Digital Communities: Scaling User Groups with Nicole Saunders

In this insightful episode of "Peers Over Beers", Christopher Detzel converses with Nicole Saunders from Zendesk about community building and user group management in a business setting. The episode commences with a light-hearted discussion about personal exercise routines in the summer before shifting gears to Nicole's extensive experience in fostering communities at Zendesk.

Nicole outlines her journey from managing Q&A topics to orchestrating an all-encompassing community strategy at Zendesk. The strategy entailed merging the five product communities into a singular one to facilitate user experience. Additionally, Nicole shares her success with Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions and webinars, which were introduced as tools for community engagement.

These webinars eventually paved the way for the creation of the digital events team at Zendesk. The team hosts deep-dive sessions following product announcements, helping users understand new features better. However, the growth and popularity of these events led to the challenge of scaling, with resources being stretched thin due to increasing requests for specialized topics. To navigate this issue, Nicole and her team initiated user groups.

The user groups, designed to empower end-users to host meetups, experienced enthusiastic participation. From starting with five groups, they soon grew to eleven, with some groups boasting over 150 regular attendees. The global pandemic led to these gatherings transitioning to a virtual format, yielding groups arranged around job titles or industries rather than geographical locations.

Nicole discusses how these user groups were promoted using community events, forums, and even paid social media. To maintain engagement, a Customer Advocacy Program was launched to recruit volunteers desiring to be more involved with the community.

On the subject of data management, Nicole emphasizes the company's responsibility in using data strictly for user groups, prioritizing trust-building with customers. The conversation culminates with a discussion on the business value of these community engagement efforts. Nicole argues that user groups significantly contribute to customer retention, revenue generation, and account expansion.

This episode of "Peers Over Beers" offers a comprehensive look at the intricate process of community building, user group management, and their impact on business outcomes. It serves as an enriching resource for professionals interested in community engagement, user group operations, and the balance between customer satisfaction and business objectives.