The Importance of Communities, Online and Off

• Encourage feedback. Ask questions, get people involved, and award feedback with a response of your own to show that you are listening and getting involved as well.
• Allow comments on your blog. This is a great way to allow customers to give feedback. If there is constructive feedback, allow that as well. Allowing comments with profanity and degrading comments may not be the best to publish, but let visitors comment with an argument of the other side that you can turn into a conversation.
• Start a forum. This lets customers talk amongst themselves and allows for you to get involved when appropriate. Answer questions and address issues that need to be.
• Have a live Q&A online or in the “real world” with networking events or seminars. Bring professionals, or use the experts within your own company. Get people involved and publish the videos on your website.
• Host a webinar or Tweetchat. This is a fun way to engage your followers online and a great tool for you to utilize to give away tips and tools. Get guest hosts who can answer Q’s. These are fun and easy to follow; just be sure you explain it well for people who may have never partaken in one.
• Start a podcast station. This is a great way to give away some tips, tactics, or strategies in your industry. Have interviews with professionals, Q&A with them, and ideas they have for success. You may get a lot of no’s, but continue to ask and you may find one willing person to have an interview with you!
• Create videos. This is another great way to give away some tips, tactics, or strategies in your industry. Videos are usually a hit and can often times be more interesting than text.
• Provide value to your customers. This is probably the most important point, and what the above can involve. You can offer all of the things mentioned above, but if they are all advertising vehicles and offer useless information, they won’t go far.

Customers will trust you as a leader and as an expert in your industry if you can offer something of (real) value. This can include an informational blog, a free eBook, White Papers, or a newsletter that offers tips exclusive to the mailing list. Establishing yourself as a leader will benefit you in the long run, even if you are not making any profit currently.