Traditional public participation can be effective as it has been used by people for decades. However, now it can seem much more expensive and time-consuming. Businesses and institutions have realized the effectiveness and usefulness of online community engagement and offering their audience the chance to become a registered user. This allows members to create profiles, engage with content on a personalized level, and lets media brands gather data on their customers to guide their future content.
What is community engagement?
It is a process of bringing, building and retaining customers. As per a recent study on online communities, about 57% of businesses and institutions find community engagement difficult. Also, from the same research, we learn that using an online community reduces this burden by about 49%. This is why most companies are focusing on community building and engagement plans.
What are registered users?
Many community platforms allow users to browse the new communities anonymously. However, these users do not always add their full potential value to your customer base. This makes it essential to identify each customer visiting your community, and highlights the importance of registering users. Registering users impart an identity to each of your visitors and allows them to participate outside of anonymity and with a name through which they can be recognized.
Under the process of registering users, you may also obtain certain credentials such as name, address/location, and other details from the visitor. These details are used to clearly demarcate between different users and can be very useful in data gathering, but brands must ensure that they’re observing privacy protocols while handling such customer-sensitive data.
Importance of registered users
Registered users bring about several benefits for your community, which we’ve covered below.
Making them feel a like a part of your community
When you register a user, you undertake the responsibility of making them feel at home. Registration adds an identification tag to each customer. With each user having a unique Identification ID, you can make them feel that they are an important part of the community.
Better moderation
Moderation is an important aspect of building any community. If you allow anonymous users to interact with each other, you can never keep track of any activity on your platform. Moreover, the instances of heated exchanges, abusive and personal remarks or other kinds of chaos might increase. In the absence of any identification tag, you will find it difficult to take action against these elements.
However, users are more vigilant when they know that they can be tracked easily. Thus, such instances decrease naturally. Even if you face such an ugly situation, you will be able to track and take action against such users.
Personalization opportunity
When you register users, you get a lot of data about them. This includes personal data as well as data about their choices and preferences. This information can be leveraged to create a personalized experience for each user.
Gone are the days when you could serve the same Dish to all consumers. Each user nowadays needs a personal touch from the brands they interact with. It is essential for businesses to reach out to consumers on a personal level to create an impact. However, it is not possible unless you have adequate data about that particular consumer behaviour.
This can be done with advanced algorithms and complicated software. However, all users must be registered for you to tap into this information. Registering users will give you an edge over other anonymous platforms. You will be able to offer tailor-made products to each valued customer.
Importance of community engagement
A brand’s success depends a lot on community engagement. Without an emotional connection with your customers, you risk losing them. Consumers can opt to choose other brands.
Additionally, most customers support brands that represent them. All the businesses that offer products and services as per the demand and build an honest relationship with the customers are successful. An engaged community has hundreds of benefits like
• Customer loyalty
• Referrals
• Brand awareness
This is why most companies are finding benefits in building branded communities around their products and services to improve the brand-customer relationship.
Tips to follow to increase community engagement through registered users
Give your business community a place to hangout
Your community members would need a place to interact with the other members, where they can share their experiences and discuss things.
Customers would love an online community space where they can express themselves. So you can create community forums on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit or any other social media platforms that your customer base uses the most. But you also need to roll out regulations so that committee guidelines are always followed.
Increase user-generated content
Encourage user-generated content as it is helpful for community building. Contents may include social media images, blogs, posts or review videos created by your customers mentioning your brands. Some other content might include reviews and opinions of your products.
Therefore now your customers can interact with other community members and people outside the community. Additionally, this content with your product name also reaches other people unfamiliar with your brand.
Content created by registered users will get more recognition as compared to anonymous content. When other users know whom they are interacting with, it increases the quality of communication and can lead to useful relationship building.
Contest and events
People love to participate in contests or special giveaway events. Events are a fun way for people to interact with the company and other members and win a reward. And for the companies, it is a great way to improve and enhance brand-customer relationships.
For example, you may ask your community members to share a unique experience where they used your product. Either you select the winner or the community votes for their favourite one. Then during the next event, you can announce the winners’ names and reward them.
How are you if you do not have registered users, organizing such events can become a challenging task.
Endnote
Community engagement has to be a fun event for your members where they can interact and share experiences and opinions about your product. People would love to join your business community even if they have no idea about your brand. So before building a business community, you must research and decide what people would like to have in your community. It is also essential to register these users so that you can identify each person your brand interacts with.
