One of the challenges that we see most often in the community management space is the repetitiveness of the questions and comments from community members. Sometimes the repetitive comments are welcome, especially when they are very complimentary, positive and glowing.
And other times they can become annoying, frustrating or boring. The key is finding a way to turn those repetitive questions into quality answers that lead your community exactly where you want them. While also providing quality information and resolution for your community.
The challenge lies in how you direct them without becoming stale, short, sarcastic or bored. The truth of the matter is that most of the people that Tweet at you or send Facebook messages haven’t taken a look at your feed or previous posts or the questions that other people have asked. They have their question and they would like their answer.
With that in mind, here are some tips that we have that may help you moving forward with your repetitive community.
- Act like it’s the first time that you’ve ever heard the question. Think to yourself, “great question” and answer it like you may never hear it again.
- Remember that there is a very good chance that the person asking the question is new to your brand and has no background on the subject. While you may spend 98% of your life thinking about your brand and products and services, they don’t. They asked the question because they don’t have the answer.
- You are the expert. Your community comes to you with questions because they expect that you will have the answers that they don’t have. Whether this is the 1st time or 500th time that someone has asked you about product X from your brand is irrelevant, you’re the expert with the answer that they need. Give it to them.
- Use your resources. If your brand has a website with product info pages, news or blog posts use that content to answer questions and get your community members more engaged with your brand. Also, you can use content you have created for facebook, pinterest, youtube or other networks to help with reources.
- Be thankful for the questions and the community. Without them there is no brand, no product, no service and no you. While it may not be glamorous or exciting every time you hit refresh on the page, it’s why we’re here.
Every question that gets asked is an opportunity to raise awareness of your brand, improve brand sentiment, cement your brand as an industry leader and HELP YOUR COMMUNITY. Use them to your advantage. Seize those opportunities and create something larger than what you have now.
In the end that’s why we’re here as community managers. To manage, help, engage and interact with the community. Keep up the great work!
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