#centasm

Buying a product or using a service can include more than what you think. Living a certain lifestyle and buying or using products and services that support that lifestyle and the values that go around it can influence the users to have brand loyalty. Companies can use and generate further brand loyalty by creating platforms for brand communities, revolving around the lifestyle and ethos of the brand and its target audience. Even using Tumblr is a brand community because the audience has common interests, depending on which pages they follow and reblog. 

Some examples of brand communities that you may be familiar with include:

- sephora

- HOG ( Harley Owners Group)

- Playstation 

- reddit

- LouLou magazine

.... and more companies that realize having a brand community strengthens the loyalty of consumers. But you don’t need a company to build a brand community, you could have a blog that revolves around a certain lifestyle and start using the same rules that apply;

The 11 rules for building online communities

1. You must have a community manager- to organize and be as much excited to be involved as the community members

2. Your community must have a purpose- the target audience will not care if the topics talked about are random and all over the place, it will not catch their interest 

3. You must use whichever tool/ platform your members are most familiar with- even if the audience is interested in the community, it will have to be simple and familiar enough for them to use and be involved

4. You must create content about your community- the main reason for creating the brand community is for two-way communication, so keep it that way and make sure to talk positively about the members

5. You must build personal relationships with you members- if you want the audience to read and listen and be interested, you must attract their respect and show you care

6. You must let heated debates happen- too much positivity can lead to people thinking the comments could be fake, allow debates to happen in order for discussion to flow easier

7. You must begin building the community before you launch the website- connecting with the audience before creating the platform will attract more attention to the launch of the website

8. You must recognize the individual contributors from members- recognition encourages engagement, simple as that

9. You must encourage members to recruit friends- creating a referral strategy is the best way for the audience to invite their friends with the same interests into the brand community 

10. You must share control and power with members- having a branded community involves people who feel committed, therefore give them some room to take ownership of the activities

11. You must not use your admin powers unless absolutely necessary- removing a post can do more harm than good because you are ignoring the real issue, if it is a nasty comment you need to confront the user and explain the values of the branded community

Centennial College

Story Arts Centre Campus

Group Member:

Sara Pivato (sarassocialtheory.tumblr.com)