Capterra Glossary
Virtual Community
The term virtually community was first defined by Howard Rheingold in his book “The Virtual Community.” He describes a virtual community as a social group that emerges from the internet when people invest in interactions with fellow internet users. In other words, a virtual community is a group of individuals who share common interests and interact over a digital platform. Since virtual communities interact over the internet, there is little need for their members to live in the same geographical region. Virtual communities typically congregate over social media platforms, message boards, and chat rooms. Businesses often build virtual communities with their target audience on social media platforms as a marketing channel to build brand awareness and upsell their products and services.
What Small and Midsize Businesses Need to Know About Virtual Community
Small and midsize companies often use virtual communities to expose their target audience to new product and service offerings, grab the attention of new customers, and connect with their customer base. To build a virtual community on a social media platform, businesses can create a company page or profile and share it with current and potential customers. They then fill this page or profile with marketing content, enticing their target audience to comment under their posts or tag them in product or service reviews. Companies can also scour social media platforms for relevant content to like, comment on, or share on their profile. This process helps businesses create virtual communities that they can then nurture and connect with to increase both their brand awareness and ability to sell their product and service offerings.