While Pinterest may not be built for community building, it can raise your brand awareness in a big way. This will help your brand become memorable, both visually and through your written, audio, or video content.<\/p>\n

Ways to build your community:<\/h1>\n

Showing an interest in what your community members do<\/h2>\n

I cannot stress the importance of this step in community building. Nothing makes a person feel more fuzzy and warm inside than someone taking an interest in getting to know them. The more genuine the action is, the more genuine the reaction is.<\/p>\n

You may be thinking it’s impossible to reach out to each and every one of your readers. I hear you. Let’s try a super simple weekly activity to help you get in the habit of making these one-on-one connections.<\/p>\n

To start, look through your new followers each week and choose 5-10. Carve out 30 minutes to visit each of their websites to learn more about what they do.<\/p>\n

Then spend another 30 minutes reaching out to them on your platform of choice.\u00a0I’d suggest Twitter or Instagram because of its quick but effective nature.<\/p>\n

Don’t forget to add a personalized detail! We’ve all gotten the “hey, love your blog” comments but a comment that says “I really enjoyed your post on X and it helped me do Y so I’m looking forward to more content from you” is much more powerful.<\/p>\n

Taking just an hour a week to do this can help you feel more connected to your community members and reveal more about your target audience. The person could even be a business bestie in the making.\u00a0It’s all about showing you care.<\/p>\n

Replying to comments, tweets, and emails<\/h2>\n

Never underestimate the power of one-on-one conversations. When your community members write you a comment, tweet, or email, you should reply back.\u00a0You’re never too big to talk to your people.<\/p>\n

If you’ve ever talked yourself out of replying back to your community because it takes too much time, remember that they understand when it’s not instantaneous. Receiving a reply a few days later is always better than radio silence.<\/p>\n

Consistently showing up on social media<\/h2>\n

Social media is often the place where readers go to reach out to you. These are people who are inviting you into their feed so it’s important to show up and provide value on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

A regular schedule shows consistency. *mic drop*<\/p>\n

Showing up on social may look different depending on your brand.\u00a0Maybe you’ll host regular office hours in Periscope\u00a0where your community members can join you live and ask you questions on the spot. Maybe hosting a weekly Twitter chat\u00a0is more your thing.<\/p>\n

Whatever the platform may be, you’re consistently making yourself available for your community which is a huge<\/em>\u00a0deal. This may also be the step where some of your audience members become full-fledged community members.<\/p>\n

Sharing their relevant content on social<\/h2>\n

Who doesn’t like to see their content has been given a shout out on social? It’s an awesome feeling, but social is a two-way street.<\/p>\n

When someone in your community shares your content:<\/p>\n

\n
• First, say thank you like our momma’s taught us to do.<\/li>\n
• Then visit their website to see what they do and who they help.<\/li>\n
• If relevant, check out their blog and read a few posts to find your favorite.<\/li>\n
• Finally, share it with your POV (point-of-view) rather than just link dropping.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  When you use your influence (yes, you have influence, friends!) to give back, you show how important community is to your brand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I often see the terms “audience” and “community” used synonymously, but the process that goes into building both couldn’t be more different. Here are a few tips to grow both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[17,38,40],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-blogging","tag-community","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kaylahollatz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kaylahollatz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kaylahollatz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kaylahollatz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kaylahollatz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kaylahollatz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":940,"href":"https:\/\/kaylahollatz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions\/940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kaylahollatz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kaylahollatz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kaylahollatz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kaylahollatz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}