7 Online Community Tactics and Tools For Growth

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Building an online community is a smart way to accelerate your growth goals. Whether you’re after a larger audience to maximize advertising revenue or leads, there are several online community tactics and tools that can help you achieve success.

Use this post as a toolkit – picking the tools and tactics up as you need them.

Start With The End In Mind: KPI and ROI Goals

Community building takes resources and energy, so take the time to be strategic. Choosing the right mix of community tactics and goals is only possible when you have a clear objective. The following key performance indicators for most brands may be exactly what you need.

  • Engaged Visitors: Track the number of visitors engaged with your website, such as those who visit multiple pages. Alternatively, you might define engaged visitors by time on site or other metrics.
  • Average Time On Site: Generally speaking, higher time on site is desirable. Aim for at least 60 seconds on site as a starting goal. That’s enough time to make an initial connection with your audience.
  • First-Party Data: Gathering first-party data is vital to transforming an anonymous website visitor into an identified user. A good starting point is to track the number of people who sign up for your email list or agree to receive browser notifications.
  • Registered Community Members: Track the number of community members who have signed up by the week or the month.
  • Community Engagement Goal: The KPI mentioned above only tells you part of the story about the health of your community. It’s also vital to measure the quality of audience engagement. For example, you may also want to measure how many active members you have (i.e. members who post or comment at least once a month) or how many people attend virtual community events. Highly active community members may be good candidates to serve as ambassadors, community moderators, and other forms of community leadership in return for perks and other rewards.

We didn’t include revenue-related goals in the list because revenue is a lagging indicator of success. That means you typically can’t work on improving revenue directly. Instead, you can only influence it indirectly by getting more leads and increasing your audience.

Community Building Tactics

Review these community-building techniques with your team. For even better results, get an outside perspective on your community, like a friend who has never used your website.

1) Make Your Online Community Easy To Find On Your Website

Modern websites are complex with many moving parts. When building an online community, ensure your site architecture makes it easy to find. For example, there should be an easy-to-read navigation to the community from the homepage. In addition, you may also want to set up specific calls to action for community events like product launches, events with influencer guests, and live chat experiences.

2) Set Up Your Online Community To Welcome New People

Almost everybody has had the experience of walking into a party and struggling to make a connection. In the online context, that sense of awkwardness translates into lost engagement opportunities. The solution is to make a deliberate effort to welcome new people. The art of being welcomed in an online community has several dimensions.

Post Community Welcome Message

Post a welcome message for new people interested in joining your community. This message should give a few tips on how to get started. For example, you may have a discussion board area where new people can introduce themselves. If so, direct them to post! Also, provide clear directions on how to join the community (e.g., click here to set up your community account).

To keep this welcome message relevant and useful, set a reminder to review it monthly or quarterly and update it as needed.

Set Expectations With Community Rules

Many of the most successful and enduring online communities have community rules. Posting these rules is an essential way of making people feel safe online. Beyond preventing unwanted behaviors, community rules can signal your expectations. For example, encourage community members to post reviews or ask questions about products.

Publish Community Badges

Awarding community badges like Community Builder (e.g., engaged with 5 or more other people), Conversation Starter (e.g., starting multiple discussion threads), and Welcome (i.e., a badge to hand out to brand new users) is a proven tactic to reward ongoing

participation in your community. Community badges may be symbolic, like an icon next to a person’s name. Or you may give special recognition and privileges to your top community members (e.g., invite them to be guests in your virtual event).

Community badges are common in enterprise settings (e.g., Microsoft MVP) and more casual settings (e.g., on Discord servers for gamers and other enthusiasts).

3) Offer Premium Content Exclusively For Community Members

Posting high-quality, helpful, and entertaining content is essential to creating an engaging community. The twist here is to reserve some of your best content for registered community members. Use the following tips to position premium content for your community.

Provide Early Access To Premium Content

Reward your community members with advanced access to your content, like seeing a new video or podcast episode a day or two before everyone else. In addition to engaging your community, you will also have the opportunity to get feedback on the content before it is widely circulated.

Community Exclusive Online Events

Exclusivity is a powerful way to sell people the value of your community. Exclusive content might include “fireside chats” where a dozen community members come together with a special guest.

Question And Answer Sessions With Leaders and Employees

Active community members are likely to be among your most passionate customers. Encourage this passion further by giving them access to your leadership. For example, a clothing company might offer a Q&A session about how the company implements sustainable clothing practices.

As your community thrives and grows, informally keeping the community focused may no longer work. Bringing on a community manager or moderators can make a big difference.

4) Appoint A Community Manager

Introducing a community manager is an advanced tactic that makes sense in certain situations. Typically, an online community manager is most valuable when your community has started to achieve significant scale. You’ll know you need a community manager if you start seeing problems like falling engagement or complaints about inappropriate behavior.

The specific duties of an online community manager depend on your goals. The most common job responsibilities include the following:

  • Moderation. A community manager will review potentially inappropriate content for deletion. In some cases, the community manager may also have to determine if a specific user should be suspended or banned for inappropriate behavior or violating community rules.
  • Directing Users For Help. When your community members post asking for help or have detailed product questions, the community manager can step in and direct the person on how to access support.
  • Oversee Your Social Media Communities. Your goal may be to grow your audience on your website. However, your customers may prefer Facebook or other platforms. Therefore, the community manager reviews these other platforms and responds to community members as needed.
  • Report On Community Trends. Regularly provide written and oral reports to others in the company about current trends. In this way, the community manager helps the rest of the company understand what’s working well with the community.

What if your organization doesn’t have the budget to hire a full-time community manager? There are other options. In the previous section, you learned about community badges to recognize your top community participants. You can take that process a step further by asking your top community members to take on the role of a volunteer moderator.

Community Building Tools

Building an online community also takes the right mix of technologies. It is best to focus your community-building efforts on your website. When users are on your website, it’s easier to track their actions and gather data.

5) Use Live Chat To Build Audience Engagement.

Using Arena live chat is a powerful way to transform your website into an interactive experience. Arena has content moderation features that make it easier to keep discussions focused and enforce your standards. And the best part? It can be embedded into your existing digital properties so your community remains a part of your core brand experience, always. Learn more about Arena Live Chat.

Arena also helps brands and organizations run engaging, brand-safe community experiences with a few key capabilities.

Growing Engagement

Creating an engaging experience starts with good ideas and excellent content. However, online attention spans tend to be short. One way to keep your audience members engaged is to give them easy ways to engage. Arena has polls and Q&A features so you can ask quick questions and gather feedback at every event.

Maintaining A Brand Safe Experience

Inviting dozens, hundreds, or thousands of community members to an online event is exciting! There’s also a greater chance of some community members forgetting your ground rules. Arena’s AI content moderation is equipped to detect and block the most common profanity. Also, you can use manual moderation (e.g., review and approve each post or question) for an added level of brand safety in your most important events.

6) Use A Live Blog To Provide Updates On Breaking News

Breaking news stories offer an exciting way to build community engagement. Journalists and news organizations have used live blog technology for years to cover breaking stories. Whether you’re covering an election, tournament, criminal trial, or conference, a live blog is a speedy way to provide live updates. Learn more about Arena Live Blog.

7) Post Video Content To Lift Community Engagement

Including video in your online community is wise because Generation Z and Millennials love consuming video content. Post video shorts on social media to promote the premium content experiences on your website. Once you have users on your website, package your video experiences as events to drive engagement further.

E-commerce companies, where customers can buy through your website, have an even more significant opportunity: live shopping. Crafting a live shopping experience takes planning, so check out our guide on the best way to make live shopping successful.

How To Take Back Control of Your Community From Social Media

For years, social media has been a powerful force in building online communities. People have forged connections with new friends and developed relationships that couldn’t have happened otherwise. At the same time, social media in the 2020s faces major problems for brands seeking growth.

Over the past few years, social media platforms have faced a growing list of challenges. TikTok has faced potential government bans. Recent changes at Twitter have caused many brands to pause advertising. Facebook and Instagram have struggled with multiple scandals that have undermined their reputation. For brands dependent on social platforms, these problems all represent headwinds to growth.

The good news is that you don’t have to sit back and hope that the big social media platforms improve. You can engage your community directly on your website. Arena Community offers many of the most popular social media features like chat and social reactions.

Learn why hosting community interactions directly on your website enables growth.

How Successful B2C and B2B Brands Build Online Communities

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An online community is an important way to drive leads, engagement, and sales. While powerful, it can be challenging to design a thriving community without examples. To help you broaden your horizons and see all the possibilities around, we’ve reviewed a combined B2C and B2B online communities. These communities have been active for years and show sustained engagement.

