Lessons learned managing a community for three months

Never did I think I’d stumble into community management.

My marketing journey began as a content writer before transitioning to product marketing. I was unaware of how important community management is in marketing until I joined the Smarketers Hub volunteer program through a competitive process.

I unexpectedly landed a community-focused role despite initially seeking a content writing position. I’m glad it happened because I've gained significant insights into the intersection of community management and marketing.

I got to work with Blessin g Onyegbula and Idongesit Akpan, fellow team members in the program. As the community team, we focused on creating more engaging and supportive interactions within the community. Our tasks revolved around managing the community and contributing to resource creation and distribution.

Here's how we organized our collaborative work process and some key insights on community management gained during the program.

Understanding the community

When I first took on managing the community, one of the most important steps I had to undertake was understanding what the members wanted. The importance of this step cannot be overstated. Knowing the needs of our community members was foundational to everything we aimed to achieve. It was like setting the foundation for a building — nothing stable or meaningful could be constructed without it.

Identifying common needs

We used personalised signup and feedback forms to understand our audience at The Hub. The signup form is concise yet comprehensive, ensuring it is easy to fill out while gathering the necessary insights. The data from this form provided a solid foundation for understanding the members' common needs.

The feedback form was more specific and often used to collect feedback about resources and the Slack community. It helped to gather immediate reactions and suggestions for improvement.

For example, when I requested feedback from the June member of the month, she was willing to share how the community has influenced her and what improvements she would like to see in the community.

A feedback response from June member of the month — *Receiving feedback from the June member of the month*

We also used the Slack community to get feedback from community members, which was as effective as the feedback form.

A Slack conversation where a community manager asks members what they would like to see more of in the community, encouraging open feedback — *Members share what they would like to see in the community*

Building trust and relationships

Nothing opens your understanding of a community like communicating, engaging everyone equally, and spotlighting active members. These elements build trust, and trust builds loyalty.

From day one, my role included sharing Tuesday Hub updates on the announcement channel in Slack. This task emphasized the need for clear communication, and the clarity reassured community members that they were well-informed and their opinions mattered.

We also leaned our engagement with members towards building personal connections. We made efforts to get to know community members through the introduction channels, where new members were welcomed and shared their backgrounds, interests, and needs. This personalized approach helped to humanize our interactions and build more meaningful relationships.

“I feel more connected to the Slack community,” says Blessing Onyegbula, a fellow community manager in the volunteer program. Owning the Slack channel, looking for new members, working with data, and keeping a pulse on all that is happening with the community made me step out of my comfort zone.

Finally, we employed initiatives that recognize and celebrate the contributions of community members. One such initiative is the Member of the Month program, in which we feature a member who has made significant contributions to the community.

The program publicly recognizes a member’s contributions and shows that their efforts are noticed and appreciated, which builds trust between the community managers and the members. I realized that members are more likely to participate and contribute when they see that active participation is rewarded.

Recognized members often thanked the community management team, which opened up more personal lines of communication. It’s generally a great way to improve community morale. Seeing peers celebrated created a positive environment where members felt appreciated and motivated to contribute more.

Recognized members also shared their recognition on social media, promoting the community and strengthening their connection to it. This sense of belonging and pride in being part of the community helped retain members and increase engagement.

A slack announcement for May member of the month, showing importance of building relationships — *May member of the month update*

Engagement drives participation

As community managers, our role in creating a welcoming atmosphere is crucial. Community members are more likely to participate when they feel valued and included. We achieve this by encouraging open communication, respecting diverse opinions, and recognizing contributions. A friendly environment invites members to share their thoughts and ideas, leading to increased participation.

Regular activities also help keep community members involved and invested. Our active engagement strategies, such as marketing discussions and interactive content, promote participation and help maintain a vibrant and active community.

Each month, we tracked engagement metrics, such as likes, comments, and resource downloads, to provide valuable insights into community health. High engagement levels indicate that members actively participate, while low levels signal the need for new strategies to boost involvement. Regularly assessing these metrics helped us refine approaches to increasing participation.

Building an engaged community requires more than just listening. Diverse communication outside of marketing worked to keep the community engaged. I found the Question of the Day (QOTD) posts more engaging for members with different preferences. Everyone stayed informed and involved in a way that suited them best.

A question of the day post shared on the community showing how engagement drives participation — *One of the sweet posts Blessing shared to increase engagement in the channel*

Designing resources for the community

Apart from community management, my team and I were tasked with resource creation and distribution. One thing I love about resource creation for the community is the intentionality involved. Resources aren’t just created blindly. The team listens, observes, and works with data to determine what is needed.

My team members and I are developing a resource together. We thoughtfully plan and develop it while focusing on members' unique needs and preferences. The resource's target audience is community members who want opportunities to get work and make money.

We are setting clear, specific goals for this resource we plan to develop. The goal is to help members stand out and get work, so we are creating a CV template designed for marketers. These goals will help focus our efforts and provide benchmarks for measuring success.

Our research focuses on how marketers at different levels structure and craft their CVs. The resource involves examining best practices and CV samples to inspire our initiative.

