In Before The Lock

Erica and Brian return to discuss the impact of AI on community, customer marketing, and education — and what to do about it.

• Erica joined Gainsight
• Brian's Slides on AI-Forward Community Strategy
• Google's doc on GEO
• Evan Hamilton's post on AI communities

Should your community be public, private, or a hybrid of both? What about free vs. paid? Erica and Brian break it all down.

And The Erica Goes To…Erica! 🏆🥳

Brian is joined by a gaggle of family, friends, and co-workers to present Erica with awards on her birthday.

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:

• • 🔓 76: Combo pages

  • 🔓 91: A list of links

  • 🔓 101: They want the ugly

• Resources:

  • Structures & Modalities Examples

  • Permissions & Roles Template

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

• 🔓 5: A whole bag of crap
• The Golden Hoodie
• Alteryx Excellence Awards

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:

• 🔓 8: Just say No to Page Views
• 🔓 9: Everyone wants a cool dashboard
• 🧵 70: Behaviors and indicators
• 🧵 92: Early indicators
• Community Metrics Template
• Erica's blog: It's All About That Data
• Brian's presentation on measuring ROI
• Course: Community Measurement Fundamentals

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: 🔓 34: The "S" stands for "Success"
  • Blog: Building Scalable Customer Success Through Communities

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

• Developer Community
  • 🔓 60: Just a couple lines of code
• Developer Landing Pages/Communities:
  • Google Developers
  • Salesforce Developers
  • Apple Developers
  • Intel Developer Zone
  • Fusion Fabric Developers
  • SAP Developers
  • Visa Developer Center