004 | How to Cultivate Communities and Build Authentic Relationships Online with Akansha Agrawal

Feb 17, 2018

In this episode, I interview Akansha Agrawal - founder of the online wellness community, Citrus + Gold. After years of working in the corporate world in many great positions at LinkedIn, Akansha made the leap to follow her passion project full-time.

 

As she went full-steam ahead to work on building her business and audience, Akansha has learned a great deal about building authentic online communities. She has built an authentic and engaged community on Instagram and Facebook. In fact, Akansha grew her Facebook Group, C+G Girl Gang to 500 people in less than 6 months! Akansha covers the strategies she used to grow her Facebook Group and why maintaining authenticity is so important to the success of her business.

 

Authenticity is crucial to any online community today. People are more sensitive to “fake” or inauthentic brands, businesses and people. If they sense authenticity, they won’t buy into what you’re talking about. Akansha covers how to avoid that and exactly how to maintain real relationships with your audience and community.

 

We also chat about how Akansha’s business is growing and changing. Akansha polls her audience from time to time to understand what they want to know more about. She kept getting feedback from her community that they wanted to learn more about how to build brands and run businesses. Because of this, Akansha has been expanding the Citrus + Gold brand to include creative strategy and coaching. She already has a growing Facebook Community called, “Passion to Profit.”

 

Question Highlights:

• How did Citrus & Gold come about?
• What was your vision originally?
• Was community a part of your strategy from the start?
• How did you deal with that uncertainty of entrepreneurship?
• What do you do to nurture your online communities?
• How do you know the difference between authenticity and inauthenticity?
• In the context of business… why are authentic relationships + trust so important?
• I think we are holding entrepreneurs more accountable in 2018 than ever before… why do you think this is happening on the internet / social media?
• What advice would you give to someone who is growing a brand / biz in 2018? How do they build a heart-centered biz that is truly authentic?
• Why build authentic relationships & trust online even if you don’t have a brand or business yet?

 

In This Episode You Will Learn:

• How to deal with the uncertainty of entrepreneurship
• Tips for nurturing and building authentic online communities
• The importance of authentic online relationships in 2018

 

Resources:

 

Citrus & Gold: www.citrusandgold.com

 

IG: @citrusandgold

 

C&G Girl Gang FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cggirlgang/

 

Passion to Profit FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/citrusandgoldstrategy/

 

Web Page: http://avanimiriyala.com/004-communities/

 

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Check out my website at http://avanimiriyala.com. Follow me on social media @AvaniMiriyala – can’t wait to hang out with you there!