Don't Let "Scale" Get in the Way of Good Community Strategy
b'
Communities are good for business, but are businesses good for communities? This question has come up on the show before, specifically when\\xa0we spoke to community hosts losing their Yahoo Groups\\xa0and when\\xa0IMDb\\u2019s message boards were closed and erased. What happens when corporation-led communities are determined to have outlived their usefulness to the corporation, but not to the members? Does this lead to more grassroots-led communities? How will the tools and examples we\\u2019ve created serve those grassroots communities?
Bailey Richardson, a community professional that helped build Instagram and recently co-authored\\xa0Get Together, and Patrick address these questions on this episode, as well as:\\xa0
- The current community software landscape and why there\\u2019s still room for growth
- What happens when you need to demote or ban a community leader
- Why graffiti is allowed on Instagram
Big Quotes
Not all interactions can infinitely scale (10:08):\\xa0\\u201cWhen we left [Instagram], people on our team [asked], \\u2018What\\u2019s the one thing that we should remember?\\u2019 Our response was treating people well on a one-on-one basis, on a very human level, I think does scale. Those interactions that you build that are deep touch interactions, I think actually can have a very big impact on culture, on a platform overall, and that\\u2019s a principle that I think a lot of people try, as their businesses get larger, to do anything in their power to not do high touch things with a small number of people. \\u2026 I participated in building one of the fastest-growing companies in the world. Some of what made the platform special was the fact that we met people who really cared about our platform where they were and got to know them and celebrated them.\\u201d \\u2013@baileyelaine
How boundaries keep communities on track (17:40):\\xa0\\u201cSometimes the structure that you put in can help people actually access the value they want from you in the first place. \\u2026 If I\\u2019m coming to your karate forum, I want to talk about karate. I\\u2019m not showing up to talk about politics.\\u201d \\u2013@baileyelaine
When business goals outweigh community values (44:20):\\xa0\\u201cThere\\u2019s something quite fragile about someone showing up for something that they care so much about that they contribute an outsized amount of effort to with very little expectation of any kind of financial or real reward in their life. \\u2026 The thing that I worry most about is the reality of business is that ensuring those people\\u2019s enjoyment, happiness, and respect is not the primary goal. \\u2026 It\\u2019s just painful to see them let down when you know the purity of the way they showed up for you, and when you can\\u2019t match them with that, it\\u2019s just a difficult thing to carry around.\\u201d \\u2013@baileyelaine
About Bailey Richardson
Three years ago,\\xa0Bailey Richardson\\xa0started\\xa0People & Company\\xa0with\\xa0Kai Elmer Sotto\\xa0and\\xa0Kevin Huynh, on a mission is to help people bring their people together. People & Company works with organizations to make smarter bets about investing in communities. They also interview extraordinary people organizers on\\xa0their podcast\\xa0Get Together, and in August 2019, they\\xa0published\\xa0Get Together, a book about how to build communities today based on the research and strategy work they\\u2019ve done with hundreds of community organizers.\\xa0
Bailey was also one of the first 10 employees at\\xa0Instagram, working on the community team. She has also worked for\\xa0IDEO,\\xa0StoryCorps,\\xa0Pop-Up Magazine\\xa0and\\xa0The California Sunday Magazine,\\xa0made\\xa0a short film\\xa0about a Pinoy inventor named Dado Banatao, interviewed Russians who are LGBTQ about\\xa0what their lives are really like, asked Casey Neistat\\xa0how to make and share videos\\xa0people love, and started\\xa0a Mola Mola Fan Club.
Related Links
- Bailey Richardson on Twitter
- Get Together, a book on building community with your people, written by Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh, and Kai Elmer Sotto
- Get Together, a podcast about the nuts and bolts of community building, hosted by Bailey, Kevin, and Kai
- People & Company, the consultancy that Bailey co-founded
- Quitting Instagram: She\\u2019s one of the millions disillusioned with social media. But she also helped create it.\\xa0(via the\\xa0Washington Post)
- Drew Kelly, an early Instagram user
- Tonic\\xa0is a curated news app from\\xa0Canopy
- Bassey Etim\\xa0is the editorial director at Canopy and\\xa0former guest on Community Signal
- Bogleheads, a community inspired by\\xa0John Bogle\\u2019s\\xa0investment ideologies
- Bailey names the following community platforms:\\xa0Groups.io,\\xa0Mighty Networks,\\xa0Disciple, and\\xa0Mixr
- Patrick names the following community platforms:\\xa0Discourse,\\xa0xenForo, and\\xa0Invision
- Sarah Hawk\\xa0is the vice president of community and product at Discourse
- CreativeMornings
- Heather Champ and the Biggest Threats to Great Online Communities
- Howard Rheingold, founder of the WELL
- IMDb\\u2019s Message Boards and Why Trolls Don\\u2019t Force Communities to Close
Transcript
Your Thoughts
If you have any thoughts on this episode that you\\u2019d like to share, please leave me a comment,\\xa0send me an email\\xa0or a\\xa0tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be so grateful if you spread the word and supported\\xa0Community Signal on Patreon.
'