In Before The Lock: Recent Episodes
Erica Kuhl & Brian Oblinger
In Before The Lock is a podcast from Erica Kuhl and Brian Oblinger about community, customer experience, and leadership at scale.
Should your community be public, private, or a hybrid of both? What about free vs. paid? Erica and Brian break it all down.
And The Erica Goes To…Erica! 🏆🥳
Brian is joined by a gaggle of family, friends, and co-workers to present Erica with awards on her birthday.
Erica and Brian talk about the bones of your community and how they work together to create a cohesive experience.
- Previous episodes about the “above the surface” bits:
-
- 🔓 76: Combo pages
- 🔓 91: A list of links
- 🔓 101: They want the ugly
-
Resources:
- Structures & Modalities Examples
- Permissions & Roles Template
Brian and Erica deep dive into customer awards programs and how to get them right.
- 🔓 5: A whole bag of crap
- The Golden Hoodie
- Alteryx Excellence Awards
Erica and Brian push back hard on the idea that measuring community ROI isn’t important (we can’t believe we had to talk about this or are typing this right now, but here we are).
Measurement resources:
- 🔓 8: Just say No to Page Views
- 🔓 9: Everyone wants a cool dashboard
- 🧵 70: Behaviors and indicators
- 🧵 92: Early indicators
- Community Metrics Template
- Erica’s blog: It’s All About That Data
- Brian’s presentation on measuring ROI
- Course: Community Measurement Fundamentals
Erica and Brian talk about their favorite community activations for in-person conferences.
Brian and Erica discuss the launch of Community Strategy Academy.
Use code INBEFORE at checkout for 15% off of any course, bundle, or membership.
The state of the market, why Customer Success is driving community inside of organizations, and how we can partner to deliver value.
- Resources about CS + Community:
- Podcast: 🔓 34: The “S” stands for “Success”
- Blog: Building Scalable Customer Success Through Communities
Erica and Brian navigate through developer landing pages and communities from Google, Salesforce, Apple, Visa, and more.
- Developer Community
- 🔓 60: Just a couple lines of code
- Developer Landing Pages/Communities:
- Google Developers
- Salesforce Developers
- Apple Developers
- Intel Developer Zone
- Fusion Fabric Developers
- SAP Developers
- Visa Developer Center
Erica and Brian run down the most common interview questions and how to answer them.
- Community Industry News:
- Quinn McCully joined Vesta as Community Management and Engagement Specialist
- Maren Hamilton was promoted to Director of Social & Community at The North Face
- Ami Defesche joined The Wildcard Alliance as Director of Community
- Corey Strausman joined Weights & Biases as Community Manager, Growth
- Dominique Farrar joined Quantive as Director of Community
- Nick Emmett joined Alvaria as Senior Community & Knowledge Manager
- Marjorie Anderson joined Exos as Director of Community
- Paul Bradley joined Kaplan as Vice President, Kaplan Community
- Farhan Chowdry joined Deen Developers as Community Lead for Forge
- Jeremiah Haze joined Intuit as Community Moderator
- Mattie Fairchild joined OP Lab as Head of Developer Relations
- Top 10 interview questions and how to answer them:
- Role Specific:
- What has been the biggest thing you’ve learned at your current role that you think would be relevant to this role? How would it inform you in this role?
- What was the most recent community program you built and how did you build it?
- Tell me about what you saw when you looked at our community?
- Strategy:
- Provide an example where you encountered someone or a part of the organization that was not bought into Community. How did you overcome it?
- How do you balance the needs of the community and the needs of the business?
- What would you say is the most important element to building a vibrant community?
- What level of resources do you expect to need to be successful with the community here
- Metrics/Measurement/ROI:
- How did you measure success, what were your key metrics, and what insights did you draw from them?
- Collaboration:
- How have you brought community input/feedback to XYZ teams in your past experience?
- Content Strategy:
- What was your content strategy when building community?
- Role Specific:
How to build a career in community from scratch.
- Community Industry News:
- Hugh Lashbrooke joined Constantia.io as Director of Community
- Melissa Spinella was promoted to Principal Community Manager at UKG
- A word on Generative AI and communities…
- Giving ChatGPT a spin with community queries
- A thread about potential community use cases
- StackOverflow is already trying to ban AI-generated code samples
- How to get into the industry from scratch:
- Evan’s top 10 list
Erica and Brian talk through the traits and skills required to become an elite community professional and people to look to for inspiration.
- Community Industry News:
- Amanda Boyle was promoted to Director of Community Engagement at GitHub
- Christina Brashear joined Colibra as Senior Manager, Community Success
- Erin Mikail Staples joined Heartex as Senior Developer Community Advocate
- Sean Dahlberg joined Cisco as Head of Developer Community
- Nicola Balkind joined Skillshare as Program & Community Manager, Creator Success
- Traits of a “10x Community Pro”:
- Business Acumen:
- Ric Navarro
- Julie Hamel
- Nicole Saunders
- Evan Hamilton
- Rachel McKool
- Outcome Focused:
- Rich Millington
- Jon Wishart
- Alex Angel
- Exec Comms:
- Holly Firestone
- Stephanie Grice
- Analytical + Storyteller:
- Stephanie Grice
- Erik Martin
- People Leadership:
- Evan Hamilton
- Kerri Williams
- Amanda Boyle
- Hugh Lashbrooke
- Budgets / Headcount / Resource Allocation:
- Julie Hamel
- Nisha Baxi
- Experience / Evidence of Repeatable Success:
- Erica Moss
- Sydney Sherman
- Operationally Sound:
- Trey Wadell
- Tiffany Oda
- Cassie Mayes
- Curious / Lifelong Learner:
- Joe Miller
- Phoebe Venkat
- Sofia Rodriguez
- Personable / Social:
- Tuvy Le
- Melanie Bond
- Jordan Scott
- Nikki Thibodeau
- Craig Foreman
- Business Acumen:
How to operationalize your plans and collaborate for success from pre-launch to maturity.
- Community Industry News:
- Holly Rieke joined Board International as Director of Community
- Jay Elango joined Sprinklr as Community Manager
- Allison Fasching joined LogicMontior as Director of Customer Community
- Nichol Goldstein was promoted to Community Manager at Progress
- Daniel Cmejla joined Apollo.io as Vice President of Community
On this special Thanksgiving episode, Erica and Brian dig into the things that make their personal and professional lives easier.
- Community Industry News:
- Anne Mbugua joined Analog Devices as Community Content Manager
- Neval Dalgic joined BARTKA INOVASYON as Community Lead
- Francisco Fonseca joined Lymbus as Community Manager
- Biswajeeta Rath was promoted to Senior Online Community Manager at BMC
- Dennis Lemoine was promoted to Principal Community Experiences Program Manager at Anaplan
- Some of our favorite things:
- Erica:
- Asana
- Slack
- Five Star 3 Subject Notebooks
- Audible
- CMX Summit
- Brian:
- Calendly
- Stratechery
- 1Password
- The Accidental Community Manager by Adrian Speyer
- Chartr
- AirPods
- Anker GaN Chargers
- Erica:
How to get started collecting feedback and ideas from your community when you can’t commit to full-blown ideation and complex processes.
- Community Industry News:
- Jessica Mendez joined Contentsquare as CX Specialist, Community Manager
- Steven Demoya joined TelevisaUnivision as Help Center Community Manager
- Mariana Rodriguez joined Coinshift as Community Manager
- V.J. Watkins joined FinancialForce as Community Manager
- Faruq Hammed joined RECUR as Community Manager
- Rima Sengupta joined Automation Anywhere as Community Manager
“There are lots of new community platforms and tools coming up. How to keep up with all of them?” — Tiffany Oda
“There are lots of new community platforms and tools coming up. How to keep up with all of them?” — Tiffany Oda
Why community is one of the best investments a company can make during an economic downturn.
- Community Industry News:
- Rachel Basoco joined Fidelity Investments as Digital Communities Advancement and Growth Director
- Jeffrey Roe joined DecisionLink as Senior Community Manager
- Manouska Jeantus joined Miro as Community Lead
- Blake Ethridge joined Plex Systems as Community Manager
- Devan La Spisa was promoted to Manager, Community Engagement at Zendesk
- Lisa Wilberding joined Grafana Labs as Customer & Community Manager
- Christina Garnett was promoted to Principal Marketing Manager, Offline Community and Advocacy at HubSpot
- Daniele Bozzi was promoted to Community Manager at Personio
- Arielle Nissenblatt joined SquadCast.fm as Head of Community & Content
- Mike Silberg joined NFX as Community Value Creator
- Olga Koenig joined mogenius as Community and Developer Relations Manager
- Monique van den Berg was promoted to Head of Online Communities at Atlassian
- James Dakota Monk joined Digits to lead community
- Joe Farrar was promoted to Community Manager at Matillion
- Community During a Downturn
- Doing More With Less: Community Is Good Business
- Brian on stage with Jon Wishart at CMX Summit 2022
Why community is one of the best investments a company can make during an economic downturn.
