Community Signal

When you're booking your next flight and wondering about your in-terminal dining options or which seat will give you the best takeoff and landing views, check to see if you're preferred airline has a community that can help out with those questions. Southwest Airlines does, and it might be the only online community hosted by a major airline.

Airlines are always managing customer-facing and public relations issues so how exactly does one make the case for building a community? In this episode, Lindsey Duncan, who oversees the moderation and management of the Southwest Airlines Community, explains the unique relationships and conversations that it has fostered. The community thrives when it comes to topics that involve a unique point of view that can't always be provided by a Southwest staff member. For example, help traveling with children and getting tips as a first-time air traveler. These conversations also help Southwest Airlines create memorable brand moments and long-lasting customers.

Lindsay also shares:

• The ROI of a community-driven knowledge base
• Using community to connect customers and create memorable brand moments
• How two Southwest Community Champions connected and went on a trip to Disney together

On making the case for community: "A customer is more inclined to believe information if it comes from another customer, or to take a recommendation that comes from another customer. … The idea [for the Southwest Airlines Community] was, we can get people more authentic information and learn more about our customers, and gain really great customer insight, and then also deflect some of the traffic from our customer service centers." –@LDunkster

Why community members return: "There's a sense of camaraderie that develops [between the Southwest Community Champions] because they help each other out. … I think anytime you can form a real connection with somebody and you've got [a community] to nurture that and see it grow, as well as the fact that you are sharing in the activity of actually helping people out, they're going to keep coming back for more." –@LDunkster

Lindsey Duncan is a social business senior specialist for Southwest Airlines, with a decade of experience in the airline and aviation industry.

She launched and oversees the daily moderation and management of the Southwest Airlines Community, including a blog and discussion forum where customers can share experiences and knowledge. In 2018, Southwest Airlines launched Community Champions, a super user program of nine members and counting.

• Lindsey Duncan on Twitter
• Southwest Airlines
• The Southwest Airlines Community
• Southwest Community Champions Program
• Digital strategist Jason Falls on Community Signal
• Flyer Talk
• A Southwest community member shares details on installing a CARES harness
• The careers section of the Southwest community

If you have any thoughts on this episode that you'd like to share, please leave me a comment, send me an email or a tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be so grateful if you spread the word and supported Community Signal on Patreon.

With a global network of content moderators, it seems that Facebook might be the largest employer of community professionals in the world. But even with these resources, their content moderation practices continue to make headlines. Outsourcing this work barely seems to help Facebook keep up with the volume of content that needs to be reviewed, not to mention the toll that this takes on the often undervalued and underpaid people that are responsible for it. To this Ben Whitelaw, the engagement lead for the Engaged Journalism Accelerator, asks when Facebook is going to start taking bigger risks to solve this problem?

While Facebook's moderation practices have lots of room for improvement, Ben also shares how the platform proved to be an asset when Times readers needed a space for discourse around Brexit. For newsrooms organizing communities today, Ben shares that Facebook's ease of use makes it easy to spin up new groups and show proof of concept, but that this isn't a full solution for long-term reader engagement. Patrick and Ben also discuss:

• How Brexit played out in comments section at The Times and led to internal advocacy for readers
• Scaling the work of moderation and the importance of consistency and credibility in community management
• Whether or not big platforms like Facebook should be allowed to self-moderate

On public policy playing out in the comments: "Our columnists who wrote about Brexit would get 1,200 comments on an article. … Some of [the comments] were very good. Some of them were very informed. The Times has got a pretty interested and educated audience. You would have lawyers and people who work in policy, people who are civil servants often anonymous, comment on intricacies of Brexit, and it made for very interesting discussion. … There was a real passion for the topic and a need for it to be heard. Obviously, in hindsight, we see that … legacy media in the UK didn't really highlight some of the voices of people outside London who were wanting Brexit to happen, and that was playing out in the comment threads under articles." -@benwhitelaw

The potential impact of governance of the web: "I am afraid that Facebook will trigger something legally that will harm online communities as a whole. I think we sometimes forget that the vast majority of online communities do not have Facebook's problems and are probably fairly well managed and are one person operations with volunteers. … Government intervention, if it happens, really needs to be targeted at people above a certain scale, above a certain size. … If it falls hard on small communities, it's really going to stifle a lot of voices." -@patrickokeefe

Ben Whitelaw is the engagement lead for the Engaged Journalism Accelerator, a program run out of the European Journalism Centre, where he is responsible for the growth and engagement of grantees and content programming. The Accelerator is a $1.7m program that provides funding, mentoring, resources and events to support a more participative kind of journalism across European news organizations of all sizes. It recently announced its first twelve funded news organizations.

