The community platform, or how to make the most of your community
The community platform... the ideal channel for companies and organisations looking for additional interaction with their community?
To understand why private community platforms are a fruitful lever for engagement that complements traditional social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), you need to understand exactly what we're talking about.
That's why today we're explaining what a community platform is, and revealing its advantages and limitations compared with traditional social media.
And for those of you who'd like to get started, check out our selection of the best tools for creating your own community platform at the end of the article.
What is a community platform?
Definition of a community platform or site
A community platform is an online site that brings together a community around a common interest. Focused on communication and exchange, this type of platform brings together people who don't know each other in life, but share a passion, a project, a problem, etc.
☝️ This is not a social network or social platform in the strict sense of the term. Unlike community websites, social networks :
- involve creating your own connection with others by setting up actions to add profiles;
- are generally built around people we already know in our private lives; and
- are more self-centred and less conducive to sharing.
Difference between community platforms (left) and social platforms (right):
FredCavazza.net
Uses of the community platform for the user
Posting articles, sharing photos and videos, exchanging ideas... the community platform offers many opportunities to communicate with others about personal interests (cooking recipes, travel tips, DIY tips, etc.).
But community sites can also be used for more professional purposes. The Season Road platform, for example, puts seasonal jobseekers in touch with recruiters.
Uses of community platforms for businesses and organisations
Professional community platforms are built around a variety of functions, and therefore a variety of possibilities:
- posting articles
- microblogging
- broadcasting video content
- photo distribution
- marketing retargeting,
- creation of events,
- competitions and quizzes
- surveys, etc.
As a result, businesses and other organisations (schools, associations, public authorities, etc.) have community platforms at their disposal to gather together and generate commitment by disseminating appropriate content.
The aim?
- To develop a close, privileged relationship with their community, with the aim of providing targeted answers to their problems.
- Feed off the interactions between the various members of your community to identify areas for attention, areas for improvement or future business opportunities.
Example: the Mr.Bricolage brand has created the community platform La Dépanne, so that private individuals can hire or sell their tools to each other, as well as exchanging advice and tips.
☝️ Companies and organisations also use community sites internally. Among other things, they help to improve the flow of information between all those involved in the organisation, and to develop strategies based on collective intelligence and knowledge sharing.
Community platforms VS social networks
Given the uses described above, we are entitled to wonder whether community platforms are on the way to supplanting traditional social platforms.
Let's look at the proven advantages of these community sites.
Advantages of the community platform
Improved customer and user experience
Compared with social networks, community platforms involve a more dialogue-based approach, as well as the fine-tuning of all messages and content. This creates a stronger bond with the customer:
- They benefit from a space where they can easily find relevant and responsive answers to their needs.
- They tend to engage more easily because of the closeness and quality of the exchanges.
The result?
Thanks to this improved customer experience, the community platform is proving to be a significant driver of customer loyalty.
Identifying business opportunities
It should also be remembered that, thanks to the community platform, the company or organisation gains visibility of business opportunities to be seized in the market, areas of innovation to be explored, and current and future trends.
Increased organic reach
Community sites give your content a much greater organic reach than traditional social networks, which usually require paid advertising.
Brand image development
As a general rule, a community platform offers greater graphic freedom. In this way, you create a space for exchange that reflects your personality.
The result?
The community site helps to convey a strong brand image, helping to establish your company or organisation more firmly in the minds of Internet users.
Better data protection
Finally, there are the dual benefits of hosting user data on community platforms:
- Increased trust among users, who are less and less inclined to hand over their personal data to American giants such as Facebook;
- an opportunity for the company to use this data for marketing and sales purposes, for example.
Limits of the community platform
However, it is often difficult to build up a large community from the outset without using a social network. This is all the more true if you do not yet enjoy a high public profile.
In fact, the classic social network allows you to reach more people, more quickly, even if the commitment of Internet users is not always there.
That's why we advise you to maintain both approaches. First make yourself known through social media and your other marketing strategies. Then rally your target audience on your community platform with a real, relevant and engaging promise.
Shutterstock/Flamingo Images
What SaaS software can you use to create your community platform?
Hivebrite: all-in-one, scalable software
Hivebrite is an all-in-one tool for managing your online community. It is aimed in particular at schools and major universities, members of professional networks and incubators, and not-for-profit associations.
Hivebrite
A wide range of features makes Hivebrite an invaluable ally for creating and managing your community platform. These include
- marketing initiatives (email campaigns, precise targeting thanks to the intelligent management of your data, etc.);
- event management, including online payment and ticketing;
- networking (sharing job offers and CVs, creating opportunities, etc.);
- managing subscriptions and donations for associations, projects, etc.
Finally, Hivebrite is highly scalable and can be customised to suit your organisation's needs and identity.
Khoros: community management for large companies
Khoros (formerly Lithium) focuses on customer relationship management for large companies, with the aim of delivering a pleasant, unified customer experience based on a genuine community spirit.
GetApp
The Khoros software works like a hub, with the aim of improving a company's responsiveness to customer requests through a variety of communication channels.
Community involvement is also at the heart of the software's concerns. Among other things, the solution offers gamification functionalities (using the dynamics of games) to encourage members to interact, as well as an analytical platform to measure their engagement.
Finally, Khoros offers training and coaching sessions to ensure that community managers and other users get the most out of the solution.
Neolink: the self-help and project-oriented tool
Neolink was created to help you build a private social network as well as a community platform aimed at federating communities outside your company.
Neolink
Flexible, Neolink adapts to your needs and is available in three tools:
- NeoEntraide: based on a community for sharing and helping each other, and facilitating exchanges around project management.
- NeoJob: connects jobseekers with potential recruiters. The software features matching algorithms to improve searches according to specific criteria.
- NeoCitoyen: improves proximity between elected representatives and citizens, through improved communication and functional assistance to facilitate project management and the implementation of solidarity initiatives.
Potion: the solution for improving the customer experience
Use Potion to create a community platform that enables marketing and communications departments to multiply opportunities thanks to better customer knowledge and the development of a sense of proximity.
Potion
Drive a relevant inbound marketing and communications strategy using the features developed by Potion:
- optimised content creation and management,
- microblogging, so that your best ambassadors can express their opinions about you,
- creating photo competitions to generate engagement, using a highly visual ranking system,
- gamification (badges and levels, for example) to encourage the community to stay active, etc.
The whole site has been designed to be totally responsive, in tune with the lifestyle of today's web user.
You now have all the tools you need to understand the advantages of community platforms. Now it's up to you to take your community's experience even further, and reap the many benefits of the spirit of sharing and collective intelligence.
Article translated from French