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:

Brian and Erica deep dive into customer awards programs and how to get them right.

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:

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:

Erica and Brian navigate through developer landing pages and communities from Google, Salesforce, Apple, Visa, and more. Developer Community

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

“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...

“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...

“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...

“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

Erica and Brian take a close look at how to create compelling community user guidelines. Community Industry News: Evan Patterson joined tender.ai as Head of Community & Partnerships Lizzie LaCour joined Softr as Community Lead ...

“Are there certain company characteristics that are indicators whether a community will have a higher chance of success?” — Brian Koffler

Erica and Brian dive deep on how to translate your strategy into action. Community Industry News: Danhel Fajardo joined Vyond as Senior Community Specialist Jephtah Abu joined AhoyConnect as Product Community Manager Krystal Wu joined...

“What are the biggest things you tell companies to watch out for when they come to you with the idea of ‘I want to launch a customer community’ for the first time?” — Udit Lakhotia

Erica and Brian explore how Autodesk, Splunk, and Salesforce built pages for their superuser programs. Community Industry News: DL Grant joined Commsor as Community Operations Manager Isabel Ruiz joined Mews as Community Manager Cody A....

“NFT and Web3 communities: does financial incentive dilute the sense of community? Is financial incentive/interest a good 'common interest'?” — Ilker Akansel

Erica and Brian explore how OpenSpace and Guru delivered great engagement programs. Community Industry News: Valentina Ruffoni joined Disciple Media as Community Experience Lead Caroline Park joined Atlassian as Senior Manager, Community Engagement Kristie Presten...

“How best to approach when you work for an org that already has a wider community - but you're asked to build a secondary community for something more niche? The wider community is managed by a different department than yours,...

Erica’s Mom, Donna, joins Brian on this extra-special birthday episode to talk about an award Erica won in high school, her history as a criminal mastermind, and how the daughter of a dentist became addicted to candy. Happy Birthday, Erica!...

Expanding the number of use cases your community addresses beyond Support. Community Industry News: Sarah Wylie joined 6sense as Communities Marketing Manager Lauri Wansley joined HubSpot as Senior Manager, Community Managers  Karina Meza was promoted...

“How do you rebuild trust in a community where trust has been shattered?” — Cole Zerr

Erica and Brian explore Zendesk and Atlassian community landing pages. Community Industry News: Katharina Koidl joined Equalture to run Community & Events Emily Lakin was promoted to Head of Creator Community at Patreon Yurii Lazaruk...

“How do you handle 'turning off' when your community is always on?” — Alex Angel

How to bring Thought Leadership into your community to expand your reach, engage senior personas, and inject your perspective into an industry. Community Industry News: Brittany Edwards joined NinjaOne as Technical Content and Community Manager Tracy...

“What are your thoughts on an in-person Community summit? When is a good time in the Community lifecycle to consider hosting one? What benefits/ROI do you expect from it?” — Lauren

How to build a successful advocacy program. Community Industry News: Jessa Brown joined Alma as Senior Manager, Community Engagement Tess Brown joined Outreach as Senior Program Manager, Community Engagement Marjorie Anderson joined Product School as Director...

“How do you see the role of email in connecting with your community? And how do you see it changing?” – Hannah Whalen

“How can you gauge the 'health' of a community? What indicators or behaviors do you look for?” – Jessica Erhart

“What is one thing you wish you’d done better in the early days of your community careers?” – Scott Baldwin

Erica and Brian discuss the actions and activities you need to engage in directly after launching your community. Community Industry News: Aima Atigari joined Remotebase as Community Manager Tom Norman joined Craft Docs as Community Manager...

"Growing into management is an exciting opportunity, however, the team still isn’t large enough for you to step away from the IC work (yet). How do you balance the player / coach model in Community?" — Krystal Wu

Taking an integrated approach to building the dream customer community experience. Community Industry News: Chitra HL joined Oracle as CX Community Manager Holly Schell joined Paper as Community Engagement Specialist Madeline Johannsen was promoted to...

“How can I manage and set engagement expectations/goals when our community members don’t use our service/product everyday therefore may not interact daily/weekly with a community space?” — Hannah Rafter

How to persuade others through the use of an age old framework. Community Industry News: Vincent Mayers joined Gradle as Director, Community Operations Vinicius Camilo joined Distrito as Investor Community Manager Ahmet Uysal joined Sunrise...

“What would be your strategy for a community that holds two distinct personas? In this case, HR managers / People Ops and then their employees? Essentially these two different audiences would be coming together into one community.” — Lizzie LaCour

Presenting your strategy to an executive audience. Community Industry News: Sweta Shetty joined Hindustan Times as Community Manager Amanda Martin was promoted to Head of Community at Unbounce Kemi Kale was promoted to Head of...

“What are the top reasons you see new communities fail?” — Vishwas Katti Brought to you by Commsor.

Developer communities and working with DevRel.

“What differentiating values, if any, do you see in having a new customer join a community versus one who has been using your product for a good amount of time?” — Avi Lekowsky Brought to you by Commsor.

How to tell your story and build your personal brand. Community Industry News: Linda Haviland was promoted to Lead Community Manager at DataRobot Sara Leslie joined Katalon as Sr. Director, Online Communities Daliya Spasova joined...