Thriving Online Communities: 3 B2C Examples

A growing number of consumer-focused brands have created thriving communities. These efforts usually involve a combination of community building on social media and the brand’s website. There are lessons to model in each case, even if you don’t have the same product. For example, a cosmetics brand might share the audience profile as your clothing brand. Let’s examine how three different consumer companies have created digital communities hubs.

1) Glow Recipe

Founded in 2014, Glow Recipe is a skincare beauty brand. The business started by importing Korean beauty products into the United States. After a few years, the business launched its own products. By 2021, CNBC reports that the company has an “estimated $100 million in sales.”

The Glow Recipe approach to forming a digital community involves content and a rewards program.

Glow Recipe’s Content

The skincare company has a significant amount of video content and blog content to attract customers. With over 85,000 subscribers, the Glow Recipe YouTube channel includes tutorials, product videos, and media appearances. The brand’s blog is notable for its themed interview series “Boss Babes,” featuring successful women entrepreneurs and creative professionals.

Loyalty Program

The company’s content helps to attract customers, but what about inspiring repeat business? That’s where the company’s loyalty program, “Glow Rewards,” comes in. For each dollar spent with the brand, customers earn points that can be redeemed for products.

In addition, Glow Recipe’s founders had a fresh idea to bring Korean skincare products to the US market. The Glow Recipe approach is largely focused on the online world exclusively. Let’s see how Lululemon integrates digital and offline experiences to build its community.

2) Lululemon Athletica 

Based in Canada, Lululemon is best known for its yoga apparel and related products. The premium brand has attracted a significant following. The company’s focus on community building is a key driver for its success.

Events

Many stores sell athletic and leisure apparel, but few have created event experiences like Lululemon. The company’s Flatiron store in New York alone has hosted over 30 events, including fitness instruction (e.g., kettlebell basics) and offline and virtual community events with guests (e.g., the mindful creative series and book release events).

Customer Stories

Lululemon has a significant selection of inspiring customer stories called the Sweat Collection. This content includes interviews and instructional content on desk stretches and yoga routines from coaches, personal trainers, athletes and other fitness professionals. The company’s stories are brilliantly illustrated with high-quality photos and videos.

Premium Content

Ever thought about starting your own streaming service? Take inspiration from Lululemon Studio. The service includes more than 10,000 workouts. In addition, Lululemon Studio app users get a discount at Studio Partners’ locations. The paid version of the plan is currently priced at $39 per month with a twelve-month commitment

Lululemon’s success with community building shows that brands can build events, group experiences, and more around physical products.

3) Playstation

Sony’s Playstation has transformed into a thriving digital community. According to Statista, there are over 100 million monthly active users on the Playstation network as of September 2022, up from 50 million in 2014.

Designing A Shared Experience Into The Product

A key reason for Sony’s success is the shared gaming experience. By building a networked experience, players can find other people to play with worldwide. Social features and experiences are quickly becoming an everyday experience.

The Rise and Fall of The PS4 Community

While successful in many respects, Playstation offers a cautionary tale. In 2021, Sony announced it was shutting down the Playstation 4 communities. Accessible via the Playstation and a mobile app, this community feature gave players an interactive message board. ArsTechnica points out that unmoderated communities became a problem. At the same time, it’s clear that many Playstation enthusiasts are disappointed by the company’s decision.

Learn from Sony’s experience as you build brand communities. Moderation and oversight are important to maintaining the quality of community experiences. The continuing rise of online hate speech and other inappropriate content means that brand communities must remain vigilant.

Successful Online Communities: 3 B2B Examples

Building a community around a B2B audience is often considered more difficult than building a consumer community. It’s typically easy to find consumers who fit a broad profile, like men under 30 who love fitness. With B2B audiences, it can be more difficult to tap into.

1) Salesforce

Salesforce has grown into one of the most successful business software companies. The business started by tightly focused on software for sales teams. The company has recently developed products for marketing, field service, and other teams. Throughout that growth, the Salesforce focus on community has been a constant.

Salesforce Events

The Salesforce annual conference, known as Dreamforce, has become one of the largest technology conferences in the world. In 2022, the event attracted over 40,000 attendees to San Francisco. To extend the conference experience, Salesforce has made recordings of many sessions available online via Salesforce+.

The company doesn’t put all of its event eggs in the Dreamforce basket either. The business has also run a series of regional events through its Trailhead program, with gatherings planned in Phoenix, Austin, Portland, Minneapolis, and beyond in 2023. This regional approach is a smart way to reach more people unable or unwilling to travel to the Dreamforce event.

Salesforce Ecosystem of Partners and Certifications

Salesforce software is complex, with many different settings and customization options. This is a common challenge facing many business software companies. Salesforce solved this issue by leveraging its community in two ways. Rather than building up an extensive professional services division, the business has focused on developing a network of consultants. To demonstrate their expertise to clients, consultants also have the option to earn Salesforce certifications.

As of late 2022, Salesforce offers certifications for several career roles, including administrators, developers, architects, marketers, and consultants. These programs have become so popular that an industry of authors, trainers, and other experts has emerged to help people earn their certifications.

Salesforce Content Marketing

Salesforce is no stranger to content marketing either. The company currently has podcasts dedicated to marketing trends, trends in the professional world, and IT. Further, the Salesforce YouTube channel has more than 240,000 YouTube subscribers. The company’s videos include interviews, how-to content, and company news.

The Salesforce approach to content includes significant training resources for its users. The company’s Trailhead website offers in-demand videos, networking opportunities, and social media-style experiences.

The Salesforce approach to creating a highly engaged community has paid dividends. In 2022, it is estimated that nearly 100,000 people have earned Salesforce certifications. Whether you look at the company’s events or digital experiences, Salesforce has achieved tremendous engagement with its online community platforms.

2) DBT Community

Where should you go if you have a passion for analytics and engineering? The DBT Community has used several strategies to build community engagement for their technical users.

DBT Website

The centerpiece of the DBT community, which is organized around several themes: help, show and tell, and in-depth discussions. The B2B community provides immediate value by allowing users to post code and questions.

Slack

In addition to the discussion board on the DBT website, the company also offers community Slack. To keep discussions focused, the Slack has multiple channels like #leading-data-teams, #jobs (to post job postings or job hunt for people knowledgeable in dbt), and #analytics-craft.

Open Source Participation

The technology business also participates in the open source movement. The DBT-labs GitHub page has plugins, scripts, and other documentation. Choosing to offer open-source participation may not fit with every company’s goals. However, it’s wise to look for opportunities to collaborate with technical users to make your product more valuable.

3) Stripe and Indie Hackers

Stripe, a major payment software provider, has taken a different path to online community building. In 2017, Indie Hackers was acquired by Stripe. The Indie Hackers brand includes a very active discussion forum, interview-style podcasts, and rich data. Cortland Allen, the founder of Indie Hackers, explained his decision to sell the company by discussing the burden of running the business:

“However, filling ad inventory every month has come at a cost. It was starting to occupy a large chunk of my time, and I found myself spending less and less time producing great content for the interviews, the podcast, and the forum — the very reasons I created the site in the first place.” – Acquired by Stripe.

The Stripe approach to buying an online community is significant in two ways. First, it shows that organizations don’t always have to create digital communities from scratch. Second, it shows the power of thinking more broadly about your customer base and community. Indie Hackers isn’t focused on payments – the core business of Stripe. That said, Stripe realized that online entrepreneurs need to get paid and can use Stripe to meet that goal.

Create Your Online Community Today

Whether you are selling to consumers or large businesses, an online community is a powerful strategy to generate leads, increase sales and sustain growth. These examples show different ways of using content, events, and other tactics to foster community growth. It’s also important to have the right technology for your online community. Learn more about building your digital community with Arena.

5 Ways News Publishers Can Grow Their Gen Z Audience

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Social media disruption and changing habits have created a significant opportunity for publishers to grow with Gen Z. Generation Z, 68 million strong in the US alone, are those born between 1997 to 2010 are in their late teens to early twenties. Along with Millenials (1981-1996), they represent the future. Win market share with these generations, and publishers will have a solid foundation for the next 20 years of your business.

The Gen Z Opportunity For Publishers Is Growing

While it’s always possible to start growing an audience, there are always advantages to moving early to seize the opportunity. 

Building loyalty with Gen Z audiences today while they’re younger can sustain your business for years into the future. From an advertising perspective, focusing on Gen Z is vital because they have decades of spending ahead of them in many areas of life. If you build a sizeable Gen Z audience over the next few years you will have a solid foundation to attract paid subscribers and generate ad revenue for decades.

