🔓 29: Post, vote, comment, ask a question, answer a question, or attend a user group

Defining, measuring, and executing community engagement programs to grow your community and achieve your business goals. Also, Peeps.

• Community Industry News:

  • Holly Firestone promoted to VP, Community

  • Advice for DEI in Your Communities

  • Circle raises $4M

  • Commsor raises $16M

  • Twitter announces ‘Communities’

• Engagement:

  • Definition of Engagement

  • Definition of Thread Depth

  • Definition of Solution Rate

  • Definition of Responsiveness

• Programs:

  • Definition of Member Onboarding

  • Community Metrics Template

  • Episode 27 on Content Programs

  • Episode 26 on Groups

  • Episode 5 on Gamification

  • Episode 7 on Superuser Programs

  • Episode 20 on Employee Engagement

• Aftershow:

  • Peeps

• Sponsored By:

  • Grow your community and prove ROI with Orbit, the community experience platform that puts members first

  • Hivebrite’s Community Group Strategy eBook will help you understand the benefits of a group strategy, how and when to great a group, how to offer value, and tips to ensure success.

🔓 28: Keeping you out of prison

Partnering with Legal for all of your community needs, staying out of prison, and an egregious misuse of the Salesforce blue cloud logo.

• Community Industry News:

  • CMX 2021 Community Industry Report

  • Community-Led Pledge

• Working With Legal

  • A checklist for how to partner with Legal

• Sponsored by:

  • Hivebrite is an all-in-one community management platform that empowers organizations of all sizes and sectors to launch, manage, and grow fully branded private communities.

  • Grow your community and prove ROI with Orbit, the community experience platform that puts members first

🔓 27: Content is Queen

Everything you need to know about building world-class content programs for your community, step-by-step.

• Community Industry News:

  • Happy CMAD!

  • Khoros acquires Flow.ai

  • Community Club Job Survey

  • CR State of Community Management 2021

  • CMX 2021 Community Industry Awards

• Content is Queen:

  • Matt DeSimone

  • Alteryx Community

  • HubSpot Community

  • Telluride Heli-Skiing

• Sponsored by:

  • Grow your community and prove ROI with Orbit, the community experience platform that puts members first

  • Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs

🔓 26: Groupopolis

How to leverage Groups to strategically scale your community.

• Community Industry News:

  • Khoros acquires TopBox

  • IBM acquired 7Summits

  • Alteryx Community 2020 Wrap Emails

• Groups:

  • 16: Presentations, networking, and food

  • Vanilla’s 2021 Community Predictions eBook

  • Brian tweeted asking who uses Groups effectively

  • Join the “Erica Kuhl Sux” group

• Sponsored by:

  • Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs

  • Grow your community and prove ROI with Orbit, the community experience platform that puts members first

  • Piper Kuhl - the kuhlest dog around.

🔓 25: A Costco-sized warehouse full of Support Engineers

Working collaboratively with Customer Support to build a self-service community, ramping efficiency, and creating business value.

• Working with Customer Support:

  • Deflection

  • Brian’s CMX 2016 Talk On Support Communities

  • Community Launch Guide

  • Brian’s TSIA presentations: 2017 and 2018

  • Tribal Knowledge

  • Brian’s IS-CL Presentation on Calculating ROI

  • Solution Rate

  • Responsiveness

• Sponsored by:

  • Vanilla’s cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs

🔓 24: Preparation meets opportunity

Erica and Brian revisit their 2020 predictions, discuss current trends, and look ahead to 2021.

• Trends and Predictions:

  • 2: The next normal

  • Community Club Jobs Board

  • "He hit a home run, and didn’t even realize it."

• Aftershow:

  • Grandma Oblinger’s Dream Bar recipe

• Sponsored by:

  • Vanilla’s 2021 Community Predictions eBook

  • Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community.

🔓 23: Be bold. Be brief. Be gone.

How to effectively engage Executives to sell the idea of community, gain their buy-in, and partner for success.

• Gaining Executive Buy-In:

  • 3: Sell the why

  • 21: Everybody wants the big title

  • “Sell me this pen.”

  • Brian’s IS-CL presentation

  • How to stall in a meeting

• Sponsored by:

• Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community.

• Hivebrite is an all-in-one community management platform that empowers organizations of all sizes and sectors to launch, manage, and grow fully branded private communities.

🔓 22: Lead with gratitude

A Thanksgiving Special: Extending gratitude and telling stories about people that changed our careers and lives forever.

• Giving Thanks:

  • Jon Wishart

  • Holly Firestone

  • Joe Cothrel

  • Karen Mangia

    • Karen’s Books

  • Our Sponsors: Khoros, Community Club, and CMX

  • You! Our Listeners!

• Aftershow - Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes:

  • Corn Casserole

  • Brownies & Icing

  • Pumpkin Maple Baked Bean Cornbread Casserole

• Sponsored by:

  • Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs

  • Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community.

🔓 21: Everyone wants the big title

A special live episode recorded at Vanilla Conversations. Erica and Brian talk about their experiences as VPs of Community and what it takes to get to that level.

