Community is Everywhere - How Do You Manage It?

In this episode of Peers on Beers, hosts Christopher Detzel and Nicole Saunders have an in-depth discussion about the idea that community exists everywhere, not just on a company's owned community platform. They start by acknowledging this is a complex issue without easy answers, but an important one as community management continues to evolve. Christopher notes that community has always existed everywhere, but now companies need to think about how to manage it holistically. Nicole shares how early branded communities were often just on social media, then there was a push to bring community back onto owned platforms. But users still gather in many informal digital spaces. She says community professionals need to become customer experience experts that connect those dots across the full journey. Rather than dividing ownership, Nicole advocates that the community team should be the center of excellence guiding strategy across all touchpoints. They discuss the need to embed community skills and thinking into other groups like social media so they can collaborate to manage different spaces while aligning data and insights. They explore how technology alone cannot solve this problem. Even tools that centralize data need human analysis, as Christopher illustrates with an example of how product feedback in community forums differs from development roadmaps. Shifting back to the human side, Nicole talks about taking inspiration from local physical communities. To become truly customer-centric, companies need to understand what matters to users across their whole lives, not just interactions regarding the product. Christopher echoes the importance of building genuine relationships, sharing an example of how he personalizes outreach to execs based on details like family or hobbies. This holistic view can reveal opportunities to creatively engage them as thought leaders. At its heart, both agree community professionals are drawn to the career because they love fostering connections between people. But they must balance this with proving value to justify resources. They emphasize that managing community everywhere requires breaking down silos, collaborating across the organization, and never losing sight of the human element. Though complex, it is key for community teams to evolve.