[Build Backlinks Online] How to Build an Online Community for Your Business

Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'How to Build an Online Community
for Your Business'


Posted by Mackenzie Fogelson

Every day,things are changing in SEO. If youre not already working on adapting,
todays the day.

Its time.

It's not that SEO is dead or that links are obsolete, or whatever all that
crazy talk is that's been going around. It's that there's a way to integrate all
the pieces into the big picture of building a better company by building an
online community around it.

There are lots of benefits to building a community around your company, but if
I had to choose a few, here are my top five:


It will help you weather Googles algorithmsâ¨
Building an online community is one of the best ways to weather Googles
algorithms. If you're continually chasing the algorithm, you're putting all of
your power in what Google's going to do next. If you're building a community
around your business, you're putting the focus where it belongs: on your
business. Building a strong company and brand isn't something that Google can
take away.


It will add equity and value to your businessâ¨
When you build online community, you have to do a bunch of stuff to better
serve your customers like creating quality content and resources, enhancing your
product or services, and improving your systems and processes. Doing these
things adds equity and value to your business and attracts the right customers
to your community.â¨


It will help you have purposeâ¨
Theres a lot of effort involved in building a community around your brand, and
its not just about creating content or being on social media just because
everyone else is doing it. When youre strategic about community building, it
forces you to identify goals and put a solid purpose behind your
efforts.â¨


It will help you stand outâ¨
If youre committed to the process of building a community, you are going to be
doing a great deal of self-discovery (which often times can be pretty
uncomfortable). During this process youll determine what youre all about, what
you love to do, and what its going to take to help you stand out among the
competition.â¨


It will put the focus on goals, not tools
â¨Building an online community isnt a bunch of fluffy stuff. Its the
seamless integration of tools like SEO, social media, content marketing, email
marketing, and all kinds of other important stuff (like hard work and passion).
But in order for the tools to be effective, theyve got to be driven by a
strategy that is rooted in the goals of your whole business.


In the last year, Mack Web has been working on building our own community (and
helping our clients to build theirs). What weve found (through a whole lot of
trial and error, joy and pain, sunshine and, well, you get the point) is that
building community means building a better business. Its a necessary online
component for growth as it forges and fosters relationships that are essential
to building a business online as you would in person. â¨â¨

A present for you


For the past several months, I have been writing a lot about community. How to
build it with value, how to identify it, and how to attract customers to it. And
now, lucky for you, I'd like to share our process for how to build an online
community for your business.

What follows is a super awesome infographic and the play-by-play breakdown of
each step in the process. I'm thinking it might come in handy (you can even
listen to my webinar for the full effect).
Whether youre building a community from scratch, or youre working to grow an
existing one, you can use this process to get your community rolling or optimize
and leverage what you already have.

The order in which you attack this may differ depending on the size of your
organization, your goals, and the stage youre in as a company. I encourage you
to take this process and meld it into what works best for you.

Here we go!






And, in case you want to steal this, here's the embed code ('cuz we're nice
like that).
<pcenterimg
src="http://www.mackwebsolutions.com/img/mozimages/how-to-build-communities.jpg"
width="540"> <br/>An infographic on <a
href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-build-an-online-community-for-your-business">How
to Build an Online Community</a> by the team at <a
href="http://mackwebsolutions.com/">Mack Web Solutions</a/center/p>


Let me break that down into stages for you:


[1] Define your business objectives


Lets start this entire process out right by thinking about your goals. What you
want to focus on here is defining objectives for your entire business, not just
for SEO, social media, content, or marketing. Stay focused on the whole picture
of what you want to do with your company.
Keep in mind that theres a lot more to defining business objectives than just
writing down a bunch of goals. So before you do that, think about this:


What makes your company unique?â¨
Especially when youre a new business (but this happens with old ones, too),
its easy to feel like you need everyone to be your customer. But the fact is,
what you really need are the right customers.â¨â¨
Take Coke and Pepsi; Hershey and Dove; and Chipotle and Qdoba. All companies
who sell similar products, but attract very different customers to their brand
and their communities.â¨â¨ Both are good (and to many
people, taste the same). So whats the difference? Why would someone be attracted
to, say, Chipotle over Qdoba?â¨â¨
Chipotles food has integrity. They serve sustainably-raised food. They support
local farmers. They respect the environment. Because of these values, Chipotle
attracts people who have similar philosophies and approaches to food and life.
â¨â¨
Qdoba is about quality ingredients. These are very similar things, but the
difference is something that people find common ground with, feel strongly
about, and want to stand behind. Its not just about the food. Its what they
believe in. Its what makes them unique. And people want to be a part of
that.â¨â¨
So, determine what your unique selling proposition (USP) is. Do an analysis of
your competition. What do you do differently than them (no matter how small)?
How is that remarkable? Why does it make you special? Thats your USP. Own this
and make it part of everything you do. On and offline.


Why do you care?â¨Simon Sinek can probably say this a whole lot
better than I can, but here it is: what is it that makes you care about your
business? What keeps you pushing forward (especially when you want to quit)? The
reason that you care has nothing to do with money, so besides that, whats
important?â¨â¨
That passion that you feel for your business is not only a significant
differentiator, but its part of your story and its far more motivating than
money. Keep this sucker in your back pocket. Youre gonna need it.â¨


What do you want to build?â¨
Whats your vision for your company? Think six months, eighteen months, and
three to five years. What is it that you really want to do? Dream some of that
stuff up and start making a list. You may even want to write down things that
are currently on the horizon. Big changes, events, product launches, stuff like
that. This will help you to begin defining the goals you have for your business
both short and long term.â¨


Who do you want to build it for?â¨
This is the part where you get really clear about who your customer actually
is. What are their fears, concerns, and challenges? What are the problems (big
and small) they would like to solve? Talk to them. Survey them. Ask
them.â¨â¨
Organize your audiences into groups. Build some personae around them so that
they are real, live, tangible people (find a photo for them and everything).
These are your targets.â¨â¨
It will also help to understand your conversion funnel and how that relates to
your audience. What do your customers need during the different stages of the
funnel? All of this good stuff is going to help inform your strategy (and
eventually youre going to want to create the content and resources to serve
those needs).
â¨â¨Just remember that every person on the web is not your
customer. Go back to that USP that youve just defined. Focus on that and the
people who resonate with it, and do whatever it takes to keep the emphasis on
them.â¨


The answers to all of these questions will help get to the root of what youre
working so hard for in the first place. From there, you can determine what you
really want to do with your company. Then you can identify the goals youd like
to work toward (start with just a few). Once you have those defined, lets talk
about your team.â¨â¨


[2] Elect your team


Weve been around the block a time or two on this community building thing, and
there are many things that can become roadblocks. Team selection is one of them.

Heres a few tips for getting the right team in place so that you can start
working toward achieving your goals:


Understand the rolesâ¨
Building community is no joke. Theres a lot of work to be done and many roles
that will need to be filled. If you work with an outside agency, they will bring
most of the power, but you play an integral role. Keep in mind that an agency is
meant to be your collaborative partner, and not just your mask. Its your
company, after all, so its important that youre present.â¨â¨
If youre among the brave souls who are going to tackle all of this hard work
internally, heres a run down on some of the typical roles that your team may
need to execute: (Please note that Im not suggesting that you hire someone to
fulfill each of these roles. Im simply providing an overview of the different
roles that are part of the community building process. Within your team, there
will be individuals who can take on several of these roles).


â¨Project management: Someone to keep all of the peeps on schedule
and on taskâ¨â¨.

Community management:Someone who can represent your company on social media,
monitor, and manage the rest of your team whos on there as well (pro tip: read
Marty Weintraub's book on community management).