In terms of habits, comfort with digital technology, and media consumption, Gen Z also shares significant overlap with Millenials. That’s important because Millennials now represent the single largest demographic group ever in North American history. For example, Gen Z spends close to three hours per day on social media, while Millennials also spend over two hours per day on social media. Highly visual platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are very popular with both groups. 

Why First-Party Data Matters For Engaging Your Audience

To fully understand what Gen Z and Millennials want, broad surveys will only tell you so much. It’s also vital to have a direct understanding of your specific audience. That’s where first-party data becomes vital. First-party data is information you collect directly from your audience without relying on any outside source or platform. Gathering this data means building rich audience profiles, making it easier to create engaging content and deepen engagement.

Of course building a first party data set is much easier said than done, especially when the average Metered Stop Rate for publishers hovers around 4% and Paid Stop Conversion Rate averages around .5%.3 Third party cookies are going away, so publishers need to evolve.  Read on for our tips! 

Five Ways To Attract Gen Z Audiences

Use this menu of strategies to grow an engaged Gen Z audience. Our ultimate goal is to bring audiences directly to your website, where you can engage them and build a direct connection.

1) Offer Micro Communities

In his classic essay, Kevin Kelly wrote that 1000 true fans should be enough to sustain creatives like musicians, designers, and other entrepreneurs. That principle is coming to life in a whole new way with Gen Z as they’ve grown up in a digital world filled with niche communities on Discord, Minecraft, Roblox, etc.

It can be difficult to predict which micro-community concepts will take off with Gen Z. That’s why it is smart to take small bets and empower your Gen Z audience to guide community building. Let’s say you’re considering building a micro-community around internships at nonprofits to help Gen Z build their skills. 

Before building out the community, test the concept by hosting a small digital event on your website around the theme. If you see significant engagement and sign-ups for the event, create a landing page where attendees can get more information about the new internship community. Use this strategy repeatedly over a few months, and you will have several successful communities based around your website. Make sure your digital events have an interactive aspect like Arena Live Chat so that Gen Z can ask questions and make connections both with you, and with each other. 

2) Revisit Your Social Media Goals

Growing a large audience on a social media platform like TikTok or Instagram may not be helpful to your goals. A person looking at your content on social media will likely see your content among many other posts. Also, gaining a meaningful audience connection on social media is difficult, and gaining first-party data is impossible. 

Instead, your social media goals should always have the end goal of bringing visitors back to your website. There are a few ways you better leverage social content to grow your audience once they’re there.

Use Arena Live Blog to highlight and react to social media posts. 

To make this live blog even more appealing, invite Gen Z influencers to contribute to your live blog posts. You can also share posts from social accounts you select and select content. This is a great way to add UCG, even if you don’t have an official relationship (yet).

Reinvent the social media challenge made popular by TikTok. 

Brands like Guess’s #InMyDenim and Scotts #DoTheScottsSlide challenge to encourage fans to create videos and share the event. Publishers can adapt this idea by hosting quizzes tied to specific events like elections, sports games, and award events like the Oscars. 

3) Invest In Short Form Video Content

Short form video content, like TikTok videos and YouTube Shorts, are very popular with Gen Z. Growing your Gen Z audience is easier when you invest in video. Length is not the only factor to keep in mind to win Gen Z’s engagement. As you create more videos, look for ways to incorporate the following qualities that most successful short-form videos leverage.

Many of the most successful short-form videos revolve around a few themes. Music, humor and how to videos all tend to perform well, and, of course, you’ll want to make sure that you use whichever format makes the most sense for your brand, and the specific content you’re promoting. For example, a beauty brand can show a model or influencer applying makeup. In addition to providing value to your audience, short videos should achieve another goal.

Look at your short-form videos as a “trailer” that promotes the main attraction on your website: in-depth videos and other types of premium content. For example, you might create a long-form video interview with your CEO at a product launch event. From this longer video, create a series of short form videos and post them to social media. Each of these short-form videos adds bite-sized value to your audience while giving you the opportunity to drive traffic back to your website.   If this formula works for top creators like Gary Vaynerchuk, it can work for you.

4) Step Up Your Sustainability Coverage

Climate change and sustainability concerns are top of mind for many in Generation Z. The Pew Research Center found that more than a third of Gen Z and Millenials feel addressing climate change is a top personal concern. Depending on your publication’s priorities, there are different ways to meet Gen Z’s interests.

  • Go Local.
    Sometimes, coverage of climate change and environmental issues can feel abstract and difficult to understand. Local publishers can stand out by exploring the local implications in greater detail. For example, publications based on Florida have expertise in covering natural disasters and the increase in extreme weather events.
    Emphasizing your local expertise is critical to sustaining trust with Gen Z. The American Press Institute found that Gen Z news readers tend to trust local news outlets more than national options.
  • Invite Special Guests To Share Advice.
    Sharing information and quality reporting isn’t the only way to attract Gen Z’s interest. Take inspiration from events like Creator Conf that bring together thousands of attendees and sponsors like YouTube, Patreon, and Clubhouse. 
  • Publish Unique, User-Friendly Data.

5) Enhance Diversity In Coverage and Staff 

Committing to diversity is critically important to appeal to Gen Z audiences. The American Press Institute reports that only 15% of Gen Z and Millennials feel coverage of immigrants is accurate in the news. Further, only 15% of these generations found that Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and lower-income people are not covered accurately. 

There are several ways to demonstrate an increased commitment to diversity as a publisher. Look at your editorial staff first and ask yourself if you can improve your recruiting practices. Next, seek ways to improve the quantity and quality of coverage of diverse groups. Finally, work with your advertisers to encourage them to take diversity seriously in advertising.

The Pay Off For Meeting Gen Z’s Interests

Investing in new editorial approaches, media formats, and beyond will take time and resources. It’s a strategic investment for two reasons: first-party data generation and greater loyalty. By publishing content that directly meets Gen Z’s interests, you’re providing significant value to the audience. That means earning and keeping permission to gather first-party data is far easier. As you better understand Gen Z’s preferences and needs, selling subscriptions and keeping them engaged for years to come will become easier.

Get The Tools You Need To Connect With Gen Z Today

Succeeding with Gen Z news consumers takes serious editorial work. It also takes the right technology. Gen Z is used to highly interactive digital experiences from social media. Keeping their interest will become much more difficult if they come to your website and have no opportunity to interact with friends and family. Learn more about Arena’s solutions for publishers.

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What ChatGPT Means For News Publishers

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ChatGPT technology is about to change publishing and journalism forever. Certain types of journalism, like simple sports and business stories, are especially susceptible to automation. ChatGPT may be the most important digital technology to impact publishers since the 1980s.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence model created by OpenAI. The conversational program can answer questions and can leverage secondary research to write “original” copy. If information is on the Internet, chatGPT can produce content. Fast. 

The output of chatGPT isn’t perfect, and it still sometimes makes basic errors but, for an alpha release technology, it has already achieved a great deal.

How ChatGPT is Changing Email, Education and Programming

Early experiments with chatGPT have raised some exciting questions and worries for others. Here are some of the developments we’ve seen so far.

Better Work Emails

The Washington Post reports that dyslexic people are starting to use chatGPT to create work emails. The emails aren’t perfect, but they represent a significant time saving for people who struggle with writing, or who might not be native English speakers, but want to sound like one.

Near Perfect School Essays?

It’s not just working professionals who are seeing benefits from this technology. Fox News reports that AI technology like chatGPT could “blow up” the US education system. The report poses the question of whether overworked teachers can detect if students are using AI. In the worst-case scenario, students lose the ability to write independently. Teachers would face additional pressures to innovate to respond to this change.

Is AI Coming for Programmers?

Software engineers and developers have long taken pride in their technical skills. However, chatGPT is starting to succeed in some programming tasks. GeekWire claims that chatGPT may soon “match programming prowess of average coders.” For example, the software can create some SQL (structured query language) queries based on minimal direction.

With the right strategy, chatGPT is a major opportunity to boost productivity. This technology can draft basic news stories that rely on existing information. That frees up budgetary resources for publishers to invest in investigative stories and other high-impact reporting. In practical terms, this means a single experienced editor can get much more done without much incremental cost.

While technologies like chatGPT are sure to change publishing and journalism, the appetite for quality stories and investigation isn’t going anywhere. Just consider what happened to the accounting and financial industry after spreadsheet software became widespread…

How Spreadsheets Destroyed Some Jobs While Increasing Demand For Others

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt make it difficult to see the advantages and disadvantages of chatGPT. Fortunately, recent history gives some perspective. Consider the case of spreadsheet software.