The program is supported by the News Integrity Initiative at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and Civil, the blockchain-enabled journalism community. Prior to joining the accelerator, he was head of audience development at The Times and The Sunday Times in London. Over seven years there, he built an award-winning team, ran several high profile editorial campaigns, including Cities fit for Cycling, and helped both newsrooms reach 500,000 subscribers before leaving in 2018.

Ben has also worked at The Guardian as a health and government IT journalist and set up Wannabe Hacks, a online platform dedicated to helping young journalists get into the industry. He writes a weekly newsletter about content moderation on the web and the policies, people and platforms that make it happen. Inevitably, it is called "Everything in Moderation".

• Ben Whitelaw's website
• Ben on Twitter
• Everything in Moderation, Ben's newsletter about content moderation
• Wannabe Hacks, a platform dedicated to helping young journalists find their way in the industry
• The Engaged Journalism Accelerator and the European Journalism Centre
• The Engaged Journalism Accelerator's first grantees
• The Correspondent
• Jay Rosen on Community Signal and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
• Spaceship Media, an organization using journalism to spark discourse between communities at odds
• Mary Hamilton and Bruce Ableson on Community Signal
• The Knight Foundation
• Wikipedia page for Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
• The Cleaners, a documentary about the people responsible for content moderation across the web's hugest social media platforms
• MeeTwo, an app that helps teenagers talk about difficult things

• View transcript on our website

If you have any thoughts on this episode that you'd like to share, please leave me a comment, send me an email or a tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be so grateful if you spread the word and supported Community Signal on Patreon.

Major social media platforms are using algorithms in spite of the best interests of their users, says Bruce Ableson on this episode of Community Signal. They are focused on serving you an ad at the right moment, or putting something controversial in front of you, "gaming the experience against the users to make money."

Throughout the conversation, it becomes clear that this is emblematic of their approach in general, not just to curation and algorithms, but to moderation and management. These platforms are what they are not because of what they did last week or last month, but what they did 5 or 10 years ago. Plus:

• The biggest threat to well-managed online communities
• Cynical, or realistic, reasons why major platforms are the way they are
• Why Bruce believes subscriptions could be the future of online communities.

Having nice community guidelines vs. executing on them: "[Facebook and Twitter] say a lot of nice things. Read the Facebook guidelines and Twitter policies. They read fine. Then they want to grow as fast as they can. They cast that aside for the sake of activity, and they get to a certain point and by that point, as we all know, it's too far along the road to try to reverse course. They've taken the funding. They've gone public. They've done all these things. Now you're at a juncture where we have this policy and it sounds fine, but we haven't implemented it." –@patrickokeefe

On why big platforms don't care about moderation: "The only way that [the major social media platforms] would care about [moderation] would be if it was affecting their bottom line. Because of the kind of businesses that they are. Facebook is a perfect example. Their business is driven by controversy. The more controversial things that people post and share, the more clicks they get, the more traffic they drive, and the more revenue that's generated. It keeps people coming back, and it keeps people engaged." –@bruceableson

On changing established social norms on a platform: "You can't go back 10 years later, with a billion plus people on a platform, and try to change the culture. You have to have that culture from the beginning." –@bruceableson

On Facebook's constant moderation struggle: "Facebook has got a real problem right now because people hate it. It's not that they hate Facebook, it's like going on Facebook gives them a stomach ache. I had the same thing through the election cycle in 2016, and the two years since then. You go on Facebook, and your crazy uncle is posting stuff, and some of your friends are arguing with you about things that seem obvious to you. It gets to where it's not fun because of that. They have a real problem because they can't go back now. They even announced some of that this week, where they were like, 'We're adding more moderators, and we're changing how we enforce people interacting with each other.' It's too late at this point." –@bruceableson

On the biggest threat to community management's independence: "Facebook could be the biggest threat to [well-managed online communities] because if they trigger legislation, that gets written and targets everyone, that's how we lose Section 230, that's how it gets weakened, and that's how we can no longer effectively moderate the community. We take the tool away from the people who are doing the right thing." –@patrickokeefe

On political intervention in online communities: "I just don't need the Steve Kings of the world telling me how to manage an online community. The thing that worries me most is Ron Wyden, one of the co-authors of Section 230, sounded the alarm recently about how these platforms need to change, or it could get too far." –@patrickokeefe

On why algorithms are working against us: "[The major social media platform] algorithms are all gamed specifically to increasing advertising revenue. That's their sole purpose in life, to get content and sponsored posts in front of you that you might click on, and get them in front of you at a time and in a place where you're likely to click on it. They're gaming the experience against the users to make money." –@bruceableson

Bruce Ableson is currently director of evangelism and enablement for Adobe, after five years as head of strategy & solutions for Livefyre, acquired by Adobe in 2016. Bruce has been involved with social media and social networks for more than 20 years, having founded Open Diary, an early social network, in 1998.