Design:Someone who can create any graphic assets that you need and make you
look really good.â¨â¨

Content:Someone who can write (like the dickens).â¨â¨

SEO:Someone who loves research, analysis, keywords, and Google so that they
can properly and effectively manage the optimization of all content. Ideally you
want this dude to be more than passingly familiar with strategy as
well.â¨

Email marketing:Someone who can design, develop, and coordinate email
marketing campaigns to deliver the value your team is creating in relationship
to your strategy.â¨â¨

Reading & learning:Several someones who are continually reading and learning
about your industry and looking for good stuff to pass around your community
(that isnt about you)â¨â¨. More on this below, but this
reading and learning stuff is incredibly imperative to success.

Outreach:Several someones who are developing relationships and helping to
keep those people and your community involved in what youre doing (so that they
can partake and benefit, too).


As you can see, this is a lot of weight for one person to carry, so ideally,
if you dont have the resources in-house, or youre a freelance SEO, piece
together a reliable team that can help fill in the gaps. Its not that one person
cant do all of this work, but in that case both efforts and results will
probably be slower to come to fruition.â¨â¨
Also, because building community is a long-term, ongoing process, I wouldnt
recommend assigning the really integral roles (likecommunity manager) to
short-timers or interns. Of course, many companies have limited resources, so do
what you can with what you have and just be consistent as possible with your
efforts.â¨


Elect, dont just assignâ¨
Thing is, especially if youre a smaller company, youve got to work with what
you have. Not every company has the luxury of bringing on an outside agency or
hiring additional people to share the load of all of this stuff. But if you want
these efforts to be successful, youve gotta have a team of people who are
passionate and committed to seeing this thing through, even when its tough and
you want to give up.â¨â¨
Instead of just assigning tasks and dumping a bunch of (usually un-welcome)
work on people, elect people for your implementation team who are committed to
the success of the organization and are passionate about things like your
company, social media, content, SEO, and communication.â¨â¨
Oh, and humans. â¨â¨Youve got to have people on this team
who want to be there or your efforts will fail. Make it a selection process so
that the team feels honored to be part of this whole thing (because it really is
a movement).â¨


Work together as one, big, happy family
â¨Whether youre working with internal and external teams, a whole
bunch of interdepartmental teams, or a mix and match of both, do whatever you
can to come together as a unified team (more on this below). Whatever you do,
dont silo. Collaborate and be friends. It will make all of the difference in the
end.â¨â¨


Keep in mind that this team youre putting together isnt just going to be
working on your marketing; theyre going to be playing an integral role in
transforming your business. Do what it takes to be sure everyone is on the same
page and working together to make things happen.


[3] Develop your strategyâ¨


Developing a strategy is what will actually help you to achieve your goals. A
good strategy will assist you in breaking those high level goals down into
actionable, chewable pieces that you can work towards and even
measure.â¨â¨
Think about strategy in three pieces: the what, the when, and the how.


The what: campaignsâ¨
Campaigns are where your goals meet your ideas. What is it that youre going to
need to create in order to actually accomplish your goals? Everything from your
tangible assets like blog posts, videos, and infographics; to webinars and
events like tradeshows, conferences, speaking engagements, and meetups.
â¨â¨If one of your goals is to become a trusted resource
in your industry (a thought leader), then youve got to figure out what its going
to take to accomplish it. Maybe its a four-part series that involves a mix of
instructional videos that are integrated into blog posts, in-person
lunch-and-learns or meetups, and maybe a speaking engagement at a conference.
Whatever it ends up being, your campaigns need to break down all of the nitty
gritty (and creative) detail of what is going to happen to take this bigger
picture to fruition.â¨â¨
But whatever you do, dont plan the campaigns in your strategy for 12
consecutive months. It really makes it hard for the team to be agile and embrace
stuff that comes up. We have found that every few months, its time to develop a
new strategy (based on the data weve collected and the stuff that weve
observed).
Figure out whats working and put your efforts (and your money there). Things
are going to happen. Your business will change, you'll have a big victory that
you want to explore further, you'll discover an opportunity that you didn't
realize existed. So keep the higher level, 12-month plan in mind, but plan
campaigns for 2-3 months at a time.


