Discover how to build a successful community by creating a space where passionate, like-minded individuals can gather to connect and discuss relevant topics.

1. Discover how to build a successful community by creating a
space where passionate, like-minded individuals can gather
to connect and discuss relevant topics.
Community
Management Tips
Setting up your Community:
Should it be Public or Private?

2. Community Management Tips
Setting up your Community: Should it be Public or Private?
HootSuite Media Inc. Public and Private Communities | 2
Creating a space where passionate, like-minded individuals can gather to
connect and discuss relevant topics is essential to building a successful
community. An important decision any community manager has to make when
launching a new community is whether that space should be public or private.
There are benefits to both types of communities. You’ll find that each type will
appeal to a unique audience, and when choosing which community is right for
your purposes it’s important to determine who you want to reach.
This guide will provide tips on setting up a space that fits both you and your
community’s needs. Use these tips as a starting point from which you can adapt
and iterate to fit the needs of your business, or create a community that is based
around a shared interest.
1. Form a Plan
2. Make a Choice
3. Execute your Plan

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Before you dive into setting up your community, it is important to first
develop a strategy that fits your business goals. Having a solid foundation
in place before you begin will serve you well in the long run. Approaching
community building with a plan means you can tailor your techniques for
success. When developing your strategy, there are a number of questions
you’ll need to answer.
Size:
What is the size of your business? The general rule is that the growth of
your community will be proportional to your business size. For instance,
if you’re a small business, chances are your community will take some
time to grow. Be patient and set realistic goals about the breadth and
depth of your community. Make sure whoever is building the community
has a firm grasp on the size of the business before setting it up. Consider
the bandwidth of the team as well. The larger the team is, the quicker the
growth can be. We recommend starting small and scaling over time. Set
benchmarks for growth so that you know you’re making progress but can
see that there’s still work to be done.
Audience:
Who are you trying to reach? As nice as it would be to invite every
individual that interacts with your brand to the community, it’s not always
feasible. Brainstorm the persona of your community members: who
are you targeting? Who does your brand appeal to? Are there language
barriers? What are your audience care-abouts? What’s in it for the
audience? Answering questions like these will give you a good profile
of who you want to reach with your community, and help you better
articulate the why behind your choice.
Branding:
What is the tone of your brand? This question is crucial in setting up a
community, be it private or public. Every brand has a unique tone, and
you want that tone to be consistent in your all your communications. Do
you want your messages to be serious and measured, or is your business
more inclined to the tongue-in-cheek style of communications? Evaluate
the benefits of having a more approachable tone in the communities to
encourage participation and create authenticity. Find the voice that works
for you and get a good grasp on how you’ll use it to communicate with
your community.
#HootTip: Brainstorm what you want the tone of the community to be by
‘mind mapping’ relevant keywords with stakeholders before you set it up.
“Having a plan is the most
important thing you can do
as a community manager.
Take your time and do your
research when thinking
about what you want your
community to look like.”
- Marina Tostes
Community Coordinator
Latin America
@maritostes87
1. Form a Plan

4. HootSuite Media Inc. Public and Private Communities | 4
Engaging with fans of your business or product over a shared interest
on social media is a surefire way to increase awareness. However, a
community is only as effective as its leaders. Community managers
can take engaging with fans one step further by curating relevant
content, facilitating discussion of ideas and topics, and helping to build
relationships within shared community spaces. Since communities
are founded on interactions, they’re a great opportunity for brands to
empower audience members to take the lead and have a direct voice with
brand subject matter experts (SMEs), share innovative ideas and provide
valuable feedback for the organization.
Public Communities:
A public community is where you can connect with your customers who
have interacted with your brand at any point in time, increase brand
awareness and find out what the careabouts of your customers are.
Transparency is at the heart of public communities. They are a fantastic
way to engage with anyone who is talking about your brand or product.
You are more likely to discover fans for your community when you set it
up publicly, and by setting up a public community you are giving them an
easy way to find you.
Public communities also give your customers an opportunity to get
in touch with the brand - something that is becoming more and more
valuable in the “Human to Human” era of marketing and customer
support.
Although, you’ll have to be prepared for some negativity. While it would
be nice to think every discussion topic in your community will be positive,
it’s unlikely to be the case. With that said, public communities are a great
place for turning detractors into advocates. Frustrated individuals can turn
into the biggest advocates for your community with the right type and
amount of interaction.
Keep in mind that public communities are more exposed due to the fact
that they are outward facing. Everyone from your competitors, to your
boss, to your peers can see what your community is talking about. The
members of your community should be aware that their communications
are public: this is part of the appeal of speaking in an open online space.
“Public communities are
about breadth. Private
communities are about
depth. We could talk for
hours on the differences
but when it comes down to
it, that’s the main one.”
- Lotta Ygartua
Community Manager,
APAC
@kinalotta
Make a Choice