- Community Industry News:
- Rachel Basoco joined Fidelity Investments as Digital Communities Advancement and Growth Director
- Jeffrey Roe joined DecisionLink as Senior Community Manager
- Manouska Jeantus joined Miro as Community Lead
- Blake Ethridge joined Plex Systems as Community Manager
- Devan La Spisa was promoted to Manager, Community Engagement at Zendesk
- Lisa Wilberding joined Grafana Labs as Customer & Community Manager
- Christina Garnett was promoted to Principal Marketing Manager, Offline Community and Advocacy at HubSpot
- Daniele Bozzi was promoted to Community Manager at Personio
- Arielle Nissenblatt joined SquadCast.fm as Head of Community & Content
- Mike Silberg joined NFX as Community Value Creator
- Olga Koenig joined mogenius as Community and Developer Relations Manager
- Monique van den Berg was promoted to Head of Online Communities at Atlassian
- James Dakota Monk joined Digits to lead community
- Joe Farrar was promoted to Community Manager at Matillion
- Community During a Downturn
- Doing More With Less: Community Is Good Business
- Brian on stage with Jon Wishart at CMX Summit 2022
“What do you do if you don’t have access to relevant data to be able to measure the impact your community efforts are having on the business?” — Alex Angel
How to make navigating your community intuitive and fast for your users.
- Community Industry News:
- Colleen Curtis joined Reddit
- Will Manchin joined AWS as Senior Community Manager
- Vera DeVera joined Vareto as Head of Community
- Lauren Clevenger joined Block as Square's Global Head of Seller Community
- Adrian’s book is out. Go get it.
- Navigation:
- Comcast Portal Community
- Swisscom
- Optimizely
- Apple
- Fitbit
- Bunnings
How to make navigating your community intuitive and fast for your users.
- Community Industry News:
- Colleen Curtis joined Reddit
- Will Manchin joined AWS as Senior Community Manager
- Vera DeVera joined Vareto as Head of Community
- Lauren Clevenger joined Block as Square's Global Head of Seller Community
- Adrian’s book is out. Go get it.
- Navigation:
- Comcast Portal Community
- Swisscom
- Optimizely
- Apple
- Fitbit
- Bunnings
“Thinking more about ambassador programs. The problem with most is that the benefits to the ambassador don’t immediately benefit them personally or professionally. I think that needs to change. Any good examples from programs you’ve seen?” — Joshua Grose
“Thinking more about ambassador programs. The problem with most is that the benefits to the ambassador don’t immediately benefit them personally or professionally. I think that needs to change. Any good examples from programs you’ve seen?” — Joshua Grose
How to handle the archiving of old, outdated, and irrelevant content from your community.
- Community Industry News:
- Work with Brian
- Work with Alex Angel
- Work with Noele Flowers
- Maria Ogneva was promoted to Sr. Director, Community and Customer Marketing at Invoca
- Andrew Mishalove joined Matillion as VP, Community
- Michael Pascucci joined Validity, Inc as Sr. Manager, Online Customer Community
- Mike Rizzo joined Stack Moxie to assist with community
- Francis Murphy joined Braintrust as Vice President, Community and Social
- Adrian Speyer’s upcoming book
How to handle the archiving of old, outdated, and irrelevant content from your community.
- Community Industry News:
- Work with Brian
- Work with Alex Angel
- Work with Noele Flowers
- Maria Ogneva was promoted to Sr. Director, Community and Customer Marketing at Invoca
- Andrew Mishalove joined Matillion as VP, Community
- Michael Pascucci joined Validity, Inc as Sr. Manager, Online Customer Community
- Mike Rizzo joined Stack Moxie to assist with community
- Francis Murphy joined Braintrust as Vice President, Community and Social
- Adrian Speyer’s upcoming book
“What are some crucial qualities of a community leader? Do you suggest promoting from within and how do I know who to target?” — Kelly Klein
“What are some crucial qualities of a community leader? Do you suggest promoting from within and how do I know who to target?” — Kelly Klein
Erica and Brian take a close look at how to create compelling community user guidelines.
- Community Industry News:
- Evan Patterson joined tender.ai as Head of Community & Partnerships
- Lizzie LaCour joined Softr as Community Lead
- Gabrielle Leith joined Grapevine as Community Manager
- Paola Johnson was promoted to Director, Community and Customer Advocacy at Thoughtspot
- Kristen Meren joined TalkBase as Community Manager
- Jessica West joined Temporal Technologies to manage Developer Relations and Community
- Caroline Valitutto joined Well Traveled as Community Manager
- Stephanie Salsini joined G2 as Community Manager
- Matt Cross joined Pros & Content Community as Community Manager
- Community User Guidelines:
- Xbox
- Gong
- Sephora
- Nanit terms and participation guidelines
- Flickr
Erica and Brian take a close look at how to create compelling community user guidelines.
- Community Industry News:
- Evan Patterson joined tender.ai as Head of Community & Partnerships
- Lizzie LaCour joined Softr as Community Lead
- Gabrielle Leith joined Grapevine as Community Manager
- Paola Johnson was promoted to Director, Community and Customer Advocacy at Thoughtspot
- Kristen Meren joined TalkBase as Community Manager
- Jessica West joined Temporal Technologies to manage Developer Relations and Community
- Caroline Valitutto joined Well Traveled as Community Manager
- Stephanie Salsini joined G2 as Community Manager
- Matt Cross joined Pros & Content Community as Community Manager
- Community User Guidelines:
- Xbox
- Gong
- Sephora
- Nanit terms and participation guidelines
- Flickr
“Are there certain company characteristics that are indicators whether a community will have a higher chance of success?” — Brian Koffler
Erica and Brian dive deep on how to translate your strategy into action.
- Community Industry News:
- Danhel Fajardo joined Vyond as Senior Community Specialist
- Jephtah Abu joined AhoyConnect as Product Community Manager
- Krystal Wu joined OpenSpace as Sr. Community Program Manager
- Dani Weinstein joined SAP as Director, Community Strategy
- Jennifer Hudnet was promoted to Sr. Community Manager at Salesforce
- Karolina Linda was promoted to Director of Community Management at Dynatrace
- Sabrina Hockett was promoted to Manager, Community Advocacy and Marketing at Mulesoft
- Aaron Weiss joined Procore Technologies as Senior Community Manager
- Corey Denis was promoted to Head of Community, Social, Content - Small Business, CS at Intuit
- Anne Traeger Young was promoted to Director, Trailblazer Community Strategy and Operations at Salesforce
- Julieta Cygiel joined Venafi as Community Manager
- Oana Filip joined Pixieset as Communication and Community Manager
- Carmelito Bauer joined ZAM as Contractor Associate Community Manager
- Nicole Long joined Campus Founders as Community Manager
- Commsor, Insided, and Gainsight have partnered to launch a new FREE on-demand course on how to drive customer success through community
- Translating Your Strategy To Action
- Asana, Monday, Trello, Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Quip
- Aftershow:
- Community Life #3 with Brian Oblinger
- Having fewer kids will not save us from climate change - Vox
“What are the biggest things you tell companies to watch out for when they come to you with the idea of ‘I want to launch a customer community’ for the first time?” — Udit Lakhotia
Erica and Brian explore how Autodesk, Splunk, and Salesforce built pages for their superuser programs.
- Community Industry News:
- DL Grant joined Commsor as Community Operations Manager
- Isabel Ruiz joined Mews as Community Manager
- Cody A. was promoted to Community Support Specialist at Reddit
- Mike H. was promoted to Community Engagement Manager at Reddit
- Leah Knowles joined Vanta as Community Lead
- Thea Silayro joined G2i as Community Manager
- Melissa Ly joined Auditboard as Community Manager
- Emily Hanssen Arent joined Hibob as Head of Community
- Jessica Hobbs joined CMX as Director of Community Programming
- Community Launch Guide — now in German!
- Superuser Program Pages:
- Autodesk Expert Elite Program
- SplunkTrust
- Salesforce MVPs
“NFT and Web3 communities: does financial incentive dilute the sense of community? Is financial incentive/interest a good 'common interest'?” — Ilker Akansel
Erica and Brian explore how OpenSpace and Guru delivered great engagement programs.
- Community Industry News:
- Valentina Ruffoni joined Disciple Media as Community Experience Lead
- Caroline Park joined Atlassian as Senior Manager, Community Engagement
- Kristie Presten joined Tasktop as Community Manager
- Carla Doty was promoted to Community Director at Yelp
- Celina Zamora joined ServiceNow as Community Engagement Manager & Strategist
- Shane Whaley joined FareHarbor as Head of Community
- Ben Garrison joined Zscaler as Technical Moderator and Knowledge Manager
- Katie Ray joined metadata.io as Head of Community
- Kimberly Ndola joined Wonder as Community & Content Strategist
- Cat Martinez joined Twilio as Principal Developer Community Engagement Manager, Developer Programs
- Donna Nicholson was promoted to Community Engagement Manager at Reddit
- Melodie Malfa was promoted to Senior Community Manager at Yelp
- Erin H was promoted to Community Engagement Manager at Reddit
- Clare Stager joined Seed Health as Employee Experience and Internal Community Manager
- Nicola Lyons was promoted to Head of Community at Andela
- Engagement Programs:
- OpenSpace Easter Egg Hunt
- The 12 Days of Guru
“How best to approach when you work for an org that already has a wider community - but you're asked to build a secondary community for something more niche? The wider community is managed by a different department than yours, also.” — Gabrielle Leith
Erica’s Mom, Donna, joins Brian on this extra-special birthday episode to talk about an award Erica won in high school, her history as a criminal mastermind, and how the daughter of a dentist became addicted to candy. Happy Birthday, Erica! 🥳
Expanding the number of use cases your community addresses beyond Support.