The when: execution calendarâ¨
Once you know exactly what you want to do, youve got to figure out how long
its going to take. Develop a high level execution calendar that illustrates the
coordination of all assets and vehicles over a two to three month period (long
enough to collect some data, but, again, short enough to be agile and change
direction).â¨â¨ Your calendar may look something like this:
Youll also want to take all of those high level ideas and break them down to
assign them to actual people with real due dates. We do this in Basecamp and
Gcal, but anything that allows you to assign deadlines will do the
job.â¨


The how: ongoing efforts
â¨The how is your plan for everything that needs to happen and
continue to happen to make your efforts a success (people, assets, actionables).
The biggest thing ongoing is to keep your commitments and stay accountable for
the stuff that has to get done. But a really big (and important) part of ongoing
efforts is continual analysis of your efforts and goals to make sure youre
always headed in the right direction (more on measurement and analysis below).
â¨â¨
Thing is, there is no formula. Youve got to be creative, try things out, and
do what works for your business. Throw some stuff out there and see what
happens. Make some educated decisions about that data and go from there. After a
few campaigns youll get to know what works for your community and youll start to
gain some traction. Its all part of the process.



[4] Empower your teamâ¨


Once that youve figured out what, youre going to do to work toward your goals
(with your super awesome strategy). Before you jump into go-mode, take some time
to set the team up for success. â¨

Do not skip this step.

â¨â¨I repeat. This step is important. Dont skip it.
Depending on the climate (and culture) of your company (or the company youre
working with), theres going to be some fear, concerns, and even resistance that
youll get from your team (even if you think everything is A-OK). Rather than
ignoring it and pushing through, hit it head on. Talk about it. Get it out in
the open. Youll be glad you did.
You can empower your team for success by addressing a few simple questions:


Why are we doing this?â¨
Heres your chance to build confidence and trust. The biggest source of
resistance we run into is with teams who are afraid of the online space and of
being on social media. â¨â¨Help your team understand that
building an online community is not just about social media. Its about working
toward the goals that you have for your company. Social media is just one of the
vehicles. If you use it effectively, youre going to learn a ton of stuff, meet
some really cool people, and turn up some pretty amazing opportunities.
â¨


How much work is involved?
â¨When people have a sense of purpose, they are more inclined to put
the effort forth. Is there going to be a lot of work involved? Yes. Is it going
to be hard? You betcha. â¨â¨
That being said, nows your chance to reassure your team that youve taken the
time to identify goals for the company and have developed a strategy thats going
to help achieve those goals. You have a purpose.
Explain how the campaigns that have been developed in the strategy align with
your specific goals.â¨â¨ Also, let your team know that there
is a learning curve for all of this and that you dont expect them to know what
theyre doing right off the bat. Integrate training for your team as an ongoing
thing. Training that focuses on skills as well as approach. This will motivate
them and help them to feel useful and powerful. â¨