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Private Communities:
A private community is an exclusive space, typically invite-only or log in
based where peers discuss ideas, content, and resources related to the
community topic.
Private communities offer another avenue of value because they are
accessible only to a select group of avid fans or loyal customers. Strong
connections are built between those who are passionate about the
community. You can bring in experts for the audience to engage with
which will enhance their personal profile and reputation as well.
There are many ways to inspire action among private community
members. Community managers are often charged with funneling
feedback to the business. A private community is a great place to
connect with those who really know your brand, since members are likely
already an active brand supporter. Members contribute because they
have a strong interest in your brand, product and the community you are
providing. You can leverage their contributions to tailor your business
strategies accordingly.
The Powerful Combination:
Don’t overextend yourself in the early days - start with the type of
community that fits your business needs. If that’s public, when you start
to notice your community is growing at a consistent rate and there are
members that are far more active than others, it’s a good time to start
thinking about offering them an area for private, targeted discussions.
If you start with a private community and you’re finding that it’s starting
to run itself, perhaps you want to expand your reach to the public.
You’ll then be able to reach the public to build broader awareness to
larger audiences while fostering deeper customer relationships in the
private community.
Make a Choice

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When you’ve devised a strategy of what the goal is for your community
and how you’ll set it up, it’s time for the fun to start. There are three main
steps to setting up a community and you can tailor them to both public
and private spaces.
Choose a Platform:
The most important factor in deciding what platform to use is determining
where your audience likes to hang out. People are comfortable in a
familiar space. You don’t want to source potential community members
and then tell them to move away from what they know.
Here are some of the major platforms and the benefits they offer:
Twitter
Setting up a public community on Twitter is a great place to start because
you can tap into ongoing conversations easily. Set up search streams in
HootSuite and hop into the conversation.
Private communities on Twitter are a little more difficult. If this is your
platform of choice, start a private account where you approve who follows
you. That way, you can choose who sees the content in your community.
You might want to proceed with caution if setting up a private community
on Twitter. This could lead to a negative perception towards the brand as
you’re leaving audience members excluded in a mostly public channel.
Remember that once you tweet something, it can never truly be deleted
(see the recent US Airways example). Also, any of your approved
followers can retweet to their followers, negating the security measure of
protecting your tweets.
Facebook
Facebook is familiar and used widely used. There’s a personal touch to
Facebook that might serve you and your community well. It’s easy to
share photos, comment on posts, and show other people that you’re
engaging with their content by liking it. It offers the ability to make a
public or private community through Facebook groups, Pages, or various
privacy settings.
When using Facebook for a community effort, it’s important to consider
audiences and the ways the brand will engage with them. To avoid this
channel becoming a wall of broadcasting or advertising, look for ways to
engage with the audience using a mixture of business focussed and fun,
interactive communication methods.
“I think it’s better to start
with one or two platforms
and scale as necessary. Too
often community managers
start off super keen and set
up communities on every
platform - it’s really hard to
manage that effectively at
the beginning.”
- Connor Meakin
Community Manager,
North America
@connormeaks
3. Execute your Plan

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LinkedIn
LinkedIn is where professionals gather to talk about common interests.
It’s an easy platform to moderate and already has a wealth of content on
it. Make sure you define the focus of the group upfront to attract the right
audiences and to show the value in participating. You can easily target
certain industries on LinkedIn, so it’s a good choice when setting up a
private community.
LinkedIn is arguably the most professional social networking platform.
While it is the best channel to engage with business professionals already
using the platform, often they are distracted with other ‘noise’ and need
as much recruitment and engagement efforts as other channels. Make
your community stand out from the crowd by offering unique, engaging
content and insights.
#HootTip: Influencers from all industries write extremely valuable thought
leadership pieces on LinkedIn that can be shared with your community.
Our CEO, Ryan Holmes, is a big fan of the platform. Follow along with
Ryan’s insights here.
Google+
Google+ is on the rise. At HootSuite we use it for our Ambassador
communities, which are private spaces for our Ambassadors to connect
with their global peers, share tips and tricks, and get special content and
training. With it comes the strength of the Google name and the fact that
most people are already set up on it, since a Google+ Profile is created for
you when you sign up for a Gmail account.
Even though Google+ has a lot of users, a good portion may not know
how to use it. Whenever someone makes a new Google account, a
Google+ Profile is automatically created. This means there is a lot of
accounts out there but not as many are using it to its full potential. Ask
yourself if your target audience hangs out on Google+. If they do, it’s a
great place to host a community.
#HootTip: We’ve been noticing that Google+ is particularly strong in
Europe.
3. Execute your Plan

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Gain a Following
There are a few methods you can use to build your community. A good
place to start is by leveraging resources at your disposal such as those
that subscribe to your email marketing, or use existing customer lists to
contact potential community members.
If you’re setting up a private community, reach out to those who
mention your brand frequently and see if they’re interested in joining.
We recommend setting up search streams in HootSuite to do this, but
there are a variety of social listening tools available. To take that one step
further, you can set up lists of people you’d like to target to bring into your
community. Keep up with what they’re interested in on social media and
jump in when appropriate to build a relationship.
Be Genuine
Keep your community engaged by responding with a human voice.
Whether your community is public or private, make sure you are listening
to feedback and respond accordingly. Your community will appreciate
a brand that acknowledges all communication, good or bad. A simple
response, even if it’s saying thanks for the comment, will serve you well in
the long run and contribute to the growth of your community.
Interested in hearing more? Follow @HootClub for more updates on
community management.
3. Execute your Plan

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Want more Community Tips?
Find them every month on blog.hootsuite.com or
follow @HootClub on Twitter for updates.
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