Tools to Rock Your Community Engagement
A review of “Five Stellar Community Engagement Platforms That Rock, and One to Avoid!” by Kiki Schirr
By Richard Andrascik, PT, DPT
This article reviews five apps that can be used for community engagement and one that would be best to avoid.
It also provides a 10-step strategy for using all five community platforms together if you are just getting started. You would need to have a degree of technical proficiency in social media and the time necessary to follow the 10-step strategy.- Anchor (www.anchor.fm) allows users to record full-length podcasts by stitching together shorter segments. Podcasters can record their voice and Anchor will use the recording to create an audible video of their words.
- Slack (www.slack.com) is a tool for communities to get to know each other and discuss shared interests. Community members can create different topical message boards.
- Discord (www.discord.com) is primarily used by gamers to talk to each other with their hands-free controllers.
- Facebook Groups provides an ideal channel for community engagement. An advantage is that most people already have a Facebook account and use it with some proficiency, making participating in Facebook Groups a relatively easy conversion.
- Quora (www.quora.com) provides a forum for users to get answers to difficult questions. A good answer will generate interest from the Quora community.
A PLATFORM TO AVOID
Sarahah (www.sarahah.com) claims to be a service for “honest feedback from coworkers and friends,” it is a digital slam book with little actual value for community building.
10-STEP STRATEGY FOR USING PLATFORMS TOGETHER
- Search Quora for a few questions relevant to your business field.
- Open your Facebook Group and create a poll to find out what questions your group would like to have answered.
- Encourage your Facebook Group to navigate to Slack for more in-depth conversation on the topic.
- Schedule a live voice chat discussion on Discord.
- Gather opinions, facts, and quotations from these sources.
- Record a discussion or interview on Anchor about the topic.
- Use Anchor to create a text video.
- Upload your video to YouTube along with a link to your Facebook Group.
- Share your YouTube link on Anchor, Slack, Discord, and Facebook.
- Return to the original Quora question and answer it thoroughly.
Richard Andrascik, PT, DPT,is the owner of Medical Rehabilitation Systems in Bridgewater, Pennsylvania. He can be reached at r.andrascik@mrsphysicaltherapy.com.