Connecting to Like Minded People While Building a Community Practice
Christopher Detzel
ZoomInfo Community Leader | Podcast Co-Creator and Co-Host | Data, AI, Machine Learning | Customer Executive Engagement | Digital Community Engagement
Connecting to people and connecting people that are like minded has always been an interest to me for a long time. As a matter of fact, I have had really cool jobs over the last several years that have allowed me to do this. In the past, I have found it difficult to find people doing similar things that I do. I had to assume that my best practices are the right practices. Sometimes that might not always be the case.
I am a Community Manager at Imperva, a Security Software Company. Part of a Community Managers job is to build relationships with internal stakeholders and just as importantly, people that are the experts within the organization. Once those relationships are established, it's important to not just get buy-in, but important to get some of those people to do things. Those things include and not limited to moderation duties, answering questions that customers have and helping to develop content.
Over the last couple of weeks, I focused on talking to like minded people that do similar things that I do. I needed some perspective around how others built their Community, how they got others engaged internally and more. I spoke to three really cool and experienced Community Managers and got some perspective.
One of the Community Managers I spoke to was Melissa Spinella, from Kronos. We talked about who are the people important to talk to within her organization. She was great, because she has been doing this at Kronos for awhile now. You will also find other Community Managers chiming in. You can find the conversation here.
Another Community I spoke to was Caroline Seker at Cisco Meraki. We talked about what should you do when you open your community, in this case, to the public. Here is what we talked about. DO NOT START WITH A BIG BANG.... Find the post here.
The last person I spoke to was Asha May at Veracode. We also talked about internal adoption and she had some great advice for tech companies on who to get engaged early and often. Find the post here.
Engaging in like minded people over the last couple of weeks has been very valuable for me. I learned a lot and have a lot more to learn. It is good to know that there are people out there that already know what to do. Tapping into like minded people that have experienced or are experiencing similar things is important to be successful! This was a lot of fun for me. I will always try to find time to talk to like minded people. A great place to find like minded people is The Community Roundtable Network. There are experienced people that work there and that subscribe to the network. Let me know if your interested in talking about Community Management or want to network!
What is your biggest challenge in Community Management?
Community Operations Manager
6 年I love reading this, in part because as an introverted Community person picking up the phone isn't always in my wheelhouse. That being said, a big challenge I find within Community are around how exactly we track our community success. Do you have your strategy from day one? Are you changing your metrics as you go? How frequently? During my time at TheCR I had a great chance to learn from some mistakes in measuring vanity metrics and how to apply purpose behind your numbers. See you around the network :)
Mimecast Community Manager & Strategist fostering collaboration, knowledge exchange, and growth | Customer Relationship Management | Increase engagement and customer advocacy
6 年Great stuff Chris Detzel - love to connect. Cheers
Manager, Community Operations at Pragmatic Institute
6 年Love this, Chris! You're absolutely right about taking the time to talk with people. There's so much value that can be gained by just sitting down and having a conversation. I think you're in the right business :)