In Before The Lock

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?

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

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

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

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

“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

“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