Enter the rise of the community professional. They're employees whose primary role is to increase engagement and create better digital experiences for both employees and consumers.

We're seeing evidence of the rise of virtual communities with the growth of the use of community tools like Slack, Discord and Google Meet in the workplace.

According to CMX's Community Industry Report, 22% of companies report having a dedicated community department, which is up from 15% in 2021. And across the software development, digital experience and social media industries, we're seeing more focus on the importance of:
  • community engagement for fostering inclusivity
  • building customer loyalty
  • acquisition, and
  • engagement.
Inclusivity and connection

The need is expanding for businesses involved in software development to establish online hubs for communities where like-minded developers may share information and discuss relevant subjects. For consumer-centric organisations, the creation of community management tools helps build insights around the customer experience.

"The thing about communities is that they provide a person with the feeling of inclusivity," says Greg Gatherer, account manager at Liferay Africa, an open-source company that helps businesses create digital experiences.

Gatherer adds that in the modern workplace, inclusivity is essential to ensure that the corporate culture drives the need for belonging and feeling connected to your team and your company, even if you are working remotely.

"When it comes to employee engagement, digital experience platforms enable companies to unify the workforce on a single platform allowing for collaboration, driving productivity and ensuring that the sense of belonging to the organisation is achieved," says Gatherer.

Engagement and social media

Across industries, this personalisation of customer experience is growing in importance. Customers want to feel that brands embody their personal values and as The World Economic Forum reports, over 80% of consumers from South Africa to Great Britain are more likely to support businesses who emulate their customer communities' personal values in their brand messaging.

Doing so is not as simple as picking a value set aligned with a business' industry. This is especially true for industries where there are large customer groups, each with their own nuances who need to be communicated to as individuals, such as the hospitality industry.

Stephanie Aboujaoude, Radisson Hotel group's senior area director for marketing and communications, says, "In the hospitality industry, the pandemic has most certainly bolstered the need for social interaction. With unpredictable restrictions slowing down the volume of travellers, our need to virtually reach and engage with our guests, both current and prospective, has grown."

Monitoring customer sentiment, gauging tone of voice and timeously responding to current and potential customers online is what has fuelled the growth of the community manager role in the hospitality industry. Community engagement and audience monitoring help to inform marketing and communications managers on the tone and content for future marketing strategies.

"This has meant that all our marketing and communication strategies had to adapt and our teams needed — even more so now — to be agile in these strategies. From social media content strategies to personalisation on our websites, we focus on gearing up and tailoring the communication and content we share via our various platforms. This is to ensure we are not only grabbing our audience's attention but also creating a relationship and building loyalty with them," adds Aboujaoude.

Social to customer interaction for home buyers

In the home loans industry, personal relationships matter a great deal, says Carl Coetzee, CEO of BetterBond. "Each home loan application gets handled with care and attention because we know property ownership can be life-changing as it can help secure your financial future."

"A community manager makes it possible to engage directly and immediately with individual homebuyers on social media. It's also a powerful way of raising brand awareness and doing consumer education — especially around home loan affordability — to help South African homebuyers make more informed choices when purchasing property," concludes Coetzee.

A necessity — not a nice to have

According to the CMX research, only 5% of communications teams currently have at least one full-time member dedicated to community operations.

Today, online consumer engagement has evolved into a requirement rather than a nice to have. This is thanks to the pandemic driving virtual connections with companies and the growing demand for personalised customer experience. 

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