Priyanka Writing
>Quite often in social media you will come across the term ‘loyal’ community. While loyal is quite a subjective and proverbial type of word, in a general context it means a community which is there for you and is listening to you.
That is pretty simple to understand but it is still too subjective… I thought of putting down some very tangible points that would be the Signs of having a loyal community.
Frequent @replies or Pings
Sure anyone can @reply you on Twitter and pin you on Facebook, but these pings should be genuine, leading to a constructive conversation. Not the a/s/l type of a chat room ping but thoughtful and insightful ones.
If you are not really generating any of these then make it a point to at least connect with one individual on your community and converse with them!
Generate conversations
A constructive ping or @reply could naturally lead to a conversation. Are such constructive conversations happening often on your community? These conversations give you an idea of the person and might bring forward new ideas.
Reply to your Queries
If you post a query are people responding? With helpful suggestions and tips? This is one of the first signs of a thriving community that people are helping each other (and you) out!
Connecting on Other networks
Often after a few exchanges on Twitter people send me a friend request on Facebook and LinkedIn. This frankly is often spammy! However there are the few cases where you really interact quite a bit on Twitter and then move to Facebook, LinkedIn and/or chat. It makes more sense and is a step towards closer friendship.
Offline Meetups
These are generally one of the best way of connecting well with the community. Having offline meetups can lead to making very good friends who become part of even personal life, once this starts happening then your online community pretty much rocks, cause you have friends on it 🙂
Any other signs of a healthy, thriving community? Let me know!
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