Show gratitude. Uncommunity #37
Hey there,
Biswajeeta here.
Now, who doesn’t like a quirky conversation starter fun graphic for their community? I found one on Community Roundtable’s FB group and you bet, I’ve the link for our community fraternity to take advantage of. :) (at the end)
What’s your favorite conversation starter for your community? Hit reply and let us know, we will feature that in our next edition :)
In today’s edition, we have Jenny Weigle! Jenny is the Chief Community Officer and Strategy Consultant at Jenny.Community LLC. She’s been creating, executing and reviewing strategies for online communities for more than 10 years.
Read on to pick her brain. 👉
How has community management consultancy services changed over the years?
Many aspects of this field have grown within the last few years, and I believe that it’s a responsibility of a community consultant to stay aware of and on top of these. For example, we are seeing more and more community specialists in areas like operations and events. Consultants need to be able to advise their clients on WHEN it’s best to grow their team to include such a role, and ideally, what that person will be tasked with (not to mention, what they’ll be evaluated on). There are many more ways that our field has grown recently. That’s just one example.
What, according to you, are some of the major mistakes that enterprises are doing when communities are concerned? What can we learn from those mistakes?
I’m always surprised when I see an enterprise community that isn’t taking full advantage of the features and functionality available to them on their platform. I think every community team should work with their platform vendor to do an analysis of what they’re using and not using today, and how they can optimize to make the most out of the contract they have with that vendor. Similarly, I see issues where the community professional or team aren’t signed up for the updates about their platform. And I get it, that’s just one more email to read, but it’s critical to stay informed about how the platform is growing and improving. Without doing so, you aren’t fully serving your members to give them the best experience possible.
You are known in the industry for auditing the existing communities, giving your inputs on what they are doing right or wrong. What is the one thing that a lot of communities do wrong?
What jumps to mind isn’t really something the community is doing wrong, so much as the brand/company is. Community can benefit a company in numerous ways and across teams, but when the Community is “housed” under one specific team, I often see it restricted to fulfilling goals only for that team. Very often, that call is coming from the C-Suite or another leadership level, not from the community professional. For example, if a Community falls within the Marketing team but wants to launch an initiative that would benefit the Support team, I sometimes see pushback on that. In the end, that hurts the customer AND the company.
Before going to the community, what lens do you apply to your mind and start the process?
I’ll take the time to research the ideal community member first. Then, I try my best to empathize with that person and put myself in their shoes. I approach every step of an audit through that perspective.
FOLLOW UP QUESTION: What's your breakdown of the process of auditing a community?
First, I take the steps I mentioned above. Then, I start with the home page. I look for signs of life, volume, and recency. I evaluate the calls-to-action, especially the ones about joining the community.
From there, I explore the menu, analyzing the navigation and even the terminology used in it. I make sure to check out the threads in detail, and I’ll test creating my own thread to see what that experience is like.
My favorite thing to look out for is the incentives. I check to see what a community is rewarding or offering for being a member.
What’s the most surprising thing you found while auditing a community? Something that's worth remembering for 100 years? Let our subscribers know :)
You’d be surprised at how many communities have dead links, or prominent links that take people off the community entirely. You want to avoid that, if you can
How has community building evolved from the time you started in this domain?
When I started off in community work, it was primarily in social media communities. Now, I focus more on peer-to-peer or customer-to-customer communities, and it’s exciting to see how many brands are now exploring this! There used to be a time when it was hard to find a course about this field, and now we see classes like this being offered by many businesses and organizations. Next up, I’d love to see a number of academic institutions offer community management or community strategy as a major or field of study.
What is your best guess about the community industry for the year 2022 and beyond?
I believe we’ll see a rise in the number of community specialty roles out there. The people doing these roles today are proving the value and effectiveness of their work, and I know that my clients are taking notice and already trying to figure out how and in what ways they can expand their community teams.
Your top 3 advice for someone who wants to start their own community management consulting company?
