Today’s guest is Paul Bradley, Who has over ten years of experience in the community industry and has led community teams for the last five years. Paul is currently the Head of the Global Community for Agorapulse, a social media management tool that helps organizations save time and easily manage posts, reporting, monitoring, and team collaboration.
A community-leading expert and consultant with a background in the tech industry, working for companies such as Higher Logic and ADP, he is creating a comprehensive education, recognition, and collaboration destination and management team for professionals with social media responsibilities in his current role.
Show Notes
2:36: Paul shares his journey in the community, including his impactful role as a community manager for Intel. He emphasizes the rewarding nature of a strategic services team, which can significantly accelerate the growth of a community management career.
6:42: If anybody wants to get into something like accelerated growth of your community management career, work on a strategic services team.
8:44: Paul defines community managers as those who create several offerings to appeal to various users and solve day-to-day problems for people.
23:23: With a background in communications and writing, Paul discusses being able to churn out content, naming it smoke and mirrors to use humor and create content that people will engage with.
33:25: Paul underlines a crucial challenge for community managers-finding ways to increase user engagement through the content they interact with. He suggests practical strategies like establishing an editorial calendar and having a beta group for a soft launch, emphasizing the importance of their role in building a thriving community.
42:28: Deb and Paul discuss two main features of building a community: Appealing to individuals’ inner interests and earning their trust to want to pay for a community.
48:25: Paul underscores the essence of community building-earning trust. He highlights the significance of this aspect, making the audience realize its gravity in their community management journey.
Chris Fitz is the Founder and Artistic Director of River Crossing Playback Theatre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. With experience in improvisational arts since 2003, Chris and his ensemble use Playback Theatre to build community by dramatically portraying real-life stories.
He is also a trained mediator and former Executive Director of the Center for Community Peacemaking, specializing in Restorative Justice—community-based practices that address harm and promote healing in schools, communities, and the legal system.
Chris sees Playback Theatre as a tool for personal and social healing, emphasizing the power of storytelling to foster connection, belonging, and understanding. Through performances like ”Healing York,” his troupe has addressed issues like racial harm, showing how storytelling can help heal communities.
Chris believes in the importance of repeated dialogue and rituals to foster belonging, whether in-person or online, and offers advice to community builders on engaging participants without relying too heavily on presentations.
His focus remains on creating safe spaces for people to connect, share their stories, and address community challenges through both art and conversation.
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The Community Strategy Podcast offers interviews with online community leaders who share their community-building journey. Our podcast covers community concepts, community building, community strategy, community structure, community membership, and community management. Visit our Website Find Calm Here to learn more about working with Deb