- Community Industry News:
- Sarah Wylie joined 6sense as Communities Marketing Manager
- Lauri Wansley joined HubSpot as Senior Manager, Community Managers
- Karina Meza was promoted to Community Manager at Fiverr
- Amanda Petersen joined Siemens as Community Innovation and Incubation Lead
- Angela Keck joined Understood as Senior Community Manager
- Saumya Bagga was promoted to Manager, User Community Support at G2
Erica and Brian explore Zendesk and Atlassian community landing pages.
- Community Industry News:
- Katharina Koidl joined Equalture to run Community & Events
- Emily Lakin was promoted to Head of Creator Community at Patreon
- Yurii Lazaruk joined CodeControl as Community Manager
- Ramona Hategan joined Nordcloud as Community Manager
- Punnya P joined Gurucul as Manager of Online Global Communities
- Grace Cheung was promoted to Sr. Manager, Community & Social at Lattice
- Danny Wurst joined Atmosfy as Head of Community
- Lorena Seco de Herrera Ortega joined Quantexa as Senior Community Manager
- Kristian Ugguccioni joined Goose Chase as Head of Community
- Combo home pages:
- Zendesk
- Atlassian
- Aftershow: #vanlife
- jessica.over.yonder
How to bring Thought Leadership into your community to expand your reach, engage senior personas, and inject your perspective into an industry.
- Community Industry News:
- Brittany Edwards joined NinjaOne as Technical Content and Community Manager
- Tracy Maurer joined LumApps as Customer Community Manager
- Ricardo Navaro joined Stripe as Developer Community Marketing, Global Lead
- Jami Diaz joined LG NOVA as Sr. Manager, Ecosystem Community
- Thought Leadership + Community:
- Community Club
- Alteryx
- Culture Amp
- Hubspot
- Drift
- Marketing Nation
- Salesforce
“What are your thoughts on an in-person Community summit? When is a good time in the Community lifecycle to consider hosting one? What benefits/ROI do you expect from it?” — Lauren
How to build a successful advocacy program.
- Community Industry News:
- Jessa Brown joined Alma as Senior Manager, Community Engagement
- Tess Brown joined Outreach as Senior Program Manager, Community Engagement
- Marjorie Anderson joined Product School as Director of Community
- Manuel Hernández joined Thrivable as VP, Community & Partnerships
- IIham Boulghallat joined Cisco as Head of Community Programs
- Samantha Sorscher joined Fiverr as Team Lead, Community & Social Impact
- Victor Rubio Rivera was promoted to Sr. Manager, Community Engagement at Public.com
- Jocelyn Hsu was promoted to Director, Creator Community at Picsart
- Sokwo Gospel joined YOGO as Community Manager
- John Yates joined Higher Logic as a Senior Analyst
- Marie Sinkova joined MedVidi as Community Manager
- Jennifer Serrat joined CoachHub as Coach Community Manager
- Peter Broadley was promoted to Manager, Community Strategy and Engagement at CSA Group
- Aaron White joined WalkMe as Community Events Manager
- Christopher Shernaman joined CiscoMeraki as Community Platform Operations Manager
- Evan Hamilton joined HubSpot as Director of Community
- Advocacy:
- Our episode on Superusers
- Erica’s Customer Marketing Ecosystem slide
“How do you see the role of email in connecting with your community? And how do you see it changing?” – Hannah Whalen
“How can you gauge the 'health' of a community? What indicators or behaviors do you look for?” – Jessica Erhart
“What is one thing you wish you’d done better in the early days of your community careers?” – Scott Baldwin
Erica and Brian discuss the actions and activities you need to engage in directly after launching your community.
- Community Industry News:
- Aima Atigari joined Remotebase as Community Manager
- Tom Norman joined Craft Docs as Community Manager
- Lalitha Wemel joined TechStars as Global Director, Engagement and Community
- Nofar Ben Dror Paecht joined AppsFlyer as Head of Customer Community
- Margaux Miller was promoted to Director of Community at Toptal
- Maria Perminova was promoted to Community Operations & Strategy Manager at Miro
- Mark Pergola joined AWS as Sr. Community Content Manager
- Kathryn Percy joined Workday as Manager, Community Operations
- Piper Wilson joined Higher Logic as Consultant, Strategic Services
- Emma-Jade Whightman joined n8n as Sr. Community Manager
- Alexandria Fuertes joined Keepler as Director of Community
- Sarah Connor joined Tackle.io as Community Manager
- Related episodes:
- Episode 40: The unsexy reality of launch planning
- Episode 36: The stress test
"Growing into management is an exciting opportunity, however, the team still isn’t large enough for you to step away from the IC work (yet). How do you balance the player / coach model in Community?" — Krystal Wu
Taking an integrated approach to building the dream customer community experience.
- Community Industry News:
- Chitra HL joined Oracle as CX Community Manager
- Holly Schell joined Paper as Community Engagement Specialist
- Madeline Johannsen was promoted to Team Lead, Multimedia Community Content at Alteryx
- Jodi Meier joined Juniper Networks as Community Engagement Lead
- Cheryl Rasmussen was promoted to Manager of Community, Strategy, and Development at Palo Alto Networks
- Joshua Brown was promoted to Senior Community Manager at FuturLab
- Andreia Tulcidás was promoted to Community Advocacy and Engagement Team Lead at OutSystems
- Erica Moss joined HubSpot as Principle Marketing Manager, Community
- Sydney Sherman joined Tray.io as Community Manager
- Examples:
- Intuit
- Dataiku
- GoodData
“How can I manage and set engagement expectations/goals when our community members don’t use our service/product everyday therefore may not interact daily/weekly with a community space?” — Hannah Rafter
How to persuade others through the use of an age old framework.
- Community Industry News:
- Vincent Mayers joined Gradle as Director, Community Operations
- Vinicius Camilo joined Distrito as Investor Community Manager
- Ahmet Uysal joined Sunrise UPC as Community Manager
- Tuvy Le was promoted to Senior Program Manager at Github
- Nic Tolstoshev joined Gravitee as Senior Community Manager
- Saumya Bagga was promoted to Senior Community Specialist at G2
- Robert McIntosh joined beThirsty as Community Builder
- Allison Able joined Automation Anywhere as Senior Manager, Community
- Christie Fidura started a new role as Director, Salesforce Developer Community at Salesforce
- Persuasion
- Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice
- Brian’s framework
“What would be your strategy for a community that holds two distinct personas? In this case, HR managers / People Ops and then their employees? Essentially these two different audiences would be coming together into one community.” — Lizzie LaCour
Presenting your strategy to an executive audience.
- Community Industry News:
- Sweta Shetty joined Hindustan Times as Community Manager
- Amanda Martin was promoted to Head of Community at Unbounce
- Kemi Kale was promoted to Head of Community Management, Community and Impact at Meta
- Jelena Zanko was promoted to Director, Community Management at Imply
- Commsor raises $50M in a Series B round
- Brian joined Commsor as SVP, New Products
- Community-Led Product Ideas Survey
- Executive readouts and alignment:
- 23: Be bold. Be brief. Be gone.
- Elements we discussed:
- Opportunity Statement/Why
- Scope
- Research
- Company/Community Goals
- Business ROI
- Health Metrics/Benchmarks
- Integrated Approach/Collaboration
- Strategy Components
- Personas
- Programs
- Staffing Plans/Resources Required
- Platforms
- Milestones & Roadmap
- Next Steps
- Aftershow:
- Jada on the process
“What are the top reasons you see new communities fail?” — Vishwas Katti
Brought to you by Commsor.
Developer communities and working with DevRel.
- 🇺🇦
- Community Industry News:
- Ashley Dodge promoted to VP, Community at Copado
- Luiza Drăghicean joined AhoyConnect as Community & Growth Advisor
- Michael Shillingford was promoted to Director of Community at Brandwatch
- Delphin Miloudi-Druelle joined Lifestory as Community Sidekick
- Michel Da Silva promoted to Senior Community Strategist at Khoros
- Mattie Fairchild joined Manticore Games as Senior Director, Community and DevRel
- Johnny Quirk joined Shares as Head of Community
- Dani Weinstein is looking for his next gig
- Developer Communities / DevRel:
- SalesForce Developer Forums
- StackOverflow
- Digital Ocean Tutorials
- Sponsored by:
- Commsaur exists to provide education, empowerment, and experimentation for those exploring, learning, and building community in the world of web3. Check out Brian’s Commsaur.
