In the age of social media, businesses need to find multiple ways to engage with their target audience. People spend an incredible amount of time online – about eight and a half hours a day on average – and they usually scroll between the same few sites. To put it simply, you must give your audience a reason to spend more time on your site. An online community gives people the chance to connect with like-minded individuals. In turn, this fosters a greater sense of brand loyalty and improves customer retention.

On the other side, this gives you direct access to your target audience. Your current customers’ engagement offers you the opportunity to improve your products, services, and marketing efforts. It’s like having a focus group that’s already on your website. As we continue to break down barriers and eliminate borders, digital inclusion is more critical than ever. And if people are going to be connecting with others online anyways, why shouldn’t they engage with others on your website?

People love to have their voices heard. Although it seems like everything in the modern world is “out with the old, and in with the new,” public engagement isn’t something that we should forget.

How Does a Commenting System Help Build an Online Community?

Commenting is one of the easiest ways to build an online community. These platforms allow people to discuss hot topics, express opinions, share ideas, fix problems, ask for help, and find solutions. Commenting enables people to start a conversation and to feel like they are a part of a larger group, even if they’re just sitting on the couch scrolling on their smartphone.

A commenting system opens the door for people with diverse perspectives to come together and share ideas. As the brand hosts the discussion, you’ll get a clear picture of how people perceive you. You can get information about your offerings, customer service, and marketing approach along with tons of feedback representing the voice of the customer. However, one of the primary reasons people are reluctant to add a commenting aspect to their website is that they’re afraid of trolls. Internet trolls lurk on commenting platforms to post irrelevant, hateful, or inflammatory messages.

They’re a nuisance, and when left unchecked, they can ruin the online experience for the other people on the site. But let’s be honest, these problems are not limited to the internet—they are society-wide problems. And when we’re online, we can moderate the comments before they’re posted for everyone to read.

That doesn’t mean that every negative comment automatically comes from a troll. There will be negative comments, but a portion of the comments come from frustrated customers. This comment provides a different kind of learning opportunity because you can listen to what this person is saying and politely respond with a potential solution.

Why Is It Important for a Brand to Build an Online Community?

Commenting systems open the door for a deeper analysis of your customers. Both the positive and negative responses will help you tailor your brand to provide a better experience for your audience and inform your marketing efforts.

Additionally, commenting platforms provide real-time responses because they don’t limit the number of users or commenters. If you need an answer to a customer opinion question quickly, you can pose it to your online forum and watch as the responses come flooding in. Plus, it makes it highly interactive to moderate and respond to comments as they come in.

Actively engaging with your customers on the commenting platform by replying to their messages will show your community that you care about what they think. The more you interact with people, the closer they’ll feel to your brand, and it will increase overall brand loyalty.

If you’ve always wanted a direct pipeline for your customers to understand what they’re thinking, it’s time to add a commenting system for your website.

Features of an Effective Commenting System

Adding a commenting system to your website is easy. A few lines of code embedded in the site give you analytics, tracking, and insights into commenting behaviors. Putting a comment box on your website is only half of the battle. You still must moderate comments as they come in and ensure that discussions stay civil.

AI & Human Moderation

For innovative commenting systems, the solution to reputation protection is a mixture of AI and human moderation. AI provides the first pass of moderation to make sure that most of the comments abide by your pre-set rules and regulations. If a comment is flagged for review, human moderators step in to make the final decision. Having this combination of AI and human moderation makes sure discourse is respectful and decreases the time employees spend slogging through comment logs.

The best commenting tools come with a team to perform around-the-clock comment moderation. These people are pros at spotting and dealing with trolls. This gives your online community a safe space and positive environment for discussions, questions, and interaction.

Reputation Points & Badges

You should also look for a tool that offers a reputation or points system to encourage positive engagement. It is no secret that people like rewards for good behavior or actions. Reputation points and badges give them the reward they seek for commenting, responding, voting, answering questions, and participating in the community. By elevating good behavior within the commenting system, it discourages unwanted action that would mean moderation like trolling, cursing, or personal attacks.

Easy Integration

With a tool that offers seamless integration, you won’t have to worry that your commenting system won’t be available to people jumping from their computers to their tablets to their phones. The tech pros behind the commenting system will ensure that your platform is always available for people who want to engage with your brand on any device.

Ready to Use Commenting to Engage Your Community?

The right tool will understand that your brand is unique and your commenting system will need customizable rules to fit your company values. You should be able to craft your commenting platform to match the rest of your site and you should have peace of mind knowing that your tool will provide a stable experience no matter which settings you choose.

Insticator’s commenting system offers all these features and more. To discover how we can help you implement an incredible commenting system to build your online community, get in touch with us today.