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Zero to Hero of a Custom Community for My Business and Attract More Customers and Reduce Support Cost

Authors
Written by Authors
Posted on January 17, 2023
In this article, you will learn why setting up a private socialโ€ฆ

In this article, you will learn why setting up a private social network (Community) and how to build it for your business. When I write this post, launching private social networks is a new, attractive, and growing trend for online businesses and large corporations. Let me start with a familiar example. How often have you been driven to an online forum to find the answer to a question on Google? A community is an online place for people to write about their experiences and answer other's questions! You can easily find examples such as Quora and Stack-Overflow with a Google search. The benefits of starting a private community for your business are so great that I promise you will decide to build an online community at the end of this article. I will introduce you to the best option for free to build a private social network with the Selldone community builder platform.

Benefits of building a dedicated community for a business

Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives, with people spending an overwhelming amount of time engaging with their favorite platforms. Social networks are designed to be highly engaging for their audience, with users following the content they love and sharing their own stories with others. This is what's known as the network effect in social media and online communities.

As a business owner, you can tap into this network effect by allowing for two-way content sharing instead of just one-way distribution, like traditional blogs. This allows your customers to share their experiences with your business, ask questions about any concerns they may have, and provide valuable feedback. As your social network grows, so too will the growth-consequences for your business. Plus, valuable content for your site will be continuously generated for free.

Community platform benefits
Community platform benefits

While setting up a forum can often be a daunting task, there's a simple solution to this problem. Introducing Selldone's free community builder. With this platform, you can easily set up and manage your own online community, where your customers can connect and engage with your brand. Selldone community builder will help you to comply with the regulations such as GDPR and e-Privacy Directive. Building a custom community for your business is a powerful way to increase customer engagement, build brand loyalty, and generate valuable customer insights. With Selldone community builder, setting up and managing your own online community is a breeze. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your business to the next level.

1- Building a community to get free content and SEO

At the beginning of your social network journey, you should put helpful content in your forum to encourage people to work in it, so it's you, the person who defines and manages your social network culture. After a while, your audience will start posting their content. This unique and valuable content will have a significant impact on your ranking in Google. By the growth of your community, you gain better results without spending even one more dollar. The combination of social network content generation strategy + Selldone SEO engine will put your business at the top of Google results.

2- Building your community to reduce support costs

How much time do you spend per day responding to your customers? How about repetitive questions that you have to answer every day! If you set up a dedicated social network for your business today, your audience will start asking questions in your forum after a while, so answer them patiently. Rest assured that over time, your community users will be answering other people's questions. As a result, support costs for repetitive questions will disappear from your business over time.

3- Building a community to sell products and services

The decision-making process to buy is very complicated; it is a more emotional decision for most people than a rational decision. The customer's first impression will have a significant impact on his decision to buy or ignore it. People are looking for social approval for their decisions, and online shopping is one of the places where this is well visible. Suppose you have a social network for your business. In that case, potential customers will be able to see the experiences of others, and I promise you that the effect of social approve, by other customers, in the decision-making of a new one is much more significant than any advertising message from your side.

4- Building a communityto increase your brand awareness

Your brand is one of the most valuable assets, whether for a company, product, or personal brand. Giving one-way messages from you to your audience will not be very effective for building a human-oriented brand. You need to engage audiences with your brand and build a cohesive, vibrant social network around your business and market message. This is the golden key to achieving significant success in your business.

5- Building a community to create a loyal customer's circle

Do you want your brand not to be easily attacked by competitors or a few dissatisfied users? So, make an online space for your loyal customers; they will do the rest themselves. These loyal customers will defend their decision to use your services and, as a result, will indirectly be the defenders and promoters of your brand. Doesn't such behavior remind you of Apple users or football club fans?!

6- Building a community to get feedback and improve the user experience

The best fuel of business growth is the customer's feedback. A safe and healthy online space allows your customers to share their experiences with you directly. But keep it in your mind, you should welcome all comments, both positive and negative. Note that being in the online social space is a double-edged sword! If you try to censor and delete dissenting comments, you may quickly become a hated brand among users. Exactly the mistake that some famous brands make today.