When will we see results?
â¨Let me be very clear about this. You can measure ROI in community
building, but its not as simple as measuring a cell phone case purchase in a
shopping cart. Youve got to be creative about what and how you measure and know
that it takes time to see results. And sometimes the stuff that brings ROI
cannot be easily measured. â¨â¨
When discussing expectations about results, be realistic. Dont sugar coat it.
Building (or growing) a community takes time (and a lot of work). And so does
accomplishing goals. Especially big ones. Its important that you have open
communication with the team about what can be expected in the long and also the
short term. â¨â¨
We like to talk about examples of what the little victories look like. Like
getting recognized for a good piece of content with a retweet on Twitter. Or a
lead that was generated through a good conversation you had with someone on
Google+. Again, its the same stuff you do when youre building your business in
person. Youre just doing it online.â¨â¨
For the long term, we focus on realistic timeframes for their goals based on
the steps were taking with their strategy. If the goal is thought leadership,
and depending on the stage the company is currently in (are we starting from
scratch?), there will be a whole lot of leg work (and foundational work) that
has to be done. Like many goals, this stuff doesn't happen overnight.
Discuss KPIs (that you all can agree on) that will provide the proof that your
efforts are working. Maybe its a series of actions like downloading a
whitepaper, attending a webinar, or being asked to speak at a conference. If
these are the actions, determine how youre going to track them (in Google
Analytics or wherever else you want to collect the data), and then youll have
the data to report on each month (more on communicating measurement
below).â¨â¨
One last thing on results. Remember that you may not ever reach the goals you
set out. But certainly what can happen along that journey can be even more
rewarding. Stay present and pushing forward.â¨


The biggest thing to remember with empowering your team is that you have to
help them disrupt their routine. Building community is about learning, growing,
and pushing your company into new spaces. You cant do this by tacking all of
this new work onto the same routine youve been using for the last 5 years. Youve
got to start new. Disrupt your routine and start new. And then get ready for the
long haul.â¨


[5] Learn your industryâ¨


You cant grow a business in a vacuum. If you want to stand out and be
successful, youve got to be learning and growing.

All. The. Time. â¨â¨

One of your number one priorities in marketing your business online is
providing the best possible customer experience. And you cant do that if youre
not learning continuously.
You can start by identifying your community and determining the blogs you want
to be sure to read, the people you want to get to know, and companies that you
will want to keep tabs on.
Embracing the knowledge in your industry is going to push you to be more
creative, innovative, and agile. Its going to open up opportunities that you
didnt even realize existed. But that wont happen if you dont dedicate the time
to it on a consistent basis.
Learning takes place everywhere. So step away from your computer and meet some
people (for Dr. Petes sake). Make new friends, find people who have a strength
that you need to work on and ask them to mentor you. Build friendships with
super cool people and companies. This is really the most important part.
Then go back to your computer and read a lot. More than you ever have in your
whole life. Read the good stuff inside of your industry and outside of your
industry. Youre going to see some cool stuff that will open up your world (that,
my friends, is why its called the world wide web).
All of this stuff is what manifests serendipity and although thats the hardest
stuff to measure, its also what ends up making the biggest difference when
building a community (and a business).


[6] Create the value


Ok, now were getting to the real good stuff. Value is what your community is
built upon, whether thats tangible stuff like blog posts, videos, resources, and
tools; or an approach, perspective, or virtue that is the basis for common
ground. Value that focuses on your customer and their experience is what
attracts people to your business, your brand, and your community.
In general, there are two types of content that will help build your community:
foundational and community building.Foundational content is the more static
stuff on your website (like your about and services sections), like pages that
explain who you are and what you do. The problem with most foundational content
is, let's be honest, that it kind of sucks. Its really focused on self-promotion
(as it should be; it is, after all, your website) instead of being geared toward
the needs of your customer.
The challenge with foundational content is to listen to your customer. Observe
their needs, the things in life that they struggle with, and then communicate
how your products or services address those things. Use video and resources and
case studies and infographics to provide an engaging and value-packed experience
and make your foundational content worth reading (and worthy of links).Community
building content is the stuff thats more dynamic in nature and usually lives on
your blog. Its the content that is less about what you do and more about what
you know.
Community building content is the easiest stuff to make all about your customer
because the purpose of building it is to help them understand your knowledge and
expertise. This type of content indirectly promotes your brand, establishes
trust and credibility, and really helps to foster relationships.
Just like your foundational content, this stuff needs to be full of your
personality. Show who you are, what you believe in, and how you approach stuff.
Balance your content with risky stuff and things that may help you stand out a
bit. All in an effort to help your customers (current and potential) learn so
that theyll pass it around to their friends and come back later for more.
Heres a few more things to remember when youre generating your
content:â¨


