Why network on LinkedIn or Facebook when you can create and control your own platform so your community knows to come to YOU for exclusive industry conversations, trusted referrals, and business programs, building brand loyalty in the process.
Why Build A Slack Community?
By building a Slack community, you can create a valuable space for your network for community building, resource sharing, referrals, special programs, and exclusive discounts for your business services. The goal is to make your community, and thus your business, a part of your network’s daily routine so you can create consistent leads and brand loyalty.
The next time your network is looking to invest in the services you provide, or refer a colleague, they’ll remember all the value you’ve created for them!
Slack vs Other Community Platforms
Everyone is distracted in this day and age. Why let your content get lost in the noise on social media feeds that have become pay to play or are a mix of business and personal content? By building a dedicated Slack community, you can lead the discussion, moderate the content, and provide valuable resources. You’ll know you’ve created something special when your community wants to spend time in your community distraction free, and invites their colleagues to join.
Networking Destination
The best way to build your community is to make it a destination for high quality, free digital networking with industry professionals of all levels so people want to come and stay. This could be providing free business advice, exclusive webinars, team building programs, and self promotion channels.
The most important thing to keep growing is to continually increase engagement in your community. You can’t let engagement slip or it will be difficult to recover. If this is too much work for you to maintain, you can hire a VA or community manager to take over this role.
Channels and Content
Much like Slack workspaces for employees, Slack communities are built of different channels, each with a specific purpose.
The types of channels your community will have depends on your business, niche, and most importantly, what your community finds engaging.
Some common examples are a hangout space for industry networking, a business referrals channel, branded freebies, and a mentoring channel where members can match up with each other.
Generate Revenue
If the main goal of your Slack community is to generate revenue, it will likely fail. Members want value and they will not come to your dedicated channel just to see advertising.
However, after you’ve built up a successful community, it does become a built in advertising channel when used appropriately.
If you are launching a new product, you can offer special discounts to your members, sell ad space to members, and start a conversation that leads to a paid consultation.
Members will be intimately familiar with you and your brand if they visit your community regularly, building amazing brand loyalty with every resource and conversation. That’s one reason Slack communities—and online communities in general—are incredibly powerful for businesses.
Need help getting started?
The hardest part of building a Slack community is getting started! Let us help so you can focus on building connections.
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