The main word that has guided WhatsApp’s actions throughout this year: Communities. In April, the company shared with its audience their vision for communities. They explained exactly what we could expect from it and which actions they were planning to take for this new feature to become a reality.
Well, the time has finally come! Since early November, WhatsApp has officially started to roll out Communities globally, and it will be available to all users over the next few months.
With that said, I’m sure you’re wondering how you – and your marketing strategy – can prepare for this new feature, right?
The good news is that in this article, we’re going to explain what this new Communities feature is, and how you, as a marketer, can take advantage of it.
How Is The New WhatsApp Communities Feature Going To Work?
Basically, with this new Communities feature, WhatsApp aims to bring related chat groups together, by allowing users to connect multiple group chats under the same category.
For example, you can create a Community for your agency or company, then divide discussions into individual groups according to your needs – one for internal communication, one for specific projects, and so on.
This way, each individual group will be focused on specific topics, and your employees can easily navigate between them without losing any important information. Also, Community moderators will be able to share major information using the Announcement group, available for every Community.
Besides the Communities feature, WhatsApp has been working on additional features for groups to enable a better experience for Community members – the ability to create in-chat polls, 32-person video calls, and groups with up to 1024 users are just some of them, but I’m sure we can expect more updates in the near future.
How Can Marketers Benefit From This New Community Feature?
The first thing that crosses my mind is: possibilities. We gave you an example of how your agency or company can use Communities internally, but this new feature can also help you to increase your marketing strategy and create new connections with your customers.
But is it worth it? The short answer is yes. According to Statista, WhatsApp has more than 2 billion monthly users and is the main instant messaging platform in the world. So, as you can imagine, the probability of having your audience using WhatsApp is high, and the new Communities feature can be an excellent gimmick to start building a conversation with them.
By creating a marketing community for your business, you can:
- Increase the trust of your customers or prospects with your brand;
- Have more open and transparent communication with your audience;
- Create a sense of belonging between your customers;
- Have a source of direct feedback and data generation, understanding your customer’s needs, desires and perceptions;
- Last, but far from least, strengthen the bond between your company and your audience.
Also, if WhatsApp is investing so much effort into building this feature for so long, it’s because communities make sense not just for the app itself, but for its users. If your audience is using WhatsApp and aims to participate in communities, shouldn’t you create your own?
Do you want to continue to be updated with Marketing best practices? I strongly suggest that you subscribe to The Beat, Rock Content’s interactive newsletter. There, you’ll find all the trends that matter in the Digital Marketing landscape. See you there!
