#NMCincy | Building your online community | Debba Haupert

What does it take to build an online community?

Well, TBH (to be honest), it takes nothing less that complete commitment, passion and patience. It’s not an easy road, nor it hasn’t been an easy road for me (DEBBA HAUPERT, of Girlfriendology.com). I’ll share with New Media Cincinnati (aka: #NMCincy) some of the things I’ve tried, mistakes I’ve made and lessons I’ve learned at the February 12th, 2011 New Media Cincinnati meet-up.

The upfront disclaimer: “If you build it, they will come” – doesn’t really paint the whole picture. They may come or they may take their time to come, or they may not come at all. I am not an ‘expert’* at community building online – I’m just a passionate, persistent believer in ‘what-the-hell’ marketing who loves to see what will work and, honestly, won’t give up until it does work.

* For the record, I don’t believe in ‘Social Media “experts.”‘ Social Media is a moving target and we’re all learning as much/fast as we can and learning from each other. I’m happy to be a passionate ‘student’ of Social Media and a dedicated community manager for Girlfriendology.

Girlfriendology Overview (so you understand what this community is about and how it’s grown):

• Girlfriendology began as a blog five years ago – 100 podcasts, 100 BlogTalkRadio shows, products, events. Now doing a cruise, eBooks, Webinars, Kindle, licensing. Have worked with Frito-Lay, Kroger, Healthy Choice, Crystal Light, and last year did a tv and print ad for Biz.
• Make money through (since you all want to know!) corporate sponsorships and advertising, freelance social media marketing, products and strategic partners. Looking for sponsors – P&G, Kao Brands, other women’s national brands.
• Community has grown to 14k female Facebook fans, 21k Twitter followers (& block most men and spam accts), Facebook delivers 20-80k daily post impressions

10 Tips for Building your Online Community:

1. Define your Community Objectives & Goals –TIP: Be flexible but forward-moving.

2. Survey your Community –TIP: Ask your community about their social media preferences and then go where they are!

3. Plan your Updates to fit their Schedule and ‘Likes’ – TIP: Know your audience, their schedules and be consistent with your Facebook updates.

4. Schedule Your Updates –TIP: Plan ahead, create a schedule then pre-load your Facebook updates.

5. Use Social Media to Grow your Mailing List –TIP: Make it easy for your friends and fans to join your mailing list.

6. Create a Promotional Calendar –TIP: Create a Promotional Calendar with your different social media sites and opportunities for monetization (like affiliate links or products that you sell).

7. Ask them to ‘Suggest to Friends,’ RT, Forward to Friends –TIP: Ask your community to share your website and social media sites with their friends, then make it easy to ‘suggest your site.’

8. Every Blog Post, Interview, Guest Blogs, etc. … SHARE! TIP: Share your updates and links. And, share a link in a large portion of your updates.

9. Add the Facebook LIKE/Tweet this/Join my mailing list button on your Blog –TIP: Use Social Media to build your blog community, and your blog community to build your Social Media ‘friends.’ Make it easy for them to help promote your community!

10. Create a Conversation –TIP: Ask questions, listen to their response and don’t hog the conversation!

Debba Haupert, Girlfriendology

About the Author
Debba Haupert founded Girlfriendology.com in 2006 as a community of women based on inspiration, appreciation and celebration of female friendship. She speaks on friendship and social media and has worked with ConAgra, Healthy Choice, Frito-Lay, Kroger, Biz detergent, Crystal Light, etc. You can find her at Girlfriendology.com, on Twitter @Girlfriendology and Facebook.com/Girlfriendology.

Note: This is just the highlights from the New Media Cincinnati presentation. This presentation was based on a guest blog (9 Tips to Managing a Growing, Successful Facebook Community) I wrote for Feedblitz.com (Email, RSS and Social Media Marketing Automation – a service I use and highly recommend). Thanks for reading, listening and sharing!