“What differentiating values, if any, do you see in having a new customer join a community versus one who has been using your product for a good amount of time?” — Avi Lekowsky
Brought to you by Commsor.
How to tell your story and build your personal brand.
- Community Industry News:
- Linda Haviland was promoted to Lead Community Manager at DataRobot
- Sara Leslie joined Katalon as Sr. Director, Online Communities
- Daliya Spasova joined Kong as Community Manager
- Logan Ouellette joined Pleo as Events and Community Manager
- Sourav Das joined NimbleEdge as Community Manager
- Sara Maloney joined Wellthy as Program Manager, Community
- Jana Iris joined PlanetScale as Head of Community & Experiential Marketing
- Elizabeth Kinsey was promoted to Director, Community at Slack
- Marian Lemus joined Mulesoft as Community Events Associate Manager
- Akash Sharma joined GitHub as Community Manager
- Lisa Claridge joined Folloze as Head of Community
- Rose Spitzer joined FourKites as Head of Community
- Megan Speir joined Twilio Segment to lead DevRel
- Building Your Brand:
- Say yes
- Sponsored by:
- Take on inSided’s 8-week customer health challenge and go from red to green as you burn the churn.
- Explore C School’s growing library of courses to help you master concrete community skills and specializations.
“How do I deal with competitors in my community?” — Seth Wylie
Brought to you by Commsor.
Why it’s time to leave CMAD behind and level-up as an industry.
- Community Industry News:
- Kimberly Ndolo joined Wonder as Community Manager
- Michelle Mathias was promoted to Manager, Community Experience and Programs at Esri
- Christa Ellis joined Wix as Head of eCommerce Community
- Jeffrey Steadman joined Cotopaxi as Community Engagement Director
- Let’s all move forward together:
- Communicate the value you generating often
- Reassess your personal value and have conversations with your leadership
- Explore roles that are more aligned to your value
- Help others tell your story and promote your value
- Get mentorship from others in the space and learn from their experience
- Take leadership and business courses to level up
- Think about the ways you contribute to push the industry forward
- Sponsored by:
- The Community-Led Report unpacks the now and future of the community industry, with trends, highlights to celebrate, and areas of opportunity for growth, with insights and resources to help.
- Take on inSided’s 8-week customer health challenge and go from red to green as you burn the churn.
“Do you think there is a minimum size of customers/users that you need to have to make a community successful?” — Yeori Hokken
Brought to you by Commsor.
How motivating Partners to engage in your community can accelerate outcomes.
- Community Industry News:
- Gainsight acquired inSided
- Sofia Losada joined Sisense as Community Content Manager
- Katie Bapple joined Building Brave as Chief Community Officer
- Zoe Hartsfield joined Spekit as Community Manager
- Christine Gritmon joined Agorpulse as Senior Editor, Community
- Kelly Schott joined Pragmatic Institute as Manager of Community Programs
- Noele Flowers was promoted to Director of Community Education at Commsor
- Chris Detzel was promoted to Director of Customer Community and Engagement at Reltio
- Kannaa Chilla joins InVision as Community Manager
- Celina Zamora joins Cypress.io as Director of Community
- Sara Ott was promoted to Head of Community Experience at hound.vet
- Jill Ross joined Fivetran as Director of Community
- Lauren Hagerty joined PowerToFly Director of Marketing and Community
- Aftershow:
- BJO Estes Park
- Sponsored by:
- Commsor combines software, community, and strategic services to give your team the complete, integrated solution you need to succeed.
- Boulder County Wildfire Fund: On December 30th, 2021 the most destructive wildfire in the state's history, the Marshall fire, destroyed nearly 1,000 homes in Boulder County. Lend a helping hand with a donation of any size.
“What is the best way to get stakeholders excited about getting involved and engaging in your company community?” — Tessa Kriesel.
Brought to you by Commsor.
What is Community Operations, why is it so important, and why should you hire someone specifically to execute it? Erica and Brian give you the rundown.
- Boulder County Wildfires:
- Boulder County Wildfire Fund
- Bethune Family GoFundMe
- Osterman Family GoFundMe
- Community Industry News:
- Chris Detzel’s tribute to Michael Sandoval
- Molly Schreiber was promoted to Community Director at Savvy Cooperative
- Ryan Arsenault joined DISYS (Intuit) as Online Community Manager
- Sangeeta Gupta joined Dataiku as Community Manager
- Carol Benovic-Bradley was promoted to Director of Community at Flickr
- Rohit Bhaskar joined Trifacta as Community Enablement Manager
- Ops:
- Sample community org charts
- FIX IT
- Lili McDonald
- Jacques Canonge
- Dan Menke
- Matt DeSimone
- Tiffany Oda, Cassie Mayes, and Opservations
- Sponsored by:
- Vanilla Community Predictions 2022: Vanilla and Higher Logic sat down with 22 community management experts to discover what's coming for community in 2022. Together, they worked out ten key takeaways for the coming year. If you run a community, are part of a community, or are debating whether or not to launch one, check out their eBook is for you.
- C School Coaching and Career Tracks: Taught by industry experts, these small cohort-based-courses combine real-time instruction, collaborative work with other talented professionals, work-applicable projects, and 1:1 coaching to help you go to the next level.
We close out 2021 by talking about our favorite happenings in the community industry.
- Community Industry News:
- Ashley Townsend joined JP Morgan Chase as Vice President Community Manager
- Max Pete joined SuperHi as Communuty / Customer Support Lead
- Top Stuff:
- Erica:
- Zendesk home page
- Slack leader videos and another one and another one
- Nanit community launch countdown
- Amanda Martin
- Brian:
- C School 201 Leadership Track
- Sisense’s Ranks/Badges
- Pledge 1% Community
- MURAL Community
- Tiffany Oda and Cassie Mayes bringing Ops to the fore
- Erica:
- Aftershow:
- Grandma Oblinger’s Dream Bar recipe
- Sponsored by:
- C School Coaching and Career Tracks: Taught by industry experts, these small cohort-based-courses combine real-time instruction, collaborative work with other talented professionals, work-applicable projects, and 1:1 coaching to help you go to the next level.
- Vanilla Community Predictions 2022: Vanilla and Higher Logic sat down with 22 community management experts to discover what's coming for community in 2022. Together, they worked out ten key takeaways for the coming year. If you run a community, are part of a community, or are debating whether or not to launch one, check out their eBook is for you.
What you should do in the first few months at a new company where you’re building community for the first time.
- Community Industry News
- Molli Aronce joined Reality Labs at Meta as Community Manager
- Molly Kipnis joined Gong as Community Manager
- Louise Branscomb joined Strava as Senior Community Manager
- Alex Williams joined Eightfold as Customer Community Manager
- Getting Started:
- Community Launch Guide: People
- Community Launch Guide: Cross-Functional Workstreams
- Sponsored by:
- Vanilla Community Predictions 2022: Vanilla and Higher Logic sat down with 22 community management experts to discover what's coming for community in 2022. Together, they worked out ten key takeaways for the coming year. If you run a community, are part of a community, or are debating whether or not to launch one, check out their eBook is for you.
- C School Coaching Track: Taught by industry expert Noele Flowers, this 12 week, small cohort-based-course combines real-time instruction, collaborative work with other talented professionals, work-applicable projects, and 1:1 coaching to help early-career community managers become top-notch industry experts.
Erica and Brian deliver messages of gratitude and thankfulness across the community industry.
- Community Industry News:
- Emily Wirth joined Paper as Senior Manager, Community
- Jamie Cantrell joined Unusual Ventures as Sr. Director of Community
- Ana Visiliuk joined Aiven as Community Manager
- Saksham Taneja joined Scaler as Community Associate
- Katie Ray joined Clari as Community Manager
- Rachael Silvano joined Zapier as Community Operations Manager
- Blake Ethridge joined Netdata as Director of Community
- Kat Jarvis was promoted to Senior Community Consultant, IBM Community at Higher Logic
- Lauren Clevenger joined Salesloft as Head of Community
- Giving Thanks:
- Adrian Speyer
- Alex Angel
- Amanda Petersen
- Amir Shevat
- Anaheli De Los Santos
- Andrew Claremont
- Ben Regier
- Cassie Mayes
- Celina Zamora
- Chris Detzel
- Christina Garnett
- Danielle Maveal
- Dave Evans
- David Spinks
- Dennis Lemoine
- Ed de Rochemont
- Elizabeth Kinsey
- Emma Siu
- Erin Staples
- Gal Biran
- Holly Firestone
- Ilana Golan
- Jeff Bruensbach
- Joe Cothrel
- John Summers
- Lois Townsend
- Lotem Hayun
- Mac Reddin
- María Alcantara Arceo
- Matt Laurenceau
- Michelle Mathias
- Mike Silberg
- Nithin S.S.
