Fool-Proof Guidelines for Online Community Building

Online Community Guidelines FollrBuilding an online community – whether it’s for your business, special interest, religious group, or even your child’s little league team – can seem like a constant uphill battle. If you’re struggling with your online community, or if you just want a few tips on how to enhance yours, we’ve got your all-you-need-to-know, comprehensive-yet-concise guide to online community building here. You’ll find tips on how to get started, what and when to post, and how to retain members/followers.

 

Getting Started

–               Once you’ve chosen your platform get to know the site by clicking around to other members’ profiles and communities. Take note of what you like and what you don’t like, a.k.a. learn from others’ mistakes.

–               Decide who your target audience is and don’t divert from it. Focus directly on this group of people and start following key prospective members on twitter and other social media outlets.

–               Search relevant hashtags and see what others are talking about around your topic or interest. This will tell you the kind of content you should start posting and discussing once you have your community up and running.

–               Keep in mind that building a following of members is not a one-time job. Keep searching and following, keep joining conversations and continue to invite key prospective people to your community. Shoot for one new active member per day.

–               Once you have a small community of members, start connecting them! Search their profiles for skills or interests they might have in common and encourage them to communicate with one another. If your followers see you as a connector who wants to help build their reputation and career, they’ll be more inclined to do the same.

–               When you get stuck, take a peek at this great list of Online Community Building Resources.

Posting & Engagement

–               Post content between 3-5 times per day and always once at the very least (yes, even if you’re on vacation!). Members want to see consistency and commitment.

–               Post original content – a link to your most recent blog post or, a conversation starter, etc. – at least once every other day, and post other relevant content often. Just make sure the source is credible and you’ve read the article in its entirety first.

–               ALWAYS respond to a member’s contribution with a thoughtful and gracious response.

–               Keep in touch with members who may become less active over time. Reach out and ask about a project their working on or a life event.

–               Frequent and meaningful Engagement is the key to scoring and retaining members. Keep at it no matter what and always be positive.

Member Retention

–               Offer thought-provoking content related to your topic of interest or business. Your goal is to make your community a staple of their online experience.

–               Try one of these 4 Online Community Engagement Ideas and see which one(s) your members respond to best.

–               Be candid. Put yourself out there. Tell the truth. Give members something they can relate to. They’ll feel more connected and feel drawn to keep checking in every once in a while to see what’s new.

Good Luck with your new online community!

Follr Achieves Record Second Quarter New User Growth

– This is the tenth consecutive quarter of record growth for the company

– The growth is attributed, in part, to COVID-19 and sports fans continued migration online to consume and create sports content.

Wappingers Falls, NY (Thursday, July 9th, 2020) Follr, Inc., a sports and fan-based SaaS (Software as a Service) company, today announced record new user growth for the tenth consecutive quarter.

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Growth highlights included:

  • The average number of new user registrations for the quarter increased by more than 15% versus the second quarter 2019
  • June saw the highest single month number of new user registrations in the companies history which included:
    • an increase of more than 26% versus June 2019
    • an increase of 13% over May 2020.

Part of the growth is attributed to the Coronavirus pandemic. With sports events canceled globally, fans are increasingly going online to watch and read sports content which has driven increased usage of the Follr platform.

Follr founder, Mark Wayman states: “In providing a single solution that connects fans and sports properties by aggregating an enormous amount of content, we open up new revenue opportunities for the industry,” adding “This is clearly needed, evidenced by leading clubs like Barcelona, Juventus and Liverpool cutting player and staff wages to bridge this unexpected financial gap.”

The Follr platform provides highly customizable Websites enabling sports fans and official supporters clubs to create a community-centered on a team, sport, person or shared interest and passion. Follr additionally provides franchises, brands, media companies and organizations in the sports and entertainment industries with a broad suite of services that improve fan engagement, protect brand, and increase revenues.

As identified by Deloitte in their white paper, ‘A Whole New Ball Game. Navigating Digital Change in the Sports Industry‘;

“Technology is playing a larger role than ever in the lives of fans, opening the way for sports organizations to create new, innovative customer experiences.”

They add:

“Doing digital” is not enough: [sports organizations] will have to embed digital in every aspect of the business, transforming people, processes, and technology. Sports organizations need to strategically leverage digital media to build direct connections with fans”

New Sports Content

Follr community Websites now have access to over 130,000 sport-related videos with content from the most heavily trafficked channels on YouTube and fan Podcasts. To see a list of all content partners click here.

In the second quarter, Follr continued to add new content sources. The company will add teams, leagues and sport-specific content during the remainder of 2020.

Focusing on sports, primarily soccer, and providing highly customized Websites for official supporters clubs detailing meeting points and serving as the richest single source of information about one team online, each community Website aggregates real-time social media content and includes:

  • Marketing and communication tools
  • Ecommerce services
  • The ability to automate content sharing
  • An extensive event management feature set
  • Aggregated real-time content from multiple online sources
  • Discussion groups

Follr Global, a white label version of the platform, is also available to brands and sports franchises providing a multi-layered account management tool that:

  • Protects their brand
  • Ensures ownership of fan data
  • Enables supporters clubs to reach a broader market and fan-base
  • Increases exposure and reach of marketing content and media
  • Makes administration and communication easier
  • Collects detailed fan demographics
  • Accesses currently latent revenue through paid subscriptions/membership options

About Follr, Inc.:

Follr, Inc. (www.follr.com) is a software company founded in 2011 located in California and New York. Follr is a SaaS platform centered on products that “Reinvent the Fan Experience”.

Follr Communities provide vibrant, social groups to engage fans around a franchise, brand, individual, team or organization.

Follr Profile Websites allow individuals, companies and brands to tell a story using a combination of personal or corporate information and real-time social media content. They are personally branded Websites used as an initial point of contact and represent an aggregation of all online and offline information. Accessed by an enduring, easy to remember URL they represent a more complete picture and story in an increasingly digital world.

The Follr network provides users with the ability to create, find and join Follr Communities, connect with like-minded fans and see content from other members.

Follr is funded through Blossom Ventures. For more information see the company Website, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Contact:

Follr, Inc.
(888) 201-5160
info@follr.com