Before the launch of VisiCalc in 1979, thousands of accounting clerks maintained business records. This work involved long hours writing numbers, recalculating, and checking data for accuracy. The highly manual nature of the work meant managers often had to wait hours, days, or longer for insight.

Fast forward a few decades later, the spreadsheet had a very different impact on business. CPA Practice Advisor estimates that hundreds of millions, perhaps even a billion, of people use spreadsheet software regularly. The nature of accounting employment has changed dramatically. The New Stack reported in 2019 that there were 400,000 fewer accounting clerks in the 2000s compared to 1980. However, there are 600,000 more regular accountants. Future demand is vital as well. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that job growth for accountants and auditors will be 6% from 2021 to 2031.  

In other words, spreadsheet software eliminated much manual work from accounting. The result? Managers, executives, and others increased their demand for financial and accounting data of all kinds. This technological story directly parallels how publishing may evolve in light of chatGPT.

How ChatGPT Will Transform The Publishing Business Model

At Arena, we’re generally optimistic about the impact of technology on fostering community and making life better and believe that  highly disruptive technology like chatGTP has significant potential to drive the next evolution of the publishing business model. By automating the majority of the grunt work of journalism, especially data gathering, editors can put more resources in investigative articles, features and high-end reporting.

For editors and managers, chatGPT opens new possibilities to deliver the news even while budgets come under pressure. Senior reporters can keep their focus on developing sources, in-depth interviews, and creating outstanding stories that keep audiences engaged. Less complex stories – like sports scores and financial reports – can be drafted to good enough (or better!) by this technology. 

With technology like chatGPT, you publish time-sensitive stories like company earnings, sports scores and other routine stories quickly. With those stories largely handled by AI, your lean group of experienced reporters can source unique stories that readers can’t find anywhere else. The bottom line is that you can maintain or improve margins by fully leveraging chatGPT.

Arena’s Generative AI for Publishers, Content & Affiliate Commerce is here. Discover Commerce AI right now.

Two Ways To Prepare Your Publishing Business To Thrive In An AI World

Like any disruptive technology, chatGPT has the potential to create a new generation of winners and losers. Today, these technologies can produce “good enough” or “first draft” level content. That means your competitors can copy and respin existing content faster than ever.

The solution is to create community, content, and experiences that cannot be copied. Here are three ways to build a moat around your business. 

1. Community Experiences

Bringing your audience together for memorable experiences is something that AI can’t match. Planning in-person events aren’t your only option. You can also create hybrid and virtual events using Arena Live Chat. 

Here are two ways to build premium community experiences to keep your audience coming back again and again.

Leverage Your Brand’s Personalities In Events.

Building exclusive experiences around your high-profile personalities, journalists, athletes and staff is a winning strategy. You don’t need Anderson Cooper’s 9 million Twitter followers, either. Running a smaller “fireside chat” event can be even more compelling to your audience.

Invite New Voices And Influencers To Your Platform

Technologies like chatGPT are primarily driven by historical information on the Internet. These tools struggle to develop new ideas, insights, and predictions. One way to meet this need in your audience is to invite influencers and emerging experts to connect with your audience. For example, true crime social media influencers could enrich your coverage of a high-profile criminal trial. 

You can launch an ongoing virtual event series at a low cost using Arena Live Chat.

2. Shift Resources To Premium Content Like Investigative Journalism

Historically, investigative journalism has been costly. In 2013, The Atlantic reported that a team of journalists spent $750,000 and two years to reveal “the dangers of Tylenol’s main active ingredient, acetaminophen.” These stories are challenging to produce. They are also stories that inspire greater trust and engagement in news publishers.

As publishers face more pressure to stretch their budgets, chatGPT and investigative reporting can work closely together. A small group of experienced editors can use AI to quickly draft essential stories and publish them. Meanwhile, shifting resources to investigative resources, hard-to-get interviews, and exclusive coverage will keep your publication highly competitive.

How To Free Up Time And Budget For The New Way of Publishing

Asking your reporters to run community events and engage with new voices might sound unrealistic for your busy reporters. That’s where ChatGPT is transformational. This technology can eliminate hours of routine data gathering and basic writing for your staff. 

As a result, your senior-level reporters, who command the greatest trust with your audience, will have more time to engage with your audience. Increased engagement means more attention on your website for longer periods of time which leads to increased advertising revenue.

Enrich Your Publication With Community

As new technology erodes traditional advantages in publishing, it’s essential to act preemptively. Discover Arena’s solutions for publishing – the easiest way to create interactive virtual communities. 

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Leveraging the Success of Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok for Your Brand’s Growth

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Social media platforms have revolutionized the way brands interact with their audience. Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok, in particular, have emerged as powerful tools for brand marketing and community building, offering unique opportunities for engagement, storytelling, and viral content creation. This article delves into how the success of these platforms can be harnessed to boost your brand strategy.

With recent disruptions at Twitter, including concerns around hate speech, upheavals in their management, and wavering trust from advertisers, many have been left pondering the future and efficacy of social media for branding. While it’s tempting to generalize and deem the era of social media marketing as waning, there are gems in the digital landscape that offer unparalleled opportunities.

The Importance of Social Media to Community Building

Building a community on social media is crucial for fostering strong, meaningful connections between a brand and its audience. Social media platforms provide a dynamic space for real-time interactions, enabling brands to engage directly with their followers, gather instant feedback, and create a sense of belonging. By consistently sharing valuable content, responding to comments, and participating in conversations, brands can nurture loyalty and trust. This continuous engagement not only helps in retaining customers but also attracts new ones through word-of-mouth and increased visibility.

Moreover, by bringing social media content to your website, you can further strengthen your digital marketing strategies. Integrating social media feeds into your site creates a seamless content stream that enhances user experience and keeps your audience engaged across multiple platforms. This holistic approach ensures your brand strategy is consistent and compelling, driving sustained growth and community building.

Understanding the Changing Tides of Social Media

Selecting the right platforms to amplify your brand engagement on social media. Remember, on these platforms, the relationship with your audience isn’t truly yours. They can modify the rules, adjust algorithms, or introduce new features, impacting your audience engagement. Therefore, your overarching strategy should be to drive this audience back to assets you own, such as your website.

Relevant studies to note

  • Business Insider Intelligence: Highlights TikTok as the favorite among Gen Z.
  • Nielsen: Indicates 80% of sports enthusiasts use social media platforms to stay connected with their favorite teams.
  • Social Media Examiner and HubSpot: Respectively found that 85% of marketers leverage YouTube, while 70% are tapping into the potential of Reddit for marketing.

Diving Deeper into the Giants

1. YouTube: Visual Storytelling

Founded in 2005, YouTube is a powerful platform for visual storytelling. Brands can create high-quality videos that showcase their products, share customer testimonials, or provide how-to guides. Engaging video content not only attracts viewers but also keeps them on the platform longer, enhancing brand recall and loyalty.

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Key Capabilities

  • Audio and video files upload, allowing users to create content playlists and collections.
  • YouTube Shorts: a new functionality that works similarly to TikTok, within the mobile app and web browser.
  • Community features, enable users to interact with other users through comments, likes, and subscriptions.
  • Live streaming and captioning.
  • Offers advertising via Google and sponsored video collaborations.

YouTube SEO Best Practices

Optimizing video titles, descriptions, and tags with relevant keywords is crucial for YouTube SEO. Creating compelling thumbnails and including call-to-actions within videos can also boost engagement. Regularly updating your channel with fresh content helps maintain viewer interest and attract new subscribers.

Fit for Business Types: Media & Publishing houses, Entertainment, Retail & eCommerce with video showcases.

2. TikTok: Viral Trends and Challenges

TikTok’s algorithm favors content that is engaging and entertaining. Brands can capitalize on this by creating short, catchy videos that align with current trends. Participating in challenges, using popular music, and collaborating with influencers are effective ways to increase visibility and reach on TikTok.

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Key Capabilities

  • Limited to 10-minute video durations; shorter videos gain traction.
  • TikTok Stories last only 24 hours, similar to Instagram Stories.
  • TikTok has filters, a sound library, video duet and reply, and a robust editing tool kit.
  • Provides CPM and CPC advertising options.

Best Practices for Creating Viral TikTok Content

To create viral content, brands should focus on creativity and relevance. Keeping videos short and engaging, using trending hashtags, and encouraging user-generated content can enhance the chances of going viral. Brands can capitalize on community challenges and influencer partnerships, monitoring analytics helps in understanding what works and refining strategies accordingly.

Fit for Business Types: Consumer brands, publishers, and Entertainment sectors seeking genuine audience engagement.

3. Reddit: Community-Driven Engagement

Famous as a “community of communities”, Reddit is known for its diverse and highly engaged user base. By participating in relevant subreddits, brands can connect with niche communities and build authentic relationships. Engaging in discussions, sharing valuable content, and responding to user queries can help brands establish trust and authority within these communities.

