Social Media Communities: How to Build, Nurture, Grow & Sustain |

How do you leverage social media to build, nurture, grow and sustain meaningful, connected and powerful communities?

The truth is it takes time, patience and an investment in people as human beings, not just dollars. It requires as much art as it does science.

Just as building relationships with human beings one to one takes time, nurturing communities to earn the support and develop loyal tribes of brand evangelists takes even more time.

Many marketing and business leaders wrongly assume they can simply hop on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter and have an instant community waiting on the edge of their seat to engage, contribute and become loyal brand evangelists. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

We all know the foundation of technology, infrastructure and even the way communication is changing underneath our feet almost by the minute. The only guarantee we have for tomorrow is change. Just as becoming a social business is a journey, not a destination, communities are much the same.

Building communities requires trust, investment in time, resource and development and disemmenation of content that inspires and connects humans in meaningful ways.

In this episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast I discuss how to build, grow and sustain communities. I also share the importance of helping people achieve a sense of belonging, self esteem and self actualization by inspiring, connecting and helping them achieve their goals.

Episode Highlights

10 Tips to build, grow and sustain communities
Social hierarchy of needs and how Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can be used as a model
How to tap into the power of the OPC (other people’s content and community)
Why humanizing your brand is a requirement, not an option
The importance of feeding and nurturing communities the best content and conversation possible
What to do if you “get stuck” and believe your effort in building community online has hit a brick wall