Promoting your online community without social media

[Shawn Gossman]

One thing I’ve found in the Online community world, especially with old school forum owners, there’s a lot of people don’t like to promote with social media.

I totally understand that. I use social media to promote things, but I understand why other people do not. So I wanted to write an article all about promoting your online community without using social media.

Enjoy!

https://www.shawngossman.com/promote-an-online-community-without-social-media/

 

[Uncrowned]

You hit on a lot of solid concepts with marketing that don't require social media. Many of those are vastly overlooked by users as many skip right over how popular items like blogs and newsletters are and that those are still growing against social media trends. However, I would say that a follow-up on automated social media can be a nice touch as being on social media isn't always needed.

 

[joelr]

Not everyone in your niche or audience may be on social media. People broadly are, but there are huge pockets of users in other platforms.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

However, I would say that a follow-up on automated social media can be a nice touch as being on social media isn't always needed.

You're definitely correct.

I do automated social media marketing and it generates thousands of views a day for me.

But I know many community folks don't social media. That might be the reason why they made a community and I wanted to make sure people know there are alternatives to social media.

 

[joelr]

There's almost a visceral reaction by some old school forum owners who dislike social media, which is so backwards. Social media is a tool, and regardless of your personal feelings of the morality / grand stupidity exhibited on social media at large, it's still a valuable tool for engagement.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

There's almost a visceral reaction by some old school forum owners who dislike social media, which is so backwards. Social media is a tool, and regardless of your personal feelings of the morality / grand stupidity exhibited on social media at large, it's still a valuable tool for engagement.

I totally agree. Every cent I've made was initiated by something on social media for my hiking brand.

I mean it was YouTube and FB alone that got me locally noticed.

 

[Uncrowned]

One note I always took for Social Media was that you and your brand are on social media, but it is up to you if you want to be in the driver seat of those topics or not.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

One note I always took for Social Media was that you and your brand are on social media, but it is up to you if you want to be in the driver seat of those topics or not.

True.

I have found that creating an additional community on social is the best way to get to work but it's a challenge running multiple communities.

I will say once you establish a community on social, it becomes easier to manage it.

Most of my social media content is automated and I have a pretty large community on most of them.

I do make time to manually engage though.

 

[Uncrowned]

I do make time to manually engage though.

I try to make this my goal, but I always fall back on automation. I don't find much joy on most social media.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I try to make this my goal, but I always fall back on automation. I don't find much joy on most social media.

I've built my outdoor brand on social. I have a large community on FB, IG, and Twitter (and of course YouTube).

But I think it's different because my brand is so local. Most of my top fans have met me in person,

But I do get a lot of joy engaging with them on there. It's active, though, very active.

You can see my Facebook page, for example, at:

https://www.facebook.com/hikingwithshawn/

I automate daily posts and reply as I get time usually a few times an hour. But on weekends, I'm out getting content in the forest so I'm not as active.

 

[Uncrowned]

I've built my outdoor brand on social. I have a large community on FB, IG, and Twitter (and of course YouTube).

But I think it's different because my brand is so local. Most of my top fans have met me in person,

But I do get a lot of joy engaging with them on there. It's active, though, very active.

You can see my Facebook page, for example, at:

https://www.facebook.com/hikingwithshawn/

I automate daily posts and reply as I get time usually a few times an hour. But on weekends, I'm out getting content in the forest so I'm not as active.

Looks like you got a nice little community on there for sure!

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Looks like you got a nice little community on there for sure!

And here's my related local-niche group to go with it!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/southernillinoishiking