Why Does My Site Need a Community Feed?
Integrating a community tool on your website can transform how you connect with your customers and how they interact with each other. Community features allow customers to bond over shared interests and experiences, turning individual customers into a cohesive fan base.
What is the Community Feed?
rediem's community feed is designed to be a vibrant hub of user activity and engagement. Here’s how it works and what it can do for your brand:
Photo-Based Actions and Challenges
Engagement Through Photo-Based Actions: Users are encouraged to take part in photo-based actions and challenges within the loyalty program. After participating, they can add an optional caption and share their experience by posting the image to the feed.
Visual Brand Storytelling: This feed becomes a dynamic repository of all the exciting actions happening within your community. It allows new users to see the enthusiasm of existing customers and offers a visual story of your brand's impact and customer involvement.
User-Generated Content (UGC)
Repost and Share: You can amplify the reach of your community's content by reposting and sharing photos that accumulate on the feed. This not only shows appreciation for your users' efforts but also enhances content visibility. Easily download photos posted by your users and tag them on your social media platforms. When users add their social media handles to their profiles, these can be automatically included in exported images, making sharing seamless and boosting user visibility.
Note: social media platforms do not allow direct sharing from websites, but we've designed the most elegant workarounds possible!
Building Fidelity with Customers
Owned Social Channel: Our community feed acts as your owned social channel, free from the unpredictability of social media algorithms. This ensures that your most engaged fans always see your posts, improving the effectiveness of your communications.
Direct Communication: Educate and inform your customers directly through the feed. This controlled environment allows for more consistent and impactful messaging.
Notifications: Keep your community updated with SMS or email notifications about new posts or important updates. Soon, we will also integrate push notifications through Apple Wallet, making it even easier to stay top of mind for your customers.
Sample Live Community Feed:
Managing Tags
Tags are a crucial feature in our community feed, allowing both users and brand managers to organize content and navigate the vast array of user-generated content (UGC) with ease. Similar to platforms like Instagram, tags help to categorize content, making it more accessible and engaging for community members. Here’s how tags work in our app:
Types of Tags
Public Tags: These are visible on posts within the community feed. Public tags help users discover related content by clicking on a tag to see all posts associated with it. For example, assigning the tag #earthdaychallenge to posts submitted in through that action would allow community members to view all submissions related to this specific event or theme, fostering a sense of participation and unity.
Hidden Tags: These tags are not visible to the general community but are an invaluable tool for brand managers. Hidden tags serve as internal organizational tools that aid in segmenting and analyzing the community activity. They are essential for behind-the-scenes management and strategic planning.
Setting Up a Public Tag
Setting Up a Hidden Tag
Hidden Tags for Analytics
You can use hidden tags when setting up a custom action, as shown below. This can be incredibly useful for grouping certain actions or challenges for analytics purposes.
Example: For actions related to an in-person event, a hidden tag such as "IRL" could be used. This allows brand managers to easily segment and analyze all posts related to real-life events. By filtering the analytics to show only actions with the "IRL" tag, brand managers can assess the performance and engagement levels of these specific events.
Hidden Tags for UGC Management
Brand managers can add a hidden tag to community feed content after a user posts it to help organize UGC and content as it is submitted.
Example: If a user uploads a photo of a product, like a "pink jade roller," brand managers can add a hidden tag corresponding to the product SKU. This tagging allows specific UGC to be systematically associated with particular products. Later, this content can be pulled via the tag to populate on the respective product page on the brand's website, enhancing the product's visual appeal and authenticity through real user endorsements
Benefits of Using Tags
Streamlined Content Management: Tags simplify the management of content, making it easier for brand managers to organize and locate specific types of posts quickly.
Enhanced User Experience: Public tags enhance the navigability of the community feed for users, making it more engaging and interactive.
Targeted Analysis: Hidden tags allow for detailed analysis and segmentation of community interactions, which can inform marketing strategies and content adjustments.
Approving Posts on Your Community Feed
In your community settings, you can choose whether posts automatically appear on the feed or require manual approval. To adjust these settings, click "Community Settings" and toggle the approval settings for actions on or off. In the future, you will also be able to toggle auto-approvals for comments and other types of posts as these features become available.
Most brands opt for manual approval, especially for photo submissions, to ensure that content aligns with their brand image.
On the dashboard, you'll find tools to approve or reject action submissions. You can decide whether to display these posts on the live feed.
Visibility
It's possible to approve a post and assign points to the customer without displaying the photo on your community feed. This feature is beneficial if you aim to maintain a curated aesthetic or selectively highlight certain posts to engage your community.
Approval
To approve or reject photo submissions, use your mouse to scroll over to the right and for each entry and click "accept" or "reject." This action determines whether the submission earns points
Exciting Upcoming Features for Our Community Feed
Our community feed is set to become even more engaging with several new features designed to enhance interaction and provide more dynamic ways for users to connect with your brand and each other. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s coming soon:
Posting Free-Form Posts
Variety of Post Types:
Q&A Sessions: Users can ask questions directly in the community feed, and either community members or brand representatives can provide answers, fostering a collaborative learning environment.
Brand Updates: Keep your community informed with the latest news about your brand, product launches, and other significant announcements.
Polls: Engage your audience by creating polls. This can be an effective way to gather feedback, understand customer preferences, or just increase interaction on the platform.
Testimonials: Encourage users to share their positive experiences and stories. This not only boosts your brand’s credibility but also helps build a positive community atmosphere.
Engagement and Visibility:
By allowing varied content types, users will have more reasons to visit and engage with the community feed regularly, increasing visibility and interaction with your brand.
Tiers-Based Permissions
Exclusive Access for Loyal Customers:
Implementing tiers-based permissions can enhance the sense of exclusivity and reward for top-tier customers. For example, only customers at Gold-tier or higher might have the ability to post free-form content, while other tiers might interact primarily through actions-taken.
Encouraging Brand Loyalty:
This feature incentivizes users to reach higher loyalty tiers to unlock additional capabilities within the community, fostering a more engaged and committed user base.
Liking and Commenting
Full-Fledged Community Engagement:
Liking: Users can show appreciation for posts by liking them, which not only validates the poster but also helps popular posts gain more visibility.
Commenting: Enable users to comment on posts, facilitating discussions and deeper connections among community members. This feature can turn simple posts into active conversations, deepening user engagement.
Building Connections:
This level of interaction allows users to make friends with other brand fans, share insights, and engage in discussions, creating a lively and supportive community atmosphere.
Implementation and Impact
Moderation Tools: With increased posting and interaction capabilities, implementing robust moderation tools and guidelines will be crucial to maintain a positive and respectful community environment.
Analytics: Enhanced features will require improved analytics to track engagement rates, most active users, and popular content types, helping you refine your community strategy over time.
Feedback Mechanisms: Regularly seek feedback from your community about these new features to ensure they meet user needs and adjust based on their preferences.