Along the way, Bruce has been credited with inventing a number of features that are central to the social networks of today, including commenting, friends lists, and activity feeds.

Since then, he has worked as a consultant helping Fortune 500 companies build their digital presence, and most recently in executive positions leading strategy and solutions teams for a number of growing startups. Bruce came to Livefyre in 2013, to help build a client solutions team, and also to build out Livefyre's NYC presence, and now works at Adobe out of their Times Square office.

• Bruce on Twitter
• Open Diary, an early blogging and social nework, which Bruce launched in 1998
• Adobe, where Bruce is director of evangelism and enablement
• Jenn Pedde, who recommended that Patrick have Bruce as a guest on the show
• Wikipedia page for Yahoo! Geocities, an early free web hosting service
• Wikipedia page for webrings, a once popular means of discovering related websites
• Bruce's appearance on Anil Dash's Function podcast, where he discussed the impact of being featured on Netscape.com and Yahoo.com
• Wikipedia page for Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
• Community Signal episodes with Tammy Armstrong and Scott Moore, both of which discussed Section 230
• Facebook's Community Standards and Twitter's Rules
• Amazon Mechanical Turk, one way that large communities outsource moderation work
• Bruce's tweet about algorithms
• TechCrunch article about Twitter's "Sparkle" button
• Twitter thread showing how someone can be radicalized through YouTube
• Bruce's tweet about subscriptions being part of the future of communities

• View transcript on our website

If you have any thoughts on this episode that you'd like to share, please leave me a comment, send me an email or a tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be so grateful if you spread the word and supported Community Signal on Patreon.

In 2018, a common thread across Community Signal conversations was knowing how to clearly communicate the success of community across an organization. It's fitting that for our first show of 2019, we're joined by Tammy Armstrong, someone who is passionate about using data to solve problems.

Tammy and Patrick met on KarateForums.com and from her years as a community member and moderator, she learned a valuable lesson (care of Oprah): "When we know better, we do better." This lesson carries throughout the entire episode. When we mature and become more empathetic, we become better community members. When we know more about our community goals and shortcomings, we can use the data at our disposal to do better. When we're using the internet ourselves, we should be cognizant of the trade offs that we're making with our data and whether or not it's worth it.

Tammy also shares several tips and tools [22:30] for those that are just starting to unravel the data behind their online communities, but her greatest (and cheapest?) bit of advice involves understanding the goals and vision for your community. From there, data is just another tool to help you reach your desired outcome [40:36].

Tammy and Patrick also discuss:

• The positive impact of teenagers within online communities
• Best practices for data visualization
• How to start unpacking the wealth of data behind online communities

If you enjoy our show, please know that it's only possible with the generous support of our sponsor: Higher Logic.

On sharing data in an accessible format: "Honestly, basic charts are really powerful because they're so well understood, they're so well used, and it can be tempting to get into this, 'I've created something nobody's ever seen before, it's so novel.' … Generally, visualizations are for people other than just the person making them. Your audience is going to work that much harder to understand the message you're trying to get across, so you're creating some cognitive burden for them to just read it, let alone take away the point that you're trying to get across." –@tammylarmstrong

There's no such thing as a free (software) lunch: "When you are giving up data, or when you're getting free software, software companies aren't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They're getting something out of it, and most of the time it's data. They're monetizing that in some way, or maybe they're latching on to your hard drive and leveraging your computing power for Bitcoin or something. There's something that you're giving up whether or not you know it, and we really need to be generally more savvy in terms of what that means." –@tammylarmstrong

On making your data work for you: "Think about your goals with your community. Your data is a tool and a valuable asset, so if you start with your goal in mind and think about what you want to get out of the community, where do you want to be in five years, and then turn that around and say, 'Well, where am I right now?' Having that guiding point is super helpful because otherwise you can just get lost in all of your data. So, start with the end in mind." –@tammylarmstrong

Tammy Armstrong is passionate about using data to solve problems and make the world a better place. As team leader of customer service analytics at Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, she works to improve the customer experience and maximize efficiency. Previously, she worked in independent education fundraising as the director of analytics for Oregon Episcopal School in Portland, Oregon. Tammy also serves as the treasurer of Reboot Iowa, a nonprofit startup dedicated to educating adults in computer science.

