7 Tips for Building Community

 

Building community between your business, customers, vendors and fellow businesses is an important goal. Build your business and you build community. Build community and you build your business.

 

Here are 7 tips for adding community service to your bottom line.

 

1. The Big Ask. Poll employees and customers about the charities and community activities they consider important and why. Identify those causes you’d like to serve and ask them – directly – what kind of help they could use from a company like yours.

 

2. Budget money and time. Consider community activism an investment as important as inventory and labor. Budget realistic contributions for both time and capital into your annual, quarterly or sales cycles.

 

3. Crown a head. Look for the one person in your organization that stands out as the best person to champion the cause. Every cause needs a hero who leads and inspires others. Find yours and crown them!

 

4.  Open the door to communications. Contact relevant clubs, organizations, chambers, churches, schools, event coordinators and other businesses to let them know you want to receive news from them. Consider ways you can share information with clients and employees and how they can share your news with theirs.

 

5. Join the club. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Sign up for activities and events that are already being coordinated and get involved. Really involved. Often the most important gift a company can offer is time and talent.

 

6.  Share the glory. Use your communications muscle to promote charities and events – and your involvement in them. Let clients know what you are doing and why, how it benefits them or their community, and how they can get involved if it interests them.  Your business is a great place to put up posters, hand out literature, sign up teams and volunteers. Use your company newsletter and website to share details, profile customers and employees who participate, and recipients who benefit from your efforts. Remember, it’s about them.

 

7. Foster discourse. Like everything else you do, follow up is essential. In building community, that exchange of opinions and ideas can help you align your company in the best possible light. Review your involvement in community building frequently from the perspectives of everyone involved. What we did we do right? What can we do better?

Janie Pritchett-Clark writes about business for Biz2Biz NWA.