7- Building a community for selling subscription of knowledge, counseling, and virtual-classes access

Do you have the knowledge that someone else needs? Ok, it's great, so I can illustrate the path to gain more audience and make money from them. You should generously share your knowledge on your social network; you will find new audiences, many of them will ask for confidential advice or access to unique content. This is the time when you can create private and non-free topics through the subscription service of Selldone Community Builder Platform.


Key features of a successful community

Some of the key metrics to choose the right platform for building a social network include simplicity of scaling by increasing users, attractive user interface (UI), engaging user experience(UX), straightforward login flow, built-in analytics features, and management tools. Here are some of the features of Selldone social network builder that meet the needs of your business well.

Setup on your custom domain

You will be able to build your community on a dedicated domain or free domain provided by Selldone. The cost of setup your dedicated domain in Selldone is about 10$, price list; also, you can get this feature for free by inviting others by your referral link.

Hyper-intuitive post editor

An intuitive post editor engages your audience to post on your social network. Selldone Community Builder provides the most beautiful and engaging editor in your social network.

Hyper intuitive community post editor
Hyper intuitive community post editor

Ability to send media, videos, audio, links, polls, and text

Selldone allows your audience to share their images, videos, polls, and audio in your community. All of these features will be enabled in your community without the need for coding or special expertise.

Customization capability

One of the crucial features of a community platform is the ability to customize, so you can customize your pre-made social network and match it to your brand in Selldone social network builder.

Branding on community
Branding on community

Cloud-based service and unlimited content capability

It is very important that your social platform is completely a cloud-based service to be able to serve even millions of users. By building your social network with Selldone cloud-based community platform, you will no longer have to worry about increasing resources, scaleup, maintenance, and costs.

Community management tools

Managing a community can be challenging, so Selldone makes it easy for you to manage the community in several layers. Moderators are able to manage the community; also, other users can contribute to keeping your social network healthy. A variety of features, such as reporting violations, restricting access to certain categories or topics, are some of the distinguishing features of the Selldone community builder platform.

Community moderation and users engagement
Community moderation and users engagement

Cost to build a community

Creating a community in Selldone is completely free; you only need an invitation that you can request from others or from us. If you want to connect a dedicated domain, you can refer to the price list.

Building a community can be a significant investment for any business, with costs varying depending on the size and complexity of the community. The main costs associated with building a community include:

  • Development costs: This includes the cost of designing and developing the community platform, as well as any additional features or functionality that may be required. This can range from a few thousand dollars for a basic community platform to tens of thousands of dollars for a more advanced platform. (Creating your community in Selldone is FREE)
  • Hosting costs: Once the community is built, it needs to be hosted on a server to make it accessible to users. Hosting costs vary depending on the size and complexity of the community, but can range from a few dollars a month for a small community to hundreds of dollars a month for a large community. (Creating your community in Selldone is FREE)
  • Marketing costs: Building a community is only half the battle. You also need to market it to attract users. This can include paid advertising, social media marketing, content marketing, and influencer marketing. The cost of marketing can vary widely, but can range from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.
  • Community management costs: Managing a community takes time and resources. This can include moderating content, responding to user queries, and engaging with members. Community management costs can range from a few hundred dollars a month for a small community to thousands of dollars a month for a large community. (Selldone reduce it by over 80%)
  • Additional costs: Other costs that may be incurred include legal and compliance costs, analytics and data storage costs, and software and licensing costs. (Creating your community in Selldone is FREE)

The cost of building a community can vary widely, depending on the size and complexity of the community. A small community with minimal features and functionality can be built for a few thousand dollars, while a large, advanced community with multiple features and functionality can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Time to build a community

Login and create your first free shop in less than 60 seconds; you can own a dedicated social network. You do not have to use the eCommerce features of Selldone to have your social network.

Strategies for building a thriving online community

Attracting users to your community and engaging them is crucial for the success of your community. Here are some ways to attract users to your community and engage them. By following these tips, you can attract users to your community and keep them engaged. Building a strong community takes time and effort, but with the right strategies in place, you can create a thriving and engaged community that will help drive growth for your business.

