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 delve into customer awards programs, the importance of aligning awards with customer benefits, and the value of meaningful recognition. They discuss running award programs annually to maximize impact and engagement, emphasizing consistency and clarity. The podcast also explores the complexities of submitting and judging awards, selecting merchandise vendors, and creating humorous items like a golden hoodie.

Hosts discuss the importance of measuring community ROI and the frustration surrounding this topic. They emphasize the need for accurate data and assumptions in decision-making. The hosts share their joy of receiving Buntini's and reflect on the delicious flavors and discontinued favorites. They also indulge in pretzels and speculate on the cause of their wife's thinness. The chapter explores their high energy levels and the secrets behind it.

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: 🔓 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  

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 & Community at The North Face Ami Defesche joined The Wildcard Alliance as Director of Community Corey Strausman joined Weights & Biases as Community Manager, Growth Dominique Farrar joined Quantive as Director of Community Nick Emmett joined Alvaria as Senior Community & Knowledge Manager Marjorie Anderson joined Exos as Director of Community Paul Bradley joined Kaplan as Vice President, Kaplan Community Farhan Chowdry joined Deen Developers as Community Lead for Forge Jeremiah Haze joined Intuit as Community Moderator Mattie Fairchild joined OP Lab as Head of Developer Relations Top 10 interview questions and how to answer them: Role Specific: What has been the biggest thing you’ve learned at your current role that you think would be relevant to this role? How would it inform you in this role? What was the most recent community program you built and how did you build it? Tell me about what you saw when you looked at our community? Strategy: Provide an example where you encountered someone or a part of the organization that was not bought into Community. How did you overcome it? How do you balance the needs of the community and the needs of the business? What would you say is the most important element to building a vibrant community? What level of resources do you expect to need to be successful with the community here Metrics/Measurement/ROI: How did you measure success, what were your key metrics, and what insights did you draw from them? Collaboration: How have you brought community input/feedback to XYZ teams in your past experience? Content Strategy: What was your content strategy when building community?