- Noele Flowers
- Philippe Beaudette
- Piper Wilson
- Sangeeta Gupta
- Shannon Emery
- Sofia Rodriguez
- Tessa Kriesel
- Tiffany Oda
- Wendy Pease
- Willa Tellekson-Flash
- Alta Sparling
- Marika Rundle
- Sponsored by:
- C School Coaching Track: Taught by industry expert Noele Flowers, this 12 week, small cohort-based-course combines real-time instruction, collaborative work with other talented professionals, work-applicable projects, and 1:1 coaching to help early-career community managers become top-notch industry experts.
- Vanilla Community Predictions 2022: Vanilla and Higher Logic sat down with 22 community management experts to discover what's coming for community in 2022. Together, they worked out ten key takeaways for the coming year. If you run a community, are part of a community, or are debating whether or not to launch one, check out their eBook is for you.
How to understand the motivations of your visitors to create incentives for them to join. That’s not it, though — don’t forget to onboard them properly.
- Community Industry News:
- Rachel Hartley joined Siemens as Community Strategist
- Shana Sumers was promoted to Senior Manager, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Communities at HubSpot
- Jacob Gross joined Slack as Community Marketing Manager
- Gabi Laing was promoted to Senior Marketing Specialist at Zendesk
- Kerri Williams was promoted to Senior Manager, Community Strategy and Engagement at Workday
- Jessica Long joined Alteryx as Online Community Manager
- Sara Ott joined hound as Director of Content and Community
- Sam Houston joined Honeycomb as Director of Community Success
- Sofia Losada joined Firneo as Community Manager
- Conversion:
- Community Launch Guide: Conversion
- Acquisition episode
- Engagement episode
- Sponsored by:
- Vanilla Forums’ Customer Advocacy Maturity Model eBook is great for companies who want to elevate and grow their customer advocacy programs. It’s an easy way to measure what your advocacy experience is currently like in comparison to others, so you can determine the next steps to make it bigger and more effective.
- Meetsy enables you to Connect your community, one introduction at a time. Create serendipity and unlock the power of networks in your community by enabling your members to easily connect with each other.
Promotion is the #1 driver of traffic and acquisition for communities. Don’t forget to tell people about it.
- Community Industry News:
- Lauren (Saar) van der Vaart joined Google Cloud as Community Content Manager
- Pratyusha Simharaju joined Google Cloud as Program Manager, Google Cloud and Workspace Communities
- Nicola Lyons joined Andela as Senior Community Programs Manager
- Ricardo Araujo joined Academia de Código as Chief Community Officer
- Brian Kling joined AlignTechnologies as Associate Director, iTero Global Digital Community Management
- Carter Gibson was promoted to Senior Program Manager, Internal Community Management at Google
- Acquisition / Promotion:
- Community Launch Guide: Promotional Calendar
- “Community is a numbers game.” — Joe Cothrel
- Sponsored By:
- Meetsy enables you to Connect your community, one introduction at a time. Create serendipity and unlock the power of networks in your community by enabling your members to easily connect with each other.
- Higher Logic’s Super Forum recordings from all 100+ sessions are available on demand in the Super Forum community. Go get ‘em!
How you can integrate learning and community to drive product affinity, customer happiness, and retention.
- Community Industry News:
- Facebook was down
- Erik Martin joined Commsor as VP of Services
- Nádia Vieira was promoted to Senior Global Program Manager, Community at LinkedIn
- Tim Lopez joined Saviynt as Director, Community
- Cindy Au joined Reddit
- Andreia Tulcidas was promoted to Community Advocacy Lead at Outsystems
- Patrick O’Keefe joined CNN full-time as Community Lead
- Brad Fitzgerald joined UCLA Anderson School of Management as Community Manager
- Community & Learning:
- Salesforce Trailhead
- Alteryx Academy
- Joe Miller
- Sponsored By:
- Super Forum 2021 is the largest and most comprehensive conference for executives, community managers, marketing, membership, and customer success professionals who want to connect, engage, and create better customer and member experiences.
- Meetsy enables you to Connect your community, one introduction at a time. Create serendipity and unlock the power of networks in your community by enabling your members to easily connect with each other.
How Sales and Community can partner together to build trust, educate customers, and drive revenue. Yeah, you read that right. Stick with us. You’ll learn a lot.
- Community Industry News
- The State of Indian Community Management Report 2021
- Nicole Saunders as promoted to Director of Communities at Zendesk
- Ryanne Perry joined Bynder as Community Manager
- Julie Hamel joined Neo4j as Senior Director, Developer Community
- Jennie Berry joined Sociability as Community Engagement Manager
- Kelly Schott joined theSkimm as Community Manager
- Hadas Drutman joined Seed Health as VP, Member Experience and Community
- Morgan Brady joined Mansueto Ventures as Director of Community
- Andrew Thomas joined Portainer.io as Senior Community Manager
- Michael Kimathi joined Elarian as Developer Relations Community Manager
- Partnering with Sales:
- Brian’s picture of community as a core theme at SKO
- Building Community is Smart Business by Erica Kuhl
- Measuring impact on sales (value stories)
- Sponsored by:
- Super Forum 2021 is the largest and most comprehensive conference for executives, community managers, marketing, membership, and customer success professionals who want to connect, engage, and create better customer and member experiences.
- C School will help get hands-on education, mentorship, independent practice, and land a full-time job in community. Don’t take our word for it. Hear from Osama.
Localization of communities is becoming more common, but it’s more complicated than you think. Erica and Brian walk you through the finer details in a fun role play.
- Community Industry News:
- Discourse announces $20M Series A
- Brian on Masters of Community podcast
- Twitter announces “Communities”
- Erin Wayne joined Riot Games as Global Head of Player Community
- Vishnu Nair joined Infineon Technologies as Community Manager
- Pixie Cigar joined Tech For All as Director of Online Communities
- Deb Mavric was promoted to Community Innovation Director at Culture Amp
- Localization Overview:
- Resource: Community Localization Proposal
- Sponsored By:
- In the C School Career Track you can become a Community Manager in 12 weeks. Get hands-on education, mentorship, independent practice, and land a full-time job in community (Application Link, Info Session).
- Super Forum 2021 is the largest and most comprehensive conference for executives, community managers, marketing, membership, and customer success professionals who want to connect, engage, and create better customer and member experiences.
Erica and Brian talk about why you need a community roadmap, how to build it, and how to present it in your organization.
- Community Industry News:
- Fhiwa Ndou joined Merit America as Sr. Manager, Community Activation
- Building A Roadmap:
- Resource: Sample Community Roadmap
- Resource: Community Headcount & Budget Planning Template
- Brian’s decision making framework
- Sponsored By:
- Super Forum is the largest and most comprehensive conference for executives, community managers, marketing, membership, and customer success professionals who want to connect, engage, and create better customer and member experiences.
- C School will help get hands-on education, mentorship, independent practice, and land a full-time job in community.
It’s headcount and budget planning season! Follow along as Erica and Brian take you step-by-step through the process so that you can secure the community resources you need to succeed.
- Community Industry News
- Jessica Langston was promoted to Sr. Director, Trailblazer Community at Salesforce
- Lizzy Roberts was promoted to Manager - Global Communities at Salesforce.org
- Bhavin Patel was promoted to Community Experience Manager at Salesforce
- Jordan Scott joined Airtable as Head of Community
- Jeffrey Roe joined Brightcove as Community Manager
- Headcount & Budget Planning:
- Resource: Community Headcount & Budget Planning Template
- Sponsored By:
- C School will help get hands-on education, mentorship, independent practice, and land a full-time job in community.
- Khoros Engage has it all — dynamic general sessions, thought-provoking breakout discussions, practical tips, and virtual networking.
Erica and Brian weigh in on a long-standing contentious debate — Social Media vs. Community.
- Community Industry News:
- C School 201
- Jodi Meier joined Syntellis Performance Solutions as Digital Community Engagement Manager
- Cesar Romero joined MyBasPay as Head of Community and Partnerships
- Social Media vs. Community:
- Social Media vs. Community: Why Brands Need Both
- Sponsored By:
- C School 201 — For experienced community professionals looking to level up, our 12-week cohort-based experience will take you from individual contributor to leadership-ready.
- Khoros Engage has it all — dynamic general sessions, thought-provoking breakout discussions, practical tips, and virtual networking.
Erica and Brian dive deep into the tasks required to get a community off of the ground.
- Community Industry News
- Rich Millington’s new book: Build Your Community: Turn your connections into a powerful online community
- Emily Dunn joined ServiceTitan as Senior Customer Community Manager
- Alex Pisani was promoted to Senior Manager, Trailblazer Community at Salesforce
- Nic Tolstoshev joined StackHawk as Community Management Lead
- Maria Ogneva joined Invoca as Director of Community and Customer Marketing
- Philippe Beaudette was promoted to VP, Community at StackOverflow
- Launch Planning:
- Community Launch Guide
- Alteryx Community Explainer Video
- New Incentives to join the TripActions Community
- Sponsored By:
- Commsor integrates with all the tools you already use, tying your community data together and enabling you to unlock insights, measure impact, and build a community-led company.
