Social Media - Building your community

As your digital agency we stress that you and your business build a blog and build a following.  As many of you know we send out our bi monthly “Bicks Blog” email in an effort to keep our customers and prospects informed. This email directs you to our website and the blog of the day. The idea behind this is to build a community and a following.

Why? If you are not following today’s business trends, then really you're not in position  to assist your customers … after all they are online, they are on social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Emarketing is a significant influence as well.

According to Mikal Belicove, who writes for Entrepreneur, that although we are all using Facebook (yes 500 Million users and growing) and Facebook offers a free community, it's not necessarily your best marketing decision. I agree 100%; there is no better way than building your own following and your own community.

Belicove suggests that although today Facebook is free, we have no guarantee that it will continue to be free, and that Facebook gets all the traffic and all the credit. Using Facebook without building your community separately may well be a mistake.

We recommend that you ensure that all traffic is driven to your website, as well ensure your site is relevant. Keep it current and ensure you have a blog that is posted to with regularity. As well, stick to your knitting; your community embraces you for your knowledge, content and writing style.

Remember, it takes time to build a community, there’s no quick fix, it won’t happen overnight. You need to make building a following a priority.

Michael Bickerton, JBM Interactive Ltd, September 2010