The benefits of a Discord community are huge for any brand. But don't worry if you've already invested years building a social media audience: combining different platforms gives you the best of all worlds with a multi-channel strategy driving value and revenue from multiple angles.

Cross-channel promotion is really powerful with Discord. Social media platforms with massive audiences are awareness powerhouses, but they aren't really that 'social'. Discord, meanwhile, combines enormous reach with deeper value-driving tools and experiences.

With over 150 million monthly active users, Discord reaches a huge global audience. And when it comes to talking directly to your fans/users, this popular messaging platform is unparalleled. As a real-time chat app with tons of text, voice and video options, it's a much better tool for conversation than the lengthy scroll of hidden or irrelevant comments which fans have to wade through on social.

In a Discord community, fans form genuine friendships with people of shared interests - and form an emotional connection with the brand through direct two-way conversation.

To maximise the value of that conversation, forward-thinking artists, sports teams, games companies and brands of all kinds use Discord as part of an integrated marketing ecosystem.

What are the benefits of combining Discord and social?

Social media remains a hugely valuable way of reaching a mass audience. But once fans click to follow an artist or brand, the options for driving further value are limited. Having met your fans on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn, it makes sense to funnel superfans to Discord where you can employ a much wider range of value-driving strategies for the brand.

Deeper engagement

The primary benefit is conversation. Set up a Discord server and you can employ proven engagement strategies, build your community with powerful growth strategies and smart retention techniques, and effectively monetise all levels of your community. Even if the server community is smaller than your social audience, the emotional connection with the brand is so much deeper than any number of likes and follows.

Efficient automated processes to enhance ROI

Custom-built bots and a team of trained, passionate moderators help keep the community moving in the right direction, allowing you to automate repetitive or time-consuming jobs. That means you can allocate your time efficiently, so you and your team get maximum bang for your buck in terms of the time and effort you invest into the community.

Insights and data analytics

Connecting with fans in your own Discord server also gives you access to deep, detailed and granular insights on their interests, hobbies and activities - information which is painfully difficult to dig up elsewhere without tedious and lengthy research. This insight into your fans then informs the content and strategy you employ on social platforms - giving you a massive headstart on rival brands throwing up social posts and hoping for the best.

Direct access to fans

With a Discord server, you can also capture fan info more directly, signing them up to your own marketing mailing list as part of the signup process. On most social media platforms, if fans lose interest or even if the algorithm unexpectedly changes, you lose the audience you've painstakingly built. But if you or the fans change your mind about Discord, access to the audience doesn't stay locked away in the platform when you leave. You already have their email and can keep in touch.

That's why it makes sense for your activity on social media to drive fans to Discord, instead of vice versa. Discord is the logical bottom of the funnel for high-intention fans who will bring you greater value than the passive lower-intention fans in a wider social audience.

How do you connect Discord and social?

To entice high-value fans, create content on your social platforms that highlights the exclusive benefits they can enjoy when they actively take part in the community. Keep creating content that entertains and informs a general social audience, but also show that superfans can get an even greater experience when they click through to your server.

Those benefits include exclusives like teasers of new songs and new releases, or exclusive access to ticket pre-sales and merch drops you can't get anywhere else.

Gaming companies can give early access for beta testing, which is great for both the users and the studio - the studio gets great feedback on their game through people-powered play-testing, and the players love feeling like they're a part of the development. Plus they get to play it before anyone else!

Use Instagram Stories and Reels to show real-time engagement and participation, firing up fan FOMO by showing what a great time everyone’s having in the server. Regularly cross-promote content, activations and events across all channels to ensure maximum reach, teasing them before and spotlighting the best bits afterwards.

Pro tip: you can begin collecting those all-important data analytics before fans have even taken their first step into your server. Just use different signup links for each social platform, and you can track where your fans come from.

Are there any other benefits?

Here's a bonus benefit of a multi-channel strategy: the value flows both ways. You can use social to funnel superfans to the enhanced Discord experience, and then draw on what's happening in Discord to upgrade your social content.

In the Discord server, fans feel motivated and comfortable to create and share their own content. This user-generated content (UGC) could be artwork, written content, photos or videos from live shows - even their own music. With the creator's permission, community-generated content is ideal for sharing on social platforms. Reposting this community-generated content on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook highlights community involvement and fosters a sense of belonging.

Not only is it free, UGC engages marketing-savvy users seeking out authenticity. UGC demonstrates trust and social proof in your brand. Activating fans in your Discord server can be as simple as inviting everyone to enter a competition, answer a prompt or join a challenge.

At Levellr, our expert community managers can guide you in developing a multi-channel strategy that smashes your brand goals. We already help global clients like Fall Out Boy and Starbucks engage fans and loyal customers in thriving Discord communities, driving tangible marketing and monetisation results.

Contact Levellr today to find out how you can build a winning community driving value across every channel.