In your brand community, the dream journey of a member to became a brand volunteer from a stranger is exciting and very easy to execute.
From stranger to newcomer to regular to becoming your brand's volunteer, here's what a dream journey of a member may look like in your brand's community:
Step 1: The user hears about the community several times through friends, via existing sites for news on that topic, and on social media platforms. Better still, they hear about the community from a friend using a community-exclusive link.
Step 2: The user visits the site and sees a list of exciting discussions on the landing page with an open box asking for his/her opinion on a major issue of the day. After the member submits an opinion, they are prompted for an e-mail address and anti-spam code to register. It’s two boxes only. If they complete this, their comment already appears (it’s deleted in 3 hours if they don’t click the e-mail confirmation link, after 2 reminders at one hour apart).
Step 3: Immediately they’re taken to a page that shows meetups in their location, members in their location, or highlights some of the community’s most popular discussions. For location, use the IP address of the visiting member. Dating site adverts do this especially well (or mischievously).
Step 4: They receive a notification on the first reply (and only the first) to their first contribution to the community. A volunteer community member also contacts them to ask a few questions and begin building a relationship with a view to guiding them to people with whom the newcomer can forge strong relationships.
It’s important that the outreach is genuine, solicit real responses, and the volunteers are fun, likeable, people – not drones. Drones drive people away.
It’s important that the outreach is genuine, solicit real responses, and the volunteers are fun, likeable, people.
Step 5: After 5 contributions, they receive an e-mail inviting them to share their biggest success/failure. It’s a ritual. They get access to see the stories from previous members. This is a highlighted active area of the community. They also receive further information about the community’s history, goals, and ideals.
Step 6: After a few weeks, they’re sent an e-mail inviting them to become more involved in the community. Would they like to submit regular content, take responsibility for a topic, or help greet new members? They’re told it’s expected that members will help the community.
Vinfotech creates world's best social networks for employees, brands, interest groups and sports fans. We promise initial set of real engaged users to put turbo in your social network growth. Our award winning software vSocial™ allows us to build stellar customized communities faster and better. Our customers include Aston Martin, Burberry, Arabian Gulf League and Snapdeal.