- Khoros Engage has it all — dynamic general sessions, thought-provoking breakout discussions, practical tips, and virtual networking.
Brian and special guest host Holly Firestone celebrate Erica’s birthday by heaping praise, talking about what she’s taught us, and telling embarrassing stories.
- HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERICA KUHL!!!
- Holly Firestone
- The Craziest 18 Days of My Career by Holly Firestone
- Erica’s keynote at CMX Summit 2014
- ericakuhl.com
- Top 10 things we’ve learned from Erica:
- Pickup the phone and call people
- Grow your business acumen to succeed in community
- Chill out, be Kuhl
- Wackadoo, cuckoo, and bonkers are professional terms
- Get out of your bubble. Never stop learning
- Perfect is the enemy of done
- Lead with value. Give more than you take
- No one has to lose for you to win
- Don’t be afraid to build your personal brand
- Being on time is important
- Help Erica give back:
- Bike MS - Make a donation in Erica’s name!
Should you host your community on Slack, Discord, or a purpose-built community platform?
- Community Industry News:
- Jenny Weigle launched her community consulting business
- Taylor Harrington joined Groove as Head of Community
- Jocelyn Hsu was promoted to Senior Manager, Creator Community at PicsArt
- Shaveta Sharma was promoted to Deliver Manager Online Communities at Grazitti
- Slack vs. Community Platforms
- Forums are over!
- “But one of the things that I think it takes people a while to wrap their heads around is Slack is specifically designed for some group of people who are aligned around the accomplishment of some goal or set of goals, as opposed to we’re all interested in Star Wars or something like that. It’s a lousy social network in the broad, generic sense. It’s a lousy replacement for a bulletin board or discussion. Reddit is better at being Reddit than Slack.” - Stewart Butterfield (CEO Slack), Stratechery July 2020
- Sponsored By:
- The CX Confessions podcast from Khoros connects you to voices from the C-suite to share their secrets for creating sensational customer experiences.
- Commsor integrates with all the tools you already use, tying your community data together and enabling you to unlock insights, measure impact, and build a community-led company.
How to choose a name for your community. It’s more complicated than you think.
- Community Industry News:
- The State of Community Management 2021 Report
- Alexis Luscutoff joined Miro as User Community Lead
- Lou Adducci joined Tiltify as Director of Community Experience
- Francesca Cricchio joined AppZen as Community Manager
- Emily Lakin joined Patreon as Head of Community Programs
- Krystal Wu joined Shopify as Community Manager
- Ines Batata joined Pipedrive as Senior Community Manager
- Cat Martinez joined Thoughtspot as Sr. Manager, Community Programs
- Ben O’Hanlon was promoted to Head of Community, Insights, and Engagement at Input Output
- Phoebe Shin Venkat joined TripActions as Director of Community
- Naming:
- Pragmatic Names - right to the point
- Modern Names - fresh and unique
- Emotional Names - good for connection
- Clever Names - fun and playful
- Classic Names - timeless and brand
- Sponsored By:
- Commsor has acquired Meetsy, a platform built specifically for creating introductions, connections, and the secret sauce of serendipity within your community.
- Khoros software and services help you win, serve, and grow customers across social marketing, digital care, and branded communities.
Soft Launch — the who, what, when, where, and why. Erica and Brian talk through how you can use it to set your new community up for success.
- Community Industry News:
- Orbit raised a $15m Series A
- StackOverflow Sold for $1.8B
- Commsor announced 5 new integrations
- Celina Zamora joined Makerpad as Head of Community
- Willa Tellekson-Flash was promoted to Director of Community at Public.com
- Austin Grimes joined Flexera as Senior Digital Community Manager
- Bailey Richardson joined Substack as Head of Community
- Ryan Sloane joined Facebook as Community Programs Manager
- Joe Miller joined Incorta as Sr. Director, Community & Customer Enablement
- Shannon Emery joined Alteryx as Manager, Community Recognition
- Kristie Preston joined Inherit Learning Company as Digital Community Manager
- Piper Wilson joined Grazitti as a Community Manager
- Soft Launch:
- Community Launch Guide: Soft Launch
- Bar Rescue
- Sponsored By:
- Higher Logic partnered with Community Roundtable on this year's State of Community Management report. Go download the report today!
- Commsor knows that no two communities look the same, function in the same way, or have the same needs. Which is why they announced new integrations to enable Community Managers to bring all their members together in a single dashboard — no matter which platform those members engage on — and connect the dots between them.
How to successfully (and unsuccessfully) migrate your community to a new platform.
- Community Industry News:
- Mary Yakuri Hodges was promoted to Community Manager at Workato
- Paul Bradley joined Agorapulse as Head of Global Community
- Marissa Dimino Burns joined Salesforce as Senior Community Manager
- Tiffany Oda joined Venafi as Director, Community Operations
- Stephanie Nakano joined Coda as Community Manager
- Brian joined Commsor as an Advisor
- Migrations:
- Community Launch Guide: Migrations
- Sample Platform Migration Announcement
- Aftershow:
- Oops.
- Sponsored By:
- Commsor integrates with all the tools you already use, tying your community data together and enabling you to unlock insights, measure impact, and build a community-led company.
- Higher Logic Acquires Vanilla: Better Together - Combining two, industry-leading platforms to bring human-focused engagement to more people than ever before.
How Customer Success and Community can partner to ignite education, adoption, satisfaction, upsells, renewals, retention, and advocacy.
- Brian Rights A Wrong:
- Molli Aronce
- Community Industry News:
- Higher Logic Acquired Vanilla
- Mighty Networks raised $50M in a Series B
- Nisha Baxi joined Gong as Head of Community
- Sharath joined Product Hunt as Community Programs Manager
- Mark Finnern joined Outschool as Head of Community
- Becky Scott joined JumpCloud as Sr. Mgr, Technical Community
- Janice James joined AuditBoard as Head of Community
- Monica Sibisteanu was promoted to Head of Content & Community at Monese
- Iryna Charkashyna was promoted to Manager, Front End Development, Community Platforms at Palo Alto Networks
- Ashley Dodge was promoted to Senior Director, Community at Copado
- Chris Shernaman joined Netskope as Online Community Manager
- Customer Success
- Alteryx Use Case Stories
- Sponsored by:
- Higher Logic Acquires Vanilla: Better Together - Combining two, industry-leading platforms to bring human-focused engagement to more people than ever before.
- C School delivers hands-on education, mentorship, and independent practice so that you can land a full-time job in community. They are now accepting rolling applications for Existing CMs and Job Seekers.
How to drive product enhancements and innovation through crowdsourced ideation programs with your community.
- Community Industry News
- Erin O’Neill joined Funnel IQ as Community Manager
- Diana Morgan joined Copy.ai as Head of Community
- Lauren Lee joined Puppetize as Community Director
- Molli Aronce joined Facebook Reality Labs as Community Manager
- Kristina Prickett joined Moxie as Senior Community Strategist
- Eric Steig joined Zilliz as Director of Open Source Communities
- Pattie Kettle joined Xactly Corp as Community Manager
- Luiza Drachicean was promoted to Global Advocacy Community Manager at UIPath
- David Sciuto joined Graylog as Senior Principal Community Manager
- Isaiah Brown joined Houzz as Pro Community Marketing Manager
- Ideation:
- Jamf implements community ideas in every release
- Dell Ideastorm
- Starbucks Ideas
- Shawna Wolverton
- Purple Pony
- Aftershow:
- Tim Tams
- Sponsored by:
- The 2021 Community Club Summit is the virtual event for builders and leaders in community-led companies. Join for free on May 11-13 for three days.
- Higher Logic’s new community for products will help B2B companies improve customer experience and success, tailor marketing efforts, build brand advocates, and scale support efforts.
Working with Product and Engineering to gather customer feedback, increase feature adoption, and build better products with communities.
- Community Industry News:
- Common Room raised $32.3 Million in a Series B
- Higher Logic launches new product packaging
- Philippe Beaudette joined StackOverflow as Community Manager (Trust & Safety)
- Or Manor joined ThinkUp Global as Community Manager
- Jillian Bejtlich joined Zapier as Director of Community
- Allison Able joined Sisense as Sr. Manager of Community
- Jacob Gross joined Alignable as Community Manager
- Amanda Peterson joined MURAL as Community Manager
- Gabby McCone was promoted to Program Manager, Business Community at Pinterest
- Francisco Fonseca is Creator at the Journey Endurance Club
- Katherine Morillo was promoted to Community Manager at Airbnb
- Working with Product and Engineering:
- Brian’s Blog Post on Building Product Communities
- “Engineers are not good at dealing with customers!”
- Sponsored by:
- Higher Logic’s new options for community for customer communities will help B2B companies improve customer experience and success, tailor marketing efforts, build brand advocates, and scale support efforts.
