalty, increase awareness, and build long-lasting relationships with your biggest supporters. C: Content and Programming

This type of community management is creating content and programming for your community members. This can include marketplaces, crowdfunding, user groups, and user-generated content.

These communities typically have a designated community team that ensures all user-generated content is appropriate, follows company guidelines, and meets site requirements.

Best For:

This is a great option for companies with contributed content at the core of its products, business model, or other assets. For example, companies like GoFundMe and Airbnb create value through the people who join their sites and use the platform to share fundraisers or rental properties.

E: External Engagement

External engagement is a type of community management that provides customers and supporters with a sense of belonging that leads to a stronger connection to your brand in a space outside of your business. A common type of external engagement is social media management (more on this below).

Best For:

Virtually any company can create an external engagement community management with the help of social media.

(I): Internal Engagement

Lastly, there’s internal engagement community management. Companies today are learning the value of creating strong internal communities among employees, partners, vendors, and suppliers. It can bring internal contributors together, connect them with like-minded individuals, and create a sense of belonging, support, camaraderie, and inclusion in the workplace.

Strengthening internal relationships can also boost morale and overall happiness, employee retention. For example, many companies, including HubSpot, use platforms like Slack and Slack channels to improve internal engagement and communication.

Best For:

Almost every business can participate in this type of community management because it only requires community building within the office and may include software you already use (like Slack) or the formation of interest groups among your fellow employees.

Social Media Community Management

Social media community management is when your business engages with your audience on social media, whether on your own profiles (like a Facebook page) or pages you build solely for creating a community (like a Reddit forum or a Discord group).

For example, HubSpot’s Instagram page is an interactive and engaging space that promotes brand awareness while creating a community of followers with a shared interest (HubSpot). HubSpot’s social media community managers ensure people are noticed and treated like humans, not just numbers, and create opportunities for followers to engage with branded content and fellow followers.

Best For:

This type of external engagement is great for companies looking to improve brand awareness while creating 1:1 or one-to-many relationships with fans, customers, and followers.

So, you’ve reviewed the main types of community management and how they can add value to your business. Now, let’s cover the ways you can actually get started building a community management strategy so you can start reaping its benefits.

How to Build a Community Management Strategy

As you can see, there are several types of community management and ways to go about implement them at your company.

For the sake of this piece, we’re going to review how to create just one community management strategy — an external engagement strategy (which we defined earlier), specifically through social media.

1. Choose a social media channel.

The first thing you’ll want to do is choose the social media channel where you’ll manage your community.

Think about your target audience’s demographics to determine the best option for your company — for example, you might choose to focus your efforts on TikTok if you have a young target audience, Instagram if you’re going for a broad target audience, or LinkedIn if you’re targeting a B2B crowd.

Other examples of platforms you might consider building and managing your community on include Facebook, Youtube, and Pinterest.

Learn everything you need to maximize engagement with a social media checklist.

2. Identify your audience.

Once you’ve chosen a social media channel, identify your audience on that platform.

By doing this, you’ll be able to see the type of content your target audience interacts with on the platform, what they like and expect from the brands similar to yours they already follow, and who they currently engage with.

This research and information will allow you to begin thinking about how you’re going to tailor the content your business creates to your target audience and your chosen platform.

3. Ask your audience what type of content they want to see.

In addition to identifying your audience, you should also ask them what they want to see to ensure you’re creating and pushing out content relevant to them.

This will ensure you’re going to be able to reach your audience with social media content they want and are interested in.

Asking for this feedback and being open to suggestions also shows your audience you care deeply about their opinions and what they have to say — this will help you enhance your brand loyalty and advocacy, and create valuable interaction within your community (versus a one-way platform).

4. Determine how you’ll identify your success.

Now it’s time to determine how you’ll identify your success. There’s no right or wrong answer here — this is completely based on what matters to you and your company. Ask yourself, “what’s ideal for my brand?”

Here are some examples of success identifiers you might choose to focus on:

Boost in audience members/ increase in followers
Number of conversation participants in a live chat or discussion
Amount of content shared or liked by your followers
Overall engagement (likes, shares, mentions, hashtags, messages, comments)
Increase in brand awareness
Increase in customer satisfaction and retention
Traffic that’s directed to your website
Boost in your sales and conversions

(We’ll review how you can measure your community management success identifiers and metrics shortly.)

