This week in community building — Issue 97

Virtual events are changing our notions of what content people *really* want.

Practical, in-depth edu. content is in.

Waffly, abstract keynotes are out.

Virtual events shouldn't be bundles of webinars. They need to offer something new.

I love the experimentation going on!

— Jono Bacon (@jonobacon) August 9, 2021

Many "community builders" never talk to their community.

How do you build a strong community without being part of it?

— Ryan Hoover (@rrhoover) August 8, 2021

🤔 Developer Relations involves a lot more than writing code.

DevRel is:
- building relationships and fostering trust
- collecting and relaying feedback to other teams
- helping people work through challenges
- inspiring people to build
- building tools to empower
- mentorship

— ɥɔɐoɹ (@roach) December 11, 2018

"I would much rather have 500 really amazing fans than 5,000 or 50,000 disengaged fans." - guest @crystallyn on episode 71 of the #TwitterSmarter podcasthttps://t.co/F8wYrZrJ1a pic.twitter.com/EB72TN36Hb

— Madalyn Sklar  Becoming #NFTsmarter (@MadalynSklar) August 7, 2021

Companies need to understand that hiring is deeply personal. They are building a community of professionals, not filling headcounts. If they don't put their team members in the spotlight, they miss out showing the world who they are and who people can learn from if they join. pic.twitter.com/Qa25SDNqCy

— Markus Tacker (he/him) 🇳🇴 (@coderbyheart) August 7, 2021

✅Working with #communities .#Community profession is not new.

✅We did the work under different titles in the past. Marketing, Customer Success, Support, Social Media, Project Management, etc Glad Cmty industry is booming

✅ Ageism is real. Which sector doesnt have this? https://t.co/AxzTaVIIZI

— Tina Amper 🚢 (@am_tins) August 7, 2021

We can profit on Attention.

But is it a renewable resource?

— eddie briseño 🌎 (@EddieBrisenyo) August 7, 2021

"I wish I had more founder friends in ___." really isn't a lack of communities problem, it's a discovery problem.

So, the team at @TalkHowdy decided to try to fix that. Why? bc life's a lot better when you're surrounded by the right people.https://t.co/0CzRzndN1d

— Alex Friedman 🤠 (@heyalexfriedman) August 5, 2021

Saw a bit of a heated discussion in a community I’m in today - and curious your thoughts:

How do you allow room for a healthy difference of opinion?

What will your community absolutely *not tolerate*?

What are things you do to encourage discussion + uncertainty?

— Erin Mikail Staples (@erinmikail) August 5, 2021

Controversial view:

Give your potential community members a few more hoops to jump through prior to joining. If they’re not willing to go through a little work to get access, they likely won’t be engaged once they’re inside.

Best way to filter the kind of members you want 👍

— Tom Ross (@tomrossmedia) August 5, 2021

How to scale community events:

- Post 'Apply to Host' Form
- Write templates & guidelines
- Create feedback loops
- Promote top hosts to leaders
- Incentivize leaders to train hosts
- Empower decision makers

Get out of the way & spend your time removing friction.

— Max Rothery (@maximillianroth) August 4, 2021

Most community moderation is invisible, and never gets the credit it deserves. Many communities are thought of as good because their moderation keep them that way.

— Ian Vanagas (@IanVanagas) August 4, 2021

“Each avatar club is a strange combination of gated online community, stock-shareholding group, and art-appreciation society.”

Online yacht clubs for apes and other NFT collectives: https://t.co/XPxJsvqtrL pic.twitter.com/mgv5xJvm32

— Andrew Claremont (@andymci) August 3, 2021

most of my ETH wasn’t bought using USD, it was earned thru hard work and participation

— dame.eth (@damedoteth) August 3, 2021

Imagine a social media system where, instead of everybody being able to yell at everybody from the outset, you had to *earn* the ability to interact with others.

— Derek Powazek (@fraying) August 3, 2021