- The 2021 Community Club Summit is the virtual event for builders and leaders in community-led companies. Join for free on May 11-13 for three days of content, thousands of attendees, and over 25 speaker sessions.
Preparing for crises in your community before they happen, acting (or not) in the moment, and recalling some of our most painful/hilarious brushes with drama.
- Community Industry News:
- David Spinks' new book: The Business of Belonging: How to Make Community Your Competitive Advantage
- Bevy raised Series C $40m from black and women investors
- Atlassian Community 2020 Year In Review
- Joceyln Hsu promoted to Sr. Manager, Community Engagement at PicsArt
- MarLiz De Leon joined QuickPro Professional Training Academy as Community Manager
- Olivier Le Pord joined PTC as Director of Online Community
- Laura Nestler joined Reddit as VP of Community
- Daniele Bozzi joined Personio as Community Manager
- Tuvy Le joined GitHub as Community Manager
- Job: Director of Community at TripActions
- Job: Community Operations at Zendesk
- Job: Community Marketing Manager at Zendesk
- Job: Head of Community at AuditBoard
- Job: Customer Community Manager at ServiceTitan
- Job: User Community Lead at Neo4j
- Dealing with Crisis in Your Community:
- Episode 15: Steer, edit, lock, remove, ban
- Episode 28: Keeping you out of prison
- Holly Firestone
- Joe Cothrel
- Slashdot.org
- withoutbullshit.com
- Sponsored by:
- Join the Community Club! Whether you're an experienced community manager, just starting out, a founder building a community-driven business, or just community curious, the club has something for you. Experience the power of community.
- Hivebrite is an all-in-one community management platform that empowers organizations of all sizes and sectors to launch, manage, and grow fully branded private communities. Check out their blog on Guiding your business through a pandemic with the help of an online community
How Community and Marketing teams can partner together to attract new prospects, convert them into paying customers, and educate them about new product offerings to drive shared value.
- Community Industry News:
-
- Tesla shutting down their forum in favor of “social hub”
- CMX Community Apprenticeship
- Rosie Sherry joins Orbit as their first community hire
- Amanda Boyle joins Github as Community Strategy Sr. Mgr
- Paola Johnson promoted to Head of Community & Customer Advocacy at Thoughtspot
- Kerri Williams joins Workday as Manager, Community Experience
- Job: Community Engagement Manager at Workday
- Rachel Makool promoted to Director, Community Experience at GoDaddy
- Ed Giansante joins Wix as Head of Community
- Leah Knowles promoted to Sr. Manager of Community Management & Programs at Alteryx
- Chris Shernaman promoted to Community Manager at Alteryx
- Trey Waddell promoted to Sr. Manager of Community Development & Operations at Alteryx
- Job: Program Manager, Community Recognition Programs at Alteryx
- Community Club Jobs Board
-
Partnering with Marketing
-
- Hivebrite Guest Blog: 5 Tips for Collaborating with Marketing to Drive Value with Engaging Communities
- “Elephant in the Room”
- Alteryx S-1
- Aftershow:
-
- Denver/Boulder Snowstorm
- Sponsored by:
-
- Hivebrite is an all-in-one community management platform that empowers organizations of all sizes and sectors to launch, manage, and grow fully branded private communities.
- Commsor integrates with all the tools you already use, tying your community data together and enabling you to unlock insights, measure impact, and build a community-led company.
Defining, measuring, and executing community engagement programs to grow your community and achieve your business goals. Also, Peeps.
- Community Industry News:
-
- Holly Firestone promoted to VP, Community
- Advice for DEI in Your Communities
- Circle raises $4M
- Commsor raises $16M
- Twitter announces ‘Communities’
- Engagement:
-
- Definition of Engagement
- Definition of Thread Depth
- Definition of Solution Rate
- Definition of Responsiveness
- Programs:
-
- Definition of Member Onboarding
- Community Metrics Template
- Episode 27 on Content Programs
- Episode 26 on Groups
- Episode 5 on Gamification
- Episode 7 on Superuser Programs
- Episode 20 on Employee Engagement
- Aftershow:
-
- Peeps
-
Sponsored By:
-
- Grow your community and prove ROI with Orbit, the community experience platform that puts members first
- Hivebrite’s Community Group Strategy eBook will help you understand the benefits of a group strategy, how and when to great a group, how to offer value, and tips to ensure success.
Partnering with Legal for all of your community needs, staying out of prison, and an egregious misuse of the Salesforce blue cloud logo.
- Community Industry News:
-
- CMX 2021 Community Industry Report
- Community-Led Pledge
-
Working With Legal
-
- A checklist for how to partner with Legal
- Sponsored by:
-
- Hivebrite is an all-in-one community management platform that empowers organizations of all sizes and sectors to launch, manage, and grow fully branded private communities.
- Grow your community and prove ROI with Orbit, the community experience platform that puts members first
Everything you need to know about building world-class content programs for your community, step-by-step.
- Community Industry News:
-
- Happy CMAD!
- Khoros acquires Flow.ai
- Community Club Job Survey
- CR State of Community Management 2021
- CMX 2021 Community Industry Awards
- Content is Queen:
-
- Matt DeSimone
- Alteryx Community
- HubSpot Community
- Telluride Heli-Skiing
- Sponsored by:
-
- Grow your community and prove ROI with Orbit, the community experience platform that puts members first
- Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs
How to leverage Groups to strategically scale your community.
- Community Industry News:
- Khoros acquires TopBox
- IBM acquired 7Summits
- Alteryx Community 2020 Wrap Emails
- Groups:
- 16: Presentations, networking, and food
- Vanilla’s 2021 Community Predictions eBook
- Brian tweeted asking who uses Groups effectively
- Join the “Erica Kuhl Sux” group
- Sponsored by:
- Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs
- Grow your community and prove ROI with Orbit, the community experience platform that puts members first
- Piper Kuhl - the kuhlest dog around.
Working collaboratively with Customer Support to build a self-service community, ramping efficiency, and creating business value.
- Working with Customer Support:
- Deflection
- Brian’s CMX 2016 Talk On Support Communities
- Community Launch Guide
- Brian’s TSIA presentations: 2017 and 2018
- Tribal Knowledge
- Brian’s IS-CL Presentation on Calculating ROI
- Solution Rate
- Responsiveness
- Sponsored by:
- Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs
Erica and Brian revisit their 2020 predictions, discuss current trends, and look ahead to 2021.
- Trends and Predictions:
-
- 2: The next normal
- Community Club Jobs Board
- "He hit a home run, and didn’t even realize it."
- Aftershow:
-
- Grandma Oblinger’s Dream Bar recipe
- Sponsored by:
-
- Vanilla’s 2021 Community Predictions eBook
- Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community.
How to effectively engage Executives to sell the idea of community, gain their buy-in, and partner for success.
- Gaining Executive Buy-In:
-
- 3: Sell the why
- 21: Everybody wants the big title
- “Sell me this pen.”
- Brian’s IS-CL presentation
- How to stall in a meeting
-
Sponsored by:
- Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community.
- Hivebrite is an all-in-one community management platform that empowers organizations of all sizes and sectors to launch, manage, and grow fully branded private communities.
A Thanksgiving Special: Extending gratitude and telling stories about people that changed our careers and lives forever.
- Giving Thanks:
- Jon Wishart
- Holly Firestone
- Joe Cothrel
- Karen Mangia
- Karen’s Books
- Our Sponsors: Khoros, Community Club, and CMX
- You! Our Listeners!
- Aftershow - Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes:
- Corn Casserole
- Brownies & Icing
- Pumpkin Maple Baked Bean Cornbread Casserole
- Sponsored by:
- Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs
- Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community.
A special live episode recorded at Vanilla Conversations. Erica and Brian talk about their experiences as VPs of Community and what it takes to get to that level.
- Related episodes:
- Crafting a vision
- Building teams and leading people
- Sponsored by:
- Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs
Enlisting, enabling, and motivating internal employees to take an active role in the success of your customer community.
- Employee Engagement
- Sample Employee Guidelines
- Sponsored by:
- Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community.
- Vanilla Conversations brings together practitioners from around the world to share their stories, their experiences and their knowledge.
Erica and Brian take a break from election results to talk about imposter syndrome, mental health, and finding trusted confidants.
- All the feels:
-
- Joanna Bloor
- Erica’s Blog Post
- Ted Lasso
- Holly Firestone
-
Sponsored by:
- Community Club - Whether you're an experienced community manager, just starting out, a founder building a community-driven business, or just community curious, the club has something for you
Creating a culture in and around your community. Also, epic story time with Erica and Brian — you don’t want to miss it.
- Some personal news:
- brianoblinger.com
- ericakuhl.com
- Creating culture:
- V2MOM
- Erica talking culture on the Culture Amp pod
- Aftershow:
- SteveMo on stage with Macklemore
- Sponsored by:
- Vanilla Conversations brings together practitioners from around the world to share their stories, their experiences and their knowledge.
- Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community.
In this very special episode of the pod recorded live at CMX Summit 2020, Erica and Brian walk through the finer points of launching a new community using their free Community Launch Guide.
