We asked Georgina Atwell, marketing expert and founder of Toppsta, the UK’s largest online community reviewing children’s books, which grew by 114% in the pandemic, for her top tips for building an online community around your business
Building engaged, loyal online communities around your business is vital for success. They’re a brilliant way to get feedback from customers on new products and ideas, establish an authentic brand identity, build an in-depth understanding of your customer base, collaborate with other brands and grow your business’s reach.
So we asked Georgina Atwell, marketing expert and founder of Toppsta, the UK’s largest online community reviewing children’s books, which grew by 114% in the pandemic, for her top tips for building an online community around your business:
- The number one thing I’d recommend is to get to know each platform inside out and understand the differences between them. Set up an account, listen and engage and get a feel of what works and what doesn’t. We started on Facebook initially and quickly built a large audience because back in 2014, that’s where the parents were. After a parent won a book from us, they tended to engage with us more, signing up to the website and writing reviews. Twitter on the other hand, was a much less engaged platform at least in the early days. We tended to attract a lot of compers, who once they had won a book, stopped engaging with us completely, which was frustrating. That’s changed now and Twitter is a fantastic way to reach teachers and librarians as well as authors and illustrators. So now we vary our use of the platforms and our messaging, depending on which audience we’re targeting. Instagram is growing for us too and it’s particularly popular for picture books and YA so we’re selective about when and how we use it.
- We’ve learned that it’s important to make our online channels a two-way conversation. Followers are much more likely to engage if they feel that their opinion matters. When we first launched, we had no website, no products, nothing but a glimmer of an idea. Our social media channels were an amazing way to get instant feedback from our potential customers. They made it clear early on which kinds of books they liked and didn’t like, how they wanted them presented, and what book information was important to them. It soon became clear that they wanted a big cover image (not a flatlay or 3D image) and although the story of the book was important, it was secondary to the age recommendation; they didn’t want to waste their time reading about a book which wasn’t age-appropriate for their children. Over time this has really helped us to refine our USP and our messaging.
- It’s cheap but don’t kid yourself, it isn’t free! I spend more time on social media than probably any other part of my business (except reading books!). It’s a full-time job and our followers message at any time of day and night, every day of the week and they expect a quick reply – there is no such thing as a day off! It’s very easy to get behind with messages if you don’t keep on top of it and I think many people underestimate how much time it will take to do it properly. If your heart isn’t in it, it shows. Be genuine, be available and be quick. The other thing I’d recommend against is outsourcing it. The feedback from customers is far too valuable to leave to someone else, particularly in the early days. Only you can capture the tone and brand of your business. People want authenticity, not a corporate message.
- It’s important that you continue to analyse and adapt your online messaging over time. I’ve mentioned previously that our initial foray into Twitter wasn’t successful but I’m glad we stuck with it, as it’s probably our most engaged channel now. Twitter changed, so we needed to change with it. In the early days, when it was flooded with competitions, we insisted that users registered on the website to enter our giveaways, which cut out a lot of entries but meant that we attracted users genuinely interested in the books. Now that we have a large teacher following, we do run promotions solely on Twitter but it’s squarely aimed at schools. It’s so important to analyse the posts, the messaging, the timings, everything! Every time we run a post on social media I look at whether it was more successful on Facebook or Twitter and why that might have been.
- You don’t have to be creating original content all the time. It’s equally fine to be sharing someone else’s good news and it can often lead to interesting conversations with other individuals and businesses online. It costs nothing to see a great story and share it with your followers. For us that can be a new book, a great review or winning an award. It’s always appreciated and it strengthens your relationships with other accounts. Online communities are an incredible place to ask questions, get recommendations, meet like-minded people and engage in conversations. It can take a lot of effort to be continually thinking up new approaches, whereas I think just engaging in existing conversations is a more natural way to grow your community and influence.
- Partner up. Working with other brands can really help position and elevate yours. I think we all tend to gravitate towards the big brands but they’re approached so often, that it’s hard to get traction when you’re small. Approaching businesses similar in size can be a much more rewarding experience. You’ll find synergies and complementary approaches. as well as fewer levels of sign off. Small and mighty, with an engaged following is the key. Have a look not just at their follower numbers but their engagement too – some of the largest brands we’ve worked with have had the lowest engagement. And don’t underestimate the power of your own community size, however small it is. If the engagement is high and the topic is niche, you will find your tribe!
Georgina Atwell is the founder of Toppsta, a children’s book review site, where kids, parents and teachers go to read book reviews and recommendations for the latest children’s books.