Key Capabilities

  • Hosts subreddits dedicated to specific interests.
  • Subreddits are managed by moderators, know as “Redditors”, who help keep the discussions safe and relevant.
  • Community features such as submissions, comments, private messages, and more.
  • Offers varied advertising options from sponsored links to Q&As.

Best Practices for Reddit Marketing

To succeed on Reddit, brands should focus on authenticity and value, as well as respecting platforms conventions and community standards. Avoid overly promotional posts and instead, contribute meaningful insights and content. Utilizing Reddit Ads can also help target specific demographics and drive traffic to your website.

Fit for Business Types: Companies focusing on niche audiences, wanting to build or integrate into existing communities.

4. Twitch: Live Streaming and Engagement

Twitch, primarily known for its live streaming capabilities, has evolved into a vital platform for brands looking to engage with their audience in real-time. With millions of daily active users, Twitch offers a unique opportunity to connect with a highly interactive and engaged community. By hosting live streams, brands can showcase their products, offer behind-the-scenes glimpses, and engage in real-time conversations with viewers. This level of interaction fosters a sense of immediacy and authenticity, allowing brands to build strong, loyal communities.

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Key Capabilities

  • Offers an immersive viewer experience with live streams.
  • Provides conventional advertising and sponsorships through donations and bits.
  • Gaming features for both streamers and gamers.
  • Category browser.
  • Squad streaming to watch multiple streams.

Best Practices

To succeed on Twitch, brands should focus on creating engaging and interactive content, understanding unique content niches such as gaming, cooking, fitness and music. Brands can collaborate with streamers that resonate with your company’s ethos, hosting live Q&A sessions, product demonstrations, and exclusive behind-the-scenes content can captivate viewers and encourage participation.

Utilizing Twitch’s chat feature to respond to viewers’ comments and questions in real-time enhances the viewer experience and strengthens the community bond. Additionally, collaborating with popular Twitch streamers can help brands tap into established communities and gain credibility.

Fit for Business Types: Brands targeting Gen Z, those in Entertainment, Fitness, and any brand wishing to tap into niche segments with high user engagement.

Discovering Niche Platforms

Many social media networks specialize in a specialized niche. While smaller sites may not have TikTok or YouTube audiences, they have other benefits. Focused audiences are easier to discover. Building ties with influencers may be easier.

  • LinkedIn, the leading business social media platform, now features articles, videos, and groups.
  • Sports Thread is a student-athlete social network. Brands have new potential since the NCAA allowed student-athletes to be compensated for their name, image, and likeness (NIL).
  • Ravelry is a knitting, crocheting, spinning, and related social network. It’s estimated that 45 million Americans crochet and knit. Reaching women, who make up majority of this population, using this medium may be new.
  • Social network Goodreads connects authors and readers. This Amazon-owned platform is essential for publishers seeking enthusiastic readers.

Success stories: How well-known companies have used social media for marketing

1. The Home Depot

The Home Depot is a home improvement retailer that uses YouTube to create product videos, tutorials, and live streams. The company has over 10 million subscribers on YouTube and its videos have been viewed over 1 billion times.

The Home Depot’s YouTube channel has helped the company to:

  • Increase brand awareness: The company’s videos have helped to introduce its products and services to a wider audience.
  • Generate leads and sales: The company’s videos have helped to generate leads and sales by providing information about its products and services.
  • Build relationships with customers: The company’s videos have helped to build relationships with customers by providing them with helpful information and advice.

2. The NBA

The NBA is a professional basketball league that uses TikTok to create short, engaging videos that can be shared with its fans. The league has over 100 million followers on TikTok and its videos have been viewed over 10 billion times.

The NBA’s TikTok channel has helped the league to:

  • Engage with fans: The league’s videos have helped to engage with fans by providing them with short, entertaining content.
  • Promote its games: The league’s videos have helped to promote its games by showcasing highlights and behind-the-scenes content.
  • Build excitement for the league: The league’s videos have helped to build excitement for the league by creating a sense of community among its fans.

3. The International Cricket Council (ICC)

The ICC is the governing body of cricket that uses Reddit to connect with fans and answer their questions. The organization has over 100,000 subscribers on Reddit and its posts have been upvoted over 1 million times.

The ICC’s Reddit channel has helped the organization to:

  • Connect with fans: The organization’s posts have helped to connect with fans by providing them with a platform to ask questions and interact with the organization.
  • Answer questions: The organization’s posts have helped to answer questions from fans about cricket.
  • Build a community: The organization’s posts have helped to build a community among cricket fans.

These are just a few examples of how well-known companies have successfully integrated social media into their marketing strategies. If you are looking for a way to reach your target audience, build relationships with customers, and generate leads and sales, then integrating social media into your marketing strategy is a great option.

How to Integrate your Social Media Content on your Website

Bringing your content from social media to create a social stream with Arena Community allows you to seamlessly integrate dynamic, real-time updates from platforms like Twitter, Twitch, and YouTube directly into your website. This integration not only enriches your site with fresh, engaging content but also enhances user interaction by keeping visitors informed and connected. By showcasing social media highlights, user-generated content, and live updates, you create a vibrant content stream that fosters community engagement, strengthens your digital marketing strategies, and provides a cohesive brand experience across multiple channels.

Crafting A Resilient Digital Strategy

It’s evident that while platforms like Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok offer unmatched potential, putting all your eggs in their baskets can be precarious. Brands need to prioritize driving traffic back to owned assets. Enhancing your website with community-centric features like live chats or live blogs can be a game-changer. Dive deeper into how integrating solutions like Arena’s Live Blog can redefine your community-building strategy.

Do You Want More First Party Data From Gen Z Consumers?

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Many first-party data marketing discussions and strategies have overlooked a key fact – the importance of value exchange. Publishers and brands want to connect, market, and sell to their audiences. Changing consumer behavior and regulations mean old practices of invisibly using cookies are no longer good enough. Millennials, Gen Z, and other digital natives will only consent to share their data with brands that offer them value.

Disclosure And Asking Permission Isn’t Enough To Build An Audience

Earning permission to market to customers sounds simple in theory. Put a pop-up on your website, collect contact information, and start marketing! For a small subset of customers – those who are actively comparison shopping, for instance – this simple approach to gaining the first party may be sufficient. For the vast majority of your audience, value exchange is critical.

Every time brands and publishers want to gather consent to market; it’s crucial to ask the value exchange question. Are users receiving sufficient value from our brand to welcome us to their digital world? The bar may be even higher for communication channels perceived as more personal, like email and SMS. Earning a place (and keeping it!) in those inboxes is not something to be taken for granted, as filtering and permissions technology keeps improving.

There are significant consequences for ignoring the value exchange question. Conversion rates are likely to deteriorate at first. That means digital advertising budgets to attract traffic will deliver fewer results. Ultimately, websites will struggle with having fewer and fewer engaged visitors. Hitting growth targets will get far more difficult. Worst of all, building deeper relationships with your audience, including learning their preferences, becomes increasingly demanding. 

The starting point to avoid these problems starts with understanding your market’s needs, wants, and desires. Let’s take a closer look at the Gen Z demographic and what they want.

What Does Gen Z Want?

Generation Z is defined as those born between 1996 and 2010. The Generation is 68 million strong in the United States, slightly larger than Gen X (65 million) and smaller than Millenials (72 million). Gen Z is already becoming significant economically, with $360 billion in disposable income, according to Forbes. Today, Gen Z has less purchasing power and wealth than older generations. Millennials have an estimated disposable income of $1.4 trillion, which is more than triple the disposable income of Gen Z ($360 billion). That said, Gen Z disposable income will only increase over time. Therefore, publishers that build and retain a Gen Z audience now will have a long-term advantage.

That leaves the question: what does Gen Z want from brands and publishers? Some ways to answer this question include looking at surveys and drawing insights from other customer cohorts.

Industry surveys of American Gen Z behavior have found that:

Gen Z is highly demographically diverse

In comparison to other generations, Gen Z is highly diverse, according to the Pew Research Center. For example, 25% of Gen Z is Hispanic compared to 17% of Millennials or 12% of Gen X. Also, Asian Americans comprise a growing portion – 6% – of the group. Marketing efforts need to reflect these expectations.

Higher Online Shopping But Fewer Impulse Purchases

Growing up in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the pandemic, and high inflation, Gen Z has seen a lot of economic turbulence in a short time. A Creatopy survey found that 32% of Gen Z buy when there is a sale, and 48% buy when they need something. 

