Brands in social networks. How to work with viral communities.

With the advent of social networks, famous names and brands no longer belong to themselves.

Promoting the brand in social networks, companies should keep pace with the times and not only discuss and deal with the negative but constantly keep checking all information about the brand.

For example, fans of anime and comics or on-line games, track the outputs of new episodes of favorite anime or updates of the new online game. They began to join in groups of interests.

Connecting to a similar circle, the user has access to thematic forums, discussions of news, rumors, gossip, merits and, more importantly, objective shortcomings of brand products. Today there are thousands of such communities. They exist both on the basis of known social networks, and separately. Many social networks focus on communities.

If you compare different social networks, then Facebook is the leader that passed over 1 billion monthly active users. This platform is using for sharing social status, opinions, social games.

Source of chart statista.com

Second is YouTube - a huge video hosting platform. You can watch not only music video, but also follow the online games, famous vloggers, watch reviews.

For example, on the chart below you can see the ranking of YouTube gaming channels in France as of August 2017, by the number of subscribers. The category of Games is very popular between  males aged 18-34.

Source of chart statista.com

Twitter it is the micro blog and is using for quick communication. It is very suitable channel for new releases, for the promotion of sales and hot news.

Fans of brands began to join in groups of interests. They have the chance to connect with the circle of their interests and access to thematic forums, news and more importantly, objective shortcomings of brand products.

Usually Companies choose digital marketing agencies to create and lead their brand communities. Such marketing agencies have a lot of tools for monitoring on statistical information about branding.

Sure you can use ready communities. Users of such communities are not motivated by the money, they want to have the opportunity to express their authorities opinion. Some corporations like such idea and they are ready to wait a few years while community gains strength and will grow to large size. As a chance to have an extensive user base, which is almost 100% targeted audience of the company and available for contact. But this is a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, releasing a low-quality or noncompetitive product to the market, the company risks its reputation: if users convict it of this, it will be easier to refuse sales of the model in this region than to rehabilitate itself in the eyes of the Internet community.

On the other hand, the controversy of sophisticated users, especially negative ones, is a source of invaluable marketing information, for which companies previously had to pay impressive amounts to professional research agencies. And on an ongoing basis.

This is about “territory of the brand” on the Internet. The emotional benefit of the brand based on feedback.

For example Domino Pizza with their website for creating and sharing your own Pizza or use chat box for ordering Pizza.

In order to create a brand territory on the Internet, it is necessary to "grow" and develop its target audience. And this means expert assistance to the target audience of the brand.

Source of pic. econsultancy.com

Almost any brand can achieve such devotion if it finds a way to establish an emotional connection with the consumer. To do this, he must somehow change the mood of people, adding something new in their traditions, attitude to reality and the rhythm of life in general. Not all brands are capable of this.

Of course, you can organize a community without finding this leader, but in 80% of cases, it is the leader that makes him alive. Without this center, the community will not be so effective. Like communities in the real world - sports teams, gangs, get-togethers - one or two leaders are needed to stimulate them. Leaders create action programs.

Of course, you can not create a brand community in one night. But better to find the right person or digital marketing agency. An exactly digital marketing agency is able to build an engaging community for brand and connect with potential customers on social media.

Creating a good brand page in a social network can seem like a simple matter, but working with the community is not easy. Like any community, it has its needs, opinions, and points of view. And here it is necessary not only to maintain the interest of the community. Observing how well-known brands use social media for promotion can greatly help in implementing their own strategy.

Besides, it should be in mind that with the successful launch of the community in a social network, there is a risk of losing attendance at the official site.