In their spare time, Tammy and her husband Mike record Bright Lights Big Data, a podcast exploring how local communities work through interviews and discussions on urban planning and analytics. Tammy has an MS in Analytics from North Carolina State University, and a BA in Economics from Gettysburg College. She enjoys baking, playing soccer with her husband, and chasing after their toddler daughter and two cats.

• Sponsor: Higher Logic, the community platform for community managers
• Tammy Armstrong on Twitter
• Tammy on LinkedIn
• Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield
• Oregon Episcopal School
• Reboot Iowa
• Bright Lights Big Data, a podcast exploring urban planning and analytics, recorded by Tammy and her husband, Mike
• KarateForums.com was the first community that Tammy joined and where she met Patrick
• The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
• Emily Temple-Wood, Wikipedian of the Year, on Community Signal
• Nexidia, an interactions analytics software
• Power BI, a data visualization tool from Microsoft
• Rise of the Evil Algorithm
• Fitness tracking app Strava gives away location of secret US army bases
• Ron Wyden and Ed Markey, two elected officials working to fairly govern the internet
• Threats to Section 230 Should Unleash the Political Power of Community Professionals

• View transcript on our website

If you have any thoughts on this episode that you'd like to share, please leave me a comment, send me an email or a tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be so grateful if you spread the word and supported Community Signal on Patreon.

This week, Patrick and Scott Moore continue their conversation commemorating three years of Community Signal, touching on a topic that's important to the work of all community professionals but that doesn't necessarily get a lot of attention: the laws and regulations that govern our work.

You're probably familiar with GDPR and Section 230 of the Telecommunications Decency Act. And for those of us that are paid community professionals working for established companies, we likely have resources internally that help us address legal concerns. But Patrick also raises the point that many communities are small, run by volunteers, and have minimal tech and financial resources. Are the laws protecting community members also protecting communities and community professionals, regardless of their size or backing?

And let's get real, it's clear that not all of our government leaders are caught up on the online community landscape, or even on the internet itself. So how are we informing them and letting them know how these laws impact the communities we serve, for better or for worse?

Scott and Patrick also discuss:

• The other laws and regulations that impact the work we do
• The "right to be forgotten" and what it means for communities as a whole
• Patrick's Community Signal dream guests for 2019
• Our collective responsibility to raise up community as a profession and Patrick's promise to give a pep talk to anyone who needs one

If you enjoy our show, please know that it's only possible with the generous support of our sponsor: Higher Logic.

On being informed about the laws that impact our work: "I really see [Section 230] as fundamental to the work we do and if it changed, the work we do would fundamentally change. How we moderate, how we protect people, what we allow for. It would change in a really negative and bad way. Understanding the laws that impact our work and how important they are is super important." –@patrickokeefe

On making sure the tech you use doesn't overpower your community: "There's always a power in having your data and having it so that you can download it and move it wherever you want, whenever you want and not have that be tied to a contract. … That's always a question for me when I get pitched on platforms. Where's my data? How can I remove it? In what format? You can't answer those questions well, you can't win me, period. We have to be smart about those things." –@patrickokeefe

On pushing the industry forward: "We should advocate for those higher roles because each time one of us does that, each time someone insists that they get the director title instead of the community manager title because their job reflects it … instead of just accepting that they can be community manager because, hey, the money's good and I'm being paid like a director, it matters. … Don't sell yourself short, really believe in yourself and push yourself forward. If you need a pep talk, let me know. I'll be happy to do it. … I believe that this work is important and I think that it is partially on us to push it up and find those opportunities whenever we can." –@patrickokeefe

Since 1995, Scott Moore has been helping organizations large and small build solid and successful connected communities and the teams that support those communities. He seeks opportunities to use his experience in online communities to help people help each other to make a positive change in their own lives and those around them. Scott has fostered and directed community at Digital Promise Global, Answers.com, Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, Communities.com, and Fujitsu. He has also consulted with non-profits to help with a variety of online community needs including Healthsparq, Diabetes Hands Foundation, and Edutopia.