• Related episodes:

  • Crafting a vision

  • Building teams and leading people

• Sponsored by:

  • Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs

🔓 20: Employees are customers, too

Enlisting, enabling, and motivating internal employees to take an active role in the success of your customer community.

• Employee Engagement

  • Sample Employee Guidelines

• Sponsored by:

• Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community.

• Vanilla Conversations brings together practitioners from around the world to share their stories, their experiences and their knowledge.

🔓 19: Impostery

Erica and Brian take a break from election results to talk about imposter syndrome, mental health, and finding trusted confidants.

• All the feels:

  • Joanna Bloor

  • Erica’s Blog Post

  • Ted Lasso

  • Holly Firestone

• Sponsored by: 

  • Community Club - Whether you're an experienced community manager, just starting out, a founder building a community-driven business, or just community curious, the club has something for you

🔓 18: I’ll take one Culture, please

Creating a culture in and around your community. Also, epic storytime with Erica and Brian — you don’t want to miss it.

• Some personal news:

  • brianoblinger.com

  • ericakuhl.com

• Creating culture:

  • V2MOM

  • Erica talking culture on the Culture Amp pod

• Aftershow:

  • SteveMo on stage with Macklemore

• Sponsored by:

  • Vanilla Conversations brings together practitioners from around the world to share their stories, their experiences and their knowledge.

  • Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community.

🔓 17: Minimum Viable Community

In this very special episode of the pod recorded live at CMX Summit 2020, Erica and Brian walk through the finer points of launching a new community using their free Community Launch Guide.

• Go For Launch:

  • Community Launch Guide

  • Minimum Viable Community

  • Community Industry Terms Glossary

  • everyoneknowsmaria.com

🔓 16: Presentations, networking, and food

A special live episode about community events - user groups, VIP events, and conferences - on Khoros’ new events platform.

• Events:

  • Event page on Khoros’ Atlas Community

  • Salesforce Trailblazer Groups

  • Alteryx User Groups

• Sponsored by:

  • Khoros Engage is back on October 14th, 2020 with virtual sessions for professionals looking to learn from brands leading the way in digital customer engagement.

🔓 15: Steer, edit, lock, remove, ban

Custom shirts for community pros, moderation best practices, and a role-play in which Erica drops the ban hammer on Brian.

• Get Your Community Shirts!:

  • https://ib4tl.fm/shirts

• Moderation:

  • Former YouTube Mod is suing because of PTSD

  • Facebook paid $52m to Mods with PTSD

  • Adam Nichols

  • Definition: Moderator

  • Definition: Moderator Guidelines

  • Definition: Abuse Reports

• Sponsored by:

  • Khoros Engage is back on October 14th, 2020 with virtual sessions for professionals looking to learn from brands leading the way in digital customer engagement.

  • LIVE FROM ATLAS: In Before the Lock Special Episode

  • Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community.

🔓 14: Close to the money

Erica and Brian answer the question “where should community live in an organization?” and detail the pros and cons of each department.

• Where should the community live?:

  • Brian’s talk on creating support communities

  • Episode 4 about Customer Experience

• Aftershow:

  • Pink Whitney

  • Breckenridge Whiskey

  • Arnold Palmer commercial

• Sponsored by: 

  • Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community.

  • Khoros Engage is back on October 14th, 2020 with virtual sessions for professionals looking to learn from brands leading the way in digital customer engagement.

🔓 13: Get rid of your stupid hero

Data-driven community UI/UX design, best practices, and Brian’s hatred of ridiculously large hero images.

• Design:

  • Hero image

  • Joe Cothrel

  • “Above the fold”

  • Glowing Blue

  • 7Summits

• Sponsored by:

  • Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs

  • The Localist event platform aggregates, automates and analyzes all of your events, so you can grow your community

🔓 12: People are #1

Architecting a team, building culture, and leading people to be the best they can be. Also, epic rants by Brian.

• Architecting a Team

  • Resource: Community Team Leveling Guide

  • Resource: Sample Community Org Structure

  • Resource: Community DACI

  • Holly Firestone (Theme Song)

  • Julie Hamel

• Sponsored by:

  • Localist’s community event platform gives you the tools to connect, grow and engage your community

  • Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs

🔓 11: You get what you pay for

Translating your strategy into technical requirements, engaging with community platform vendors, and negotiating the best deal.

• Pre-Show:

  • Brian doesn’t have COVID-19

  • Resource: Community Launch Guide

• Platform Vendor Selection:

  • Brian’s twitter thread on vendor selection

  • Builtwith.com

  • Feverbee’s community platform comparison tool

  • Resource: Platform Vendor Scorecard

• Sponsored by:

  • Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs

  • The Localist event platform aggregates, automates and analyzes all of your events, so you can grow your community

🔓 10: Back to Failtown

Erica and Brian return to Failtown to tell tales of some of their biggest screw ups. We innovated these failures so that you don’t have to.

• #Fail

  • Episode 6: So far, so good

  • Flip Video Camera

  • Vanilla Forums Community Blog

  • Brian's Twitter thread on the Admin rank fail 

  • Adam Nichols

• Sponsored by:

  • The Localist event platform aggregates, automates and analyzes all of your events, so you can grow your community

  • Vanilla cloud-based customer community software. Drive loyalty, grow sales, and reduce service costs