Jonathan Kay: Invest in a Community Manager. Now.

Have you ever noticed that girls always seem to travel in groups at night?  Or that smaller guys at the bar always seems to act tougher when “their boys” are around?  Not so much a coincidence.  People are very much a product of their community (or “tribe” as Seth Godin might point out).  In fact this concept of “community” is a very powerful one.  It’s a pretty democratic idea when you think about it.  Community is what empowers petitions and protests to be such powerful tools.  Community is the power of people.

In fact, social media and web 2.0 websites have only made this idea of tribes even more powerful.  Why else would there be well over 40 pages of open “Community Manager” Jobs?  Why would I do what I do at Grasshopper Group and Jason do what he does for oneforty?  Because it works…and businesses need to care about their community now more than ever.  Here are a few reasons why if you don’t have a community manger…you need to hire one:

Out With Direct Sales….In With Word of Mouth

People really don’t like being sold to anymore.  Not that anyone ever woke up and thought….”I wish a salesperson would call men today”.  But it was a necessary evil…not anymore.  For instance, here at Grasshopper Group we very rarely (if ever) will engage an outside agency.  However, you better believe the very few times we did it’s because they came highly recommended….not because I got an email proposal from some company who I have never met or spoken to.  I get at least 2 of those emails every day.  Those companies need to fire their sales people and hire people who will get their truly happy customers talking more (and yelling if possible). 

How do you do that?  You make them raving fans; you make them so damn happy with your work that they can’t help but talk about you.  Because you better believe if I saw a tweet that said “X-Agency is amazing!  They really embodied our brand with this Campaign”…and then that was RT’ed by someone I knew – you would have my full attention.

It Will Hurt You Not To

Just as quickly as you can gain a sale through your community you can lose 10.  Multiple times every day there is someone writing in a forum, tweeting, or blogging about what resources they can be using to help their business sound bigger and more professional?  “What is a good Virtual PBX for Small businesses?”  Now if we weren’t engaging our community, reaching out to these people, and connecting them with current customers who can help them…someone else would.

Even better, what happens to that customer who tweets about the problems they’re having with Grasshopper?  If we don’t have a community presence they stay unhappy, and maybe even get more upset because we didn’t listen.  The next week when their friend they work with at WorkBar asks for a good virtual phone system, they will probably point them in the opposite direction!

It Will Help Your Business Grow

One of the best, and more important, parts of engaging with your community is the guidance they will give YOU.  What I mean by this is, if you listen hard enough, your community will actually help drive the direction of your business.  With Chargify, our recurring billing tool, over 50% of the developments we make are direct results of feedback we get from UserVoice.  Why do you think there are so many Customer Feedback Tools? (i.e. Get Satisfaction, CrowdSound, IdeaScale, WuFoo)  Your community is out there waiting to help you, waiting to be listened to, so….what are you waiting for?

Are you engaging your community?  If so how?  I love learning new strategies and ideas so please share below!

Jonathan Kay is the Ambassador of Buzz at Grasshopper Group, a brand which empowers entrepreneurs to succeed with a suite of products they love to use. He is extremely passionate about helping / meeting new entrepreneurs and always excited to learn about their unique journey. Find Jonathan on Twitter @GrasshopperBuzz or via email at jkay(at)grasshopper.com.