How Apple AI will impact community builders

Welcome to the Community Coach newsletter, a value packed read
which is going to go deep into the online world (with Apple’s latest AI updates) but then fling you deep into the offline world.

In this newsletter…

📚 Community 101: Community Moderation - why you need it and my top tips

🤖 Apple AI updates: what community builders should pay attention to

🎱 Automation tutorial: Connect your Beehiiv newsletter to a Skool community

🔥 Inspiring community builder: The Offline Club changing IRL connections

👩🏻‍🏫 Commentary: One day a week community - benefits, how to implement

Community 101: Moderation

What is the goal of moderating a community? 

To create the most welcoming and positive environment that encourages active participation.

You’re also trying to avoid potentially damaging conflicts that could result in members feeling unwelcome, unheard or unsafe. All of this could lead to disastrous impacts to engagement, future growth and ultimately could be the demise of your community.

To be successful at moderation, I believe you have to build some solid foundations first.

You should be clear with community members on what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour right from the start.

Here are my top tips for moderating a community successfully

Establish Strong House Rules: Clear, concise, and easily accessible house rules are fundamental. These rules should cover behaviour expectations, the types of allowed content, and the consequences of violations. Clearly articulated rules provide a framework that supports fair and consistent moderation.

Refer to Rules When Moderating: When you enforce the rules, always refer back to them. This not only justifies the moderation actions but also reinforces the rules for all community members. It helps in maintaining transparency and fairness, reducing perceptions of bias.

Regularly Update the Rules: As the community evolves, so too should your rules. Regular updates address new challenges and trends in community interactions. It's crucial to communicate these changes to all members to ensure everyone understands the current guidelines.

Remind Members of the Rules: Periodic reminders about the rules and any updates help keep them top of mind for members, especially before launching discussions that could be contentious. This proactive communication can prevent violations and foster a self-regulating community culture.

Fine Tune These Skills for Successful Moderation:

• Empathy and Patience: Understanding diverse perspectives and managing conflicts sensitively can help de-escalate potential issues.

• Firmness and Fairness: Apply the rules consistently to all members, which is crucial for maintaining respect and authority.

• Communication Skills: Clearly and professionally communicating moderation actions and the reasons behind them is essential. This includes being able to explain decisions in a way that is understandable and acceptable to all parties involved. TONE MATTERS a lot more than you think - make sure you are paying close attention to this.

Engage Proactively: Don’t just step in when there’s trouble. Active and regular participation in the community can prevent many problems from arising by setting a positive tone and building relationships that encourage members to moderate their behaviour.

Make the most out of Moderation Tools: Use moderation tools provided by the platform (like filters for inappropriate content, tools for reporting posts, etc.). Take the time to learn these - they will make your life easier especially as your community grows. Automating some of these can help you focus on more complex moderation tasks that require more attention.

Don’t forget the goal of moderation: to create a more welcoming and positive environment that encourages active participation and avoids damaging conflicts.

Apple AI updates: WWDC - Community Edition

You’ve probably heard by now of the recent AI updates from Apple.

I started to think how this would impact our lives as community builders. I even had some pretty deep conversations with ChatGPT about it (seemed fitting).

Here’s some three major updates I think all community builders should note:

1. AI powered notification summaries

2. Genmojis

3. Audio transcriptions and summaries

AI-powered notification summaries

The AI-powered notification summary feature could potentially help how community builders handle notifications from various iOS apps that they use to manage their communities - such as Circle, Slack, Discord,Facebook Groups etc.

Here’s how it practically works:

1. Aggregate Notifications: You probably use multiple apps to engage with members, manage content, and respond to queries. iOS with AI would aggregate notifications from all these different apps. So, whether it’s a message from Slack, an update from Facebook Groups, a Tweet or a new post in Circle, Apple AI would handle these collectively.

2. Prioritize and Filter: Based on your usage patterns and the urgency of notifications (like direct mentions vs. general updates), iOS could prioritize which notifications are shown first. This means a community builder could see the most critical updates without having to manually check each app.

3. Summaries for Quick Overviews: For less urgent notifications, you could be provided with summaries - e.g. if there are several messages in a Slack channel that don’t require immediate action, you could receive summaries of the general discussion trend, allowing you to get the gist quickly without needing to read every single message.

4. Actionable Suggestions: For routine inquiries or FAQ’s that come through, Apple’s AI may suggest standard responses that you could then send back directly from the notification summary. This will speed up your response time for common questions.

Apple introduces custom AI emojis called Genmoji

Genmojis represent a new type of emoji that incorporates generative AI technologies to offer more dynamic, customizable, and interactive visual expressions compared to traditional emojis.

While regular emojis are static images used to express emotions, ideas, or activities, genmojis can be personalized in real-time, adapting to the context of the conversation or the specific characteristics desired by the user.

Key differences between genmojis and emojis include:

1. Customizable: Genmojis allow users to alter appearances and features, creating unique expressions that can better reflect personal characteristics or the nuances of the message being conveyed.

2. Interactive: Unlike static emojis, genmojis can include animations or interactive elements, making them more engaging in digital communications.

3. Context-awareness: With AI integration, genmojis can respond to the conversation's context, adjusting their expressions or actions to better fit the discussion's tone or content.

I’m assuming this will first be made available within Apple’s ecosystem (e.g. iMessage) - but may later expand to third-party applications if they prove popular and useful - and if developers choose to adopt the new APIs into their app designs.

I think this is a sign to come that emoji’s are evolving - and these new genmoji’s could be yet another tool in a community builders toolbox to encourage engagement.

