Photo by: Alexander Suhorucov

In a world where our online communities come from different backgrounds, experiences, and locations, it is paramount that social media community managers understand how to appropriately engage with varying audiences. To remain relevant as a brand in this day and age, effectively engaging with your diverse online community is essential to any brand’s success. 

In this blog, we will touch on 7 effective ways that you and your brand can use to engage with your diverse online community. 

 

Understanding Your Audience 

Say you’re a brand that has 100,000 followers across all your social media channels, which include Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. Are you going to have one person on your team scroll through the list of followers on each platform to see which unique diverse backgrounds they come from? I would hope not! That seems like that’d take a long time. Instead, by utilizing data gathering techniques, like social media analytics, website tracking, and surveys, you’ll get a better sense of who your diverse audience is made up of. Additionally, by accurately identifying the diversity in your audience, you can cater your marketing tactics to each diverse segment, enhance your products for them, and make more sales for your brand. 

 

Developing Inclusive Content

When marketing to your diverse community on your social media platforms, it is crucial to be mindful of the content you’re sharing, which includes both imagery and language. 

Regarding your content’s imagery, when using pictures of people in your content to market your products or services, don’t stick to using just one ethnicity or type of person for every post, mix it up! Moreover, when choosing your imagery for your diverse content, Carly Steele Johnson of dci recommends that we aim for accurate representations of the diverse individuals we use in our content. It is also wise to keep in mind the accessibility of your content for those that rely on alt-text descriptions. If possible, using stock images of diverse individuals is okay if you have no other options, but trying to get snapshots of those in your community is always a plus for your content. 

When choosing the language your brand conveys to your diverse community, be sure to consider the following: 

• Remember that not everyone in your community will understand slang.
• Be conscientious of your cultural references – what you refer to in a post may not translate appropriately to specific diverse communities.
• Mitigate or eliminate gendered defaults when referring to someone’s profession. For example, use businessperson instead of businessman in your posts.

 

Make Your Community Feel Like They Belong

As wordsmith Olaniyan Olawale Abdullahi puts it in his article Social Media Etiquette: How to Navigate Sensitive Topics and Conversations Online, enforcing some type of social media etiquette for your users, also known as ‘netiquette’ can provide a sense of safeness for diverse groups within your brand’s online community. 

By establishing your community guidelines for your online users, you clearly define what is expected of them and what consequences they may face if they are to violate them. Regarding your brand’s online diverse community, having a space where you showcase your brand’s strong beliefs in fairness and inclusion can promote a sense of belonging, making your brand more approachable. When cultivating your community guidelines, consider the following: 

• Engaging with your community
• Openly state your values
• Specify desired behaviors 
• Have a plan for addressing conduct violations 

In addition to having your community guidelines, it is also worthwhile to regularly motivate your diverse community to participate in your online community. By doing so, you are not only showing that their voices matter, but you also gain the benefits of better dialogue and stronger relationships, defying stereotypes and fostering creativity, and promoting the growth of your diverse community. 

 

Reaching Your Diverse Audience Through Multiple Channels

Whether your brand is just starting out or has been around the block a few times, make sure that you aren’t limiting yourself to just one channel when trying to engage with your diverse community members! Rather, Prabhat Jairam of Medium suggests that we take into consideration the ways our diverse community members take in their media. This can include things like:

• Various social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok
• Offline media channels, such as newspapers and magazines
• And you guessed it, actual in-person community events!

 

Engaging in Active Listening and Feedback 

With any relationship you have in this life, listening is key, and this is especially the case with your diverse online community. Typical feedback you may see daily on your brand’s multiple channels can include:

• Corrective feedback
• Recommendations
• Questions 

Furthermore, taking full responsibility for any missteps made by your brand that may have upset specific groups within your diverse community must be addressed. Also, don’t be afraid to directly ask your community to reach out to you via direct messages or through comments about giving your brand their feedback on specific topics or situations. Additionally, running polls on your socials is another great way to receive feedback. 

 

Recognizing and Celebrating Diversity

When it comes to celebrating the diversity in our online communities, social media community managers need to understand how we can implement effective tactics into our daily marketing efforts. In naming just a handful of the many possibilities, your brand can work with cultural consultants who verify whether or not the information you want to promote is accurate, share real-life stories that are relevant to your diverse community, and genuinely understand and acknowledge global cultural occurrences. Not only will engaging in these considerations help your brand stand out from the bunch, but it will also help grow your brand’s loyal following thanks to your recognition. 

 

Collaborating with Diverse Influencers

Rounding our conversation up, partnering with diverse influencers can help us immensely. That is, according to Ella Proctor of Socially Powerful, she highlights certain areas that social media community managers, like us, may want to dig into with potential diverse influencers. For instance, diverse influencers tend to have higher levels of engagement across social media platforms due to the following:

• Their unique niche: since diverse influencers typically have devoted followers, more often than not, they will receive higher levels of engagement when it comes to promoting a certain niche. Perhaps your brand falls into a niche.

• How they interact with their audience: Since many of the diverse influencers out there are categorized as micro-influencers, they’ll often have deep connections with their community, which helps with engagement.

• Their authenticity: Because lots of diverse influencers have a micro-influencer status, they can provide their community with an authentic experience. 

Final Thoughts

Now that you have the necessary tools to engage with your brand’s diverse online community, it is time to take them for a spin! See how it can help improve your diverse online community social media strategy today! 

Are you seeing some of these strategies for the very first time? What strategies have you and your brand been using that seem to work and not work? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

 

Author: Sam Cuellar

Digital Marketing graduate from DePaul University, Marketing & Sales Coordinator at the National Institute for Social Media, and professional bass player with a passion for music, weight lifting, traveling, and social media marketing.