Guest post by licensed Right-Brain Business Plan® Facilitator and Associate Coach Kiala Givehand
Every creative entrepreneur wants to share their gifts, talents, and passions with the world — that’s why most of us started our businesses. We want to interact with others who are looking to make a positive impact. We want to inspire and ignite good in the world. One of the ways we do that is by growing our lists. We reach out and find like-minded, heart-centered people that we eventually call our perfect customers, our tribe, or our community.
But what happens once people start to follow us? Do we forget about those faithful few who’ve been with us since we started? Do we spend most of our time trying to gain more followers, more likes, more email addresses? Or do we remember to tend to the ones that have already said YES?
Once we establish a community it’s important to continually nurture our relationship with them. It’s essential to cultivate the community we have while we continue to grow. There are many ways to stay connected and engaged to your peeps as you continue to plant and water the seeds that will yield a larger tribe. Here are five tried and true methods that can help you care for your current community:
1. Create Surveys and Polls — These are wonderful tools for co-creating with the people who follow you, like your pages, read your blog, and comment on your Instagram photos. Design surveys to find out what people want to see more of from you. Use polls to learn more about your tribe. Ask about the trends and get them talking about what matters to them so you can offer more value and be of greater service.
2. Tap Into the Collective Wisdom — Get them talking — not just to you, but with you and with others in the community. Start a forum or a thread where your community members can connect around topics that they are passionate about. Get them to share their expertise and learn from the collective wisdom of the whole.
3. Connect via Live Streaming Apps — Offer sessions where you are live on camera with your peeps. Host a series of conversations that allow you to bring members of the community on camera with you. This is a great way to be in conversation with your peeps in real time. The possibilities for interaction and connection building are limitless with this medium.
4. Blogging — If you’re reading this post it’s because you likely understand the power of blogging and how we can learn and grow from reading blogs. Your tribe is no different. Bring the energy back to your blogging by using surveys and polls (see #1 above) to find out what your people want to hear from you. What topics do they want you to talk about with greater depth? Blogging is a chance to enter the larger conversations, share your gifts, talents, & passions, and get others talking back and engaging more fully.
5. E-Courses — Teach something you love. Bringing people together to learn in conjunction with the four strategies mentioned above is the ultimate way to foster community, give value, and be of service to the people who trust you, follow you, and ultimately buy from you. By offering meaningful and manageable content, providing mindful interactions, and motivating your perfect customers to follow their passions and be lifelong learners, you can create a thriving community where the members feel supported, heard, and nurtured.
In the end, building your list is important to the success and sustainability of your business, but don’t forget that as people join your tribe, they need to be acknowledged and cared for as well. The more you value the people around you the more others will want to join in and learn from you, work with you, and buy from you. Create a community worth sharing.
