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Can you imagine being surrounded by 400 people who all want the best for each other, who thrive making connections, and who strive to make the world a more friendly place?
We witnessed that warm and welcoming environment at CMX Summit West. We stood in awe of your energy and enthusiasm. It felt like coming home to 400 of our best friends, mentors, and most eager peers.
It was also our largest, most dynamic event to date. We welcomed every major community platform as a partner and had more attendees than ever before. It showed us how far this industry has come and how much space for growth we have created for each other. The upcoming years will be thrilling.
I hope this magazine translates the excitement of CMX Summit and the excitement that this industry ignites in the CMX team, our speakers, attendees, and sponsors.
With you by our side, we’ve never been more confident that community is where all of us are meant to be. We’ll see you at the next CMX Summit.
Cheers and happy community building,
follow CMX:
Director of Content
Carrie Jones
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Speakers Highlights
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David SpinksFounder, CMX
Community is the future of business. It is an
inevitability in our brave new world.
In his talk, David traced this trend back to the early
guilds that built the foundation for modern business.
Today, in our Internet age, we have access to the
resources and customers that we’d been so far
away from for decades. And, with social networking,
we don’t just have access to information, but we
have access to each other. We can communicate
immediately, across the world. As a result,
companies have finally realized that relationships
with customers are two-way conversations.
We must return to community. There is no other
way.
Community and company are becoming one again.
This new blended business environment requires
collaborative spaces, where customers, companies,
and partners gather together in conversation about
how to create more value. Companies like Airbnb,
Uber, Waze, and Duolingo get it, David explained.
They’re all disruptors, all focused on community and
creating connections between end-users.
This is where the future is. Community professionals
are the bridge to this inevitable future.
Our role as community professionals isn’t just to
build, but to serve as change managers. You are the
CEO of your community.
Listen to David’s full talk to learn the five hallmarks
of community-centric companies and how you can
bring them into your organization.
This is a professional discipline, not a fluffy, nebulous segment of another department.”
Watch David’s Talk:
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Tim FallsVice President of Community, Keen IO
Tim Falls shared a framework to build “Communit-
Yay!” within our organizations. Community is not
just about your work. Community is about building
excitement for your work across the organization.
First, orient yourself within your organization. Ask:
how do the founders feel about community? Is
community an important part of your organization’s
strategy? What percentage of your company is on
the community team? How much budget do you
have? With the answers, you’ll start to see how
much buy-in you have. This buy-in exists along a
spectrum, and many of us find ourselves on the low
end. So we’ve got work to do.
Second, set your course. There are really only
three options to choose from once you’ve oriented
yourself: abort mission if you don’t have buy-in (find
a new job), deal with it, or make it better.
Third, move forward. Tim gave us some “power-ups”
to set the forward course. The three community
power-ups are: inclusion, communication, and trust.
Include others in what you are doing in community-
land. Get involved in what they are doing too.
Practice nonviolent communication, empathy, and
use tools like StrengthsFinder and Myers-Briggs to
communicate. Cultivate reliability, intimacy, and
credibility as a team member.
Watch Tim’s full talk to go further in-depth on each
of these tips and become a crusader for community
in your organization.
I challenge you to think about the thing that sparked the passion in you. What experience have you had as a community manager that really ignited the flame? Share that experience.”
Watch Tim’s Talk:
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Jennifer Sable LopezDirector of Community at Moz
Jennifer Sable Lopez knows about building a
powerful team. Her community team has grown
each year since 2011. So how did she learn the
ropes? She learned the lesson the hard way. Like
many of us, she was a solo community manager at
Moz until received horrible news: she had cancer
and had to take time off of work.
She battled cancer and healed, but there was a huge
hole on the team while she was gone. That was
her wake-up call. It was time to build a team that
could deliver enormous value and avoid burnout.
And we all know what a huge issue burnout is in this
profession.
So how do you do this yourself?
Start with you. If you don’t get your work in order,
the rest of the team won’t get theirs in order.
Next, break up all the tasks you do by type. Here’s
a template you can use to do this yourself:
http://mz.cm/personaltasks.
If you don’t have budget or team, you can find
people outside the community team who can be
your backup.
When you have a team, it’s a great idea to create a
Love/Like/Hate list. Each person can list their love/
like/hate tasks and delegate work accordingly.
Jennifer shared a template for this here:
http://mz.cm/teambackup.
As you do this, you’ll see where you need to hire
new skillsets and where there is room for growth.
Watch Jennifer’s full talk and get inspired to be more
productive and take better care of yourself!
Who here works 40 hours per week? Forty hours is adorable.”
Watch Jennifer’s Talk:
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#CMXSummit hands down the most
motivating conference. Freaking out
with excitement. Want to get (happy)
shit done!!
The brilliant @adamwerbach on saving
the planet: “if it exists, it is possible”.
