My Best Advice for Building a Community Around Your Brand

One of the most powerful things you can do for longevity and growth in your business is to build a community! Whether you have a community you want to make better or you want to start one from scratch, in this episode you’ll hear my best tips for growing a community! Listen in as I share what to do when it feels like you are the only one talking in your community, how to pick a focus and direction for your community, and how to grow it from ground zero.

This conversation originally took place on my friend Brooke Jefferson’s podcast and I can’t wait for you to hear this conversation.

Called to Both is brought to you by Joy Michelle, mom of two and multi-passionate entrepreneur who’s on a mission to help others find balance between the worlds of motherhood and business. Called to Both is the podcast for women who have big business ambitions and also want to be intentional and present moms. At Called to Both, we truly don’t believe you have to choose between these two worlds tugging at your heart You can be Called to Both.

You can stay up to date with the Called to Both Podcast by subscribing on Apple Podcast App, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player!

Today’s episode is brought to you by Honeybook! HoneyBook is the client management software that I’ve been using for years to send contracts, get paid, and keep track of all of my client inquiries and projects. Inside of HoneyBook, I can see at a glance exactly where my projects are in a timeline! I love that I can use this for sending questionnaires, setting up recurring invoices, and book calls through their built in scheduler tool and so much more! You can try Honeybook for 35% off your first year with the link below!

Building a Community

Building a community can offer so much for your business, but the key to that community is connection. I’ve been very intentional in building communities around my business and the brands that I’ve created alongside them. Whether that be a photography community for Photoboss or a collective of mothers for Called to Both.

If you have a big goal in your business, community helps to not do it alone. Not only are you building an audience, but a really engaged audience that can ultimately be the people you serve.

Communities can be built in a variety of ways and places, like local meetups, podcast listeners, email marketing, Instagram DMs, and Facebook groups.

3 Tips for Building Community

  1. Have a clear focus or solution for your community. When you have a focus, you’ll attract the right people.
  2. Give people a reason to stay with valuable content (specifically exclusive content).
  3. Cast the vision and lead your community (set the tone, decide what is allowed, and focus on your energy).

Choosing a Focus for Your Community

When it comes to building a community around a particular focus, you have to decide on that focus early on! To do that, here are two questions you can ask yourself:

  • What do you want people to learn from your community or group?
  • How do you want people to leave after spending time in your community?

The answers to these will help you nail that down, but also know the content you want to create. Speaking of content, remember to not get stuck in the tutorial trap—mix in thought leadership so that you’re trusted by your community.

Your role in the community is to play host/hostess while also showing up as an authority figure in the group.

Creating Exclusive Content

To keep your community engaged and active within the place you’ve built for them, a great offer to provide is exclusive content. A few examples of what exclusive content could look like include:

  • Live videos
  • Giveaways
  • Surveys
  • Early release for courses
  • Guest expert trainings

The community you’re building isn’t about you, it’s about the community, so find ways to serve them based on which they need! You can even survey the community to learn what works best for them.

How Your Business Can Serve Your Community

While you have to start with the intention of building a community to serve, not sell, there is an opportunity to connect your community with your business to create exactly what they need.

From the beginning, you can ask simple questions to new group members to get the market research you need to understand why they were entering the group. Therefore, when you create new offerings, your community members are warm leads already for the service! As you’re leading this community, you will be able to pivot how you’re serving the community based on their needs!

If you’re considering starting a community with the long-term intention to sell to them, please know that is is a long game. I actually think the slow burn is the win, because no matter where your business goes, if you have bought in relationships and people that truly want to see you succeed through the community you’ve built, that transcends the product.

If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating on the podcast and want to connect with others who are called to both, make sure you come join us in the Called to Both Facebook Group!

Mentioned in This Episode:

My Amazon Shop: joymichelle.co/amazon

Coach with Joy: joymichelle.co/coaching

Connect with Brooke:

https://brookejefferson.com/

Connect with Joy:

Instagram: instagram.com/joyymichelle

Youtube: youtube.com/channel/UC-Ou6jRKxcjMrVMxWxLO_fQ

Facebook: facebook.com/joymichellephotography

If you decide to use any of the links above and buy through them, I’ll receive a small commission back. All of those affiliate income commissions really add up over time and help generate revenue to help support this podcast.

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