- Go For Launch:
-
- Community Launch Guide
- Minimum Viable Community
- Community Industry Terms Glossary
- everyoneknowsmaria.com
A special live episode about community events - user groups, VIP events, and conferences - on Khoros’ new events platform.
- Events:
- Event page on Khoros’ Atlas Community
- Salesforce Trailblazer Groups
- Alteryx User Groups
- Sponsored by:
- Khoros Engage is back on October 14th, 2020 with virtual sessions for professionals looking to learn from brands leading the way in digital customer engagement.
Custom shirts for community pros, moderation best practices, and a role-play in which Erica drops the ban hammer on Brian.
- Get Your Community Shirts!:
- https://ib4tl.fm/shirts
- Moderation:
- Former YouTube Mod is suing because of PTSD
- Facebook paid $52m to Mods with PTSD
- Adam Nichols
- Definition: Moderator
- Definition: Moderator Guidelines
- Definition: Abuse Reports
- Sponsored by:
- Khoros Engage is back on October 14th, 2020 with virtual sessions for professionals looking to learn from brands leading the way in digital customer engagement.
- LIVE FROM ATLAS: In Before the Lock Special Episode
- Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community.
Erica and Brian answer the question “where should community live in an organization?” and detail the pros and cons of each department.
- Where should the community live?:
- Brian’s talk on customer support community strategy
- Episode 4 about Customer Experience
- Aftershow:
- Pink Whitney
- Breckenridge Whiskey
- Arnold Palmer commercial
- Sponsored by:
- Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community.
- Khoros Engage is back on October 14th, 2020 with virtual sessions for professionals looking to learn from brands leading the way in digital customer engagement.
Data-driven community UI/UX design, best practices, and Brian’s hatred of ridiculously large hero images.
- Design:
- Hero image
- Joe Cothrel
- “Above the fold”
- Glowing Blue
- 7Summits
- Sponsored by:
- Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs
- The Localist event platform aggregates, automates and analyzes all of your events, so you can grow your community
Architecting a team, building culture, and leading people to be the best they can be. Also, epic rants by Brian.
- Architecting a Team
- Resource: Community Team Leveling Guide
- Resource: Sample Community Org Structure
- Resource: Community DACI
- Holly Firestone (Theme Song)
- Julie Hamel
- Sponsored by:
- Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community
- Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs
Translating your strategy into technical requirements, engaging with community platform vendors, and negotiating the best deal.
- Pre-Show:
- Brian doesn’t have COVID-19
- Resource: Community Launch Guide
- Platform Vendor Selection:
- Brian’s twitter thread on vendor selection
- Builtwith.com
- Feverbee’s community platform comparison tool
- Resource: Platform Vendor Scorecard
- Sponsored by:
- Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service cost
- The Localist event platform aggregates, automates and analyzes all of your events, so you can grow your community
Erica and Brian return to Failtown to tell tales of some of their biggest screw ups. We innovated these failures so that you don’t have to.
-
Fail
-
- Episode 6: So far, so good
- Flip Video Camera
- Vanilla Forums Community Blog
- Brian's Twitter thread on the Admin rank fail
- Adam Nichols
-
Sponsored by:
-
- The Localist event platform aggregates, automates and analyzes all of your events, so you can grow your community
- Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs
All about community measurement - Part 2: Targeting specific stakeholders, designing effective reports, and telling compelling stories.
-
Designing Reports:
- 1-page PDF report
- Erica’s weekly Chatter report
- Remove The Legend To Become One
- Resource: Community Metrics Template
- Resource: Quarterly Update Template
- Tableau Viz of the Day
-
Telling Compelling Stories:
- The Seven Basic Plots
- Erica’s Blog: Story Time
-
Sponsored by:
- Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs
- The Localist event platform aggregates, automates and analyzes all of your events, so you can grow your community
All about community measurement - Part 1: Building a framework to measure performance, defining KPIs and health metrics, and partnering internally to accelerate your efforts.
- Framework for measurement:
-
- What are the business problems (Goals) you’re trying to solve?
-
- “We need to reduce our support costs”
- What is the approach (Strategy) you will take to meet those goals?
-
- “We will build a self-service support community”
- How will you measure (KPIs) the performance of your strategy?
-
- “Dollar value of community-served support queries”
- What data (Metrics) will you need to calculate your KPIs?
-
- “# Visits, Survey Results, Cost Per Case, Community Cost”
- KPIs, health metrics, and program-specific measurement:
-
- Resource: Community Metrics Template
- Erica’s blog: It’s All About That Data
- Mark Finnern’s blog: Best in Class Enterprise Community: Salesforce Trailblazers
- Holly Firestone (Theme Song)
- Jessica Chen
- Lindsey Zibell
-
Sponsored by:
- Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs
Building a Superuser program, selecting the right members, and launching it into the world.
- Superusers:
-
- Resource: Sample Superuser Guidelines
- Erica and Brian’s Vanilla Conversations Talks
- Participation Inequality
- Celebrate your Superusers
- Holly Firestone (Theme Song)
- Tuvy Le
-
Sponsored by:
- Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs.
Our live session at the 2020 Virtual Comm Chat Summit about our biggest fails unironically ends in failure due to severe weather, Brian pivots to live Q&A, and Bella saves the day.
-
BlackLivesMatter
- Failure Stories:
-
- The intention of this episode was to swap stories about the biggest fails we’ve made in our careers and share lessons learned. We will publish those as a separate episode. Thanks to the audience for being gracious as the storm wreaked havoc on our plans!
- Bella:
-
- When all else failed, just look at that face!
- Community Books:
-
- Building Brand Communities by Carrie Melissa Jones
- Social Customer Experience by Dave Evans and Joe Cothrel
- Social Media Marketing by Dave Evans and Jake McKee
- Learning vs. Experience:
-
- Steve Jobs on consulting vs. owning results
-
Sponsored by:
-
- Comm Chat by Commsor is a private network of community leaders who believe the best way to impact the world is through community
Understanding users’ motivations, designing community gamification and swag programs, and triggering Erica with U2 puns.
- Ranks, rewards, & reputation:
-
- Resource: Community Gamification Template
- Erica’s blog post on fun
- PlayStation ranks
- Alteryx ranks
- DataRobot ranks
- Trailblazer ranks
- The Real World
- Jamie Johnston
- Jon Wishart
- Oliver Bierne
- Swag:
-
- Holly Firestone's blog on perks and swag
- Running socks
- Cold weather kits
- Top Contributor card game
- Custom brewed beer
- MVPJs
- Valentines candy
- MVP Summit kit
- Custom shoes
-
Sponsored by:
- Khoros software and services help you win, serve, and grow customers across social marketing, digital care, and branded communities.
Defining “customer experience”, cultivating a customer-first culture, and building a program to meaningfully improve across key touchpoints.
-
SaveFerris:
- Ferris Bueller knew how to create an amazing experience
- Customer Experience:
- Jeff Bezos on customer-focus
- Shipping the org chart
- Cartoon: customer satisfaction metrics
- 100 of the Most Customer Centric Companies (2019)
- Resource: Customer Journey Program Template
- Sponsored by:
- Khoros software and services help you win, serve, and grow customers across social marketing, digital care, and branded communities.
Assessing if your company is ready for community, crafting a vision, and building your plan to gain alignment.
- Building a vision:
-
- Marc Benioff
- “Community is a numbers game.” - Joe Cothrel
-
Building a plan:
-
- Resource: V2MOM
- Okrtemplates.com
- Resource: OKR Planning Template
- Resource: Plan on a Page Template
-
Sponsored by:
- Khoros Syndication allows you to amplify community content throughout search, purchase, and support in a simple, scalable way.
Living in lockdown, trends and predictions for the industry, and how empathy will guide us forward.
-
covidlife:
-
- Erica’s recording setup
- Brian’s recording setup
- Trends and Predictions:
-
- “The worst time to plan for a crisis is during the crisis” - Brian on Twitter
- Erica’s blog post - On the Other Side
- Erica’s interview in The Social Influence
- Brian’s interview in The Social Influencer
- Brian’s interview in Community5 Home Game
- Brian on Peers Over Beers Podcast
- Brian on Conversations with Community Managers Podcast
- Nike’s epic #playinside tweet
- Okta CEO on their virtual conference (subscription required)
-
- Twitter thread
- Bill Johnston
- Holly Firestone
-
Sponsored by:
- Khoros’ Atlas Community is a community for community professionals to connect with peers, share best practices, and discuss digital customer experience.
Navigating a layoff, how to approach looking for a job, and that time Erica didn’t hire Brian.
- Brian’s layoff experience:
-
- Brian’s LinkedIn announcement
- Brian’s commitment to help
- Lili McDonald
- Dani Weinstein
- Looking for a job in community:
- CMX Job Board
- CR Network CMGR Profiles
- Resource: CV Template
- Resource: Leveling template
- Sponsored By:
- Khoros software and services help you win, serve, and grow customers across social marketing, digital care, and branded communities.