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Top 6 Messaging Platforms for Business communities
- #B2B
- #Customer Success
- #Sales
- 3 min read
- Posted:
In today’s B2B world, professional online communities are essential for expanding your network, increasing industry knowledge, and building a personal brand. Here, we’ll explore the most popular platforms for business communication and community building.
Slack
Slack is used by over 750,000 organizations globally, a significant increase from previous years. The platform facilitates team communication and connects professionals worldwide through over 2,000 public communities.
To get the most out of Slack, become a member of multiple communities. This can help meet various business needs, such as skill development, finding business partners, or launching a new product.
For instance, if you want to improve your skills or find a business partner, join communities related to your industry and entrepreneurship. To launch a new service or product, engage with communities that include your target audience. Join the gamers communities if you produce accessories for them or the HR communities if you make software for HR specialists.
Source: Slack
Pros
Most communities are free to join.
- A priceless source of information, where professionals discuss their needs and pains. Understanding buyer intent is crucial, as the needs of professionals often reflect broader business needs. Following these communities is a good practice to gather information about the market and identify leads in B2B.
- Allows you to gain industry knowledge through sessions where experts answer any questions the channel members have. It’s a great chance to get an up-close look into the lives of industry experts and better understand buyer intent.
Cons
- Free plan limits access to the last 10,000 messages in the community.
- It’s tricky to find an open community. Most of them are invite-only.
Discord
Discord is often called “Slack for gamers” because it has many features similar to Slack but is primarily used in the gaming industry. The platform offers text and audio chat services through servers. Players can join a server dedicated to a specific game, with channels organized by topics like #FAQ, #rules, and #admin. Users can visit each channel individually or send photos and messages to multiple channels by tagging them with channel hashtags.
According to Business of Apps, Discord has over 200 million active monthly users (MAU) and 21 million active servers per week, with 850 million messages sent every day.
Discord is a niche platform, so it may not be useful for professionals in other industries unless gamers are their target audience. However, if you work in the gaming industry, it’s the ultimate place to connect. Thanks to Discord’s flexibility, it’s also a great space for creators. Many streamers and public figures offer private channels available only to people who subscribe to their Patreon, which helps attract new users.
Source: Discord
Pros
Most Discord services are completely free of charge.
Integrates with other tools like Twitch, YouTube, and Zapier, Webhooks.
Excellent audio sync and security features.
Ability to use bots and host large servers.
Cons
Lacks threaded conversations, which can lead to off-topic discussions.
Limits on users and channels per server.
File size limits can be restrictive. If you need to share an HD video, such limitations may be frustrating.
LinkedIn
With nearly 1 billion members worldwide, LinkedIn is a leading platform for business communication. It’s fairly equally popular in North America (196 million users), Europe (198 million users), Asia (206 million users), and Latin America (114 million users). However, the Middle East and Africa lag behind with 39 million users.
One of LinkedIn’s standout features is its groups. LinkedIn groups are an excellent way to connect with people in your industry.
LinkedIn Groups provide a dedicated space for professionals with similar interests or within the same industry to network. There are currently over 2 million active groups where members can share expertise, seek advice, post and view job opportunities, build a valuable community, and establish themselves as industry experts.
You can join up to 50 LinkedIn groups, however, you can join an unlimited number of subgroups within the groups you’re already a member of.
LinkedIn groups offer various benefits: generating leads, finding employees, gaining influence by asking valuable questions and consistently contributing to discussions, getting quick feedback from colleagues, and receiving valuable insights and unbiased opinions for tough business problems.
Source: Linkedin
Pros
Easy to join and engage with a wide range of members.
Various ways to drive traffic and interaction.
It is allowed to create up to 10 subgroups.
Free to use, with paid options for sponsored posts.
Cons
No approval process, so spammers may join. However, unlisted groups (that don’t appear in search results for non-group members) allow you to have more control in this area.
Unlisted groups are difficult to grow as they are difficult to find.
Sponsorship needed for larger growth.
Guild
Guild.co is a messaging platform tailored for professional groups, networks, and communities. It shares similarities with LinkedIn, as both platforms are designed specifically for professionals, are free to join, allow users to create profiles, and feature groups and a ‘My Network’ section to show connections.
This messaging platform primarily focuses on conversations and networking within professional communities. Guild operates on a freemium Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. Its communities are managed by hosts or admins, allowing for custom branding and access to conversation, user, and engagement data.
Source: Guild
Pros
Customizable platform with branding options.
Free for unlimited groups and members.
GDPR compliant for privacy protection.
Community-focused with a sense of belonging.
Cons
Low level of integration with other systems
Medium level of admin management features
Reddit
Reddit hosts 430 million users in 130,000 active communities called subreddits. This social network is not dedicated to professional communication, although there are many career-related subreddits. Some career-related subreddits include:
Becoming an active member of a subreddit related to your industry can help you build a reputation by posting expert comments on others’ posts. Another way to gain credibility is by participating in “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) sessions, where you can answer questions as an expert. These sessions can enhance your personal brand and boost your company’s image.
Source: Reddit
Pros
Large, active user base. The audience is diverse, so you can participate in conversations with people from any business line.
Career and industry-specific subreddits. Has the potential to help you create a niche for your business.
“Ask Me Anything” sessions with experts.
Cons
Not specifically designed for professional communication.
Unmoderated, so it can be difficult to sort out all the topics and find valuable conversations.
Other platforms
Xing: Popular among German-speaking professionals, with 20 million members and 50,000 specialist groups.
Viadeo: Preferred by French-speaking professionals, with 65 million users.
Quora: A forum for asking questions and discussing topics, where the community votes on the best answers.
The Dots: the professional network focusing on creative people working in tech, media, music, fashion, design, education, advertising, film, retail, photography, architecture, hospitality and more. The Dots is a UK-based and primarily very UK-focused network.
Source: The Dots
Conclusion
Some platforms, like Slack, Discord, and Guild, are primarily designed for building professional communities. Others, like LinkedIn and Reddit, offer multi-purpose functionalities with community options. Any social platform can be a valuable resource for accessing industry information and finding clients, especially for B2B businesses.
Professional online communities are crucial for growth and client acquisition. Tools like Leadguru can automate lead generation and social selling, helping you find prospects across various messaging platforms.
Explore new platforms to enhance your professional network and business opportunities!
- #B2B
- #Customer Success
- #Sales
- 3 min read
- Posted: