“If you are working with people, and you can’t get into their headspace and figure out what it is that’s motivating them, what their needs are, what they’re struggling with, then you’re never really going to be an adequate community professional, because you’re not able to see things through the eyes that you are trying to serve.” -Lindsay Starke

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/the-skill-of-empathy/

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManagement #CommunityManager #CMGR #CommunitySignal

“[When it comes to hiring community professionals,] there’s a fine line between what [companies] can afford and want to afford.” –Angela Connor

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/the-community-manager-you-think-you-cant-afford/

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManagement #CMGR #CommunityManager #CommunitySignal

Online communities can be part of telehealth.

“To put it simply, telehealth is … anything where healthcare is being impacted by a patient and an actor that are not in the same location. That includes a video, that includes transmissions of information, asynchronous messaging, [and] remote patient monitoring.” –Denzil Coleman

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/how-telehealth-provides-more-efficient-healthcare-for-patients-and-providers-and-the-role-online-communities-can-play/

#OnlineCommunities #Telehealth #Healthcare #CommunityManagement #CMGR #CommunitySignal #CommunityManager

“It’s hard for us to say sometimes, but it’s being honest and we’re not doing our job in making sure that the concept that we support and believe in, that keeps us employed, succeeds and is viewed in a positive light, if we let anybody go out there and create a community without a good use case.” -Katie Bapple

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/association-management-community-management/

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManagement #CommunityManager #CMGR #CommunitySignal

“UBB was one of the first, if not the first to have a browser-based interface where the community manager could actually configure things without knowing how to program. … [This put] that power in the hands of people who maybe didn’t think they could do that sort of thing.” -Rosemary O'Neill

▶️️ https://www.communitysignal.com/20-years-since-this-community-software-was-released/

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManagement #CommunityManager #CMGR #UBB #UltimateBulletinBoard #CommunitySignal

“As you’re writing out your announcements [to the community] and detailing your programs, it’s not just for the community that you’re doing it. It’s not just for your company, but it’s also a record of what you’ve done in your career.” -Julie Hamel

▶️ https://www.communitysignal.com/community-as-a-product/

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManagement #CMGR #CommunityManager #CommunitySignal #Careers

“I think there is something magical that can happen when you take some of the expected nature of television or media, of what we expect is going to happen, and you throw the consumer, the community, the members, the subscribers into that. You give them the freedom to make other things happen.” -@patrickokeefe

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/the-chief-community-officer-hype-machine/

#OnlineCommunities #NewsProduct #CommunityManagement #NewsMedia #CommunitySignal #CommunityManager #CMGR

“A lot of people don’t know about The WELL. If you talk to a lot of people now, they think [online communities] started with Facebook.” -Jenna Woodul

▶️ https://www.communitysignal.com/the-first-chief-community-officer/

#OnlineCommunities #TheWELL #Facebook #SocialMedia #CommunityManagement #CMGR #CommunityManager #CommunitySignal

“I want to make sure that I remain relevant by learning from [the person I’m mentoring], because she knows stuff I don’t know, and I’ve learned a ton from her. It’s a really rewarding exchange.” -Susan Tenby

▶️ https://www.communitysignal.com/serving-communities-in-need/

#OnlineCommunities #Mentorship #CommunityManager #CMGR #CommunitySignal #Mentors

Has this improved?

From 2016: “When a community gets larger, you really need a more sophisticated filtering tool, and I think that building those and really investing in them hasn’t been on the road map for a lot of the online community software vendors.”

- Brian Pontarelli

Listen: https://www.communitysignal.com/online-community-software-must-improve-upon-the-word-censor/

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManagement #Filtering #ContentModeration #TrustAndSafety #CMGR #CommunityManager #CommunitySignal

“Taking the time to take care of yourself, so that you can be who you need to be for your community, makes you so much more effective and so much more what they need.” -Sherrie Rohde

Listen: https://www.communitysignal.com/self-care-for-community-professionals/

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManagers #CMGR #SelfCare #CommunityManagement #CommunitySignal

“When you see people practicing empathy in your community, supporting that is really important. That’s true for any kind of behavior, any kind of custom or norm that you want to establish within your community. When somebody else does the thing that you like to see, support that person.” -@scottmoore

Listen: https://www.communitysignal.com/learning-from-theme-park-design/

#OnlineCommunities #Empathy #CommunityManagement #CMGR #CommunityManager #CommunitySignal

I usually shy away from episodes of Community Signal that would focus too heavily on me (Patrick), because of the potential for them to become self-indulgent. But I have been kicking around the idea of doing an "Ask Patrick Anything" episode of the show, and thanks to some outside encouragement, I've decided to give it a shot.

#CommunitySignal

“I said, ‘What would you do if an 11-year-old comes online and somebody friends them and misbehaves through text?’ They said, ‘I would tell the kid to log off.’ And I thought, ‘OK, they don’t know anything about community,’ because you don’t just log off.” -Rebecca Newton

▶️ https://www.communitysignal.com/you-dont-just-go-global/

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManagement #TrustAndSafety #ContentModeration #CMGR #CommunityManager #CommunitySignal

“It’s great to get someone to build something for you, but if you can’t manage it yourself, then there’s no point in having it.” -Sarah Hawk

▶️ https://www.communitysignal.com/the-holy-grail-of-community-management/

#OnlineCommunities #PlatformStrategy #CommunityManagement #CMGR #CommunityManager #CommunitySignal

“Don’t expand what’s working for a safe space because keeping an exclusive space is what made that place safe. Instead, go over to the other place, reproduce your success, diversify it. The phrase that I use is ‘Don’t expand, diversify.’ Exclusivity breeds inclusivity.” –Samantha "Venia" Logan

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/lessons-in-building-safe-inclusive-and-functional-spaces-for-lgbtq-folks/

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManagement #Inclusivity #CMGR #CommunityManager #CommunitySignal

“When I find [a liver] donor through [the communities] I’ve built up over the years, that is going to be the greatest ROI because I don’t think there’s a price that we can put on our lives, and I don’t think there’s a price that we can put on the amount of giving that that would take from another human being.” –Tim McDonald

▶️ https://www.communitysignal.com/the-disappearing-news-media-comment-sections/

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManager #CMGR #CommunitySignal

“There’s going to be some equivalent of link rot with NFTs and with some of these online communities. They’re going to break apart. They’re not going to be necessarily sustainable or haven’t proven themselves sustainable over the long haul, whereas the Dave Matthews Band message board that my college roommate used to post on is probably still around.”

–Jacob Silverman

▶️ https://www.communitysignal.com/misuse-of-community-is-endemic-in-web3/

#OnlineCommunities #NFTs #Web3 #Crypto #MessageBoards #CommunitySignal

Thank you to Karn Broad for all of his work as the show's producer since before the show launched. Thank you to Carol Benovic-Bradley, our long-time editorial lead, who recently left, for elevating the text content around our program.

Thank you to our Patreon supporters, past and present, for giving us vital encouragement to keep producing this show.

Thank you to our great guests and those who have shared with us in a candid, vulnerable way.

... and thank *you* for reading.

#CommunitySignal

Community Signal turns 7 years old today!

We'll mark the occasion on our next show, but I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who subscribes and regularly listens to our program. Thank you to those who have taken the time to share it with others. It means a lot.

#CommunitySignal