  • Define your target audience: Before you start building your community, it's important to understand who your target audience is. This will help you identify the types of content and features that will be most appealing to them.
  • Create a compelling value proposition: Your community should have a clear value proposition that explains why users should join and engage with your community. This should be communicated in all of your marketing materials and on your community's landing page.
  • Use social media: Use social media platforms to promote your community and attract users. Share links to your community on your social media profiles, run social media ads targeting your target audience, and use influencer marketing to reach new users.
  • Encourage user-generated content: Encourage users to create and share content within your community. This will create a sense of ownership among users and will help to keep them engaged.
  • Host events and webinars: Hosting events and webinars within your community is a great way to attract users and keep them engaged. This can be done in real-time or as recorded sessions.
  • Use gamification: Gamification is a great way to engage users and encourage them to participate in your community. This can include creating leaderboards, awarding badges, and hosting contests.
  • Personalize the experience: Personalizing the experience for users will help them feel more connected to your community. This can include sending personalized emails, creating personalized content, and using personalized notifications.
  • Be responsive: Responding to user's questions, comments, and feedback in a timely manner will help to keep them engaged and encourage them to participate more in your community.
  • Reward engagement: Reward users for their engagement and participation in your community. This can include things like discounts, exclusive content, or access to special events.

Regulations for custom online communities in the US ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ

When building a custom online community for a business in the United States, it's important to be aware of and comply with various regulations that apply to online communities. These regulations can vary depending on the nature of your community and the type of content it contains. Below are some of the key regulations to be aware of:

  • COPPA: The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) regulates the online collection of personal information from children under the age of 13. If your community is directed towards children, you must obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from them.
  • ADA: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that online communities be accessible to people with disabilities. This includes providing alternative text for images, closed captioning for videos, and designing the community to be easily navigated by users with assistive technologies.
  • FTC: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has guidelines for online advertising and marketing. This includes being transparent about sponsored content and disclosing any material connections between the business and the influencer.
  • COPYRIGHT: The copyright law regulates the use of copyrighted materials in online communities. It is important to ensure that all content used in the community is either owned by the business or has been properly licensed.
  • PRIVACY: The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) regulate the collection, use, and sharing of personal data. This includes being transparent about what data is being collected, how it is being used, and who it is being shared with.
  • MODERATION: The community should have a clear policy for moderating content, and it should be enforced consistently. This includes removing offensive or illegal content and banning users who violate the community's rules.

By being aware of and complying with these regulations, businesses can ensure that their online communities are operating legally and ethically. It is important to work with legal experts to ensure compliance with all the regulations that apply to your community.

Regulations for custom online communities in Europe ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ

Having a custom online community for your business in Europe comes with a set of regulations that must be followed in order to ensure compliance and avoid legal issues. Some of the key regulations to consider include:

  • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): The GDPR is a regulation that governs the collection, storage, and use of personal data. It applies to any business that processes the personal data of individuals located in the European Union (EU). Businesses must obtain consent from users before collecting and storing their personal data, and must also provide users with the ability to access, correct, or delete their personal data.
  • e-Privacy Directive: The e-Privacy Directive regulates the use of cookies and similar technologies on websites and apps. Businesses must obtain consent from users before placing cookies on their devices, and must provide users with clear information about the types of cookies used, their purpose, and how they can manage them.
  • Online Content Regulation: The EU has a set of regulations in place that govern the content that can be posted on online platforms, including community forums. Businesses must ensure that any content posted on their community is legal and does not violate any laws or regulations. This includes hate speech, incitement to violence, and other illegal content.
  • Consumer Protection Regulation: The EU has a set of consumer protection regulations in place that aim to protect consumers from unfair or misleading commercial practices. Businesses must ensure that any information or claims made on their community are accurate and not misleading, and must also provide users with clear information about their rights and obligations as consumers.
  • Cybersecurity Regulation: The EU has a set of cybersecurity regulations in place that require businesses to protect the personal data of their users from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. Businesses must implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect the personal data of their users, and must also report any data breaches to the relevant authorities.

By following these regulations, businesses can ensure compliance and avoid legal issues when setting up and maintaining a custom online community in Europe. It's important to note that these regulations may change over time, so it's important to stay informed and up-to-date with the latest developments in order to ensure continued compliance.

Building a free community in 5 steps

1- Register on the site or log in directly with your Gmail account.

2- Build a free store; you do not have to use the commerce features of Selldone, so just enter a title and name is enough to build a store.

3- Get an invitation or nomination.

