Community Manager's Playbook

Community has always brought like-minded individuals together around a common purpose or cause, but in today's digital world, communities are connecting people with one another and the things they care about faster and more easily than ever before. Savvy companies think Marriott Hotels, Threadless, and DKNY understand that creating and fostering an online community around their product or brand is a powerful way to boost their marketing efforts, gain valuable insight into their consumers, augment consumer loyalty, and enhance their customer service efforts. But while the growth of online communities should be at the top of every company's priority list, this endeavor all too often falls by the wayside. Digital evangelist and brand marketer Lauren Perkins sets out to change this state of affairs in Customer-Driven Community Management , a must-read guide for businesses and brand builders who need to amp up their approach to online B2C community management and user acquisition.§§As Perkins explains in Customer-Driven Community Management , if companies want to create thriving online communities that are focused on their product or brand, they must do more than simply issue a few tweets a day, create (and then abandon) a Facebook page, and blog every once and a while. Instead, they must treat community management as a central component of their overall marketing strategy and when they do, they will be handsomely rewarded with greater brand awareness, increased sales, and a veritable tribe of consumers who can't wait to purchase their next product. As such, Perkins not only teaches readers how to build an engaging community strategy from the ground up, but she also provides them with the tactical community management skills they need to acquire and retain customers, create compelling content, and track their results along the way. Distinctive in its comprehensive, step-by-step approach to creating online communities that are fully consistent with a company's preexisting brand voice, Customer-Driven Community Management :§§Teaches readers how to identify their community's online target audience and influence their needs and wants §Details the appropriate online channels through which content should be distributed §Discusses the many diverse metrics that can be used to measure community scope §And provides key insights on how online communities fit within the current digital realm §Social media and the Internet have created for companies the unprecedented opportunity to integrate their brand's messaging into their target audiences' everyday life but without a cohesive approach to community management, they might as well be shouting into the wind. With Customer-Driven Community Management as their guide, however, marketing professionals and the companies and brands they represent will be equipped with the tools they need to manage their online marketing efforts, engage their core customers at every level, and ensure that their messaging is heard across all corners of the digital landscape.