Gen Z cares strongly about social responsibility issues

Does your brand fight racial and sexual discrimination? A 2022 survey found that 66% of Gen Z agree or strongly prefer brands that take social responsibility seriously. For more tips, and warnings, on sustainability and social responsibility, check out our blog post on The Top 5 Gen z Shopping Trends.

Gen Z Are Heavy Social Media Users

Gen Z social media usage typically exceeds three hours a day. Regarding purchase decisions, TikTok videos, Instagram, and Facebook are vital.

Meeting these expectations is crucial for your brand to have an opportunity to compete today. Immediate gratification isn’t the whole story, however. Eventually, Gen Z will advance in their careers, buy homes and make other life changes. 

Putting Value Exchange For Gen Z At The Heart of Your Digital Strategy

For your digital strategy to thrive, each person who visits your online presence needs to see value in joining your community. Depending on your budget and strengths, there are different ways to offer compelling value. Some of the most popular ways to provide digital value to Gen Z include the following: 

Classic Direct Marketing Incentives

There’s a good reason why the vast majority of ecommerce brands use discount codes 

liberally. They work! Whether structured as a 10% off, buy one get one (“BOGO”), or some other structure, these incentives work well in e-commerce. The challenge is that so many brands use discounts that it can be tough to stand out in a sea of similar-sounding offers. 

Content

Offering interesting content remains a proven way to attract attention. A content strategy for Gen Z will need to include highly visual media like Instagram posts and TikTok videos. Regularly posting content will keep your brand top of mind when the audience is ready to buy.

Community

allowing your audience to connect with you and their peers is a powerful form of value exchange. Unlike marketing incentives and sales, building a thriving online community takes more effort. That means there is a greater opportunity to stand out and earn Gen Z’s attention.

Expressing Values and Identity

Social responsibility is a top concern for many in Gen Z. If your brand has active partnerships with non-profits or charitable organizations, emphasize this fact. If you donate a portion of purchases to good causes, feature that decision in marketing. Giving buyers the ability to express their values with purchases and community participation is a powerful way to set your brand apart.

How To Get More Engagement And Leads With Community Value

You probably have an active content and marketing program to connect with the Gen Z audience. The next step is transforming casual, anonymous website visitors into engaged audiences. Live digital community experiences using Arena Live Chat are a powerful way to do just that by holding online conferences, live shopping events, and more. Learn more about Arena Live Chat.

Journalism Competition and Preservation Act: 5 Things To Do

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Remember when Facebook kicked Australian publishers off the platform in 2021? That could happen to news publishers in the US if the proposed legislation becomes law. Legal experts are still debating the impact of the bill. Some say it may help publishers, while others see it as a threat.

Whether the legislation helps or hurts your business, we can say one thing for certain. Building a direct relationship with your audience with first-party data remains a critically important hedge against uncertainty. We’ll unpack the key developments regarding The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act and then share five strategies you can use to grow no matter what happens with this legislation.

The proposed legislation  – the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2022 (JCPA) – is currently being considered by the U.S. Congress. The legislation is similar in spirit and objectives to the Australian legislation that prompted Facebook’s displeasure in 2021 and is currently in the news after being attached to a “must pass” defense funding bill on Dec 5th. Adding the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act to the defense bill would make the bill challenging to a Presidential veto. 

One organization suggesting the JCPA could be a boon is the News Media Alliance, an industry group that includes over 1000 news publishers. In a recent blog post, the Alliance stated that “the Australian law resulted in countless jobs for local journalists and $140 million to news outlets, which translates to billions in the U.S.” That sounds good. But other sources, like The Hill, argue the bill is dangerous to journalism and a gift to extremist media groups who could exploit loopholes to force the promotion of misinformation and conspiracy theories.

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2022: The Key Points

In spirit, the JCPA is similar to Australia’s proposed legislation in 2021. It seeks to redefine the relationship between news publishers and online platforms. Depending on your interests, the bill is a boon or curse.

The key provisions of the bill include the following:

1,500 Employee Limit To Benefit Creates Winners and Losers

The bill focuses on benefiting “digital journalism providers” with less than 1500 full-time employees. Larger media brands like ABC News (8000+ employees) or FOX News (2800+ employees) are unlikely to be affected.

However, many smaller news organizations like the Miami Herald (700+ employees), Sports Illustrated (600+ employees), and WIRED (500+ employees) will be directly targeted by this new legislation.

Requires Large Digital Platforms To Negotiate With Digital Journalism Platforms

On the other side of the equation, the bill requires “covered platforms” to negotiate with news publishers. This requirement applies to platforms operating at scale with 50 million monthly active US users, 1 billion global platforms, or annual revenue (or market capitalization) of $550 million. 

In brief, these rules apply to companies like Google, Meta Platforms (i.e., Facebook and Instagram), Reddit, Twitter, Yahoo, and many others. This bill would impose potentially significant costs on these companies, even as many are already struggling to maintain advertising revenue.

Publisher Deals May Be Mandatory 

The bill goes beyond requiring publishers and Big Tech to come to the negotiating table. According to Senator Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, “[the bill empowers] news publishers to demand final-offer arbitration if their joint negotiation with a covered platform fails to result in an agreement after six months.”

Journalism Competition and Preservation Act Expiration

As a safeguard, the bill is set to expire within six years. If it becomes law and news publishers start to count on this revenue, there is likely significant pressure to renew the bill. 

Don’t Wait For The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act Get Your First Party Audience Strategy Moving Now

While potentially game changing, it’s too early to tell for sure if the bill will help or hurt individual publishers. Even if the bill becomes law tomorrow, negotiations (or arbitration) is likely to take months. That gives you time to develop and execute your first party audience growth strategy now. 

First party data comes from a direct connection with your audience. Instead of anonymous website browsers – or borrowing audiences from social media platforms – rich first party data means publishers can truly understand what their audience wants and market to them accordingly.

Strategy 1: Convert Free Users To Paying Subscribers With A Metered Stop Rate

Many publishers allow website users to view a certain number of articles or media for free. The meter stop rate measures what percentage of website users exhaust their quota of free content. Once you know this metric, track how many users convert to paying subscriptions (i.e. the paid stop conversion rate).

Continuing to offer some of your content for free remains a meaningful way to generate interest in your publication. Keep experimenting to see which content attracts public attention vs which to keep behind the paywall. 

For example, look at using user-generated content to grow your audience. Working with influencers, or hosting exclusive Ask Me Anything (AMA) with affiliated personalities, is a powerful way to bring in clicks. As your audience sees value in your content, they’ll be more likely to pay for ongoing access to your premium content.

Strategy 2: Get A Mobile App

Building a mobile app experience for your content is critical. As of Q2 2022, 59% of all Internet traffic came from mobile devices. With a robust mobile experience, you’re missing out on a considerable portion of your potential audience.

Now, you might be thinking that creating a mobile app is expensive. Hiring a full time developer may not make sense if economic uncertainty is already weighing on you. 

A new generation of low code and no code solutions are making it easier than ever to create mobile apps. Consider trying  GoNative.io or Strapi.io. By removing (most) coding from the equation, these services mean you can create a mobile app quickly with minimal, to no engineering resources.

Strategy 3: Offer Exclusive Events For Your Audience

What if your audience was eager and excited to visit your website daily? That’s far better than relying on a tense negotiation with a Big Tech company. Organizing virtual events is one of the best ways to bring in your audience. 

Planning your a virtual event doesn’t have to be overwhelming either. Use our virtual events checklist to plan your online event.

Strategy 4: Add Community Chat To Your Website

What if you had a way to encourage your users to spend 20 minutes, 30 or even an hour on your website? You can achieve high levels of engagement with a single platform: live chat. If you haven’t considered live chat before, here’s one good reason why you should: it’s the most popular engagement experience across all social media. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram: they all use Live Chat – with reactions, gifs, etc – to keep their audience engaged for an average of 30 min / day / platform. 

By adding Arena Live Chat to your website, you’ll empower your audience to ask questions, and engage with each other. Are you worried about inappropriate content? Arena has you covered with a full suite of moderation tools so you can offer brand safe experiences to advertisers.

Strategy 5: Add A Live Blog To Your Website

When a breaking news story hits, it’s a significant opportunity to build audience engagement. Consider election news. There are exit polls, administrative developments, and other developments to cover. Publishing a full feature story on these micro-developments may not make sense. You need a way to publish quick updates.

By adding Arena Live Blog to your website, you can quickly publish breaking news style updates as often as you want filtered by accounts, hashtags, and audience size, and more to ensure only relevant content is pulled in. You can also use two filtering criteria (e.g. tweets using a certain hashtag from accounts with over 1 million followers). We’ve found that follower size filter, combined with a hashtag for relevance, helps to surface interesting brand safe content.