Endless takeaways today. Thank you
#CMXSummit
Milly Toovey
Devin Carli Singer
#CMXSummit cmxsummit know how
to throw a conference. Coolest venue
ever!! #Salesforce
Sarah Park
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JoeNavarroNonverbal Communication Expert and Former FBI Special Agent
Joe Navarro, one of the world’s top experts in
nonverbal communication, started his talk with a bit
of personal history. He explained how he came to
the US from Cuba in 1960 and grew up observing
people closely. He then went on to found the FBI
Behavioral Analysis program.
He brought his expertise to the stage to teach CMX
Summit attendees about nonverbal cues, how to
communicate comfort and discomfort, and how to
influence people with your body language.
Joe gave us a list of eight behaviors that
communicate discomfort. These are behaviors we
should seek to avoid as we lead our communities
and behaviors we should look out for when we are
meeting our members face-to-face. The behaviors
include neck touching, eye blocking, rubbing
hands, or turning feet away. The one behavior that
communicates comfort and calm is “steepling”.
He also gave us tips for influencing our members
nonverbally. “The human being dislikes disharmony.
We like individuals that make us feel good,” he
explained. It’s important that we change our goals
from “I want to achieve” to “I want more face time
[with members].” We have to set an example of
excellence in our communities if we expect our
members to follow suit. “The minute you don’t care,
other people won’t care.”
Watch Joe’s full talk for the complete explanation
of what behaviors communicate comfort and
discomfort, how to influence others, and the five
traits of exceptional people. This talk is highly
actionable and you can start putting the lessons into
practice immediately.
It doesn’t matter what you own or what you make. The only thing that matters is how you treat those who can do nothing for you.”
Watch Joe’s Talk:
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Gina BianchiniCEO, Mightybell (former CEO of Ning)
Gina Bianchini talked to the CMX Summit crowd
about how to build and scale engagement in online
communities.
Building a community is a powerful thing, Gina
said. It’s about empathy, connections, talking to
people who are both similar and different to us,
and watching their creativity blossom. It’s all about
discovering people’s common identities, interests,
and goals. Today, we’re able to discover those more
easily to build networks in ways we couldn’t before.
The biggest takeaways came from Gina’s
own community building with Intuit’s OWN IT
community, which is run on Mightybell.
She shared with us six tactics for building engaging
conversations in online communities.
1. Profile Stories: People have an interest in finding
compelling “protagonists” in the community.
2. Action Posts: Create posts that allow people to
share their experience and practical tips.
The most powerful communities are those where members are establishing and building relationships with each other. That is the true power of communities and community building.”
Watch Gina’s Talk:
3. Member Prompts: Ask simple, specific questions
for new members and more dramatic questions
for longer-term contributors.
4. Member Poll: These pique interest and share
practical information.
5. Live Chats: These chats engage members around
new, hot topics and bring in new voices.
6. Compilation Posts and Surveys: Send out surveys
to collect data and share the outcome with
members. This shows people that they’re not
alone.
Watch Gina’s talk to learn more about the tactics
you can use to spark engagement in your online
community and the outcomes it has generated for
Mightybell’s community managers.
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Community is what makes a business.
W/out fan love, customer feedback, &
stoked beta testers, products & services
would suck. #CMXSummit
Best conference I’ve attended, ever.
Huge thank you to @DavidSpinks,
@caremjo + everyone else who
helped out.
Lolitta Gevorkova
Christina Shorter
HUGE thanks to the @CMX team. As
a #cmgr, I want to build a big, bright
fire, & I always leave #CMXSummit w/
a can of gas & box of matches.
Holly Goldin
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Kristen BermanCo-Founder, Irrational Labs
In her CMX Summit talk, Kristen Berman gave CMX
attendees the tools they need to motivate their
community members to engage deeply. This talk
was all about contribution.
There are two kinds of motivations, Kristen
explained: extrinsic and intrinsic motivations.
Extrinsic motivations include giving prizes, cash,
or gifts in exchange for contribution. Intrinsic
motivations are actions performed due to an internal
driver, like a desire to help a friend because you like
him/her, or desiring to achieve social status through
community involvement.
Kristen stresses the importance of Attribution Theory
(explained in the talk), but she doesn’t think all
external rewards are bad. She does point out that
“When we reward people [extrinsically], we take
away their intrinsic motivation.”
She shared with CMX attendees three ways to drive
(and not kill) intrinsic motivation: create visceral,
specific connections; allow and encourage effort;
and show progress.
Kristen shared specific examples from social
research about how these motivations affect
member behavior in our communities. “These
techniques are as effective at work as they are
amongst your other communities,” Kristen assured
us.
Watch the talk to listen to all the examples,
techniques, and takeaways for motivating
community engagement.
The sense that you’ve created something and it’s been ‘for nothing’ is extremely demotivating. Show people what they’re doing and do not destroy it.”
