The Power of Social Media Communities – A case study of everymum

If there’s one thing we’ve all learned recently, it’s how important communities are to us.

These days, many of our communities are online; that move was turbo-charged in 2020 by Covid. Without our regular real-world communities—from yoga mornings and meditation evenings to book clubs, beer clubs and baby groups—those relationships and activities were quickly relocated to Zoom, Facebook and Instagram.

We craved connection and this was the only way to get it.

But a surprising thing happened along the way; we realised that there are people like us in every town and village in Ireland. People looking for community. People looking to advise, and to be advised. People looking for their tribe.

Long before Covid hit Zahra knew the power of social media communities—because we have a thriving one. Many mums have found their much-needed sense of belonging with everymum, a Zahra owned media brand.

Who is everymum?

everymum is Irelands largest opted in parenting community with 220,000 active members, 150,000 social media followers and a reach on social of over 1 million every single month. 

everymum is a website, an email database, a Facebook page, an Instagram account, a Pinterest profile and much more, because when you bring all of those parts together—everymum is a community. 

Soon-to-be mums join private everymum birth clubs based on the month that their child is due, allowing them to have sensitive and much needed conversations.

Many new mums join everymum on Instagram looking for connection, sharing experiences and continually supporting each other. everymum brings them content that connects with their time in life—from funny memes to expert takeovers.

Over 300,000 women have listened to everymum the podcast since it kicked off in 2019. They say that hearing other people’s stories of pregnancy, labour, birth and motherhood was affirming and powerful; that connection with listeners led everymum to top the parenting podcast charts.

On Facebook more experienced mums offer much needed advice to those that needed it. everymum currently facilitate an “Ask everymum” option where mums can send in their queries to be published anonymously – and the support and engagement they get from the rest of the community really is phenomenal.

This thriving community trusts everymum and trusts each other—and those key elements allow everymum to know their audience in a deep and detailed way.

“With this knowledge we are able to provide information, and recommend products and services to them, in a manner that we know works. We know what works because we know our community, and we even take it one step further—we are our community.” says Kate Gunn, Head of Social for everymum

This is the key to a successful community. Running it not just based on facts and figures, but because you care. It takes time to build, resources to run, and the perfect team to get it right—but once you do it’s worth everything.

Tips for building a strong social media community

Here are some key tips to building a thriving social media community like everymum:

  • Define your audience. What channels do they hang out on? What are their interests and what do they need?
  • Pick your key channels—you don’t need to be everywhere. If your demographic is Gen Z you might choose TikTok and Instagram; if it’s the silver wave then you might concentrate solely on Facebook.
  • Use your voice. Just as important as your name, logo, or design brief is your tone of voice. Is it fun? Cheeky? Supportive? What matches your product, service and customer best?
  • Create content that matters. There’s no point in putting out content just to fill a hole in your social calendar. Identify the reason for each post you put out. Is it to engage, entertain, or inform? Make sure you know before you post.
  • Post consistently. Work out a schedule and stick to it. And don’t just post and run; make sure you engage with your audience. Reply to messages, create polls, and jump into the comments—it’s not called social media for nothing.
  • Find your sweet spot. With so much data at our fingertips these days it’s easy to get lost in benchmarks and cost-per-clicks. But there’s a balance to be found between the data and the human. By all means use it to inform—but don’t lose sight of the personal element. Spend time in your community to find out what’s important to them and then use that, coupled with your data, to find your community’s magic sweet spot.

And why?

A thriving social media community can be your biggest asset. They are your brand ambassadors, your focus groups, your amplifiers, your testers, your reviewers, your sounding board, your experts, your superfans. They’re immediately available 24 hours a day, respond immediately and are not afraid to give an opinion.

Now what company doesn’t need that?!

Need help to get it right? Then get in touch; email gmiltiadou@zahramediagroup.com or connect through our Contact page.

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