• Sponsor: Higher Logic, the community platform for community managers
• Scott Moore on Twitter
• Scott Moore on LinkedIn
• Retaining Talented Community Pros and What Makes a Great Boss? (3 Years of Community Signal)
• Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act
• DMCA, the SPEECH Act, COPPA, and the CAN-SPAM Act
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation
• GDPR and the Right to Be Forgotten
• California Passes Sweeping Law to Protect Online Privacy
• California's Eraser Law
• Patrick references his Community Signal conversations with Jason Falls, Jay Rosen, Bassey Etim, Howard Rheingold, and George Kelling
• Patrick's dream guests for 2019 include Jake Tapper, Senator Ron Wyden, and Amy Jo Kim
• [Note from Patrick:] Special thanks to Carol, Serena Snoad and Bill Johnston for contributing to these last two episodes

• View transcript on our website

If you have any thoughts on this episode that you'd like to share, please leave me a comment, send me an email or a tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be so grateful if you spread the word and supported Community Signal on Patreon.

This week, Community Signal proudly celebrates three years of conversations with community professionals. We're taking this opportunity to talk to Patrick about his experience running the show and giving him a chance to reflect on the state of online community management and how he's seen it develop over these past few years. We're also grateful to be joined by past guest, Scott Moore, for this conversation.

Combined, Patrick and Scott have over four decades of experience in community and a recurring topic in this conversation is how we can learn from industry veterans and those who came before us, as well as recognizing that the community problems of today likely have past occurrences that we can learn from. As Patrick mentions towards the end of this episode, hosting this show has been a way for him to stay up to date on the themes, tools, struggles, and triumphs that the community landscape is seeing and we hope that these conversations are useful for you, too.

I know that I can confidently speak for Karn, Patrick, and myself in saying that we're all looking forward to continuing to ask the tough questions when it comes to community. It's our duty to push the profession forward.

We're breaking this conversation up into two episodes. In part one, Patrick and Scott talk about:

• Choosing metrics that matter
• The career trajectory for community professionals and how he approaches managing his team
• His go-to resources for staying current on all things community

If you enjoy our show, please know that it's only possible with the generous support of our sponsor: Higher Logic.

On learning from the past: "There's a lot [that can] happen in communities that seems like a major crisis, that seems like the end of the world, that seems like it's over. You just have to do the work, persevere, make it right, apologize, and do your best. … Most things, you get through and you persevere through." -@patrickokeefe

On communicating the value of community: "[Community metrics are] really about understanding who you're talking to, what they value, and then how you can tie the community to it." -@patrickokeefe

On knowing our worth: "We [as community professionals] should recognize our value and in cases where we feel that we are not being utilized fully or we are not being fully appreciated, we do that work for as long as we can and we start to look for better opportunities elsewhere at organizations that will value and respect us. It's almost like being in a relationship and people think they can fix the other person. It's not necessarily something that can always be accomplished." -@patrickokeefe

On what makes a great boss: "Great bosses make the careers of the people who report to them a priority in their professional work. Whether that be raises, whether that be promotions, whether that be helping them get the new job and not making them feel like they should be scared to ask you for help getting a job or ask you for a reference letter, or tell you that this amazing opportunity came up. I'm happy for people. That's my legacy. That's how I see my legacy as a community professional: The people that I helped advance." -@patrickokeefe

Since 1995, Scott Moore has been helping organizations large and small build solid and successful connected communities and the teams that support those communities. He seeks opportunities to use his experience in online communities to help people help each other to make a positive change in their own lives and those around them. Scott has fostered and directed community at Digital Promise Global, Answers.com, Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, Communities.com, and Fujitsu. He has also consulted with non-profits to help with a variety of online community needs including Healthsparq, Diabetes Hands Foundation, and Edutopia.

• Sponsor: Higher Logic, the community platform for community managers
• Scott Moore on Twitter
• Scott Moore on LinkedIn
• Learning from Theme Park Design, Scott Moore on Community Signal
• Facebook Doesn't Protect Black Children, But They Did Add "Community" to Their Mission Statement, So…, Scott Moore on Community Signal
• The Virtual Community by Howard Rheingold
• Design for Community, by Derek Powazek
• Managing Online Forums, by Patrick O'Keefe
• Lessons From The WELL and Making a World Where the Sun Rises the Next Morning, Gail Ann Williams on Community Signal
• Everything in Moderation
• How The New York Times is Building Thoughtful Comment Sections in the Trump Era, Bassey Etim on Community Signal
• Patrick also mentions past Community Signal guests Bill Johnston, Rebecca Newton, and Marjorie Anderson
• WeSupportNYC, a weekly community-themed newsletter

• View transcript on our website

If you have any thoughts on this episode that you'd like to share, please leave me a comment, send me an email or a tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be so grateful if you spread the word and supported Community Signal on Patreon.

