Paying attention has never been so important

Welcome to the Community Coach newsletter, a value packed read
for community builders who are still passionate about community despite brutal job market conditions.

In this newsletter…

📚 Community 101: Pay attention to what’s going on OUTSIDE your community

🤖 Create interactive quizzes for your community in minutes

👋 Answering your questions: “Is building a community for my SaaS different to other communities?”

Community 101: Pay attention to external factors

I recently wrote about how a community can overtake another community in popularity- just like what Solana seems to be doing with Ethereum recently.

It’s important you pay attention to discussions happening outside your community as much as you’re paying attention to inside your group.

This doesn’t mean that you should always let external voices influence your community strategy, however it can point you to vital information on what members may truly want (but perhaps aren’t sharing inside your community for various reasons).

Check out what’s currently happening with the Ethereum community right now.

They have another conference coming up - EFDevcon - but many people in the community were rejected to speak on stage with limited slots.

But here’s where it gets really interesting: those rejected people are starting up their own side conference.

The rejected conference!

From this thread people started jumping in trying to figure out how to get some great quality rejects could still be given the opportunity to speak and share with the community.

Jokerace platform (that helps create contests for communities) recommended starting a contest for people to vote on which rejected talks they wanted to hear.

I have mentioned in the past that communities can spin off by disgruntled members of other communities (it’s how I built my own first community!).

Devrel engineer @Krinza.eth got the ball rolling and now it looks like things are in motion.

It seems that the “rejected conference” is really happening!

Now on the flip side if I were organising the Ethereum conference - I would want to pay attention to what’s going on here. It would be a total disaster if more people showed up to the REJECTED conference with those talks being more popular vs. the main conference. Especially if those who attended the talks were your own community members. It would tell you that you don’t have the finger on the real pulse of what people in your community want.

Paying attention to external noise in this case could provide you with a lot of insights.

Most important tip: don’t take this personally and "lash out” against this. I see this often, but you have to leave your ego at the door and dive in to understanding if there is something you’re missing OR how you can use this to your advantage.

To be honest I love what these rejected talks stands for - and I can see how this could identity a LOT with people in the Eth community that are being underserved right now.

If I were organising the Eth conference, I’d dive straight in to find out which of the rejected talks “wins” the contests to be voted as speakers who people want to listen to. I’d note what the topics were, who the speakers were, what they were building etc. I’d also be paying close attention to feedback like what was shared above. How could we do better to ensure the conferences aren’t just for people who can afford to be there?

If it all checks out that those are still applicable to belong to our community - I would reach out to the rejected organisers and offer support, along with VIP passes to those who won the contest. I’d extend an olive branch - how can we work together? How can we make these “rejected talks” a branded thing that actually works to bring the community together?

Think TED talks + TedX talks. There are ways to manage your broader community and keep everything positive (vs. spiralling out in the opposite direction).

More importantly - I’d be proactively listening out for these voices to ensure the above could be avoided in the first place. Usually it boils down to transparent communication and listening to what your community actually wants.

Create AI quizzes in minutes

I’ve found a tool on ChatGPT that can help you create quizzes very quickly for your community.

Here’s one of the tools I have been using: Quiz Maker GPT via ChatGPT.

This GPT uses fillout.com (which specialises in online forms but also quizzes) and will generate a quiz based on your prompt.

After the GPT completes the quiz you then have the option to edit it further.

I highly recommend doing this and following the below steps:

To see the results of your quiz and track responses:

1. Access the Edit Link: Click on the Edit link for your quiz.

2. Log In: Make sure you’re logged into your Fillout account (or create one if needed).

3. Go to the "Responses" Tab: Once in the editor, navigate to the "Responses" tab on the dashboard.

4. View and Export Responses: Here, you can view individual submissions, analyze responses, and even export the results in various formats (CSV, etc.).

This will allow you to keep track of how participants perform on the quiz and gather insights for future improvements.

Here’s a quick example I mocked up - try out this 3 question quiz to see it working in action!

Take the time to make sure the quiz really resonates with your community. This AI tool gives you good foundations but you definitely need to take the time to edit/adjust it to properly engage your members.

Answering your questions

“Is building a community for my SaaS different to other communities?” 

Yes, it’s different in a few key ways.

• Customer Success is Priority #1: The community should focus on helping your users get the most out of your product, reduce churn (a seemingly common issue facing many SaaS businesses based on my recent conversations) and increase product satisfaction.
  
  A few ways you should be focusing on doing this:

  • Onboarding and Education: SaaS communities should centre around educating users and offering resources to speed up the learning curve. Too often I see terrible onboarding and product education and this is where SaaS will then struggle with churn.

  • Product Feedback Loop: Your community can be a direct line for insights, feature requests, and spotting pain points quickly. You should be listening to your community carefully and providing a high level of transparency on product updates/feature requests.

  • Use-Case Sharing: Encourage users to share how they solve real problems using your tool. This builds credibility and offers social proof.

  • Data-Driven Engagement: Pay close attention to the way users are using your product, where they are getting stuck or what they need to be aware to use your tool successfully - you can tailor content and discussions in your community for different segments (new users, power users, etc.).

Happy to dig deeper if you want to chat more on this (just reply to this email).

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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