How I built a community to foster brand perception and enter new markets

In a recent conversation hosted by Yulia, the partnerships and community manager at Sequel.io, the esteemed Stephanie Ricks from Strategic Education offered illuminating insights into the concept of community engagement. Ricks, an experienced professional in the field, highlighted that tools like social media and email serve as gateways to access and interact with a community. However, the real essence of a community lies in the people who form it. Understanding this demographic and their needs is crucial to making authentic connections. Stephanie Ricks adopts a viewpoint that sees community engagement as a support tool for a company's recruitment, employee engagement, brand awareness, and cultivation of a particular culture. A community is not just about social media, email, or events. It transcends these tools, focusing more on a company's presence and the services it delivers. When asked about how she connects with the community, Ricks unveiled her strategy of asset mapping. A technique that revolves around understanding the specific demographics one is trying to connect with. She also stressed the importance of identifying ideal target audiences and leveraging appropriate tools to connect with them effectively. While embarking on the journey towards community engagement, Ricks discussed how important it is to identify key stakeholders who can function as brand ambassadors. She hinted at the crucial role of economic development boards, workforce development boards, and other entities holding similar visions, values, or missions as invaluable resources. Aligning with these entities implies that together, they will create opportunities for the general public's economic mobility by providing access to employment. This alignment greatly enlivens any go-to-market strategy by ensuring the 'right thing goes to the right group'. Moving on, Ricks detailed the importance of internal approval for ideas and strategies. For this, one has to meticulously list out the short-term and long-term return on investment (ROI) of each strategy. She suggested that illustrating how the strategy will impact the larger organization can trigger natural buy-in from authorities, thus avoiding any need for chasing approval. However, one shouldn't miss the fact that employee community engagement strategies take time. The rewards they reap are usually long-term and somewhat diffused throughout. These could range from a boost in recruitment and corporate social responsibility to future foot traffic into stores and reduced recruitment costs. Ricks pointed out that startups and smaller organizations can leverage community engagement to help grow, scale, and save more effectively. She recommended start-ups let world events guide their strategy in the quest to grow and scale the business. For larger organizations, community engagement should primarily focus on brand awareness and ensuring a positive impact in the communities they serve. Companies large or small need to invest time, effort, and finances to make a substantial headway in terms of community engagement. However, Stephanie's sage advice comes with a caveat: don't try to solve every problem. Be intentional, but flexible enough to allow real-world happenings to drive how you show up for the community to deliver ever-changing impactful actions. Volunteers and citizens want to be part of the journey, and it's pertinent to allow them to contribute effectively to the community. At the heart of every community engagement initiative is the duel of mission versus margin. Companies need to grow profitably, but they also owe something to the community and employees. A well-balanced and inclusive approach could be the successful way forward for community engagement practices in businesses.