5. Set goals.

Like most things in business, setting attainable goals and stretch goals, is crucial when working to achieve your various objectives and measure your success.

However, if you’re developing an entirely new strategy or if you’ve never set goals like the ones you need to make for your social media community management strategy, this task might seem like a difficult one.

To get started, try running an experiment or two after you’ve determined how you plan on measuring your success.

For example, if you’ve decided that you’re going to measure your success through overall engagement on the social media platform, you can run an experiment. Try keeping track of all engagement related to the content you produce and share on the social platform for a specific amount of time you’ve chosen (maybe 4-8 weeks to start).

When the experiment ends, average out your overall engagement (likes, shares, comments, mentions, hashtags, messages, etc.) and then use that number to create an attainable goal — and stretch goal if you choose — for your engagement over the next 4-8 weeks, and so on.

You can always update these numbers as time passes and you collect more data.

Throughout your experiment, you can also A/B testcontent to see what your followers like the best and choose to interact with most.

6. Post regularly and engage with your audience.

Success on social media requires consistency in terms of your frequency of posts and engagement. You should determine how often you’re going to post on social media and stick to that plan so your audience members know you’re reliable and start to expect to see your content — they’ll start coming back to see your new posts.

Social media is a great way to develop close bonds and relationships among your brand and audience. Show your customers and followers they aren’t just a number and they’re heard by your company and employees.

“Like” their comments and respond to all questions, comments or concerns (even the positive comments that warrant a “Thank you!” or “Yay! We’re so happy you’re enjoying our free CRM!”).

You can even follow back your biggest brand advocates — if you deem it appropriate — or interact with the content your followers share (whether or not it has a direct tie to your company) to show your support.

No matter how you choose to interact and engage with your followers, remember to be authentic and address each person as an individual.

By maintaining an authentic voice and presence on social media, your brand will have a unique, human element behind it that feels trustworthy and personal to customers and community members.

7. Measure your results.

Now it’s time to measure your results. Remember, when it comes to measuring your success on social, you shouldn’t always get hung up on the quantitative data — numbers don’t always reflect all of your efforts or the sense of belonging you’re creating for your community members.

Additionally, you rarely see immediate results when it comes to your social media efforts — identifying your target audience, building a following, and learning how to reach your customers on a specific platform takes time.

To measure your results, decide on the method that works best for your needs, goals, and company. Here are a few ways to do this.

Social listening: Social listening is the process of monitoring your social media accounts to look for and keep track of mentions, customer feedback, keywords, and discussions related to your brand, products, services, and customers (even your competitors, too). You then take a deeper look at all of these things to analyze them and gain insight into what’s working for your customers and followers, and what should be modified.
Platform analytics: Depending on the social platform you chose for your community management strategy, there might be a built-in analytics tool for you to measure your success in terms of variables specific to that platform. Examples include Twitter Analytics, Instagram Insights, and Facebook Analytics.
Analytics tools: If your platform of choice doesn’t have an analytics tool included, or if you’re looking for deeper analysis, you might choose to incorporate another tool or platform to help you measure your success. Examples include Google Analytics, Sprout Social, and HubSpot.

Community Managers: How They Can Help Your Business Grow

If your business has the resources, you might want to consider hiring a community manager (or even a team of managers) to help you kickstart your efforts and community.

What is a community manager?

Community managers run your community management efforts. Depending on the community you build, you might require several community managers for different areas of focus.

However, there are some universal community management skills, no matter the role. Generally speaking, a community manager should have the following traits:

Has the ability to lead your community development and growth efforts.
Is highly customer-focused.
Can empathize with their members on forums, during in-person meetings, on social channels, on community platforms, and more.
Knows how and when to show empathy.
Is an authentic and detail-oriented person.
Can analyze and measure community management efforts and results.
Understands who you are as a brand and carries that image and voice — along with your marketing efforts — over to your community management strategy.

To bring us back to our previous example of external engagement community strategy, let’s review the specific in-depth tasks of a social media manager.

What is the role of a community manager?

A social media community manager:

Maintains the voice of the brand in all posts and interactions.
Ensures all content being shared has a purpose and meets the expectations and needs of followers and the target audience.
Schedules, posts, and engages on all social content.
Creates, manages, and follows up with all contests, giveaways, and promotions on social.
Ensures community rules and guidelines are being followed by all community members.
Measures results of all content and work on social (and makes modifications when necessary).
Keeps up with industry trends and updates made to the platform at hand.
Knows what audience members want and need out of the shared social content.
Is authentic and knows when to say, “Thank you”, “We’re sorry”, and “We support you”.
Creates a safe space for followers and members to ask questions, get help, feel supported, share ideas, provide feedback, and solve problems.