Over the past few months, Patrick has spoken to several leaders in the world of journalism and for this episode, we're welcoming back Bassey Etim, community editor at the New York Times. Bassey was originally on Community Signal in December of 2015 and it's overwhelming to think about how public perception of the media and the Times, in particular, has changed since then. To give you some context, Barack Obama was still in office at the time of that interview and Donald Trump had yet to win a primary.

Patrick brings up an important question during this conversation: How are moderators at the New York Times doing? And perhaps that question can largely be answered by how Bassey manages his 14-person team. He shares how the team blows off steam, what he does to advance people within his team, and how he views AI as a human-powered tool to moderation, not a human-replacing one. Is it Bassey's emphasis on people and objectivist journalism that powers a positive environment amongst his team and the comment sections at the Times? I think so! Bassey also shares:

• The impact of the midterm elections and politics in general on moderators at the Times
• His own career path at the Times and how he elevates others for growth opportunities
• Getting AI machines to ask humans for help

If you enjoy our show, please know that it's only possible with the generous support of our sponsor: Higher Logic.

On positively fostering comment sections: "We want to make comment sections [that] people want to read. There's two elements to that. One is that the comment sections are interesting and good and reflect modern society. They don't feel like they're in some weird cloistered bubble. The other is that you feel safe, you don't feel dirty when you read them." –@BasseyE

On using automation to create transparency around moderation decisions: "It's really interesting to see how we could [use automation to] educate people along the process of submitting content to make sure that they have the highest probability of being approved. Everyone loves that automation. Members don't want to have their content removed after they spend time on it. Moderators don't want to remove content and have to talk to the member or deal with whatever the fallout of that is and then have to readjust or re-approve it once they try to submit it again. That's a perfect example of automation done well that everyone would like." –@patrickokeefe

On not repeating the industry's outsourcing mistakes: "The really important thing for us in the industry is probably going to be avoiding that old tech problem which is that there's this piece of technology and it can solve everything. … The technology is really a tool. Just because you have a good tool you can't just have one person wield it. … You're going to need a lot of people using the same tool to truly be effective." –@BasseyE

On machine learning's biggest problem: "If you let machine learning models operate in the wild without trained human intervention, what you're going to be doing is perpetuating a cultural cycle of silencing certain people's voices, filtering out a critical mass of people from certain communities. Wouldn't it be quite ironic if the thing that's supposed to save us all, technology, only winds up taking all the human biases and codifying them into code so that, unaccountable executives can say, 'Oh, well, the model does this. We'll try to fix the model sometime. We just don't understand the complexities of the model.'" –@BasseyE

Bassey Etim is the community editor for the New York Times, a novelist, and a musician. He's currently putting the finishing touches on his second book and planning for his wedding next year. Bassey is a first-generation American with roots in Nigeria. He's from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism.

• Sponsor: Higher Logic, the community platform for community managers
• Bassey Etim on Twitter
• Bassey Etim on LinkedIn
• The New York Times, where Bassey is the community editor and product manager for community
• Bassey's first appearance on Community Signal, in December 2015
• "I Was a Paid Internet Shill" Happens and Veteran Community Managers Know It
• Sara Bremen Rabstenek, product director at the New York Times
• Perspective, Google's comment-screening API
• The Times is Partnering with Jigsaw to Expand Comment Capabilities
• New York Times: Using AI to host better conversations
• Quartz

• View transcript on our website

If you have any thoughts on this episode that you'd like to share, please leave me a comment, send me an email or a tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be so grateful if you spread the word and supported Community Signal on Patreon.

Jason Falls knows where your customers are talking. He's studied conversations for several years and, time and time again, he's shed light on an inconvenient truth for brands: If you're ignoring online forums, you're probably ignoring a substantial part of the conversations happening in public – maybe even a majority of them. And it usually doesn't matter what industry you're in. Banking? 90%. Elderly care? 83%.

He doesn't work in the community space, he's not drinking the Kool-Aid. Jason is a veteran digital strategist who follows the data, and the data tells him that brands are continually missing a major opportunity to build loyalty and increase sales. And that's one of the topics on this episode. Plus:

• Why angry brand ambassadors are actually a positive
• The obsession with vanity metrics
• Where community fits in customer journey mapping

If you enjoy our show, please know that it's only possible with the generous support of our sponsor: Higher Logic.

