One way to grow a loyal community online is to take it offline. Social media can help you to build relationships with customers and fans, but there comes a time when that means you will need to bring it into the real world.

We came up with tips for how to grow a loyal community online and offline in a few different real-world scenarios and how you can use social media to build business relationships.

How to Grow a Loyal Community while Attending a Conference

• When attending a conference use the designated hashtag on Twitter and Instagram. It’s a great way to connect with people in attendance and strike up relationships.
• If you can’t attend a conference, use the hashtag to attend virtually, gather information and connect with speakers and attendees. Don’t be spammy, look for ways to add value.
• Identify people you want to meet ahead of time to connect with them. Look at the speaker and attendee lists and monitor the hashtag before, during and after the conference. Make a Twitter list or subscribe to the event organizer’s list where available.
• Do a really good job of “covering” the session of a speaker you want to meet with live tweeting, use their Twitter handle, and introduce yourself afterward.

How to Grow a Loyal Community at Monthly Professional Development Gatherings and Meetings

• If you’re organizing a conference or event, be sure to research and identify one official hashtag to be used which will help bring everyone together.
• Connect with attendees between events on social media.
• Create a special Facebook or LinkedIn group to connect between meetings, speaking events or breakouts.

How to Grow Online and Offline Relationships with Your Work Team

• Highlight the great work of your co-workers. This brings great recognition for the both the company and the employee.
• Start a Slack Channel to connect with employees, quickly share information and build bigger communities among your team in a less public way.
• Plan events and highlight them in Instagram or Facebook Stories so the public feels the company is relatable.

How to Grow a Loyal Community During Cultural or Sporting Events

• Use the hashtag associated with the event, if one was provided by the organizer or is adopted by people attending, to connect and build community.
• Connecting during these events is an easy way to build relationships with people with similar interests.

How to Grow a Loyal Community While Watching a Television Program

• Television shows really get the fact that people love to watch shows “together” on a second screen using a hashtag and are starting to encourage it by providing the hashtags in a lower third during the program.
• Use the show’s hashtag to chat with people in real time while watching a show.
• Look for opportunities to connect with television cast members between episodes. Marcus Lemonis from CNBC’s “The Profit” does Facebook Live posts from his Facebook page in between commercial breaks to chat with his community.
• Make a Twitter list of people whom you connect with as you watch your favorite show and reconnect week-to-week.

Take Action

At the next upcoming event, whether you are going in person or not, follow the hashtag and interact in one of the ways we mentioned in this episode.

How to reach Kami:

If you’d like to learn more about Kami Huyse, visit her website at www.zoeticamedia.com. You can contact her by email at kami@zoeticamedia.com or tweet to @kamichat.

How to reach Madalyn:

If you’d like to learn more about Madalyn Sklar, visit her website at www.madalynsklar.com. You can contact her by email at madalyn@madalynsklar.com or tweet to @MadalynSklar.

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