Its not about youâ¨
Make your content about your customer, not about you. Focus on their needs.
And dont just guess, ask them. Do an email survey, or make a phone call, or take
them to lunch. Listen and figure out how you can better serve them and then
actually apply the feedback to the content and resources youre
creating.â¨


Dont forget about SEOâ¨
SEO is an integral piece when building community and content. Certainly your
content will be part of your well-planned strategy, but before you create it,
don't forget to find out whats already out there. Does what you're about to
write already exist (in some form)? If so, find a way to do it better so that
Google has a reason to index it and present it as the best option when someone
conducts a search.â¨â¨
Dont forget the importance of covering your SEO bases and doing the basic
on-page stuff. Do some keyword research and properly integrate it into your
content so that people can actually find your stuff. â¨


Use pre-outreachâ¨
Thanks to this tip from Rob Ousbey, pre-outreach has been one of the most
powerful tools in our arsenal. Getting the word out about good stuff youre doing
is a lot harder if you dont involve your audience in the process. Before you
even create your content, think about who you could talk to, interview, survey,
engage with online, and get valuable feedback that could help make your content
more purposeful and more successful.



[7] Share the value


You may have heard me mention this once or twice, but the way in which you
share the value that you (and others) create, is one of the most important
pieces (and accelerators) when building community and your business.
It works like this: 80% of the time, share other peoples great stuff. But dont
just retweet it or hit the share button and place it on your feed. Read it.
Internalize it. And then curate it. Tell people why its good. This helps you
learn and also keeps the focus where it belongs: on the value that you're
providing for the reader.20% of the time, share your own stuff, but make it
remarkable. This is the community building stuff that we just talked about. The
stuff that provides a wealth of knowledge that people will thank you for.
And remember that just building something amazing, doesnt guarantee that people
will see it. Thats why theres outreach (so do it, dude).
Outreach is code for making friends and being an authentic human before you
even think about asking for anything. Build relationships with people online as
you would in person. Then, when youve got good stuff to get out, theyre going to
be excited to spread the word.â¨â¨ Whatever your ratio is:
60/40, 70/30, 90/10, remember that its not about you. Stay focused on your
customer and test out what works best for your community.


[8] Build and foster growth


This is the part that never, ever ends (that's a good thing). Building and
fostering community is synonymous with building and growing your company. Youve
got to work at it. All the time.
There are lots of things that you can do to foster and grow your community.
Heres just a few:


Get in thereâ¨
Remember that you are a member of your community. You and your entire team.
Get in there. Play an active role. Contribute and engage on a genuine level. Its
an extension of your company and your brand and its important to the growth of
your community.â¨


Embrace offline efforts
â¨Its so important to cultivate relationships with people in person.
Its an integral piece to growing your community. When you form a bond in person,
its even more powerful online. â¨â¨So go to events and hold
events. Ask people to coffee. Go to meetups and conferences. Embrace the
offline, in-person, human stuff as much as you do with your work online. Meet
people face-to-face and learn more about them. It will really help to build your
community and your business.â¨


Acknowledge and show appreciationâ¨
Dont forget that a community comprises living, breathing people who are
supporting you. There are lots of great ways to show your appreciation, so make
sure you set the time aside in your routine to acknowledge the humans in your
community. â¨â¨
Of course you can always give them stuff. Providing free swag at events or
sending it out as a thank you or just because is a great way to show
appreciation and turn your members into your brand
ambassadors.â¨â¨
Be on the lookout for community members who are doing great things in their
own businesses or lives. Recognize their good news and hard work and give them a
virtual pat on the back.â¨â¨ Engage with your community
members and ask them if theres anything you can do to help them. Its a great way
to create the content and resources they need that will also benefit others.