On how forums influence search results: "If we can all go back 10, 15 years, advising brands in the social media or digital marketing space and say, 'Here's what I want you to do: The first thing I want you to do, when you launch your website, is add a forum to it. We're not going to talk about your product or service, we're going to let people ask questions about how to use it. Like a customer support board, but we're really just going to talk more broadly about how to do things and about broad topics within your work, within your industry." If every brand did that 15, 20 years ago, then brands would rank number one, two and three for all these search terms that they're spending a bazillion dollars a year trying to rank for now." –@JasonFalls

On breaking the allure of vanity metrics: "Even the social networks are saying it's not really about building vanity metrics anymore. We report that up the channel to our executives, our companies, our clients if we're at an agency and still, the first question that they typically ask at a monthly meeting or on the call is, 'How many people are following us now?' Unfortunately, it's going to take probably another 12 to 18 months of reinforcing the idea that vanity metrics don't mean anything or don't mean as much. Then, it's going to take an aha moment for a client or an executive at your company to be able to understand what you mean by that." –@JasonFalls

On convincing CEOs that fans online are spending money: "In 2010, I was working with an environmental products company, and the CEO would call me. I only talked to him once a week. He would call me at 9 on Friday morning, and he would ask me how many Facebook fans they had. Never mind that you could go to your own Facebook page and see the number yourself. He would call me from five hours away and ask me how many Facebook fans he had. I would tell him because, I mean, he was the CEO. … I figured out what he was doing. He called me at 9 because he had a 12 o'clock golf game with a bunch of his buddies, and so he wanted to be able to brag that his Facebook fans had increased every week, and so I said, 'Okay, this is ridiculous.'

"The next Friday, he called me, and he said, 'Jason, how many Facebook fans do I have?' I said, 'You know what? I'm going to email you the link to your Facebook page, and the number is in the upper corner. You can look at that number any time you want. I don't really have time to go look at that number for you right now because I'm too busy trying to figure out how to get those fans to buy your product.' He went, 'Oh.' He really, for the first time, thought, 'You mean you can actually use social media to get people to buy things?' Then, the questions were different." –@JasonFalls

On how communities fit into customer journey mapping: "[Online communities are a part of customer journey mapping] especially on higher end purchases, where there's a lot longer lead time. If you're purchasing something that costs more than a couple hundred dollars, you're going to research it for days, if not weeks or months. You're going to ask a lot of questions. You're going to read a lot of articles. That investigative process is probably going to take you to forums and message boards." –@JasonFalls

Jason Falls is one of the most widely read and respected voices in the digital marketing and social media industries. His digital strategies have touched a number of the world's most iconic brands including AT&T, Valvoline, Buffalo Trace, Humana, Rawlings, Maker's Mark, Sealy, Fireball Whisky, Trident, GM and more. Falls leads digital and social strategy for Cornett, a full-service ad agency in Lexington, KY. He loves the state of Kentucky, sports and bourbon.

• Sponsor: Higher Logic, the community platform for community managers
• Jason's website
• Cornett, where Jason is director of digital and social strategy
• Google is Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers Following Security Lapse
• 90% of Conversations in Social Media About Banking Occur in Online Forums
• Conversation Research Institute, Jason's former project aimed at researching conversations online
• Independent Living to Nursing Homes: Understanding the Buyer Journey for Senior Care, a report produced by Jason about conversations online around senior care
• 5 Things You Don't Know About Senior Living Shoppers
• Home Depot's Online Community Isn't Here to (Directly) Sell You Hammers
• Meredith Humphrey, global community manager at Spotify, on Community Signal
• Maker's Mark Ambassadors
• Less Potent Maker's Mark Not Going Down Smoothly In Kentucky
• A case study on the Fiskateers community from the agency that created it
• Jason on Instagram
• Team Valvoline, a content and community hub from Valvoline motor oil, which Jason helps advise

• View transcript on our website

If you have any thoughts on this episode that you'd like to share, please leave me a comment, send me an email or a tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be so grateful if you spread the word and supported Community Signal on Patreon.

Spotify's Rock Stars are super users, officially recognized by the company and given tools, resources, guidance and perks for answering questions and starting conversations in their online community and helping users on Twitter, through the @AskRockStars account.

