[Podcast] Building Communities with Purpose and Integrity with Carrie Melissa Jones
Centering Community Building in Purpose, Leading Communities With Integrity
On this episode of the Cohere podcast, Lauren and Bill welcome author and community strategist Carrie Melissa Jones.
Carrie has been managing online communities since the early 2000s. Over the course of her career, she has trained, advised, and coached leaders of thousands of online communities. Carrie is the coauthor of Building Brand Communities. She helps brands create new communities, select technology, envision community roadmaps, and think strategically.
Prior to founding her own business, Carrie was the Founding Partner and COO for CMX Media, the ‘community for community builders' providing training, events, and programs for community builders around the world. In addition to helping companies build communities, Carrie is a passionate advocate for community professionals and believes that everyone deserves to belong and feel empowered.
In their conversation, Lauren and Bill talk to Carrie about her latest community research insights, delve deeper into some of the concepts introduced in the book, Building Brand Communities, and discuss compassionate self-care and boundaries for community professionals.
Discussion of Key Concepts in Building Brand Communities
“Belonging is, is a feeling that is not necessarily something you can grasp onto and quantify, but it's really made up of two major components. One is that you feel like you're valued as a part of a group. And two, is that you feel like you actually fit with the group, not necessarily fit in, but fit with the group and your skills or your personality is needed in the group.”
“[Meaningful engagement] is a result of connecting deep, more deeply to a purpose or to people within your community. So I call it the two P's that we need to be thinking about. If engagement is happening, but it's not about the purpose of the community, then it's likely empty. If engagement is happening, but it's all one way then it's likely empty. So, we really want to look at are people connecting and ask: are we furthering our progress? And if so, then we are likely creating meaningful engagement.”
“So the number one thing that has to be done is those relationships need to be forged and that takes longer than most people want it to. But when you've invested in that upfront, then you can go very, very fast, after those relationships and trust have been built.”
Role of Governance in Communities
“People will often approach a community manager and say, ‘how can I get involved? I want to get involved.’ And if you don't have clear governance, processes and structures, then what happens is that people find some way to get involved. That's probably not the way that you wanted them to [engage] and it is not [purposely] directed.”
Self-care for Community Professionals
“Emotional labor is deeply undervalued by our society and especially by our workplaces. So we have to be really vigilant about taking care of ourselves and saying no. I work with a lot of community managers who, struggle to say no, because, I don't know if it's the personality type of people who are attracted to community management, but it's like they really like to follow the rules and they also really like to, impress their managers and their bosses and getting that external validation is very important to them. I think there’s a lot to unpack there.”
The Current State of Communities and “Community-Led”
“I do think the frothiness or the softness or the ways people are using the word ‘community’ right now, that's going to have to get a lot more serious and a lot more operationalized in the future. Because just saying, ‘go community-led companies, - what the heck does that mean? I don't think a lot of people saying this even really know what that means.”
“The most thoughtful thing you can do is listen - listen to people who have been building community in your organization for a long time. Sometimes people are doing it without that being in their job title and build something that is custom to your needs. So, don't hire and then try to figure out what you're going to create. You might spend years listening, then creating, and then hiring.”
Resources Mentioned in this Episode
“Computer-Mediated Communication and Hyperpersonal Interaction” University of California Television (UCTV), Joe Walther
“Does recent research evidence support the hyperpersonal model of online impression management?” Current Opinion in Psychology, Article] Graham G. Scott and Chris Fullwood
“Advocacy vs Community: What’s the Difference?” - CMSWire, Carrie Melissa Jones
“The Art of Gathering and Why it Matters” - Priya Parker
“Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols” - Nancy Duarte and Patti Sanchez
“Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach” - Andrew F. Hayes
“Relating Through Technology” - Jeffrey A. Hall
Hosts & Authors: Bill Johnston & Dr. Lauren Vargas
Have feedback about the show or want to propose a topic or guest? Please reach out to cohere@structuer3c.com.
