Community can mean different things to different people. We consider our team of talented people at ABI a small community of highly engaged creatives that share common interests and goals. Penn State defines community engagement as the pursuit to better engage the community to achieve long-term and sustainable outcomes, processes, relationships, discourse, decision-making, or implementation. There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for embarking on the road to building a community of fully engaged people.
To build this community of engaged people, it’s important to have numerous one-on-one interactions to understand and create the framework for the high-level strategy that aligns with the business goals. Our trademark A360 approach epitomizes the actions needed to build community engagement through thoughtfully developed strategies that focus on meeting people where they are.
These one-on-one interactions will help you understand the lives of those within the community. Too often brands forget consumers are people with varying interests, circumstances, and needs. Your brand needs to note these differences to create community engagement that will impact, teach, broaden, and enhance their lives with your messaging.
Working together with a cross-section of groups in the community – influencers, community leaders, families, schools and corporations – will foster trust through dialogue, collaboration, and representation.
Building a community takes work and lots of dedication. Consistent and helpful engagement creates community. Learn to listen, be sensitive and compassionate with the feedback that you receive so you can refine your message to help resolve and address the issues you’re presented with.