With more than 150 members, the program will celebrate its fifth birthday next month. Each year, Spotify hosts Rock Star Jam, an event at their head quarters in Stockholm. They fly in the top 10 most helpful Rock Stars to meet company leaders, see whats coming next, offer feedback and enjoy the city.

Global community manager Meredith Humphrey has been with Spotify since 2011, starting as a community moderator, and she breaks down the Rock Star Program on this episode of Community Signal. Plus:

• The shift they made in product announcements to protect community staff
• How the Rock Star Jam has evolved over the years
• Meredith's exploration of what ROI means for community at Spotify

If you enjoy our show, please know that it's only possible with the generous support of our sponsor: Higher Logic.

On the start of the @AskRockStars Twitter account: "We had this hypothesis that there were super users that preferred Twitter. … We asked four of our stars to try it out, and we had to do a lot of testing to make sure that we could give super users the tools we use for Twitter. … They loved it. It was really successful. They were sending out thousands of tweets because people will obviously just tweet their thoughts. 'Having a bad day, Spotify is not working.' They were finding loads of these tweets. … It's their preferred medium, but we're reaching out to the customers that prefer that medium, as well." -Meredith Humphrey

On surprise and delight moments on Twitter: "We said to the [super users] that prefer Twitter, 'Why? What is it that you love about it?' They said that the folks who are reaching out on Twitter are so pleasantly surprised that they're getting help. They weren't expecting it. They were just complaining to the world about something, and when they get this really nice, 'Hey, I can help you,' they're so delighted in a way that community users sometimes aren't. Community users are there because they have a issue and a question, and they expect a reply. The gratitude and being able to surprise people like that, it really makes [our Rock Stars'] day." -Meredith Humphrey

On the creation of Rock Star Jam: "In 2013, we had this user, he's no longer in the program, but he made an incredible amount of posts in the community. I think when he left, he was at 50,000, but he had this really amazing system of macros and templates that he used. Super knowledgeable, really friendly guy. Our VP of customer service just said, 'Let's fly him out to Stockholm. He's contributed so much. Let's introduce him to the founders and the community team.' We did. He was based in the UK. We flew him to Stockholm, and it was such a great experience on both ends. It was so great to chat with that star and get great feedback and talk to him one-on-one, face-to-face. We said, 'This was so successful, let's expand this. Let's launch a full event for the top 10.' That's how it started in 2014." -Meredith Humphrey

On how different departments view community ROI: "My goal as the global community manager is to have a model or multiple models lined up side-by-side that I can show to anyone at the company and they will say, 'I can get behind these numbers.' Because I think some teams look at the impact survey and say, 'This is spot on.' Other teams say, 'I have a lot of questions.' I want to be able to go to any team, any department and they say, 'These are undeniable, solid numbers.'" -Meredith Humphrey

Originally from South Carolina, Meredith Humphrey received a BA in English with a Journalism minor at Clemson University. She then went on to get a Master's degree in International Journalism with a Music focus at City University in London. Meredith spent time in the UK writing for various B2B live music industry magazines such as Live UK, Audience and IQ.

In 2009, she heard about a new exciting company on the horizon called Spotify. Meredith started with Spotify in 2011 and, since then, has filled many roles in the UK, US, and Sweden – most recently becoming the global community manager in Stockholm.

Meredith is passionate about the music industry and helping artists reach new audiences around the world. She's also equally passionate about trivia nights, tacos, and her cat, Murray.

• Sponsor: Higher Logic, the community platform for community managers
• Listen to Community Signal on Spotify
• Spotify, where Meredith is global community manager
• Meredith on LinkedIn
• Spotify Community
• Retirement of Our Running Feature, Meredith's announcement in the community that led to users seeking out her personal Twitter account
• Spotify's Idea Exchange
• @SpotifyCares, the company's official support Twitter account
• Spotify's Rock Star Program
• Community post announcing the creation of the Rock Star Program
• Spotity Community's help boards
• Spotify Community's music chat
• @AskRockStars, where Rock Stars answer tweets sent by Spotify users that don't tag the brand
• Rock Star Program points and rewards
• Community post about the 2018 Rock Star Jam
• Lithium, the software that Spotify uses to power their community
• Rorey Jones, former global community manager at Spotify, who helped set the tone for the Rock Star Program
• Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, Spotify's co-founders

• View transcript on our website

If you have any thoughts on this episode that you'd like to share, please leave me a comment, send me an email or a tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be so grateful if you spread the word and supported Community Signal on Patreon.