When I had the idea to run a community group and agreed what we would do with Stacey I knew one important factor on making it work would be keeping the community engaged.
I am also lucky in the fact that the members are really willing to engage!
I am a believer that all social media content needs some form of structure to work from, so today I thought I’d go through what I did and my reasoning behind it.
Weekly posts
The first port of call was really the basic weekly structure I wanted to put out. I was worried that such a community could either devolve into a whinge-fest or toxic positivity and I didn’t want either of those things to happen. I wanted a supportive community where people could air their grievances, but we could also lift each other up in useful ways — so the weekly posts had to be positioned just right!
As for timings of the posts, Monday starts at 8am, then they are scheduled two hours later than the previous day through to Friday — as I go through the posts it should become obvious why I did this. The weekend posts are both at 10am as it is more likely people will be on and off throughout the day.
Monday
As it is the start of the week, I wanted Mondays to be the goal setting day for the week. I know that voicing that I am going to do something more often than no will mean I actually do it. Plus, it would show other members of the community want we were each planning to do for the week.
Tuesday
Following on from setting the goals — Tuesday asks what support members may need — either to complete those goals, with their marketing by boosting a post or advice. It’s not the first thing in the week, but it is early enough to be able to help where needed.
Wednesday
Mid-week check in! I know from personal experience this is when I really start struggling it’s because I’ve pushed myself too hard in those first few days.
So, on a Wednesday I ask how the community is doing for spoons (Spoon theory) and we support each other. It’s also a reminder that you are allowed to rest if you need which I have been told is really useful.
Thursday
This is actually the last day I decided what I would post — it’s a welcome to the community, a reminder to introduce themselves and asking what they would like to see from the community.
Why is it on a Thursday? Because I had plans for what I wanted to post on all the other days — so this is where this one slotted in.
Friday
On Fridays we go back to the weekly goals and ask if they were achieved? As we should always reflect on our week and see if we did get done what we wanted to.
It’s also a reminder that if you didn’t manage your goals to look at what was achieved. For disabled business owners having a difficult week, this could be something as simple as showering or getting out of bed.
It’s accountability with compassion.
Saturday
As we moved into the weekend, I wanted to remind the community that self-care is really important — so I ask for their self-care activity is for the weekend. It also works to give ideas of things we could all do to take care of ourselves.
Sunday
On Sundays I wanted to celebrate the wins from the week. Now obviously I asked how their goals go on a Friday, but wins may not be linked to those goals — in businesses things happen out of the blue — it could also be a personal win.
As a boost to the end of the week I wanted to celebrate everyone wins, no matter how big or small. It’s positivity with a purpose.
So that was a standard structure in place, one post each day of the week. When I started doing those that was all I intended to do; However, as I created those posts, as I’m an overachiever, I had more ideas, which turned out to be several more sets of posts.
I’ll explain those below.
Discussion
The first idea I had was to get the community talking — about various topics, a new one each week. I was also hoping they should start to have discussions between themselves but if I could influence this behaviour a little, I thought it was a good idea.
On Tuesday evenings (at 6pm) a discussion topic goes out, now Facebook would let me schedule 9 weeks of these so I came up with 9 topics and will do so again when it’s time to schedule the next lot.
Opportunities for the community to help
One of the things the first few members asked for was opportunities for collaboration, so I created two posts asking what collaborations and referrals the members are looking for.
This also led me to add in an ‘idea pitch’ where members can work through any ideas they have or want feedback on.
These run on a 5-week rotation on Friday mornings with the next 2 posts.
Opportunities to show us your stuff
Like myself, I know many members would have blogs or podcasts, so I thought I’d slot these in with the ones above (so none of them appear too regularly) that way we could all get more eyes on our ‘stuff’ and maybe provide useful content while we are there!
Opportunities to sell
I really didn’t want to group to devolve into people just telling us what they sell and running off like any groups can become — so I figured why not give them the prompts to tell us what they are selling?
This one is also on a 5-week rotation, it covers freebies, super low ticket offers, low ticket offers, high ticket offers and a general what can we buy from you?
It goes up Monday evenings — because then it might help with those weekly goals!
Member-led content
The final ‘thing’ is not really to do with me, it’s member-led — obviously they can post what they want! (so long as it’s not spammy) and that has generated some really interesting posts, discussions and help.
But as the community grows, I will also ask them questions about what they want going forward, like what networking they want or events.
Review & Refresh
Once you have your posting schedule in place, it’s really important to periodically review what you are putting out. Is it still working? Are your members still engaging? If not refresh what you are putting out, change something and see if that helps.
Community engagement shouldn’t be a static thing, change as your member needs change.