Where to Find a Community Manager

1. Community Club

Community Club has just over 1,000 members that cater to anyone interested in the field, from community managers looking to network to brands seeking community management experts.

2. CMX Hub

CMX Hub is an online platform that serves community builders looking to grow in their careers.

On the networking side, the platform offers networking, education, and mentorship opportunities for aspiring and thriving community managers.

It’s also a designated job board for all things community management, so businesses can post job openings and easily find someone with qualifications that align to the role.

3. LinkedIn

If you’re looking to hire a community manager or join a community management group, LinkedIn is a great place to start.

On LinkedIn, you can easily find local and global community managers who are open to work opportunities. If you’re interested in becoming a community manager, you can visit user profiles to see what road other community managers took to get where they are today.

If you’re interested in a community management group, there are also hundreds of LinkedIn Groups that serve that exact purpose. In them, community managers discuss updates in the industry, share advice, and even job opportunities.

4. Facebook Groups

On Facebook, you’ll find hundreds of community management groups, each offering something different.

Some Groups are location-based, connecting community managers in specific states, cities, or regions while others are industry-specific.

Most of them allow community managers to network and discover new opportunities.

5. Upwork

Looking to hire a community manager on a contract or freelance basis? Consider Upwork.

On the freelancing platform, you can create a job post that outlines the project you’re hiring for and the qualifications you need.

A survey from over 1,538 clients reveals that the online community managers on Upwork get an average rating of 4.7/5, indicating that most are satisfied with the pool of professionals available on the platform.

Community Management for Social Media

1. Determine where your audience lives.

Instagram. TikTok. Facebook. LinkedIn. And the list goes on.

With so many social media platforms available to consumers, community managers need to identify where their target audience is most active.

The idea is you want to prioritize the platforms that will reach the most users and generate the most engagement, or you’ll speak to an empty room and waste time and resources. For instance, if you’re targeting young adults, you may focus your efforts on TikTok and Instagram, which caters to a younger demographic.

2. Define metrics to track your progress.

As a community manager, measuring your success may be unclear, particularly because it’s a relatively new industry. But there are many ways to gauge progress, like through looking at engagement, social mentions, and brand sentiment.

Engagement may look different from platform to platform, but likes, comments, shares, and replies are standard metrics to track.

You may also want to track how often your brand is mentioned and how that changes over time. That can suggest how far your brand is reaching. There’s also qualitative data you can measure. When users do mention your brand, what are they saying?

This leads us to the next tip.

3. Monitor the conversations surrounding your business.

Social monitoring and listening are key parts of your community management strategy.

It helps you stay connected to your audience, figure out what resonates with them, and brainstorm content ideas.

For instance, say your clothing company hires a community manager. While monitoring conversations surrounding their brand, they realize that there is a lot of mention of your brand’s sustainability efforts — something that hasn’t been a key part of your messaging.

This discovery can inform future marketing efforts and help you generate even more interest in your brand.

4. Constantly engage your audience.

Building a community requires two-way engagement.

It’s not enough to simply publish content; you also have to be reactive to your audience. This can look like:

Leveraging user-generated content.
Responding to comments, whether they’re questions, concerns, praise, or something else.
Creating polls and surveys.

The more visible and engaging you are with your audience, the more trust you will build; from there, a community will flourish.

1. Set community rules and guidelines.

When it comes to anything related to your business, it’s probably fair to assume you want it to represent you well and serve as an accurate portrayal of your brand. Your community is no exception. Therefore, you’re going to want to set community rules and guidelines for all members and contributors (including your team members who are managing the community).

Depending on your type of community, how you go about setting your community rules and guidelines may differ. However, here are some examples of ways to create these guidelines to help you get started.

Create a written document with your expectations for the way all members are expected to communicate, behave, and contribute. Then, share that document with your team and community members when they join.

If you have a forum, FAQ document, or community website, you can also make this document available at all times to members there. If your community meets in person, review these details face-to-face and consider handing out a printed copy to set expectations.