Automatic audio transcription will transcribe and summarize Voice Notes and call recordings

Another update from Apple is the ability to allow users to record and transcribe phone calls and voice notes directly from their phone.

This feature will also notify all participants when they are being recorded, enhancing transparency.

Transcriptions will be automatically generated in the Notes app, where you can further use Apple's new AI system, Apple Intelligence, to summarize the conversation.

This could be a great opportunity to add to your community libraries (as long as you have permission from all being recorded).

The transcription service will support multiple languages including English, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, and Portuguese.

Connect your Beehiiv tutorial to your Skool community

Beehiiv recently released this 4 minute tutorial:

How to automate the process of adding a new paid member in Skool as a subscriber to your Beehiiv newsletter (using Zapier).

Inspiring community builder
The Offline Club (Amsterdam)

I’m noticing a resurgence of IRL events, and this one takes connecting offline to the next level.

The Offline Club, founded by Ilya Kneppelhout along with co-founders Valentijn Klok and Jordy van Bennekom in Amsterdam, started from a simple yet revolutionary concept…

Create a space where people could physically gather to disconnect from their digital lives and reconnect with others in real-time.

Its purpose statement is clear: to inspire people to swap screen time for real-time, today and tomorrow.

The Offline Club keeps things simple for the community building setup - hosting events and publicising them via social media.

But they spend a lot of time figuring out how the magical connections happen AT the events themselves.

Keeping the tech stack is true to their ethos - they don’t want their members to spend all their time online.

Community Tech stack

Online community platform: none (to be fair, this would go against their ethos)
Website: They use Linktree and bento.me
Social media: Instagram (with 250k followers) - used to publicise events
Newsletter: Substack (over 1000 subscribers already, yet to be published)
Events: Lu.ma for registrations to their physical events: note they charge even a nominal fee for participants to attend their events.

Key Learnings

Here's how Kneppelhout is successfully building the community from the ground up:

1. Identify a Need: Kneppelhout recognized a widespread desire among people to escape the constant connectivity demanded by modern digital life. He tapped into this sentiment to establish a community where members could focus on real-world interactions.

2. Create a Unique Space: The club provides physical events that require members to lock away their digital devices upon entry, ensuring a distraction-free environment. This setting fostered genuine human interactions, from simple conversations to group activities.

3. Promote Shared Values: By emphasizing the benefits of face-to-face interactions, Kneppelhout attracted individuals who shared the value of personal connection and supported the idea of digital detox.

4. Build a Community Ethos: The Offline Club wasn't just about disconnecting from technology; it was about building meaningful relationships and engaging in enriching activities together. This mission helped solidify a strong community ethos that appealed to potential members.

5. Start Local, Expand Globally: As the club gained popularity, they started to expand - now hosting events in 6 more cities (most in the Netherlands for now). Plans for franchising and hosting offline detox events worldwide have started, aiming to spread the ethos of the club and inspire more people to appreciate offline interactions.

Commentary: One day a week community?

David Spinks recently posted this interesting thought experiment:

In the replies, someone mentioned Churches do this already (good point).

Operating an online community that’s open just one day a week might sound unconventional, but it has several strategic advantages:

• Focused Participation: By limiting access to a single day, members might prioritize their time on your platform, leading to a spike in engagement. People tend to value what isn't always available, and this scarcity can make the time they do have access feel more special.

• Quality Over Quantity: With only one day to interact, members are likely to put more thought into their posts and replies. This can elevate the quality of discussions, making them more substantive and meaningful. (Note: this could also work the other way - where because of the limited time to reply to comments it could result in a decline in quality as people rush to meet the deadline).

• Manageability: For those of us managing communities, condensing user activity into one day can make the task less daunting. It’s easier to prepare for and moderate one busy day than to spread those efforts across an entire week.

• Cost Reductions: Operating a community platform involves various resources, from tech support to moderation. Limiting the operational days can help reduce these costs, making it a viable option for smaller organizations or startups.

• Distinct Community Culture: This approach can set your community apart from the “always-online” norm. It offers a unique draw, potentially attracting members who are looking for something different from the typical 24/7 forums. Just like the Offline club is changing the way IRL experiences happen - you could be changing the game for online communities.

This then got me thinking: how would you actually implement a “one day a week” community?

While most online community platforms are designed to be accessible 24/7, you can actually adapt many of them to suit a model where the community is active only one day a week.

Here’s how you can manage this with different types of platforms:

1. Forum Software (e.g. Discourse): These platforms typically allow for extensive customization. You can configure settings to only allow logins or posting on specific days. Additionally, you can set up automated reminders to alert members when the community is active.

2. Social Media Groups (e.g. Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups): While these platforms are always on, you can manage community expectations by only posting and engaging on one specific day of the week. Use pinned posts and group announcements to remind members of the active day.

3. Realtime Chat Platforms (e.g. Slack, Discord): These are inherently real-time platforms, but you can create a norm where the community only gathers on a specific day. Use channel topics or welcome messages to communicate when the community is expected to be active. You can also use bots to automate reminders or disable certain interactions on off days.

4. Event Platforms (e.g. Meetup): Though typically used for in-person or virtual events, you can schedule weekly online events that serve as the community gathering points. This naturally limits the community interaction to specific times.

5. Custom Solutions: If none of the off-the-shelf solutions meet your needs, you might consider developing a custom app tailored to your specific requirements. This could include functionality to lock out users except on the day the community is active.

Got a question for me? DM me on Twitter and ask away. Your question may be answered in a future newsletter (and I’ll reply to everyone who asks).

Until next time,

Carmen
Community Coach

Connect with me on Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn.

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