Hi there,
Uncommunity Weekly is a bi-weekly newsletter where we bring you community experts interviews, resources related to building and growing communities, tools that you can use to scale your community or events and books that you can read to become better community builders and jobs to be applied.
Introducing…
Christina Garnett is the Senior Marketing Manager, Offline Community & Advocacy at HubSpot. Her work on community, marketing has been featured in some of the leading agencies such as Adweek, The Next Web, etc.
When we think of building community do we have to think of human emotions first? What's the practical example?
Community is needed and desired because of our sense of wanting to belong. Wanting to feel seen and appreciated is intrinsic to us as humans. You need to remember this when community building. Creating an emotional response is a powerful way to trigger behaviors as well as foster engagement. One practical example is the Peloton Moms community. They have fostered a positive and motivated place for women who are using their Peloton to get in shape, be stronger, take care of themselves, and more. It's a safe place where they share how their Peloton and riding buddies empower them.
How can we take community building as a long term objective?
It's growth in its purest sense. You are offering an experience within a central hub (home) where they can learn, grow, and thrive. It takes time to build loyalty and trust with a central passion.
Explain the intersection between social media and community?
Social media channels can serve as the home of the community (depending on how open it is and its functionality - think Twitter for Marketing Twitter and Facebook Groups for others). Social media acts as the communication channel and sometimes the home of it but a community is made of people.
How to be better community builders?
Be curious. Listen. Give more than you take.
You have to listen first. You have to have a pure need to understand the people with this shared passion and want to learn more. You have to care. If you don't care about the people in the community and growth is your main goal, it will never go as fast as you want.
What do you think is the most successful community strategy?
Determine your goals for the community and identify key champions/advocates that can help you share your voice and efforts. Lead with value. So many people think about wanting to build a community without determining what value is necessary for anyone to even want to join it, let alone participate in it. You have to make it about the people and their needs.
What's the best article on communities you've read ever?
The 7P’s of Community by David Spinks. It truly breaks down the main questions for community building as well as how to communicate its business value.
Advice to someone who's just getting started in community management?
Join community.club and learn. It's a great opportunity to ask and learn from those already in the industry. The people who are a part of Community Twitter are incredibly generous and giving. They realize that by preparing others, they are investing in the industry and its future.
Follow Christina Garnett on Twitter.
What else we’re reading?
- The 7P’s of Community - When building a community, always start with people. This is a must-read article if you are into building communities. This is an incredible piece by David Spinks. Read here.
- Purpose: Clearly define your goal
- People: Choose the right members and leaders
- Place: Gather in a compelling space
- Participation: Take your members on a journey
- Policy: Enforce a clear set of rules
- Promotion: Start small then scale
- Performance: Measure everything
- On building communities - Communities often organically form around shared experiences, but when you're new to a place, how do you create a shared experience for strangers? What gives you that right to convene people? Learn how to build relationships here. Another wonderful piece.
- The framework for measuring the relationship strength of a community:
- Frequency
- Intensity & Commitment
- Values
- That's why so many people make friends at school, work or religious groups. These venues have built in frequency, and often include intense points of connection and shared values. When you're trying to create something from scratch, you have to create those conditions.
- The Rise of Platform Brands - Why companies are leveraging their employees to build audiences? Attention is like oxygen for brands. Those that capture it get a chance at life, while those that can’t wither and die. Read why Nick deWilde thinks Audiences are the new career moat here.
- By attracting and cultivating strong audience builders, companies like Morning Brew, Gong, On Deck, and Fast have increased the surface area of their brands. This, in turn, helps them gain prestige that they can use to retain audience-builders and attract new ones– setting in motion the virtuous flywheel of platform branding.
- Building a community is difficult as well.
- You are either for or against.
- While the customer is not always right, the community is.
- Community vs Audience
What’s new at Uncommunity?
- Products added:
- Space - The easiest way to create engaging audio content with your community
- Bevy - Don’t just host a virtual event. Build a community. Bevy just closed massive $40M Series C. Congratulations Derek, David and team. :)
- Book added:
- The Business of Belonging - How to Make Community your Competitive Advantage by OG of Community Industry, Wait for it… David Spinks.
- Giveaway:
- Step Conference is the leading tech festival where entrepreneurs, startups and investors get together to discuss Middle East startup ecosystem focusing on markets such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Egypt, etc. We are giving away 10 tickets to the conference. Reply to this email and claim your free ticket.
Go to Uncommunity.club to find out about the latest tools and all new jobs that we added this week from companies like Revolut, Port, etc. Check out the jobs.
If you like this edition smash that ❤️ button and share this with your friends, closest virtual colleagues. :)
thank you ☕
for joining us in our journey. We both 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, buy us a coffee, or let us know your thoughts/feedback.