Digital Communities: Scaling User Groups with Nicole Saunders

Nicole Saunders, a seasoned community strategist from Zendesk, and Christopher Detzel, the podcast host of "Peers Over Beers", sat down to share insights about the art of community building. The conversation started casually, with both parties sharing their exercise routines in the hot summer weather. Nicole mentioned her early morning walking strategy before the heat hits, setting the tone for a thoughtful, deep-dive discussion into community engagement and user groups in a business setting.

Nicole Saunders has spent over six and a half years at Zendesk, refining community engagement. She started with managing Q&A topics, ensuring adequate responses. However, her role evolved to forming an overarching community strategy. One of her significant shifts was merging the five product communities into one, streamlining the user experience by reducing redirection to different sites.

A significant part of Zendesk's community engagement strategy included hosting Reddit-style AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions. The aim was to create a sense of urgency, promoting the community while giving users direct access to expert answers to common questions. An unforeseen outcome was users requesting recordings of these sessions, leading to the introduction of webinars, further bridging the gap between the community and live events.

As the webinars became a success, they led to the formation of the digital events team. The team would host deep-dive sessions post-product announcements, including demos of new features like Zendesk AI. Despite the success, scaling these events was challenging due to limited resources. There was a growing demand for niche topics, which the small team couldn't accommodate. This led to the birth of the idea of user groups.

The user groups differed from their previous semi-annual meetups, and the challenge was to make these groups engaging in a digital environment. The intent was to empower end-users to host meetups, facilitating more personal connections. Initial challenges included creating training materials and selecting a platform provider. They chose Bevy for this purpose.

Nicole highlighted the initial plan to launch with five groups. However, high enthusiasm and volunteerism led to the formation of eleven groups. Over time, these groups grew, with some hosting over 150 regular attendees. The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions saw all gatherings held virtually, opening up opportunities for groups that weren't limited to specific geographical locations. Interestingly, the most successful groups weren't location-based but revolved around job titles or industries.

Nicole did discuss the idea of transitioning to physical meetings. However, she mentioned that the success of virtual meetings didn't warrant an urgent change. To promote these user groups, Zendesk leveraged the community, community events, and forums. They also used paid social media to target existing customers, working with account managers to recruit enthusiastic customers as leaders.

One initiative Nicole was excited to share was the launch of a Customer Advocacy Program. The program aims to connect individuals who wish to volunteer and be more involved with the community. Leaders were selected through an interview process and received training on best practices, platform usage, and a brand kit to create their marketing while adhering to Zendesk's overall branding guidelines.

A crucial part of facilitating user groups was teaching leaders how to market their events and chapters. Nicole observed that most leaders were eager to engage with users, but attracting users was a challenge.

The conversation shifted to data management, a critical aspect of community management. Christopher asked about the company's data policy. Nicole confirmed that while the company owns the data, it was used strictly for user groups and not broader marketing or sales efforts. She emphasized the importance of building trust with their customers and maintaining community integrity.

Another point of discussion was the business value of community engagement activities. Christopher suggested that these activities should also drive business outcomes like revenue generation, renewals, or product adoption, just like other company departments. Nicole agreed and detailed how user groups contributed to customer retention and expansion strategies. She mentioned the use of Salesforce and Tableau to track the impact of their webinars on opportunities and influenced revenue.

According to Nicole, user groups influence customer sentiment, product understanding, revenue generation, and potential account expansion. They envision an ecosystem where different programs interconnect, building relationships through various touchpoints like meetups and forums.

A recent addition to this ecosystem is the brand advocate program, allowing dedicated customers to engage and participate in various ways. As the discussion wound down, Christopher and Nicole reiterated the importance of understanding and measuring the outcomes of community engagement activities.

The conversation provided an invaluable insight into community building, user groups, and their effective management. From early morning walks to creating engaging user groups, Nicole's journey reveals a strategic approach towards achieving customer satisfaction, community integrity, and robust business outcomes.