With the combination of social media and traditional websites, a new era of digital community is born.  Building a digital community around your brand or business is a great way to create ambassadors and keep customers and users coming back to your site. A digital community, simply put is a group of people coming together with similar goals and interests on the World Wide Web. Community can come in many forms on the web such as product reviews, social media integration or mobile apps.

There are a few things you should consider before breaking ground on a new digital community. First and foremost — who is your target audience and what are their needs? Think about who you are speaking to. If your audience is men, ages 18 -24, your community is going to feel a lot different than if you are speaking to an audience of women, ages 30-35. Both of those audiences have different wants and needs as well as different way of communicating. These are things to keep in mind.

The second thing you should consider when leading a digital community is what can you contribute to the community. Site Managers and Community managers should always keep the needs their users in mind and figure our the best way to meet them. Often times this can be offering unique and educational information or even entertainment and interaction. Each user has different needs.

We know what you’re thinking — HATHWAY, how can a make money from building a digital community?  Digital Communities are a perfect compliment to any e-commerce site and can be incorporated in to different aspects of the site. For example, Big Poppa Smoker, a HATHWAY developed site selling American made smokers and grills incorporated community traits into the shopping cart in the form of reviews.

Another option for monetizing digital communities is to create a subscription to exclusive information or deals. If the community you create provides valuable information, charge for it. HATHWAY build, Pyramind Online is a great example of this. They provide a space for artists, DJs and audio engineers to collaborate and share knowledge. Membership is free but access to exclusive information and educational material is available for subscribers.

Below are some examples of how to take convert your current e-commerce efforts into a digital community. Good Luck!

Scenario 1:

A supplement company that sells dietary supplements online can create a fitness community where users upload workout routines and diet regimens to be shared. Giving members the ability to find specific workouts to help lose their gut or bulk up offers members a reason to keep coming back. When you can leverage your members and encourage user-generated content this takes a lot of work off the back of the site admin. This gives users a reason to come back day after day, and allows you to passively market to them. A companion iPhone application could be handy as well, allowing users to take their routine with them to the gym and track their progress.

Scenario 2:

For an online skate shop, you might consider creating a directory website with updated listings on where to find skate parks and other legal places to skate. Again, a companion iPhone application would allow skaters on the go to locate there nearest Skate Park. Since you own the application, you would probably want to keep all ads on the application pointing to your own web store as well. Hint: There is no major skate company doing this, if you own a skate shop, you might want to contact us ASAP.

Scenario 3:

Maybe you sell educational materials and classroom books to schools and teachers and want to drive more traffic to your web store. If you developed a resource center where teachers could share and read other teachers lesson plans and materials, you would give them a reason to come back and passively promote your products for sale as well.

Scenario 4:

Maybe you sell grills and smokers and want to give users a place to learn about grilling with videos, or discover new recipes and at the same time offer them the best grills and smokers on the market. Oh wait, — Big Poppa already did that. Check out Big Poppa’s Smokers for a glimpse at the future of ecommerce.