What does community mean to business growth?
In today’s society, there has been a clear shift from doing business with integrity to more positively impact people, the planet as well as your profit. And by people, we mean our community – locally and globally.
This shift has changed how businesses need to think about how they work, and how they build their communities into their operations.
Whether it’s taking responsibility for the environment, creating awareness around particular issues or working with charities; there is now so much we can all do to help make the world a better place; companies of all shapes and sizes are now harnessing their power to create a greater impact in the world by building and growing a responsible business!
It can sound daunting and complicated. But actually, once you think about what you do and how you help people with your product or service – it can be quite simple.
Where to start?
What better place than starting internally – your business culture is the most important thing you can nurture. Read more about how you can connect with yours and successfully build one here.
Because once you’ve got that awesome culture thriving you can begin to look at your business and brand, have a think about:
What does it say about you?
Are your messages consistent and most importantly – are they correct?
Is everything aligned internally and externally?
What else can you do?
The 4 simple steps
This isn’t about needing to donate thousands of pounds to get this right – it’s more about connecting what you do, why you do it, and how you do it. It could simply be giving time to your extended community.
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Clarity – How do you help your clients? How do you positively impact them?
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How does this spill out into the wider community – locally/globally?
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Would you like to make more impact, and is there a way you can do this through the way you and your business operates?
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Can you align this with your culture? Can you activate your team to do more?
It’s an organic process and structure, or it can be if you want it to be.
And that’s something that a lot of business owners don’t recognise at first, a lot of businesses that we work with tend to have made very low investments in terms of marketing communications to help them with step 1. Because for them, they’re looking at their individual objectives from a top line (revenue) perspective.
They’re looking at ‘how do I get marketing communications? How much money am I spending on it? And how much traffic is is generating? How many likes, how many engagements, how many customers, am I getting through that door?’ …and so on.
It can be quite a high pressured and highly emotive topic, when you’re looking at expanding your business and scaling up in that way.
That’s why we look beyond the vanity metrics…
One of the things we know for sure – across our combined experience of several decades – is that by connecting the dots for all of the people that matter most in (and outside) your business, you not only strengthen the top line of your customer base, but you also restrict and manage the bottom line (cost base) as well.
Once those areas are running smoothly you can look at the greater impact you’re having and make improvements.
Importance of community in business
Just imagine what working more in the community to drive a positive impact can do for the recognition of your business and the motivation of your teams.
Whether you’re looking to deliver a product, service to an existing or building a community, it can add great value to your business and network. People want deeper connections with brands, especially in-person. But you can build a tribe digitally or in real life by finding a shared purpose, being accessible, offering rewards or incentives, demonstrating great leadership and having a clear objective.
If you’re looking to get some support with the four steps and get more involved in the community we’d love to hear from you: louise@connectedcommssociety.com
