When an Online Community Pro Retires
Community Signal
is a legend of the online community profession. After 30 years, she has retired. But what does it mean when we retire from this work? Her career began AOL in 1994, building communities and managing a massive volunteer program. Among her numerous stops, Rebecca found a focus in child safety, leading such efforts for Sulake (the company behind Habbo Hotels and Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom), Mind Candy (Moshi Monsters), and most recently SuperAwesome, a provider of tools for safer, responsible digital engagement with young people, who was acquired by Epic Games. A program manager for...
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Breaking: Online Community Consultant Discovers Brand New Concept (Again!)
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Kinks vs. Crimes and Gender-Inclusive Content Moderation at Grindr
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Safeguarding a Diabetes Charity Community and Knowing if You’ve Done the Right Thing
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Empowering Employee Resource Group Leaders With Your Internal Community Platform
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Employee resource groups (ERGs) can do a lot to create a greater sense of belonging at your organization. But the folks who volunteer to lead these groups may find themselves in need of help when it comes to utilizing perhaps the greatest tool at their disposal: Your internal employee community platform. As a community strategist within large organizations, has trained employees to help them get the most out of these platforms. She has also managed two large migrations, both from Jive, and that has led her to have a (in her words) cynical perspective on the resources made available...
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The Chief Community Officer Hype Machine
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Lessons in Building Safe, Inclusive, and Functional Spaces for LGBTQ+ Folks
Community Signal
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info_outlineNicholas Tolstoshev is talking programs. Brand representative programs, where brands pay you for access to your community. Ambassador programs, where you reward your best contributors. And empathy programs, where you help your coworkers see things from the eyes of your members and customers.
This discussion also ends on a note that we probably all need to hear right now, and that’s the importance of leaning on and being honest with each other about our shared challenges of navigating life and work during the pandemic. Nicholas shares how he has worked to start these honest and difficult conversations at Automox. Here’s to workplaces that are being encouraging and understanding during these difficult times.
Patrick and Nicholas also discuss:
- Building ambassador programs and empathy programs to strengthen communities
- Empowering community members to create and moderate conversations of their own
- How Nicolas cultivates the internal employee community at Automox
Our Podcast is Made Possible By…
If you enjoy our show, please know that it’s only possible with the generous support of our sponsor: Discourse.
Big Quotes
Balancing your brand ambassador program (11:33): “[When creating a brand ambassador program], you’ve got to balance the rewards versus what [the ambassadors are] doing. You don’t want to either over or under reward and then have to course-correct later because much like having something be free and then charging for it, that’s always a hard thing to overcome.” –@tolstoshev
Empowering your users to build their own communities (27:50): “If you don't make room for people to have [unofficial] conversations on your own site, it's not going to stop them from having those conversations. They’re just going to go have them somewhere else. That was the lesson that an early mentor of mine drummed into me. Be part of the conversation and the best way to do that is to make a place for it. If somebody has already made a place for it, then go meet them where they are.” –@tolstoshev
The positive effects of community during the pandemic (40:10): “Since the pandemic hit … I was finding myself stuck at home and feeling isolated and depressed and not having much motivation to work. I had the idea to do this program where a small group of us get together and just share what's going on and what's frustrating in their lives. ... It was a huge benefit for me. I rolled this out to the rest of the company and fortunately, the execs saw the benefit in doing it. It's been rewarding to build community internally within the company and help people get through such a difficult time.” –@tolstoshev
About Nicholas Tolstoshev
Nicholas Tolstoshev is a sysadmin turned community manager having worked on technical communities for Intuit, Spiceworks, Webroot, LogRhythm, and currently Automox. He also launched Growers Network, a community in the cannabis space.
Related Links
- Sponsor: Discourse, civilized discussion for teams, customers, fans, and communities
- Nicholas Tolstoshev on LinkedIn
- Nicholas has managed communities for Intuit, Spiceworks, Webroot, LogRhythm, and currently Automox
- Growers Network, a community in the cannabis space
- Sean Dahlberg on Community Signal
- The Spiceworks brand representative program
- The unofficial Spiceworks Discord
- Meetup wants to charge users $2 just to RSVP for events — and some are furious (via The Verge)
- BoardReader
Transcript
Your Thoughts
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.