As a business owner or online creator, you can now build your online community on Circle. Global Web Index statistics show over 76% of internet users are active members in at least one online community.
Therefore, if you want to build a strong brand with loyal customers, you need to build an online community where you share valuable information with customers. Such an online community will also help you improve your products based on feedback from members.
To make it clearer, here are seven reasons to build your online community on Circle.
Benefits of Building an Online Community
Not long ago, online communities were only famous among the 'nerds' as they used them as gaming forums or just a place to bounce. That was before someone discovered the hidden potential offered by these communities/ forums.
Brands then took the opportunity to monetize this potential and use communities to create a competitive advantage. Similarly, freelancers realized they could capitalize on online communities to expand their skills and earning potential.
Unlike social media platforms, online communities attract like-minded individuals with common interests, values, and ideologies. Therefore, to protect its values and integrity, an online community reserves the right to reject your application if they feel your values don't align or you add no value to them.
Today, you’ll enjoy the following benefits of being a member of an online community:
An opportunity to expand your business and professional networks
It offers you a community space to share your experiences and learn from others
It offers you an opportunity for collective learning
Online communities encourage innovation among their members
An online community offers you a sense of identity without the fear of falling into comparison traps
There are even more reasons to build a community. From our experience, building an online community on Circle is one of the best decisions you’ll make. The following are some of the reasons we’ve experienced.
It is Very Easy to Build a Community on Circle
If you have a vision for your community experience, Circle provides the building blocks to bring the vision to life. Thanks to their customization freedom, you can actualize your dream community with the ideal features you want.
You’ll begin your building process by determining your preferred type of community. Circle offers a variety of options to choose from depending on what you hope to accomplish. Some of these communities include:
Customer communities - Build deep relationships with your customers, and help them connect. Get product feedback, reduce customer support inbound, and build advocates for life.
Brands and startups community – provides a means to integrate your community directly into your product or website.
Membership communities –an opportunity to create a membership experience with subscriptions, exclusive content, and paid newsletters
Coaching communities – coach your clients conveniently using group calls, live chats, and resource sharing on Circle.
Course communities – develop a course and offer training through Circle
Clubs and organizations – for collaborating and participating in events
Once you have settled on a type of community, click on Start your 14-day free trial to get started. You’ll need to enter personal details like name and email to facilitate account creation. Once done, click the signup button and wait a few seconds as your account is created. Once created, head to the getting started page. You’ll find a setup checklist to help you complete creating an online community.
The basic part of your setup requires you to complete your profile by including all your bio details, location, and any other information about yourself. Moreover, you can customize your branding by changing your platform's color, logo, and icon.
Source: Circle
The final requirement for your setup is determining whether you want your community to be public or private. A public community means that anyone interested can sign up for your community. The private community is only available to members who require login details to gain access.
It Offers You the Opportunity to Setup Spaces and Space Groups
When introducing online communities, we mentioned that you could exploit their marketing opportunities. Circle makes this dream a reality by allowing you to set up spaces that you can even use for adverts.
As good practice, create a Welcome space with a lovely message welcoming members into your community. You can also create a group as a sub-space that contains orientation materials for all the new members.
Source: Circle
Another common space you can create is the 'say hello page" that offers each member a chance to introduce themselves. You can also include an announcement space where you and the members can share any announcements.
On the other hand, you can use the spaces as groups for your online community. For example, if you are a fitness trainer, you can use these groups to classify your clients based on their respective fitness training.
There is a lot of editing you can make to customize your spaces. Just enter into any space you have created and click on the setting button at the top bar and make the customizations, including changing permissions to each space.
Also, don't forget to create a discussion space. Your members need a place to start or contribute to an ongoing discussion.
Note: the space type is the only setting change you cannot make to your space once formed. Therefore, when creating your spaces, be sure whether you want to use them for general posts or your online community events.
Schedule Events and Run Livestreams
The live events and streams feature has made Circle popular among most small businesses and professionals offering coaching or training services. Now you don't have to keep shifting community to different platforms like Zoom for you to have a live stream.
You can now host all your community events on Circle without the inconvenience. The convenience encourages maximum participation from your community members. It is also ideal if you plan on hosting regular events like weekly group coaching. You just need to schedule the event to repeat on a specific day of every week.
When you join Circle, you’ll realize they don't just introduce features for the sake of it. Once they decide on a feature, they will stop at nothing to ensure that it is perfect to serve their customers' diverse needs.
Case study 1: Circle allows you to schedule an event in advance and send your group members email and in-app notifications. The feature allows you to start marketing your event in advance and offers your members ample time to prepare. For example, if it's a live event to discuss a released product type, the members will have sufficient time to prepare questions or reviews they may have.
Case study 2: Circle lets you record live events and streams. It offers you the flexibility to re-publish the recordings on a future date or even share them with members who missed the event. Such recordings can be helpful in marketing future events as you give the target audience a sneak peek of what to expect in your events.
Source: Circle
You will appreciate this feature for marketing your brand or club events. Similarly, as a trainer or coach, you can use snippets or the full recording of past events and future training.
Note: Circle allows you to select a convenient location for your event. For example, you can choose Zoom, YouTube live, in-person, or Circle Live Stream (available on the pro-plan).
Integration and Custom Invitation Links
In the spirit of streamlining your automation, you want a tool that fully integrates with other tools you’re using. Circle fulfills this condition as you can integrate it into your systems through Zapier.
In addition, you can embed your Circle community on your website. That makes it easier to encourage your website visitors and other target audience to join your community by signing up through your website.
Furthermore, Circle allows you to create external links to add to the community sidebar. For example, you can create a link to your brand's social media page. If you are a professional coach or trainer, you can also add external links to your website page where you have all the courses added.
Moreover, you can create personalized invitation links to add new members to your community and send them through an email marketing campaign.
Analytics Tools
For example, you don't have to guess how to make your circle community more active and valuable to your brand. Circle analytics tools will provide the data you need to learn about your target audience's preferences and behavior.
You can use data from these tools to understand the following about your target audiences:
Which hours they’re most active on Circle
The content they engage with on Circle
Which of your users are most active in your community
The information from the analytics tool will help you decide the best time to hold your live events or streams.
Get Started with Circle Now
Circle is right for every business. There is much to learn and have fun with when setting up your community. Sign up here for a 14-day trial to experience these features firsthand.