Like a social media content feed, Live Blog includes comments & reactions to keep your audience engaged. To ease the workload on your team, you can invite a few influencers to contribute posts to your live blog.

Discover Arena’s Solutions For Publishers

The jury is still out on whether The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act will enhance or damage publishers. Even in the best-case scenario, additional revenue from the act may well be years away. In any case, the value of building a direct connection with your audience remains vital.

Use the strategies outlined here to build your audience. Discover more about Arena solutions for publishers and start growing your digital audience today. 

Check Out Live Commentary Covering the JCPA

Digital Engagement in a Transforming Social Media Landscape

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The Genesis of Social Media Platforms

The early 2000s saw the inception of social media, primarily centered on creating genuine connections between individuals familiar with each other. These platforms emphasized networking rather than a media-driven experience. Checking in at favorite spots like a local café was more common than sharing a personal video.

However, as the 2010s unfolded, platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and even LinkedIn evolved to prioritize content sharing over just networking.

The Paradigm Shift to Content-centric Platforms

Over the last decade, content distribution has surpassed networking as the chief purpose of social media platforms. Increased smartphone accessibility and the race to enhance platform engagement have been instrumental in this transformation. With 85% of American adults using smartphones by 2021, the implications for social media consumption were profound. The continuous content feeds offered by giants like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook are prime examples of platforms adapting to these changes, even as they face criticism for potential addictive qualities.

The Downward Spiral of Facebook

Facebook’s decline is a multifaceted issue. Firstly, advertiser’s discontent led to notable revenue loss. 2020 saw significant brands boycotting Facebook due to concerns surrounding hate speech. The platform’s subsequent advertising policy changes in 2022 further alienated advertisers.

Additionally, business viability concerns have arisen. Despite generating immense profit, internal decisions like the massive investment in ventures like virtual reality and the metaverse have raised eyebrows. This, coupled with the company’s layoff announcements in 2022, could potentially harm its future recruitment capabilities.

Furthermore, recurrent controversies have tainted Facebook’s reputation. Scandals like the Cambridge Analytica debacle and the revelations brought forward by whistleblower Frances Haugen have deeply impacted the company’s trustworthiness and credibility.

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Twitter’s Ongoing Struggles

Unlike Facebook, Twitter’s challenges are deeply rooted. Issues like a wavering profitability record and the recent upheaval caused by Elon Musk’s takeover have placed the platform under scrutiny. Management decisions, like the hasty layoffs of over 3700 employees (nearly 50% of its workforce) according to TechCrunch, have further affected its stability. Even major companies like Apple are distancing themselves from Twitter due to the platform’s inability to effectively moderate content and combat misinformation.

The platform’s lax policies against harassment and doxing have been another area of contention. In such a volatile environment, it becomes increasingly challenging for brands to foster genuine connections.

Exploring Alternative Digital Communities

While Facebook and Twitter grapple with their respective challenges, users are flocking to platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Diversification seems to be a plausible strategy. However, depending solely on another social media giant might be short-sighted. The need of the hour is to build and nurture a digital audience on platforms that you can control.

One effective way to do this is by leveraging SEO, advertising, and other strategies to drive traffic to your own digital space. Upon their arrival, it’s imperative to provide a modern, engaging digital experience. Without it, your audience will inevitably revert to their preferred social media platforms.

The Essential Components of a Robust Community Website

Two pivotal components are vital to curate an engaging digital experience: content and community.

Engaging content is fundamental. Regularly updating your digital space with informative or entertaining content can encourage your audience to return, fostering a sense of trust.

However, content alone isn’t sufficient. A thriving community experience is equally crucial. Instead of replicating the exact model of giants like Facebook or Twitter, focusing on creating micro-communities can be more effective. And that’s where Arena Live Chat can be transformative. By integrating Arena’s live blogs, you can offer engaging digital events and cultivate a sense of community. Dive deeper into how Arena Live Chat can reshape your digital engagement strategy.

How to Build a Community Flywheel for Growth

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Using a community flywheel for growth is a powerful way to convert more customers and keep your customers longer. The community mindset has the potential to supercharge growth. It takes significant effort, but don’t let that discourage you. You’ll gain a lot of benefits from fostering and growing your online community hub.

What Are The Key Elements to Building a Community Flywheel?

There are five elements to a thriving community flywheel, according to management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Understand Your Market

The foundation of a successful community is understanding what your customers value and the communities they currently participate in.

Identify Your Hero Products

Community-building efforts have the best chance to succeed when focused on one or a few products. For companies with a more extensive product portfolio, focus on the products that have won the most traction in terms of loyalty, reviews and engagement.

Tell Interesting Stories About Your Hero Products

The next part of building a community flywheel focuses on social proof. Specifically, reach out to your customers to ask them for feedback. Shining a spotlight on your happiest customers sets the tone for your community.

Fuel The Community With Content

Great products aren’t enough to build thriving digital community hubs. You also need to offer engaging content that answers questions, solves problems, and entertains your audience. This part of the flywheel can also leverage user-generated content (UGC).

Make Buying Easy

The final piece of a successful company is making buying easy. For consumer brands, draw inspiration from Amazon’s one-click ordering. For complex B2B sales, look for sales to simplify the buying process. For example, offering a free trial of your software is powerful because it lets users experience how the product directly.

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Community-Led Growth Success Stories

Seeing the value in community-powered growth is easier when you can see tangible results. Several brands have leveraged communities for growth.

Gymshark: Community Growth In Fitness

Founded in 2012, this British fitness company offers workout clothing for athletes and gym enthusiasts. While clothing sales lie at the heart of the business model, the business has also launched a fitness training app. Gymshark has a natural advantage in building a community. Many of its customers regularly pursue fitness goals like weight loss, increased strength, and athletic performance. The company also has a significant and highly active community social media following on Instagram and Facebook.

Gymshark also demonstrates practical ways to work with influencers to create content around your brand. The company started with a simple outreach campaign to Chris Lavado and Lex Fitness, fitness influencers on YouTube. With this approach, the company effectively inserted itself into existing fitness communities.

Notion: Productivity Community Drives Growth

Notion is a digital organizing tool where individuals and teams can track projects, goals and stay organized. Notion’s success at online community building is remarkable because they are entering a crowded space of productivity and organization tools. The sheer variety of the community’s engagement options is a crucial reason for its success.

The Notion approach to the community includes both official and unofficial community options. Die-hard enthusiasts can become Notion-certified consultants – there are dozens as of November 2022. In addition, the company has an ambassador program and campus program where enthusiasts can gather together.

The informal community options are even more significant. For example, the company lists digital and in-person events and gatherings in Sydney, the University of Tampa, Brazil, and Portland, OR. Further, Notion has both “interest-based groups” on topics like Notion for Students, Marketing & Notion, and language-based groups (e.g., Notion in French, Notion in Spanish, etc.).

These online community growth stories illustrate how you can bring your customers into your growth journey.

Ways To Ignite Your Community Flywheel

1) Invest In Case Studies and Customer Stories

Producing high-quality customer stories is a foundational element in fostering community-led growth. These marketing assets are powerful because they bring together your product and the value customers experience using it. Use the following tactics to gather customer stories.

Ask Sales For Happy Customers

Customer studies are most compelling when they focus on people who are delighted with your product. Asking the sales team to build a list of delighted customers is a great way to start the outreach process. Sales and marketing should work closely together to create a list of 10 customers to interview for social proof.

Review Product Analytics For Engaged Customers

For digital companies, there’s another way to find your best customers. Look at your analytics platforms to find your most engaged users. For instance, a news publisher might start by creating a list of all their paying subscribers and then refine that list by looking at people who log in to the website multiple times in the past 30 days.

Give Your Customers Options To Contribute Their Stories

The first two tips will help you create an interview outreach list. Since you are asking customers for their time and attention, it’s essential to be flexible. If possible, aim for a live interview over video so that you can ask clarifying questions and dig deeper into the answers. If the customer isn’t interested in a video call, consider using an email interview or survey instead.

Once you have your case study ready, contact the customer to get their approval before you publish it.

In addition, pay attention to the online chat events you host with Arena Live Chat. If you notice particularly positive and engaged customers in chat, send them a private message to ask if they would be interested in a case study interview.

2) Build Your Content Foundation

Engaging content is critically important to building your audience. There’s no single definition of engaging content, so let’s look at a few approaches to it.

Instructional Content

Content that teaches a person how to solve a problem or use a technology or skill is incredibly popular. It’s easy to assume that people know how to use your product effectively. In the consumer market, beauty brands like Credo Beauty and Estee Lauder on YouTube have created instructional videos and posts. In the enterprise market, Microsoft and Cisco have created significant libraries of technical content designed to help their audience.

