Note: This is part two of my series ‘How to Build & Sell through a Community’. Click here for part one.

Last week was a general run-down. An introduction on what we will cover and why this is important. The e-mail feedback I received was fantastic and some new topics have been added. This article is the first step of ‘Form a Community’. We are going to cover:

• Target Market
• Message
• Channels
• Differentiators

What is the point of your community?

Don’t just do social media because everybody else does. Infact, I’m rather outspoken in saying that Social Media is not relevant for every business. I’m not saying it does not work but the ROI and worthiness is considerably lower than other channels. Before building a community you need to decide what you want out of it.

Profit is sometimes a dirty word to social media ‘gurus’ (I use the term loosely) but fear not, you are dealing with me. Are you hoping to:

• Get more customers?
  • New customers?
  • Referrals?
  • More sales from existing customers?
• Increase conversions?
• Service existing clients? Provide user-end support?
• Increase client satisfaction?

There are other reasons and some of these merge, it depends on the company. The important thing is to have defined a single coherent reason to build a community.

Target Market

Communities don’t just pop out of nowhere. Good communities have been carefully planned to fill the need of a certain group of people. A good community is vibrant, there is a constant interaction.

We just decided what the purpose of our community was. Perhaps it was to increase referrals. Now we need to decide which group(s) of people best fulfill this use case. Clearly here our target market is going to be existing customers. Yet we should go deeper. From existing data you may see that customers who have been with you for 6+ months and have made at least two purchases are most likely to refer. Be specific, it helps.

It is important to accurately define the type of person you are looking for.

Channels

As I mentioned in the last part of this series, a community does not necessitate a new website. You may build your community over Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN or something more obscure.

The important thing is now we know what we want and who to reach. Study your target market and see where they are. Studies show that Facebook users have a higher average income than Myspace users, and Tweeters are higher than Facebook. Twitter users enjoy short, rapid pulse mobile communications whereas LinkedIN users communicate less but with more depth. Reddit & Digg users want to discuss links and content.

For example, Grasshopper Buzz have built a strong Twitter community creating buzz with existing clients and exciting new potentials. Figure out what your audience want to do and where they already are. Fish where the fish are.

Differentiators

There are a tonne of communities.There are many people on Twitter. What makes you stand out? Why is your community the one? I’ve already written that there are too many social networks to keep up with these days (unsure why but it’s tweet count is not properly showing. Ideas?). Users time is valuable and getting them to swap is tough.

Grasshopper do this brilliantly by connecting existing and potential clients where there is a strategic fit and promoting existing clients where possible. As a business owner there is a reason for me to follow and communicate with Grasshopper. Sprouter have Erin Bury as their secret weapon who knows just about everybody and is always connecting people.

Figure out what value your community delivers and find a unique way to promote it.

Next week we will finish off the ‘Forming & Planning’ a community section of this series with content schedules, metrics, funnels and other equally exciting tools.