Quick Tips to Choose the Best
Community Management Agency
Community management is the process of developing an authentic community through different types of online and in-person interactions. Community management is how a brand decides to interact with their audience of customers, employees and partners to create a loyal network where they can connect and grow. A community management agency in the USA can help brands of all sizes in the US develop an engaged community and network.
Although community management is a popular strategy for businesses in the US, it is largely undefined. Community management can help your business:
- Gather feedback and ideas directly from customers through organic conversations
- Offer support for fans and customers when required
- Increase brand awareness to relevant audiences
- Understand your customer’s needs, expectations and desires for content, products and services and support
- Build personal, one-to-one relationships between members of your community
- Boost conversions and sales
- Provide real value to customers
Using a community management agency can assist you with all of these benefits, many of which can take up a significant amount of resources if kept in-house.
Before looking for and speaking to any community management agencies, you need to know what you want them to do for you. Assess the resources you already have available in-house and use an agency to fill in the gaps this could be with community management knowledge or tools.
When looking for a community management agency, make sure you are familiar with their previous work. Check whether they have previously worked with other brands within your industry and key markets. Each market has its own needs, so working with an agency that has already worked within your key markets is beneficial. If you’re looking to activate in multiple markets at once, using a community management agency means all your community efforts are centralized, helping keep your messaging clear across all markets. If you’re looking to expand your audience in the US, make sure that the agency specializes in US communities.
Furthermore, make sure they aren’t working with any direct competitors of yours. This may result in a conflict of interest.
Community management agencies will have access to accurate social listening tools that you may not have in-house. With these tools, agencies can constantly monitor organic conversations from your community. This means they can respond and join in themselves, and keep an eye on any negative mentions (should there be any). Depending on the services you require from your community management agency, ask what tools and technologies they use and have available.
When meeting with community management agencies, make sure they are clear about your goals and objectives. You will want to make sure they completely understand your brand values. This way, any communications they make on your behalf will be authentic to your brand and will help cultivate a community of loyal and engaged fans.
In addition, make sure the agency is able to keep continuous contact with you. You will want regular updates from them at least once a week. The agency should be agile and shape itself to work with and around your brand. This way you can let them know if you want any changes made to the strategy, or if they have any recommendations for improvement. Community management agencies are experts in managing communities, so they will have insightful tips that will help you.