Reach out to sales and customer support colleagues for instructional content ideas. Any question that your organization receives multiple times may be a good fit for instructional content.

Satisfy Search Intent

Finding underserved search queries is an important search engine optimization skill. Finding these searches and creating content that satisfies those interests is worth the effort. Start by using your SEO software to identify questions or comparison search-based queries.

Entertainment

Entertaining content isn’t a fit for every brand. If you can find a way to leverage humor in short TikTok videos or other formats, it will help you to gain an engaged audience. Creating successful humor that aligns with your brand is an art. In many cases, it’s best to use comedy and entertainment to spice up other forms of content.

Unique or Exclusive Content

Creating genuinely unique content takes substantial effort. For example, look at Buffer’s State of Remote Work survey. This resource takes months of planning, research, and creation. Over time, Buffer has earned a substantial amount of backlinks and attention. Ask your team what unique data you have and create content around that.

You can also create unique content by curating the best content online. For example, you can use Arena Live Blog to pull in the best social media content around a breaking news story.

3) Borrow Audiences With Influencer Strategies

There are few real shortcuts to building an engaged audience. One of the few proven options is to borrow an audience from somebody else. One of the best options is to reach out to social media influencers for promotion. For example, you can send your product directly to an influencer and ask them to review it.

4) Use Niche Strategies

Some niche community-building strategies work well in certain circumstances.

For example, many B2B brands create certification programs and training courses to help power users show off their expertise. For inspiration, look at companies like Salesforce, Cisco, and Microsoft, which have long offered certifications. Creating a meaningful certification program usually means creating a challenging exam, training content, and ways for credential holders to promote their achievement.

Does your company have an interest in younger people? Creating a college ambassador program might be a great way to focus community. This might start with offering a discounted price to students. You might also create free resources for students as well. Apple has long had a highly successful ambassador program for education. Offering a tangible benefit like a summer job, discount, or something else is an excellent way to spark this type of community.

Make Your Website The Heart of Your Digital Community

Building communities around the web and offline is all worthwhile. However, it’s difficult to deeply understand social media followers because you don’t have any first-party data about them. As you attract more and more people to your website, ensure it is interactive and engaging. Learn more about how Arena can help you build social communities under your control.

Are You Using These 5 Gen Z Shopping Trends?

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With more than $360 billion in disposable income, brands that move fast to serve Gen Z will win. Understanding how Gen Z likes to shop is crucial to maximizing conversions and engagement. Capture more conversions in this market by leveraging these shopping trends.

The Top 5 Gen Z Shopping Trends

As you review these shopping trends, take a moment to review each one carefully. Ask yourself (and your team) where your business could make changes to accommodate these trends.

1) Social Proof Is Still King

Social proof has long been one of the most crucial marketing factors. With Gen Z, recommendations from friends, family, and other trusted individuals remain critically important. Assess your product pages, post-purchase marketing, and presence on third-party sites (e.g., Trust Pilot) for social proof.

Here are a few ideas to emphasize social proof for Gen Z in your marketing:

Encourage informal reviews

Logging into your website or platform to write reviews may feel like too much work for some people. Informal reviews can help you. Your social media posts encourage customers to tell you what you like about your products. These comments can inform your marketing efforts.

Your live shopping and online events can help you to generate reviews and social proof. With Arena Live blog, you can pull in posts from any accounts or hashtags you want.

Boost referrals with a Gen Z focus

There’s no reason to sit on your hands and wait for word-of-mouth recommendations to start. Give incentives to your customers for introducing you to others. To spark Gen Z engagement, make sure you create content in Gen Z-friendly formats like short-form videos  (i.e. 30-60 seconds). 

There are no shortcuts to building honest, positive reviews from happy customers. However, there is a way to rent social proof and credibility: working with influencers. That’s the next Gen Z shopping habit we’ll unpack.

2) Influencer Content Drives Engagement And Purchases

Gen Z constantly participates in the influencer economy as content creators, supporters, and enthusiasts. Platforms like Patreon and Kickstarter make it easier than ever for creative people to engage their audiences online. You can shortcut the social proof process by working with Gen Z influencers. Use custom tracking links and coupon codes to track the campaign results.

Smaller influencers with audiences under 10,000 may be willing to feature your product if you send it to them for free. More established influencers are likely to expect a fee. Before paying an influencer, get clarity on their audience and ask about their past campaigns. 

There’s one drawback to conventional influencer marketing campaigns. Most of the action takes place away from your website. Instead of simply asking influencers to post about your brand on their social account, integrate those posts into your website. For example, you can host a digital event experience on your website by embedding YouTube. By hosting the event on your website, you have more flexibility to add calls to action and track conversions.

3) Offer A Sustainable Shopping Experience

Gen Z consumers care more about sustainability and corporate social responsibility than almost any other demographic. First Insight found that 75% of Generation Z consumers prefer sustainability over the brand name of a product when making a purchase. 

How do brands win by appealing to Generation Z’s sustainability sentiments? The answer depends on your company’s strategy. First, review your company’s sustainability achievements and policies. Find out if there is anything genuinely impressive to celebrate. If the answer is no, it’s time to plan a new initiative. Proclaiming a commitment to sustainability without backing up your words exposes your brand to accusations of “greenwashing” (i.e., sustainability hypocrisy). 

Use these tips to leverage sustainability in your Gen Z marketing campaigns:

Explain what you don’t use or do in your products and supply chain.

Some companies proudly use vegan products exclusively. Others focus on local-scale supply chains to reduce transportation costs and carbon emissions. Still, some companies apply a rigorous selection process for vendors to reduce costs. Use that fact in your marketing if you have excluded ingredients or processes from your company to improve sustainability.

Communicate your carbon footprint goals

A growing list of companies, including H&M (clothing), Cisco Systems (enterprise technology), CVS (health), and Etsy (marketplace), have set public net zero carbon emissions goals. Recently, these goals have shifted toward “net zero” goals. That means setting a date your company will not make a carbon impact. Achieving this goal may take several forms, like reducing waste, using LEED-certified buildings, and buying credits. 

Market charitable partnerships and campaigns

Allow your Gen Z buyers to support sustainable practices with each practice. For example, you might donate $1 from each purchase to an environmental group like the Sierra Club, Rainforest Alliance, or Greenpeace. To deepen your connection with Gen Z consumers, find a Gen Z spokesperson at the charity or nonprofit to appear in videos and other collateral. 

4) Make mobile payments easy

Expecting Gen Z customers to put down their phones to complete a purchase means lost revenue. Shopping research reported by Insider Intelligence found that 60% of Gen Z prefer to make payments using their mobile device. The shift to mobile payments will affect physical retailers even more. A May 2022 survey of UK consumers found that over 70% of Gen Z consumers are abandoning their physical wallets and switching to mobile devices. 

Satisfying this mobile payment trend requires collaboration between marketing and technology. At a minimum, ask a friend unfamiliar with your website to make purchases on your website. Track how long they take to complete the purchase. Also, check if they have to resort to extra effort (e.g., zooming in and out to fill in a different field). 

While the mobile experience is vital, the desktop web experience still has an important place. We’ll turn to that shopping trend next.

5) Gen Z Will Ignore Your Website Unless It is Fast and Easy

The central importance of website importance keeps growing. Generally, a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load will lose customers. Further, some surveys have found that Generation Z’s average attention span – 8 seconds – is significantly less than older generations. If your website takes too long to load, you wouldn’t have a chance to connect with Gen Z when they visit your website.

Slow websites don’t just irritate Gen Z, either. The Google search engine tends to favor fast websites over slow ones. If you depend on organic search traffic to grow your business.

Improving website speed and usability takes time and experimentation. Start by running Google’s Core Web Vitals on your website. Check the desktop and mobile experience. Failing to pass this assessment will likely leave your website at a disadvantage. In addition, use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to find additional opportunities to optimize your website performance. 

The Critical Ingredient In Gen Z Shopping

Understanding these Gen Z shopping trends is the journey’s starting point, not the end. The specific market preferences in your industry may be different. Some markets, like book readers, ultimately want to enjoy a non-digital experience with a book. Other segments, like gaming enthusiasts, tend to lean toward a highly digital experience. Traditional analytics platforms will only tell you some of the answers here.

To understand your audience better, you need to gather first-party data from your audience, by tracking which content, online experiences, events, and web pages your audience likes, optimizing marketing campaigns gets much more straightforward. Learn how Arena Personas can help you better manage your first-party data to understand Gen Z buyers more effectively.