Marketing and Communication are of high importance to reach out your potential coworking community and partners, as well as to launch and strengthen your company branding.
Today we suggest you some dos and donts that will help you to avoid some common mistakes as well as to improve your Marketing and Communication plan, particularly if you are a new coworking space operator:
Dos
Plan your content well
A good content plan, well researched and planned, won’t only help you to reach new objectives. It will help you to get to know your community better and understand where to position yourself in order to stand out. This, in turn, will add value to your coworkers and to your coworking space. Communicating without having anything valuable to say is just as counterproductive as not communicating at all.
Be dynamic
Diversify your content. Don’t always talk about the same issues, or on the same day or at the same time. Try different types of content (images, infographics, videos, articles, news…) and combine them in different ways on your social networking sites. Remember that each channel should have its own style, remember the corporate identity of your coworking.
Measure your conversion rate
Monitor and analyse all of your actions, website visits and social networking sites to get to know your community better, correct errors and strengthen those things which have already given you good results.
Collect data
Construct a list of powerful, quality subscribers segment it according to profiles/types of audience and generate different newsletters with specific messages and content to achieve the best results.
Invest in SEM
Although it might seem that having a large community of followers on Facebook will give you a lot of exposure, it won’t generate conversions to your website or blog. Increasing your Facebook following will, however, improve your positioning within the site.
In the same way, Twitter Ads don’t provide results and are actually more expensive than Facebook.
Make feel your members belong to your coworking
If you want to build a solid and loyal community, create a feeling of belonging in your messages (they are your family!). There is nothing which gives you more credibility and is more powerful than others talking about you and on behalf of you. Ask your members to recommend you, share your content, and even generate content for you.
Make your coworking stand out
Explain and share what makes your coworking special. Act like a leader.
Communicate regularly
What sustains and enriches a coworking is its content. The small details make a difference.
Donts
Talking about yourself
Your community is the centre of everything. Talk about the coworkers, what they do, what they are like, anecdotes about working in the space. It’s the best way of promoting yourself and attracting new members.
Having a terrible website
Remember that this is your online image. It may not be your communication hub, but it is your cover letter. The first thing we look at when we want to get to know a company, project or professional is their website. Keep it up-to-date and looked after (avoid publishing parts that are incomplete, broken links and bad quality images).
Being static
A coworking is synonymous with life, dynamism, creativity and social relationships, and this should be reflected in your channels and your online image. A community in which lots of things happen and lots of events are being organised regularly cannot be served if afterwards this information isn’t being communicated and shared with the rest of the community.
Show photographs without people
If one thing distinguishes a coworking space from shared offices or business centres, it’s the people and the relationships between them. The main character of the story isn’t the space, but its community. Before looking for the ‘perfect’ photo, share natural looking images depicting emotions, spontaneity and social moments.
Talk about promotions
Traditional marketing doesn’t work here, forget about it. If you insist on basing your communication on the selling of your services and products, the only thing you’ll achieve is that your content will cease to be interesting, you’ll lose followers, distance yourself from your community and become ‘just another business which rents out space’. Your true potential lies in your coworkers. Speak to them, about the things which interest them and that they care about. Even if you have an offer or a special promotion, try to communicate putting yourself in the shoes of those who are going to receive the information. Change your message and you’ll have more chances of success.
Have a personal profile on Facebook
Choosing a personal profile instead of a company profile for your coworking space is doubly dangerous. On one hand, there’s a chance that the social networking site will penalise you and close your account for inappropriate use. On the other hand, personal profiles don’t offer the same benefits as a company website. In fact, you could lose something as fundamental as your page analytics.
Sources:
Mk and Communication presentation of Edu Forte from Betahaus at Coworking Spain Conference 2015.
Featured picture provided by Betahaus Barcelona.