Handling the downsides

The journey wasn’t completely smooth, as it came with some challenges. One of the biggest challenges was maintaining high levels of engagement and participation. Despite our best efforts, there were times when engagements and involvement in the community were lower than expected.

Did we let this affect us? Of course not!

My Slack updates on the community channel involved the promotion of resources. It took a while to get the concept of distributing the existing resources. I struggled to craft the copy for these posts based on tone and proper structure. But then, a tip from Etashe Okpola, our lead, reminded me that aside from being a community manager, I’m also a community member. I had to work with this narrative, thinking and writing like a member without complicating the context of my posts.

Effective communication is the backbone of any community, and Smarketers Hub is no exception. At one point, we faced communication challenges on some channels due to low engagement. To address this, we temporarily put some channels on hold. Ultimately, we realized that members were likely overwhelmed by the sheer number of channels, leading to poor engagement.

As community managers, we experimented with shifting from longer, more detailed posts to shorter, more concise messages. This change was driven by the desire to communicate better and increase engagement.

We noticed that shorter posts often lead to higher engagement rates. Members could read and interact with brief, punchy content that didn't require too much time. Condensing the posts also allowed us to focus on the core message, resulting in more straightforward, more impactful communication.

My major challenge with this change was maintaining the same level of information flow. The shift required rethinking how I write copy, including how to break down longer ideas into digestible chunks. In the long run, we were able to find the right balance. While brevity can boost engagement, it's essential not to sacrifice substance entirely.

A long post shared on the community with low engagement from community members — *A long post distributing a resource*

A short distributing a resource on the community channel, showing brevity can boost engagement — *A short post distributing a resource*

When facing problems in the volunteer program, we adopted a collaborative approach to problem-solving. We often reached out to each other to examine the situation and ask questions about confusing areas.

Reflecting on personal growth

Reflecting on my experiences managing our community and creating and distributing resources, I've noticed solid growth in ownership, time management, writing, and collaboration. Here’s how these areas have developed and their impact on our journey.

A member asked a question about pivoting to social media management to product marketing, the responses earned her an opportunity in the PMA scholar program — *One of the moments I felt the impact of the community after guiding a member to secure a marketing scholarship.*

Ownership

We were each assigned ownership of the community each month. Initially, the responsibility felt overwhelming, but it also presented an opportunity to develop a more profound sense of accountability and commitment.

Taking ownership meant I was responsible for monitoring and engaging the channel and delivering a full report on the community channel at the end of the month. This responsibility set us up to lead the project with confidence. I learned the importance of being proactive, anticipating challenges, and taking decisive actions to ensure the initiative's success.

My favourite moment as a community manager was welcoming new members to the Room. It stands out because I enjoyed the personal interaction and learning about new members.

A slack conversation where a community manager welcomes a new member, showing impact of personalized interaction — *Welcoming new members to the community*

Ownership has taught me to be more diligent, thorough, and committed to completing projects. It has enhanced my leadership skills and deepened my connection to the community and its goals.

Idongesit Akpan enjoyed the emphasis on research, "We search for weekly content to keep the community active. The resource is another research I enjoyed doing. We don't play with research here in the community."

Blessing Onyegbula enjoyed the challenges and loved every part of the program: “Before I joined the platform, I thought it would be all about engaging members on Slack. But throughout the program, I've worked on projects like writing product-led articles and creating an affiliate program, which I love. It has been challenging and exciting to add real value to people's lives.”

Time management

Time management was particular to all of us. We all had other activities outside of volunteering on the community team. It was tough to balance these demands and ensure that all tasks assigned to us were addressed efficiently.

Early in the program, I felt overwhelmed by the volume of tasks. To improve, I adopted several time management strategies, such as prioritizing tasks based on their urgency and importance and writing a to-do list to be achieved for each day.

Time management goes beyond just organizing tasks; I also had to create a sustainable work rhythm to ensure productivity. Learning to manage my time effectively allowed me to be more productive, less stressed, and better able to serve the community's needs.

Copywriting

Effective communication is important in community management, and honing my writing skills is a major area of personal growth. We had to write clear, engaging, and persuasive content to keep the community informed and motivated.

I dedicated time to studying best practices in copywriting, understanding storytelling, and the importance of a solid call to action. Good copywriting is about connecting with your audience personally and conveying messages that resonate and inspire action. Developing this skill has improved our communication effectiveness and strengthened our ability to articulate ideas clearly and persuasively.

Collaboration

In addition to working with my team of community volunteers, I collaborated with the content and social media teams. I learned to work effectively with a diverse range of individuals.

During the program, we shared a balanced team environment, had weekly team meetings, had clear role definitions, and used a collaborative tool, Notion, to help with task management. The collaborative strength has amplified our strengths and led to more impactful outcomes.

The team's workstation on Notion, outlining all the tasks for the month — *Our collaborative space on Notion*

Idongesit Akpan also says her major achievement as a community manager is getting into the volunteer program and working with team members in other marketing fields:

"It was fascinating to discover how much my team members know about marketing and also getting to interact with community members. I got to see the quality of people we have in the community."

The past few months have allowed us to connect more deeply with the community and embrace collaboration as the power of working together towards common goals. These experiences have made us more effective community managers, better marketers, and more confident and adaptable individuals.