[9] Measure and analyze (and communicate)


This is the juicy part (and just because this is listed as the last piece in
the process doesnt make it any less significant). In fact, youll want to make
sure that youre thinking about measurement and analysis all the way
through.â¨

Measurement and analysis is an ongoing process when building community.
Everything you do will include testing, feedback, measurement, analysis,
adjustments, rinsing, and repeating. And then, youve got to communicate this
data to your team (and/or your client).
Heres a few thoughts about measurement & analysis, but also ongoing,
old-fashioned communication:


Weekly stand-upsâ¨
When were helping clients build their communities, its a very collaborative
process. There are lots of things that we do on their behalf, but theres also
some integral pieces that we need them to execute consistently and timely.
We hold stand-ups every day as a team, and they work so well that we thought
wed try them out (once a week) with our clients. We dont talk metrics at these
meetings. Just a quick 10 minute meeting to get on the phone, a G+ hangout, or
via Skype so that we can get connected for the week. This has really helped to
boost motivation and keep the momentum of the strategy that were all working to
implement.â¨


Bi-weekly pushes
â¨In addition to the weekly standups, we also do a little electronic
pushing over email every two weeks. This is really just a collective heres whats
going on reminder to again, keep the momentum.â¨â¨ We used
to do these in a document, but that wasnt getting the response we needed, so we
switched to a straight up email with a little "action required" nudge in the
subject line.


Monthly reports
â¨Monthly reports tend to be the best way to communicate all of the
hard work youve been doing, but also prove that youre making some headway on
those goals youve set forth. In those reports, showcase the data that youve
collected and then present it in a way that is meaningful to the client so that
they can easily see how this is affecting their business.
â¨â¨Your goal with monthly reports is to illustrate the
value youre providing and the progress youre making. But dont just send these
reports via email. Take the time each month to review (face-to-face) whats been
going on, and talk more specifically about how efforts are helping to reach
goals (which equates to ROI). â¨â¨
Remember that its your job to provide the analysis. What does this mean to
their business? Are efforts (and dollars) being spent in the right places? If
youre experiencing victories, share them. If the data doesnt look good, tell
them why and then what youre going to do about it. Thats what the data is for.
Analyze it and then use it to make decisions about your efforts moving
forward.â¨


Quarterly strategyâ¨
At quarter's end, take a higher level look at whats going on. Can you spot
trends in content, social behavior, traffic? How does that affect efforts and
what needs to be done with the strategy to adjust?â¨â¨Just
make sure youre always bringing this stuff back to goals. Assess the journey and
then figure out what needs to be done to change course and put a new plan into
action.



â¨Now its your turn


As you take this process and work to implement it into your company or with
your clients, keep these final things in mind:


This is about building a brandâ¨
At the heart of building community is becoming the company youve always wanted
to be. Stay rooted in your passion for your business and remember that your
efforts go far beyond your marketing. Youre working to build a brand and a
company that you can be proud of and that people want to be associated
with.â¨


Stay grounded in your goalsâ¨
Whether youre a one-person band, or a humungo company, theres a lot to tackle
with all of this good stuff. Thats why a strategy is so important. But you won't
have a strategy to stand on if you haven't clearly defined your objectives for
your business. Make sure you always come back to your goals. These are the
foundation for all of the hard work youre doing. Always put your focus on goals,
not tools.â¨


Dont give upâ¨
The number one question in all of this is when are we going to see results?
How long does it take before something really great happens? Unfortunately
theres no formula with this stuff so theres no straight way to answer these
questions.
What I do know is that results come in different forms and different sizes for
every company.
For Mack Web, it took us about a year of working through this process for our
company before we started to gain traction, but that was after wed already been
in business for 10 years. If you want to achieve results, youve got to be
willing to fail for a long time before you start seeing the wins. But if you can
stick with it, you wont be sorry (this is what happened to Mack Web's traffic in
just a 10 month period of facilitating this process for our company).



What have I missed? What great things are you doing to build your brand and
your community? I would love to hear more in the comments below.
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