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Where community strategy
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Online Community Strategy and Marketing
for Startups, Nonprofits, and Associations

CSP Episode 96: Becoming an Accidental Community Manager with Adrian Speyer

CSP Episode 96: Becoming an Accidental Community Manager with Adrian Speyer

In this episode of the Community Strategy PodcastAdrian Speyer, an experienced digital marketer and community builder, shares the story behind his new book, The Accidental Community Manager. 

With over ten years of community industry experience, Adrian has delivered numerous talks about community building at major international conferences and is the author of The Accidental Community Manager. He has worked with top brands, which has enabled him to teach community builders best practices, effective frameworks, and ways to be successful in community building that have a meaningful impact on organizational goals. Adrian currently resides in Montreal and is the Head of Community and Evangelism at Higher Logic Vanilla, a SaaS community platform hosting the best-loved brands in the world.

Click here to learn more about Adrian and to purchase his book! 

Click here to Support the Creator to Community Builder Book. 

CSP Episode 96: Becoming an Accidental Community Manager with Adrian Speyer Show Notes

7:32 Adrian shares why he wrote The Accidental Community Manager and how it’s different from the other books on the market for new community managers, community builders, and community designers. 

9:51 There are a few different kinds of communities, and Adrian’s book is directly for companies building a brand community. He shares how platforms change, creating a challenge for business owners when social media shifted to “pay to play” for brands to be seen. 

12:20 Companies lose an opportunity for engagement when building on social media like Facebook. Adrian recommends building a community on a platform that the company can control. 

14:02 Deb and Adrian discuss terminology and language marketing professionals use and how to reframe the conversation. Connections in direct messages on social media have been coined “dark social.” Adrian says as community professionals, there’s another term for conversations happening in direct messages called “dark community,” meaning that when conversations occur in a private space, in the context of customer support and engagement, that doesn’t allow for others to benefit from that conversation and doesn’t give credit to the community manager who’s responsible for creating engagement. 

19:37 For those new to the community industry, Adrian offers some positive coaching about stepping into the confidence they need to feel valued and respected. 

25:07 Adrian describes a B2B Community Strategy and how to build relationships, including internal and external people. A brand community is about the customers and the internal company stakeholders, teams, and departments. 

26:42 The community manager role requires self-advocacy, and sometimes there can be internal challenges because of a disconnect between the stakeholders. A community manager’s role is to guide the company to how the community can impact the company instead of needing to defend the role of a community professional.  

28:06 Adrian says that a thriving community strategy for brand communities starts with putting the community development into four phases, which don’t happen simultaneously. 

32:11 Deb shares thoughts about the importance of internal cohesiveness when building an online community. A community manager must explain the value and impact to others. A community manager is a cheerleader for the community. To get support in their role, they must step out of their comfort zone. 

35:12 Adrian shares many ways that community professionals can partner with other teams within the organization to promote the community and how to be a player at the table. 

39:39 The community building process takes between 6-8 months, Adrien says. It takes about three years for the community to get engaged. It is being realistic about the time that it takes to build a healthy online community from community concept to launch.  

43:22 ROI can be more than dollars; it could be loyalty and brand awareness. The numbers are good, but you need to know your goals, which will change over time. 

46:35 The difference between advocates, ambassadors, and community volunteers depends on the definition. Adrian speaks about creating ambassador or advocate programs intentionally.  

49:46 Adrian advises new community builders, sharing that everyone makes mistakes and learning from them is the key to development. He recommends having conversations with MVPs (Most Valuable People) as the most critical factor in cultivating an engaged community. 

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