The community platform, or how to make the most of your community

The community platform... the ideal channel for companies and organizations seeking additional interaction with their community?

To understand why private community platforms are a fruitful lever of engagement that complements traditional social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), you need to understand exactly what you're talking about.

That's why today we're explaining what a community platform is, and revealing its advantages and limitations compared to traditional social media.

And for those of you who'd like to get started, at the end of the article you'll find our selection of the best tools for creating your own community platform.

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What is a community platform?

Definition of a community platform or site

A community platform is an online site that brings together a community around a common interest. Focused on communication and exchange, this type of platform brings together people who don't know each other in life, but who share a passion, a project, a problem, and so on.

☝️ This is not a social network or social platform in the strict sense of the term. In fact, unlike community websites, social networks :

• involve creating one's own connection with others, by setting up actions to add profiles;
• are generally built around people we already know in our private lives;
• are more self-centered, and less conducive to the dynamic of exchange.

Difference between community platforms (left) and social platforms (right):

FredCavazza.net

Uses of the community platform for the user

Posting articles, sharing photos and videos, exchanging ideas... the community platform offers many opportunities to communicate with others about personal interests (cooking recipes, travel tips, DIY tips, etc.).

But community sites can also be used for more professional purposes. The Season Road platform, for example, puts seasonal jobseekers in touch with recruiters.

Community platform uses for businesses and organizations

Professional community platforms are built around a variety of functionalities, and therefore a variety of possibilities:

• posting articles,
• microblogging,
• video content,
• photo distribution,
• marketing retargeting,
• event creation,
• contests and quizzes,
• surveys, etc.

As a result, companies and other organizations (schools, associations, government agencies, etc.) have community platforms at their disposal to gather and engage people by disseminating appropriate content.

The aim?

• Develop an affinity and privileged relationship with their community, with the aim of providing targeted answers to their problems.
• Take advantage of the interactions between the different members of your community to identify points to watch, areas for improvement or future business opportunities.

For example, the Mr.Bricolage brand has created the community platform La Dépanne, so that private individuals can rent or sell their tools to each other, as well as exchange tips and tricks.

☝️ Companies and organizations also use community sites internally. Among other things, they help to improve the flow of information between all those involved in the organization, and to develop strategies based on collective intelligence and knowledge sharing.

Community platforms VS social networks

In view of the uses described above, we're entitled to ask whether community platforms are on the way to supplanting traditional social platforms.

Let's take a look at the proven advantages of these community sites.

Benefits of community platforms

Enhanced customer and user experience

Compared with social networks, community platforms involve a more dialogue-oriented approach, as well as fine-tuning of all messages and content. This creates a stronger bond with the customer:

• They benefit from a space in which they can easily find relevant, responsive answers to their needs.
• They tend to engage more easily, thanks to the proximity and quality of exchanges.

The result?

Thanks to this improved customer experience, the community platform proves to be a significant loyalty-building lever.

Identifying business opportunities

Thanks to the community platform, the company or organization gains visibility on business opportunities to be seized in the market, areas of innovation to be explored, and current and future trends.

Increased organic reach

Thanks to community sites, you benefit from a much greater organic reach for your content than with traditional social networks, for which you usually have to opt for paid advertising.

Brand image development

A community platform generally offers greater graphic freedom. This means you can create an exchange space that reflects your personality.

The result?

The community site helps to convey a strong brand image, helping to establish your company or organization more firmly in the minds of Internet users.

Better data protection

Last but not least, hosting user data on community platforms has a dual benefit:

• an increase in users' sense of trust, as they are less and less inclined to hand over their personal data to American giants such as Facebook;
• an opportunity for the company to use this data for marketing and sales purposes, for example.

Limits of the community platform

However, it is often difficult to build up a large community from the outset without using a social network. This is all the more true if you don't yet enjoy a high public profile.

In fact, the classic social network allows you to reach more people, more quickly, even if user engagement isn't always there.

That's why we advise you to maintain both approaches. First, make yourself known through social media and your other marketing strategies. Then federate your target audience on your community platform with a real, relevant and engaging promise.

Shutterstock/Flamingo Images

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Which SaaS software can help you create your community platform?

Hivebrite: all-in-one, scalable software

Hivebrite is an all-in-one tool for animating your online community. It's ideal for schools and universities, members of professional networks and incubators, and non-profit associations.

Hivebrite

A wide range of features makes Hivebrite an invaluable ally for creating and managing your community platform. These include

• marketing actions (email campaigns, precise targeting thanks to intelligent data management, etc.) ;
• event management, including online payment and ticketing;
• networking (sharing job offers, CVs, creating opportunities, etc.);
• membership and donation management for associations, projects, etc.

Finally, Hivebrite is highly scalable and can be customized to suit your organization's needs and identity.

Khoros: community management for large corporations

Khoros (formerly known as Lithium) is a customer relationship management solution for large corporations, designed to deliver a pleasant, unified customer experience based on a true community spirit.

GetApp

Khoros software functions as a hub, with the aim of improving a company's responsiveness to customer requests through a variety of communication channels.

Community involvement is also at the heart of the software's concerns. Among other features, the solution offers gamification functionalities (using game dynamics) to encourage members to interact, as well as an analytics platform to measure their engagement.

Finally, training and coaching sessions are offered by Khoros to ensure the most optimal use of the solution by community managers and other users.

Neolink: the self-help and project-oriented tool

Neolink has been created to help you build a private social network as well as a community platform to federate communities outside your company.

Neolink

Flexible, Neolink adapts to your needs and is available in three tools:

• NeoEntraide: focused on a community of sharing and mutual aid, and on facilitating exchanges around project management.

• NeoJob: connects jobseekers with potential recruiters. The software features matching algorithms to improve searches according to precise criteria.

• NeoCitoyen: improves proximity between elected representatives and citizens, through enhanced communication and functional assistance to facilitate project management and the implementation of solidarity actions.

Potion: the solution for improving the customer experience

Use Potion to create a community platform that enables marketing and communications departments to multiply opportunities through better customer knowledge and the development of a sense of proximity.

Potion

Pilot a relevant inbound marketing and communications strategy using the functionalities developed by Potion:

• optimized content creation and management,
• microblogging, so that your best ambassadors can express themselves about you,
• creation of photo contests to generate engagement, with a highly visual ranking system,
• gamification (badges and levels, for example) to encourage the community to stay active, etc.

The whole site is designed to be totally responsive, in tune with the lifestyle of today's web surfer.

You now have the tools you need to understand all the advantages offered by community platforms. Now it's up to you to take your community's experience to the next level, and reap the many benefits of sharing and collective intelligence.