Community Pulse

The one where we introduce PJ Hagerty, the new guy. Jason and Mary talk about why they’ve decided to add a third person, as well as their plan for the next few episodes and their hopes for the podcast going forward.

TL;DR: Given that community management is a relatively new profession, it’s difficult to know how and when to expand the department. Add to that the nebulousness around what a community professional does depending on the goals of the company, and it’s near impossible! In this episode of Community Pulse we were joined by Nathen Harvey (VP of Community Development, Chef) and Phil Leggetter (Head of Developer Relations, Nexmo) to talk about learning to scale a community role. We talk about working closely with other departments that have similar (but not the same) goals and understanding our colleagues’ day-to-day concerns, as well as the importance of communication and finding a mentor. We also delved into the murky waters of self-promotion and how to make sure you (and your team) are highly visible within the company. Lastly, we talked about the struggle of learning to step back and delegate tasks to others so you have the time to do what you need to be doing as you guide your team. Links: - DevRelCon: London

This episode is an important one, and one of our most intense to date. We covered so much in this episode that I strongly suggest you simply listen, but here's the tl;dr: Jason Yee, PJ Hagerty, and Carina C. Zona join Jason and Mary to talk through some of the prevalent struggles in community management: what our roles actually entail (and how to communicate that to the rest of the company), how we define ourselves, how to protect our roles, what we need in order to survive the day in and day out of this job that we love, and if a company decides to let their community department go, how (and when) to do that. Here are a few highlights: Who are we? - We are the listeners, the connectors, the avatars of the company we represent. We're the low-bullshit communicator -- the people who are known for being honest, as well as someone the community can be honest with, and as such, we're a reflection of the company to the rest of the world. - We're the oracle that's supposed to make sense of the unknown and then tran

*TL;DR: * David Spinks (CEO, CMX Media, @davidspinks) and Carrie Jones (Director of Content, CMX Media, @caremjo) joined Mary and Jason for this episode of Community Pulse. CMX was launched in 2014 as the community for community professionals. These days, through their summits (http://cmxhub.com/summit/), online community (https://www.facebook.com/groups/cmxhub/), content (http://cmxhub.com/browse/), and more, they work to advance the community industry, and give community professionals all of the resources they need to be successful. The CMX Summits bring in voices from psychology and behavioral analysis, as well as non-profits, plus stories from the trenches of technology. The theme for CMX West 2015 was “Community is the Future of Business.” We talk through this idea, and what it means for the future of community professionals, as well as why the essence of community is at a tipping point right now. In the process, we highlight how to help companies understand what it’s like to build community on a profess

*TL;DR: * On this episode of the Community Pulse, Jason and Mary sit down with Tim Falls, Vice President of Community at Keen.io (https://keen.io/), and Jesus Gonzalez-Barahona, co-founder of Bitergia (http://bitergia.com/), to dig into metrics -- the community manager’s arch nemesis. We talk through a number of different options of how to face the reality of making your value known in a world where community is all about relationship-building and word-of-mouth. From bringing awareness to what you’re doing as a team, to not just knowing the numbers, but understanding what the numbers mean, to bringing other coworkers into the community effort whose job titles don’t indicate that they “should” be involved in community, Jesus and Tim offer solutions to this very real problem. Links: Cauldron beta (http://biterg.io) -- community metrics for github repositories Evaluating Free / Open Source Software Projects (https://jgbarah.gitbooks.io/evaluating-foss-projects/) -- work-in-progress book FCM2 (http://flosscommun

TL;DR: Andrew Hyde has no lack of experience when it comes to community, whether that’s organizing local events or connecting people who have similar interests. In this episode of Community Pulse, Mary and Jason talk to him about how to pursue your passions, the importance of taking care of your newest members, and how being a “yes person” is usually the foundation of being a successful community builder. Links: Kathy Sierra — blog (http://headrush.typepad.com/) and XOXO talk (will be up posted soon here (https://www.youtube.com/user/xoxofest)) Takeaways: Launch stuff. Reach out. Be supportive. Special Guest: Andrew Hyde.

TL;DR: On this episode of Community Pulse, Jason and Mary talk to Jono Bacon, Community Strategist and Leader, and author of The Art of Community. Jono joined Canonical in 2006 as a Community Manager, which provided a “stomping ground” for him to learn how to build good communities. It was here that he learned there is value in those individuals who can understand the interesting “connective tissue” between the people and the product. Throughout this 40 minute podcast, we’ll touch on the difference between “read” and “write” communities, how difficult (and important!) it is for us to define our role, how to deal with our harshest critics, and more. Links: Community Leadership Forum (http://communityleadershipforum.com/) The Art of Community (http://smile.amazon.com/Art-Community-Building-New-Participation/dp/1449312063/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443477258&sr=8-1&keywords=the+art+of+community) (Amazon) or free PDF (http://www.artofcommunityonline.org/get/) Nudge (http://smile.amazon.com/Nudge-Improving-Decisions

TL;DR: Jason and Mary introduce themselves and announce that they’re starting a podcast on building communities. Why? There are a lot of really awesome communities and fantastic ideas both within and outside of the tech community, but there aren’t a lot of resources for those of us who are actively building communities. (Shoutout to Jason Hibbets (https://twitter.com/jhibbets) for suggesting our name: Community Pulse.) In short, this podcast is for those of us who keep a pulse on our communities. Our hope is that this podcast will be an opportunity for us to learn and share aspects of community building with developer evangelists, technical community managers, community builders, and advocates alike. Links: Community Manager/Developer Evangelist Slack Group (http://evangelistcollective.github.io/) Community Leadership Forum (http://communityleadershipforum.com/) Upcoming Events: DevRelCon (http://london-2015.devrel.net/): Sept 30, London, UK CMX Summit (http://london-2015.devrel.net/): Oct 14-15, San Francisc