Community Talks: Conversations on Building Cutting-Edge Online Communities

Podcasts have emerged as the perfect medium to engage customers and an easier way to listen to like-minded peers.

To inspire other community enthusiasts like we are, we introduced our podcast series – Community Talks, which covers every aspect of online communities and empowers you to explore and utilize its full potential. We invite leading industry experts to become a part of our podcast episodes and enlighten our listeners with their expert tips and opinions to create dynamic and vibrant online communities.

Here’s a brief insight into the topics that we’ve covered so far in our podcast episodes:

Community Talks Episode 1: The History of Community Metrics
Speaker:
John Summers, Senior Manager, Community Practice, Grazitti Interactive

Let’s mind drift to a time when communities were merely used to gather customer feedback and provide problem-specific information. But with tech advancements, communities have evolved to become more customer-centric. And this paradigm shift in the community space has brought forth new possibilities for brands.

In this insightful podcast, community expert, John Summers, shares his take on how community metrics have evolved with advancements, but the fundamental elements to calculate ROI for your community-driven initiatives remains the same, which are:

• Community Growth
• Community Engagement
• Brand Loyalty

Tune in to this interactive podcast to know more about the past, present, and future of community metrics.

Community Talks Episode 2: A Day in The Life of a Solo Community Manager
Speakers:
Lana Lee, Senior Community Strategist & CommunityBuilder, Zuora
John Summers, Senior Manager, Community Practice, Grazitti Interactive

Community management is not an easy sail. It is a complex process that involves key aspects such as monitoring, moderation, design, development, analytics & reporting, and more. Handling all these operations single-handedly is a task that requires the expertise of a community manager.

Community managers play a vital role in managing all ongoing community activities and ensuring that the conversations happening in the community flow seamlessly. And, in order to make that happen, they must prioritize their day-to-day activities and engage with community members to deliver an engaging experience.

Listen to this podcast where community experts Lana Lee and John Summers exchange thoughts on what role a community manager plays to keep communities active and how to increase the community engagement rate.

Community Talks Episode 3: Role of Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) and Self-Service in the Community
Speakers:
Brian Corcoran, Regional Sales Manager, SerachUnify
John Summers, Senior Manager, Community Practice, Grazitti Interactive

With customers becoming savvier, it has become crucial for brands today to provide them with authentic and useful information that they can easily look up and resolve their issues on their own. This is where KCS comes into play.
KCS enables brands to provide scaling and support capabilities which ultimately increases the case deflection rate, leading to reduced support costs.
Tune in to this episode of community talks, where community mavens John Summers and Brian Corcoran talk about the importance of integrating KCS in an online community to boost community engagement and improve CX.

Community Talks Episode 4: How Internal Communities Can Power the Remote Workforce
Speaker:
John Summers, Senior Manager, Community Practice, Grazitti Interactive

The shift from offline to online has surfaced the need for brands to develop an internal online community that helps keep the workforce more connected and motivated.

Internal online communities allow employees to connect with each other on a single platform and find support whenever required. Also, they are an ideal medium to increase cross-collaboration among employees and increase internal social engagement. With the remote workforce on a rise, these have indeed become an integral part of organizations.

Listen to John Summers in this informative podcast where he shares his take on the rise of internal online communities and how they take social engagement a notch higher.

Community Talks Episode 5: The Cross-Functionality of an Online Community
Speakers:
Mike Rizzo, Manager, Community and Loyalty Programs, Mavenlink
John Summers, Senior Manager, Community Practice, Grazitti Interactive

An online community serves multiple purposes by performing a variety of roles such as ensuring customer success, boosting member engagement, delivering diligent customer support, and much more. Due to this cross-functional nature of online communities, there’s a lot of responsibility on the community manager’s shoulders to keep the community vibrant while managing all ongoing activities.

Organizations, today, use communities as a critical element that helps them measure the success of their business and improve customer experience by tapping into the customer’s needs from their products. Thus, community managers must be proactive and experiment with their community to experience exponential growth.

Join Mike Rizzo and John Summers in this interactive podcast where they talk about the role that communities play in driving business growth.

Community Talks Episode 6: Evolution of Video Strategy for Community Stakeholders
Speakers:
Jeremie Gluckman, Education Community Manager, WeVideo
John Summers, Senior Manager, Community Practice, Grazitti Interactive

Did you know, 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand that they make regular purchases from. Videos have emerged as a powerful tool that organizations use to inform their potential and existing customers about their products, services, updates, and more.

But to ensure that the video content being curated delivers the right message to the audience and hits the right chord, it is essential for community managers to devise robust video content strategies and how to use them within the community.

In this episode of community talks, community evangelists Jeremie and John discuss how video content can boost community engagement and how resourceful these can be.

Community Talks Episode 7: How Can You Sell Through Online Communities
Speakers:
Phoebe Venkat, Customer Community Strategy, Okta
Jeremie Gluckman, Education Community Manager, WeVideo
John Summers, Senior Manager, Community Practice, Grazitti Interactive

Online communities have emerged as a crucial medium for organizations to market their products and services, provide real-time customer support, and understand their customer’s needs. Not only does this empower brands to understand the user psyche, but it also helps them to nurture community users as per their expectations and behavior.

Companies can mold their brand story according to the user personas and understand their requirements from the brand in order to upsell and cross-sell. Also, constant customer interaction empowers brands to develop deeper ties with the customers and win their trust, while generating lead generation and conversion opportunities.

Join community experts Phoebe, Jeremie, and John as they discuss the strategies that brands can follow to sell through online communities.

Community Talks Episode 8: Driving Success by Boosting Community Value
Speakers:
Dani Weinstein, Strategist & Advisor Enabling Customer Success
John Summers, Senior Manager, Community Practice, Grazitti Interactive

Communities provide businesses with a 360-degree view of all ongoing activities and clear insights into the customer’s expectations and needs.

As much as these are important for user traction and retention, they also play a critical role in a company’s internal processes. Participation from executive teams from within the organization helps align the objectives of different departments such as sales and marketing, thus making the approach cross-functional.

In this intuitive podcast, our community leaders, Dani and John throw light on why organizations should strive to make their communities cross-functional and achieve business goals.

Community Talks Episode 9: How Horizontal Integration is Paramount in Making Communities Cross-Functional
Speakers:
Brian Oblinger, Chief Community Officer, Strategic Consultant, Advisor, Mentor, Podcast Host, and Keynote Speaker
John Summers, Senior Manager, Community Practice, Grazitti Interactive

In this ever-competitive landscape, building a branded online community that keeps the users engaged throughout their buying journey has become a necessity for organizations. But does it all really sum down to just building an online community?

Well, the multi-purpose nature of online communities makes them an ideal channel for brands to understand their user’s psychology, needs, and demands with the help of data analytics, and devise a plan of action that serves all these purposes, all the while elevating CSAT.

Community experts Brian and John share their take on the importance of horizontal integration of communities within organizations and the best practices that community managers must follow to keep their communities vibrant.

For more insightful and interactive podcasts, stay tuned.

Wish to build robust online communities and boost business value? Let’s talk!