Learn about what it takes to start a business, because you might be able to talk about Community all day long, but do you know about or how to run every other facet of your business?
Set your boundaries, and don’t be afraid to reassess them. When you “close down for the day,” do just that, and enjoy your personal time. Also, you’ll have lots of different kinds of people contacting you about your services. Know who your ideal client is and focus your efforts there, not on pleasing everyone.
Show gratitude. Give thanks to every person who helps in your journey of getting started and staying in business. This relates to clients, partners, mentors, friends, family, people who make key introductions, etc. Never stop showing your gratitude for how these people have benefited you.
Subscribe to Jenny’s newsletter - All Things Community here.
Find her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
What else we're reading?
When building or iterating on a product, one question should guide Product Managers and Product teams at all times: how will this feature benefit our customers? The best way to know the answer is to ask your best customers.
Read How Community and Product Teams Can Work Together to Build What Users Actually Want
The Community-Led Report is out: The Community-Led report is jam-packed with invaluable insights, fascinating trends, and a few key areas for growth within the community industry. Link to download.
Talking about salary could get awkward. Community Club (by Commsor) has released this open repository of salary database to help promote transparency and pay equity for community professionals across industries, experience levels, and locations. Give it a whirl here. Don’t forget to share your salary as well (without letting go of personal information)
“Community” has become the king of buzzwords lately. Here are Kyle Hagge, Lead Community Manager at Morning Brew, has these four major tips for someone trying to create and sustain a community.
“What a one year streak in Duolingo taught me about community gamification.” Matt Mecham, Founder, Invision Community, dives into the gamification strategy of Duolingo. Read here.
DevRel 101. Aditya Oberai, DevRel at AppWrite, explains what DevRel really is, what does it entails and how does it impacts tech. Read the guide here.
[NEWS] Pendo acquires Mind the Product to boost global product manager community. Read more.
Get them definitions right:
do you agree?
Customers, communities
Community, the favorite feature <3
Attend these upcoming events:
[Feb 11] A Celebration of Gals in Community: How have womxn helped/inspired you in your community journey? Register for #CommunityGalentines: A Celebration of Gals in Community
[Feb 16] You're on mute: Holding engaging events, even when people are burnt out! RSVP here.
[Feb 17] Marketing your community to grow your membership with Katie Ray. RSVP here.
[Multiple dates] Community chat by Rosieland on Discord. Register.
Recently released podcasts:
Listen to Erica Kuhl and Brian Oblinger on why it’s time to leave CMAD behind and level-up as an industry.
Organising meet ups by Jon Setzen, creative director at Kandji and former host of CreativeMornings LA. You'll learn how to handle meetup logistics, why great volunteers are essential, how to set speakers up for success, and more. Listen.
Nicole Saunders, Director of Communities, from Zendesk talks Roles and Responsibilities within Community.
Erica Moss, Sr. Manager, Community Engagement, at Atlassian, speaks about the need for internal teams to be educated about the value of their company’s community, for these internal teams to be actively involved in nurturing it, and for those in leadership positions to display their buy-in.
What’s new at Uncommunity?
Community Tool added:
Qoohoo: India's first comprehensive platform to grow, engage and monetize your community with actionable insights.
Resource added:
Community Masters: Community Masters is a 377-page, in-depth guide to building communities.
Career Corner
Great new community job roles are listed on the Uncommunity job board! If you want to have a role featured or are a job seeker, click here! Check out the jobs from companies like Notion, Magic Eden, GrowthSchool, Webflow, Auditboard and more.
thank you
for joining us in our journey. We all have full-time jobs and we have built Uncommunity in our free time as we have been exploring ways to give back and support fellow community builders in their journeys.
If you are enjoying our curation and want to express your appreciation, please feel free to spread the word, or let us know your thoughts/feedback.
And oh, almost forgot, the fun graphic found on Facebook group is here!
Sincere thanks for the AMA opportunity AND for sharing the #CommunityGalentines event!