Have a method for your team members to escalate any major issue within your community to the right person at your company so they can manage it appropriately.
Be sure to update your rules and guidelines as necessary (as your community grows, changes, etc.).

2. Check on your community regularly.

No matter what type of community you manage, check on its members and the type of content being shared.

Whether it’s related to your brand ambassador program, forum, Facebook account, or community website, it’s your job to ensure everything is running smoothly — that people are receiving the support they need, their questions are being answered, and they feel a sense of community.

3. Be authentic.

You need to be authentic while managing any type of community. When your customers, fans, followers, and leads come to your community, they should immediately know it’s yours based on different factors like your branding and voice.

And no matter the type of interaction, being genuine and human is crucial whether or not you’re behind a screen or face-to-face. After all, one of the main reasons you’re creating a community is to make sure your members feel valued.

4. Listen to your community.

Since community management requires so much thoughtful interaction with members, listening is crucial. Whether it’s social listening, reviewing your forum and FAQ pages regularly, or responding to in-person and online feedback, listening is how you’ll improve your community to the best of your ability.

It also shows your audience and members you value their opinions, hear what they have to say, and care about their experiences within your community.

5. Show appreciation to your followers.

A large part of managing a successful community is showing appreciation for your members. This will help you build brand loyalty and trust between you and your members.

It also shows your members how much you value their time and commitment to your brand — remember, some of your community members are most likely also some of your most invested, supportive, and loyal fans, followers, and customers already.

To ensure you’re showing appreciation when necessary, you can try the following tactics depending on the type of community you have.

Interact with all new community members as soon as they join — say, “Thank you and welcome!” and ask them what you can do to make their experience a great one.
Pay attention to who your biggest community contributors are (keep a document with their names, emails, etc.). This way you can send them swag or give them a shout-out for simply being awesome.
Invite your ambassadors and brand advocates to your office to meet your team and give them a behind-the-scenes look at your operation.
Keep an eye out for mentions, keywords, and hashtags, on your forum, social media platforms, community website, and more so you’re able to engage with those people to show your appreciation and the human element behind your community.

6. Maintain your brand voice at all times.

Similar to what we said about the importance of authenticity, maintaining your brand’s voice at all times is critical when it comes to community management. This is a large part of what makes your community unique as well as ensures your community is identifiable to your members and audience.

No matter how many people are working in your community, make sure they understand your brand voice so they can help you maintain it throughout all interactions, engagement, and content.

One way to make this a simpler process is by tying your community back to your company’s marketing goals and/ or collaborating with your marketing department. It’ll keep your messaging and interactions focused as well as push you to maintain your brand voice.

7. Explore new ways to engage your community.

You always want to be engaging your community — but what happens if there are changes in your industry, your company’s products or services are drastically updated, or your members request new types of content?

To keep your community up to date, always explore new ways to engage your members, whether that’s online or in-person (depending on your type of community). You can also engage members as soon as they join to continue learning about your audience, what they want from you, and what made them join your community — this will also help you learn about new ways to interact with them.

At this point, you may be wondering how to get all of this work started — where to begin with your community management strategy efforts at your company if you haven’t done any work related to the field before.

A common first step businesses take when spearheading their community management plan and strategy is to determine whether or not they want to hire a community manager.

8. Set up a spam control process.

Spam can be anything from bot-created comments and posts to disrespectful and hurtful comments from real-life people. And the last thing you want is for your community to be bogged down by spam messages and content.

Leverage the spam tools that your software might have or devise your own spam filters to ensure community members have a safe experience.

9. Take action when necessary.

An important part of being a community manager is protecting the community you monitor, from creating spam filters to banning people who don’t follow the rules.

You always want the people who genuinely want to engage in discussions with your business or topics related to your business to feel safe, so take action to ensure that they do.

Whew! That was a lot of information — but, you should now have a better understanding of why community management is so important, how it can help your business grow, and how you can get started on your business’s strategy.

Start Building Your Community

Community management is a new, yet powerful, industry. By implementing a community management strategy at your company, you’ll be able to create a safe place for your customers, fans, employees, and followers to collaborate, provide you with feedback, bond, and learn.

This will help you build brand loyalty, increase conversions and sales, and show the people who matter most to your success a human side to your brand that they can relate to.

So, get started by reviewing your options for types of community management to incorporate at your company, developing a strategy, and determining whether a community manager is the next hire you need to make.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in May 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.