Community and different cultures?

Community Building
1

Has anyone here ever experienced a business culture where posting in the community is something they avoid but would rather use WhatsApp.

or has anyone ever been stuck with a community where the community manager is the one who is always pushing but the organization says they see it as an asset but then no one else in organization owns it?

How do you navigate this? My client spans many different countries and languages but the resources to account for that are limited and the community manager is the only internal champion of community. We are trying to train them up to navigate this.

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Hello, welcome back to Meta.

I would like to know more about your concern, what is your role and/or what is it that you personally expect or want to resolve in relation to this?

It is not clear to me whether you are the one managing the community, its community manager, or someone else.

From there, you can surely find possibilities and answers. Each person has their role, and unless you request more access and responsibility, you will only be able to work from your current sphere.

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Hey there, happy to help but I also need further clarification. Is the primary concern that no one within the organisation participates in the community? I’m a little confused by your use of the word ownership.

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4

I managed the community and it went through a revamp but I am now trying to get a dead community to engage. I am hired to advise the organization and new community manager that owns it on how to 1) leverage their platform to engage their association’s membership. 2) communicate value across multiple cultures and drive users to return to the community years later or sign up and engage for first time. It was difficult before and now they want to commercialize the community but the recommendation that they have not listened to is for the company’s own team to be champions of it and not just outsource to new community manager.

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That sounds frustrating. When the community was successful, what was it that attracted people and why has that changed?

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6

To be honest, it was a partnership of organizations working well together to cover costs of in-person components and staff owned the space more not just clients seeking solutions. I think the inconsistency of content and ownership or resources plus the competition has increased since 2020 digital leap and users are not as enthusiastic.

It lost resources at peak momentum. Now the owning organization is realizing it could build value but the brand has lost momentum and the leverage of moderators has changed.

Also constant comparison to Linkedin or Social media sites and diffusing the community with multiple WhatsApp groups.

There are a few pain points

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It sounds like you have to get back to basics. What problem is the community solving for people? What does it provide that they can’t get anywhere else and is important enough for them to make it a priority?

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8

Thanks. Yes I advised that the value is in the basic connections and deep expertise within the tech industry. What the organization has is a whole heap of data that they keep in silos and need to carry over in-person events to real time digital events.

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I advised the team to start with low-friction minimal resource tactics vs building grand campaigns for each initiative. It is the coalition of the willing that drove the community In early days and showing not telling the non-converted what they may be missing out on. Content over platform

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If the community is failing then perhaps this value isn’t being communicated effectively. Either that or it isn’t a compelling enough reason.