Tip: To build a community for free, send us your username or the name of the store you created for us on social networks such as Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn (the best and fastest option) by mentioning the official pages of Selldone so that other people or we can nominate you. This will usually take less than a few minutes. After receiving the invitation, you will also be able to invite others. Selldone social pages can be found at the bottom of the website.

4- Enter the shop management and select Customers > Community from the top tab, and press the INSTALL NOW button.

5- Fill the form and create your community. Finally, hit the OPEN COMMUNITY PAGE to enter your social network space.

A shop community categories and spaces
A shop community categories and spaces

Be sure to log in to your site to display the community management tools, such as adding categories and analytics. After the first time, you log in, press the F5 key, and refresh the page. You can now easily create categories and manage content in your private social network.

Community analytics and user engagement report
Community analytics and user engagement report

Be a pioneer in the market to gain more gems!

Whether you are a retailer of shoes and sports equipment, or a business in the field of real estate consulting, robotics rehabilitation, legal advice, medical equipment, e-magazines, and any other business, today is your time to enjoy the benefits of a dedicated social network for your business or even your personal brand.

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Is my business need a social network?

1- Get free content and SEO. 2- Reduce support costs. 3- Sell products and services. 4- Increase your brand awareness. 5- Create a loyal customer circle. 6- Get feedback and improve the user experience. 7- Selling subscriptions of knowledge, counseling, and virtual-classes access.

How reduce support costs?

If you set up a dedicated social network for your business today, your audience will start asking questions in your forum after a while, so answer them patiently. Rest assured that over time, your community users will be answering other people's questions.

What are the key features of an engaging social network?

Some of the key metrics to choose the right platform for building a social network include simplicity of scaling by increasing users, attractive user interface (UI), engaging user experience(UX), straightforward login flow, built-in analytics features, and management tools.

Can I have a social network on my domain?

You will be able to build your community on a dedicated domain or free domain provided by Selldone. The cost of setup your dedicated domain in Selldone is about 10$; also, you can get this feature for free by inviting others by your referral link.

How much does it cost to build a social network?

Creating a private social network in Selldone is completely free; you only need an invitation that you can request from others or from us. If you want to connect a dedicated domain, you can refer to the price list.

How long does it take to build a community?

Login and create your first free shop in less than 60 seconds; you can own a dedicated social network. You do not have to use the eCommerce features of Selldone to have your social network.

What is a custom community for my shop and business?

A custom community for your shop and business is a dedicated online platform where your customers can connect, engage, and interact with your brand. It allows you to build a loyal customer base and create valuable brand advocates.

Why should I build a custom community for my shop and business?

Building a custom community for your shop and business can help to increase customer engagement, build brand loyalty, and generate valuable customer insights. It also allows you to create a sense of community among your customers and offer them a more personalized experience.

How can I build a custom community for my shop and business?

There are several community builder platforms available, such as Selldone, that can help you easily set up and manage your own online community. These platforms offer a range of features and functionality to help you build and engage your community, such as forums, social media integration, and analytics.

What are the costs associated with building a custom community for my shop and business?

The costs associated with building a custom community for your shop and business can vary depending on the size and complexity of the community, as well as the features and functionality required. Community builder platforms such as Selldone often offer free plans and paid plans with additional features. Additionally, you'll also need to consider hosting costs, marketing costs, community management costs, and any additional costs that may be incurred.

How can I attract users to my custom community and keep them engaged?

There are several strategies you can use to attract users to your custom community and keep them engaged, such as defining your target audience, creating a compelling value proposition, using social media, encouraging user-generated content, hosting events and webinars, using gamification, personalizing the experience, being responsive, and rewarding engagement.

Are there any regulations I need to be aware of when building a custom community for my shop and business in Europe?

Yes, when building a custom community for your shop and business in Europe, you'll need to comply with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), e-Privacy Directive, Online Content Regulation, Consumer Protection Regulation, and Cybersecurity Regulation. Community builder platforms such as Selldone will help you to comply with these regulations.

Authors
Written by Authors
Published at: August 25, 2021 January 17, 2023

More insight about Zero to Hero of a Custom Community for My Business and Attract More Customers and Reduce Support Cost

More insight about Zero to Hero of a Custom Community for My Business and Attract More Customers and Reduce Support Cost