Building a Tech Community: A Personal Mission of Trust, Growth and Relationship Mastery

Two years ago, two brilliant leaders - one from sales and the other from solutions engineering— whom I supported as a marketer in demand generation and brand growth within a niche market, inspired me with a compelling vision. They convinced me to embark on a journey to build a community for IT professionals—a space for learning, innovation, and mutual support. Their vision was that this community would not only unlock significant opportunities for Nutanix but also elevate the productivity and creativity of IT professionals, ultimately leaving a lasting impact on the tech industry.

The first step was a curious mind, open to new ideas. Then came the idea itself, followed by a detailed plan (complete with numbers). After that, it was time to take a deep breath, hold on tight, and dive into the journey ahead. During my meeting with the sales and solutions engineering leaders, one key insight resonated deeply with me: Selling has evolved into truly understanding a customer’s challenges and needs. If you stay in touch, build that relationship, and find out what they need next — you’re going to be in much better shape to provide timely solutions. My goal became clear: to create a welcoming and inclusive space that supports tech professionals' goals and aspirations, facilitating meaningful conversations between our sales and solution engineering teams and our customers. This space aims to build trust and credibility through diverse initiatives, including content creation, competitions, networking events, speaker series, and free exam review sessions hosted by Nutanix University . My aim was to shift the B2B tech marketing approach from treating people as mere leads to engaging with them as people by addressing their specific challenges.

This realization sparked my deep interest in the experiences of DevOps advocates. I explored their profiles to gain insights into their interests, needs, and challenges, identifying key individuals we should connect with. I also began researching leading tech communities and the largest online groups of tech enthusiasts, such as AWS Community Builders and Google Cloud Innovators. The first step I took was to purchase the book "Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging" to learn how to get started.

To build an effective community strategy and implement it successfully, focus on two guiding principles: People and Purpose. Always consider these two key questions:

1. What evidence from the community supports or challenges this decision?
2. Does this decision advance our shared purpose?

To avoid the overwhelm and guesswork often associated with community building, I followed this framework:

Define Your Strategic Focus: Start by aligning your community-building efforts with your strategic marketing or sales goals for the year, or by addressing the most pressing needs, typically related to revenue growth or cost savings. Prioritize investing in members' growth and development by providing access to learning opportunities. Introduce new initiatives and push the boundaries of what’s possible within your community.

Foster an environment where members can ask questions and receive honest feedback by establishing a customer advisory board or a co-creation panel. This group can collaborate with your product development team to inspire new service offerings and support your marketing team through advocacy efforts.

Don’t overlook the importance of moderation. Set clear guidelines for your community committee, ensuring everyone understands their roles and expectations—how often they should participate, and the type of content they should contribute. Actively listen to feedback. Leverage data analytics to gain insights into member engagement and preferences, allowing you to refine your strategy continuously. Finally, ensure that members have the freedom to opt in and connect with others, fostering a sense of collaboration within the community.

Conduct Research to Develop Your Ideal Community Personas: You need to attract people who invested in the shared purpose, have something to say and can contribute to the whole community in the same direction. Do regular surveys to your mailing list asking them the challenges they are facing. Talk directly to potential members until some patterns/preferences emerge to deeply understand their goals, information sources, technical familiarity and any potential de-motivator that might keep them from engaging with your community. Examine the strategies of competitors that inspire you to identify what they are doing well and where the potential gaps exist. Always consider these two questions:

1. Does this persona resonate with the people I would like to be part of this community?
2. Do I know any other prospect who fits the description I put inside these personas?

Choose the Right Technology for Building Your Community: Your platform should not only facilitate transparency in governance and operations but also effectively amplify your community’s reach. With over 70 different community platforms available, the abundance of options can easily overwhelm community builders. To navigate this, start by choosing a platform that is low-cost and doesn’t require extensive technical expertise. This allows you to pilot your community strategy before making a full investment.

When evaluating potential platforms, consider the following:

1. Member Interaction: How do you want your community members to engage? Whether through live events or discussions, the platform should support your preferred mode of interaction.
2. Integration with CRM: How do you want your community to interact with your company’s CRM? Consider whether the platform allows you to trigger specific actions based on members’ marketing or sales activities.
3. Measuring Success: Identify the metrics that will demonstrate your community’s success, such as membership growth, content shares and comments, NPS scores for members, or renewal rates. Ensure the platform makes it easy to track and pull reports (potentially automated).
4. Privacy and Governance: Determine the level of privacy settings you need (public or private) and how governance will be managed, including delegating responsibilities to other community members.

One of my preferred platforms is LinkedIn, where much of the tech industry discussions take place. However, it's important to select the platform that best aligns with your community’s needs and goals. Here are some factors to consider when choosing the right platform:

1. Content Sharing: Does the platform allow for easy sharing and promotion of content?
2. Moderation and Management: Does it offer robust tools for moderation and community management?
3. Branding: Is it easy to brand your community on the platform?
4. Budget: Consider your budget when selecting a platform. It's often best to start with one free channel, build your presence there, and then expand to other channels as your community grows.

Once you’ve chosen your platform, create a professional-looking group profile and start connecting with like-minded individuals in your industry and niche. Consistency is key—regularly post engaging, valuable content, initiate discussions, and encourage members to participate and invite their IT colleagues. Consider hosting live sessions with leaders in the tech space and high-quality speakers to foster growth within your community. Be flexible and accommodating with speakers, working around their schedules and offering rehearsals before sessions to ensure a smooth, stress-free experience.

Collaborate with Software Vendors Offering Complementary Solutions: Consider hosting joint events to maximize the value for your community and partners. For example, we partnered with #Intel for our first gathering and with #RedHat for the second. Successful collaborations hinge on creating a more comprehensive and well-rounded experience for everyone involved.

Systematically Promote the Community: Building relationships is key to growing your community. People won't automatically discover or contribute to your group; you need to actively invite them and foster connections.

Recognize and Reward Contributions: Keep your community members engaged by offering various forms of recognition and rewards. Consider implementing badges, certifications, mentorship opportunities, and free exam codes. For instance, super users have a special LinkedIn profile frame. These members are also invited to write guest blog posts on the Nutanix Community Page or present at Nutanix Global Flagship Conferences like .Next.

As you begin your journey in building a thriving tech community, I encourage you to explore the Nutanix User Group in Saudi Arabia . This page showcases successful engagement tactics, group moderation strategies, and appreciation techniques that I've developed over more than two years of experience in helping Nutanix build its brand community in Saudi Arabia. I had the honor of being recognized at the EMEA level for my role in community buildin initiative under best practice category, successfully growing a technical user group to 2k members across Saudi Arabia and Egypt in less than a year since its inception.