When I started Community Management, I initially steered clear of social media communities and just focused on building away from social media. The reasons being that, then there was this huge notion around social media not being a community (a notion which has evolved since then), and I think having previously transitioned from a social media marketing career, I needed a little break. I also had doubts about the potential of growing a community and securing engagement especially since my personal social pages were not performing well (wrong comparison, I know).
However, in March 2021, my boss, who also happened to be a friend, shared with me his interest in affiliate marketing and how he intends to blend community into it.
Though I was not open to building on social, I was willing to give it a try with no expectations or sort. There’s no harm in trying, I mean.
He got the first affiliate product and we began working towards building a community that the product would serve- and that birthed Bake Easy. We delved in with a 50/50 chance of success, not entirely sure if it would work but excited to see for ourselves.
Within a week of creating the page on Instagram and putting out content, things just started to flow. We gained organic followers and engagement side by side, which meant we had to be doing something right.
The What
A community of growth-conscious bakers looking to improve their baking businesses through effective online marketing and self-development.
The Why
As stated earlier, it was initially to effectively sell a product but as with the idea of building a community, we knew it had to be more than just selling and so our why became to help budding bakers with effective online marketing strategies while creating opportunities for connection.
The Who
Our target members were bakers in the early stages of their business, bakers who were figuring out how to effectively manage their online presence, and bakers who needed a space to connect with other bakers.
The Where
The community was completely online and it was hosted on Instagram and we later utilized WhatsApp to establish 1:1 contact with members.
The How
Content:
Our content strategy incorporated a mix of curated content, original content focused on online marketing, and promotional content. With the curated content, we leveraged engaging videos and photos from other baking creators while the original content was educational and addressed their problems in online marketing.
We also introduced community-focused content such as community spotlights, and learning programs. Lastly, promotional content was shared once a week so as not to be pushy about it.
Engagement:
Content births engagement literally and that was exactly what happened with the community. Through consistently sharing relevant educational content, curated content, and Instagram stories, our reach and engagement grew significantly.
Exclusivity:
We moved up the community experience by creating an exclusive space on WhatsApp where we could interact more and serve our members better. To get people over there, we organized a ‘marketing made easy’ program which attracted a good number of people and those were our first exclusive members.
The second exclusive approach was selecting top members from the Instagram community and inviting them to serve as advisors. The aim was to get them to support and help us shape our content and product offerings by sharing their challenges and providing feedback on our programs. These two groups existed on different WhatsApp groups and it was a successful initiative.
Results
We grew from 0 to 1000+ on Instagram in 10 months with a reach of over 3,000- with no paid ad
Over the same 10-month period, we made several sales of our affiliate product.
We onboarded over 20 persons to WhatsApp with the first program
We onboarded 7 advisory members
What I would do differently now:
Maintain a consistent content schedule while refining specific ideas where necessary
Dissolve the groups on WhatsApp and build an email list as a community away from Instagram and provide valuable perks to subscribers
Collaborate with other baking communities and creators to create programs and rewards
Promote the community on relevant platforms
As with building and growing any community, Bake Easy had its ups and downs but we learned with every passing day and I’m excited we gave it a go. Though due to circumstances beyond our control, we weren’t able to continue building, it’s an experience that shaped a lot for me.
Presently, I look forward to building more and better social media communities.
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This content was originally published in June 2021 and has been updated for freshness and accuracy.