Growing your online community to the point of harvest

A community doesn't grow overnight. But, with the right software, the right strategies and a little patience your social network can see incredible growth in a short period. And as your community grows, so does your ROI.

Four Roads have helped businesses create thriving social networks from scratch – with custom Community Server platforms, unique content and techniques for long-term development. By managing your social commerce campaign from the start we can help you:

• Build a tailored, stable and feature-rich community environment that fits with your brand and design

• Attract and connect with the right people – encouraging fans and evangelists who care about your brand

• Get higher search rankings – more traffic from Google and more conversions

• Spend less on customer service – and reduce product returns with reviews and recommendations

• Drive more sales and increase the average price of your shopping baskets

• Measure your ROI with powerful social analytics software and clearly defined metrics

Contact an expert to get your social commerce campaign off to the best start.

Seeding

All new online communities face the same question: how do I attract members? Not every company has a ready-made community to plug into.

Assailed by advertising, marketing and new gadgets to try – today's consumer is understandably a little weary. Even for the biggest brands, it's not enough to simply create a social platform and hope for the best.

If customers don't enjoy your network – if they don't get something out of it – they're gone. You need to facilitate easy interaction and provide compelling content. Four Roads can help your community provide real value by building from the ground up. We will:

• Create content and content channels (from text to videos) that help you educate, engage, entertain and inspire

• Build the channels and forums where user-generated-content can flourish

• Design custom widgets and applications that bring traffic to your site and spread your brand name through the social web

• Use tested email marketing techniques and affiliate plans to boost membership and interest

Contact an expert

Growing

A crucial stage in the lifecycle arrives just as the green shoots of a new community start to appear. However, this is a time when many companies get impatient.

Four Roads believe in giving community members room to express themselves and find value in their participation. You can then reward them for their contribution. This reflects positively on your brand - and your sales. Features can include:

• Detailed personal profiles, personal blogs and social functions that let members share their opinions

• Subscriptions and newsletters

• Referral, reward and invitation schemes

Contact an expert

Developing

What do my users want? Ask this loud, and often.

Customers don't visit a social hub to listen to advertising. You need to give users a reason to visit, stay and ultimately buy your product. They're looking for open, honest, compelling and free interactions.

We'll develop forums, personal profiles, products reviews and Q&A sections. In the development stage you need to understand and work with your members to keep adding value to the community. You'll start to identify key members and work alongside them to improve your community. We can help you:

• Analyse and categorise your members into "types"

• Identify areas for improved content, or additional customer needs

Contact an expert

Harvesting

Time to reap the rewards of the hard work.

But social commerce isn't a one-time payday for businesses.

In fact, all through the development phases you'll see return on investment - from lower product returns to increased sales.

And different organisations will see different value in their communties.

You may want to directly sell content and products. You may want to promote advertising-funded content. You may want to raise awareness of an event or project. You may simply want to increase your members' ability to review and recommend products (and see your sales increase in tandem).

Whatever your plans, Four Roads can help you get maximum ROI and integrate any eCommerce functions as needed, including:

• Reviews and recommendations – (the power of reviews)

• Payment processing for products and services associated with your community/brand

• Product delivery mechanisms for digital content and subscriptions

• Security features and fraud prevention

The process doesn't end there. The cycle is continuous. However, a well nurtured community starts to become partly self-generating. This snowball effect means ever increasing ROI for your business and a powerful foundation on which to base future marketing decisions, sales projections, product launches and new services.

Contact Four Roads now to speak with a social commerce expert about creating a thriving online community - and what that could do for your brand and your sales.