For the 100th episode of Community Signal, we’re talking about the show itself. How it came to be, what drives it and how we make it each week.

My guest is the producer of all 100 episodes, Karn Broad. Karn is my creative partner in the show, but if he does his job well, you never think about it. This episode really gives you a sense of the rapport than Karn and I have, and how we work together every week to produce Community Signal. Plus:

• How Karn and I met
• Why I ended the first community management podcast that I hosted
• The process of creating the show each week

Continue reading “The Making of Community Signal (Episode #100)”

Sue Ryder, a well-known charity in the UK, provides support for end of life care and bereavement. In 2015, after more than 60 years of operation, they launched an online community.

For a majority of the its members, the community serves as the first touch point between them and the organization. Not only that, but in a survey, more than 90% of members said that the community made them feel less alone and more able to cope with their situation. Community manager Priscilla McClay joins the program. Plus:

• The research that led to the launch of the community
• How the community has shifted to focus primarily on bereavement
• What Priscilla does to cope with the nature of the community

Continue reading “90%+ of Members Felt Less Alone After Joining This Community”

Matt Mecham‘s code has powered far too many online communities to count. Developing popular online community software since 2001, he worked on YaBB and founded Ikonboard, before co-founding Invision Power Services, the company behind Invision Community.

Given his long view of the industry, Matt sees the timeline of online community as progressing through a few eras: The early years, when he began developing software. The middle years, where platforms became more cognizant of UI considerations and SEO. The recent years, Facebook opening to the public and the resulting impact. And now, which he refers to as the “post-Facebook era.” Where will online communities go in that era? Plus:

• The community software business shift from licensing to SaaS (software as a service)
• New features vs. bloat
• Why he turned down a job offer from vBulletin

Continue reading “Online Communities in the Post-Facebook Era”

When a member makes a post on your community, there is a status associated with that post. How long they have been a member, how many contributions they have, their reputation, whether or not they are a staff member – all of these things impact their status.

While the content of the post may remain the same, the status of the member changes, as their reputation does or they are removed from staff. Still, when you view their post – old, new, good or poor – only their current status tends to be reflected. That’s one of our topics this week, as we celebrate 2 years of the show with Mark Williams. Plus:

• What community platforms can do to encourage co-creation
• Why Mark voted to deprioritize community at the company where he works
• Early gamification systems

Continue reading “How Community Platforms Address the Member Life Cycle”

A lot of value can be found for executives within an online community of their peers. But how can you get them make time to participate, and to let their guard down enough to actually share meaningful things?

That’s the focus of this episode with Adam Zawel, who built and managed executive-to-executive communities for more than a decade. Plus:

• Deciding when to allow the fish and the sharks to interact
• Why it’s good to be snobbish
• Helping community members who aren’t allowed to post due to company policy

Continue reading “Building Executive-to-Executive Online Communities”

Audentio, the parent of ThemeHouse, is a forums-focused digital agency, with high profile clients like AVForums, Mac Rumors and Android Forums. There aren’t too many (any?) agencies focused this seriously on forums, working at such a high level.

Founder and owner Mike Creuzer has been working in forums since he was 11, starting on an MSN TV, and they’ve had a massive impact on his life. Though currently focused on XenForo, Mike and Audentio have worked with many forum platforms over the years, giving him an interesting perspective on the space, and where it’s headed. Plus:

• How a Harry Potter forum taught him more about being a person, than about Harry Potter
• Why being a developer-friendly forum platform is important
• The forum platform Audentio is migrating people from the most

Continue reading “A Forums-Focused Digital Agency”

Most of the members of the Alzheimer’s Society’s Talking Point community don’t have dementia. But 4% do. And that creates a unique challenge when it comes to designing an online community.

Features that we might take for granted, like saved drafts, take on a whole new meaning when you are experiencing short term memory loss. Community manager Serena Snoad joins the show to talk about building a welcoming community for people with dementia, plus:

• How memory loss impacts how they moderate
• Debriefing sessions that Serena offers to staff members who have handled a stressful issue
• Why XenForo was the right software choice for them, in their recent relaunch

Disclosure: Serena has kindly supported our show’s Patreon campaign. I’ve known her for years, and it has nothing to do with her being a guest on the show, but I felt it was worth mentioning.

Continue reading “Building a Community for People With Dementia”

We’ve covered a lot of community use cases on Community Signal. Here’s a new one: An online community for a funeral insurance company.

That is just one of many communities that Kirsten Wagenaar has helped build, in her 8+ year career in online community. As the founder of CMNL, the organization for Dutch community pros, she has been among the leaders in growing the community industry in the Netherlands. We also discuss:

• The reasonable approach to community ROI
• How client expectations for community tools are sometimes disconnected from reality
• Kirsten’s advice for starting your own community association

Continue reading “Online Community for a Funeral Insurance Company”