We are starting a deep dive into what you need to know about how to make money on social media by monetizing your community.

This episode outlines the overall philosophy for building a HUB Community, which will give you platform from which to eventually sell your product or service. We will cover specific tactics from four major social media platforms: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. In each episode, we will teach you strategies for how to make money on social media by growing an engaged online community.

We have already interviewed a few of these well-known experts, including Adele DeMeyer, Sue B Zimmerman and Zach Spuckler. All of these experts have built vibrant online communities and have monetized them in different ways.

The HUB Community Building Approach

In the HUB Approach, you will build a niche online community around a single idea or need and provide all of the tools your community members need to succeed with the following four strategies. By doing this, you create a community that is willing to pay you for your knowledge and assistance.

Strategy 1: Create a Path of Value

• Define what you want people to do, then build a path of value that leads them there.
• Start with the end in mind and what outcomes you want for your community or problems that you want to solve.
• Whenever you’re creating something, keep the outcome in mind, think about any objections people in the community may have for not achieving that outcome and build that into your product.
• Building lead magnets, create free trainings or run challenges that will help the community overcome any objections.
• Position your end product as the next logical step.
• Consider smaller products that assist in getting people to the end product.
• In each positive interaction, you are building a relationship so that people get to know, like and trust you. 

Strategy 2: Condition Your Community to Respond

• People tend to be passive receptors of information, but they can be trained to be responsive.
• Ask easy questions about specific things which encourage people to share or help someone else.
• Ask them to respond to your email. Try different things to see what works best.
• Send people personalized responses to model the behavior you want from them, and to indicate that you want to interact with them. 
• Dig deeper into a person’s responses by asking them to provide more context and ask follow-up questions that let them reveal what is truly holding them back in a specific area.

Strategy 3: Create Just in Time Systems

• Create products and services that are highly responsive and meet a specific need in real time. 
• If you develop systems that make it easier for people to succeed, people will pay to learn them.
• Solve one problem for your community at a time. You might not know the endpoint in advance and that’s okay. 
• As you solve problems, you will get a clearer picture of what people really need and you can create new products for them just in time.

Strategy 4: Monster Value Strategy

• Create such a huge value that you have no problem asking for the sale and people will pay.
• If you know what you have will help people and solve a real problem, it is much easier to charge for it.
• It’s all about creating value, creating something that helps your community. 
• Have confidence in your skill, knowledge, and ability to offer value to your community.
• Listen to what people want and only create products that people are asking you to create
• Offer a beta, pilot or low-cost opt-in to a training or product to gain feedback and co-create the experience.

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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] or tweet to @MadalynSklar.

Join Our Community

We have a new community on Facebook. We will extend the conversation from each episode and deliver bonus content. Sign up for our email list at http://bit.ly/CTCVIP to get an invitation to join or “Join Our Free Community” to head straight to Facebook (shhh. The codeword is ACTION)! https://www.facebook.com/groups/communitiesthatconvert