Watch Kristen’s Talk:
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Meghan MurphyHead of Community and Marketing, HandUp.org
Meghan Murphy came to the stage with a bold
proclamation: community is the new marketing. The
marketing landscape is shifting dramatically, and it’s
becoming blended. What does that mean exactly?
Marketing and community cannot always be
separate departments, nor should they be. Marketing
now includes community events, experiences, social
media, traditional advertising, and – yes, quite often
– online communities.
Many of us would be served by thinking of our
community work in the context of marketing and
its departmental goals. Community building is an
exceptional tool for lead generation, and community
professionals should start to see their work this way.
Meghan highlighted three key areas where you can
start thinking about how to frame your community
work within marketing and draw from marketing
to strengthen your community programs. These
areas are lead generation, customer experience, and
retention.
According to Forrester Research, 55% of B2B
marketers plan to increase their use of communities
to generate leads and 46% plan to do the same
to nurture leads. We need to prove that we can
generate and nurture leads through our work.
Meghan recommends that every single tactic you
try be tied to a measurement. You should track
everything.
Watch Meghan’s talk to learn more about how
marketing and community can work together to
achieve huge goals.
A two percent increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10%.”
Watch Meghan’s Talk:
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Nish NadarajaCreator of Yelp Elite, Brand Consultant and Advisor
Nish Nadaraja, the creator of the Yelp Elite program
in 2004, took the stage in a fireside chat with
David Spinks just after lunch. In their conversation,
they touch on getting your brand right, persona
exercises, and building friendships with your first 100
users.
During the process of building the Yelp Elite,
Nish realized that the more he made people feel
special, the more they wanted to belong. And the
more that people wanted to belong, the more the
Yelp community activity grew. Each person in the
community should feel a strong sense of belonging,
Nish argues.
Nish also advocated for a living, breathing document
in every department: a brand guide. The guide
can change and evolve over time, but it should be
used as a guidepost for all community activities,
conversations, and strategy discussions.
And, of course, most important to Yelp’s success
was Nish’s focus on the people. That’s what made
Yelp so cool after all: it was a group of cool kids,
going out and getting exclusive access to events,
restaurants, and bars. That’s why Nish urged
community professionals to look at the first 100
people and to get to know them so well that they
shape your brand entirely.
Watch the whole conversation between David and
Nish to learn how the Yelp Elite was born and how
they set themselves so far above the competition.
Watch Nish’s Talk:
Look at positioning. Look at why people were doing whatever they were doing before your brand existed, that’s where I’d start... Understand what you’re not.”
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Jenna MeisterHead of Community Engagement at Airbnb
Airbnb’s Jenna Meister knows how to measure the
value of community. She’s been doing it at Airbnb
for over four years, as they’ve expanded into new
global markets and distributed control.
Community has been absolutely integral to Airbnb’s
efforts to scale at a lightning-fast pace. It has
allowed their team to do more, hire less, and be
more authentic to their end users.
Jenna walked CMX Summit attendees through
creating a measurement framework like Airbnb’s in
their own communities.
First, start with why. What is the outcome you’re
looking for? Is it acquisition, retention, content,
quality, support? Once you’ve got your list of
business goals, you can then look to community to
accomplish them.
Second, ask how members can support the
outcomes you desire. List all the ideas in an “ideal
world”-style brainstorm. Do you want them to
share stories publicly? Educate others? Run events?
Watch Jenna’s Talk:
There’s no single [community] metric, but you are not alone. We’re all thinking about the same thing. Let’s leverage our own community to find a solution.”
Group them by level of commitment and map to
a commitment curve. Build reciprocity into the
system. What can you give back to them?
Third, build programming to facilitate the actions
you desire. Do you need to create a meetup
program? A conference? A moderator tier of
membership?
Fourth, find metrics to track the actions that map
back to the goals. There is no one single community
success metric, but you’re not alone, Jenna asserted.
In her talk, she shares dozens of sample metrics that
could get you started on the road to success.
The way we all succeed together is to share our
resources and continue talking about it, Jenna said.
Watch Jenna’s talk for dozens of helpful resources
and metrics to get you started measuring for
success right away.
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Jim GilliamCEO, NationBuilder
Jim Gilliam, famous for his talk, “The Internet Is
My Religion” talked about how to move toward
authentic community.
Jim’s work is largely inspired by M. Scott Peck,
author of The Road Less Traveled and The Different
Drum, in which he argues: “In and through
community lies the salvation of the world.”
There are three stages of community building in
Jim’s framework: pseudo-community to chaos to
authentic community. In order to get to authentic
community, you must pass through the chaos
phase, where you have real conversations and
empty out the assumptions you make in pseudo-
community.
While Jim argues it’s currently impossible to build
authentic community entirely online, the Internet
facilitates connections that were never before
possible. Jim asked CMX attendees: What if [this
is] all evidence of a massive global shift toward
facilitating true authentic community at this stage,
through the chaos that exists?
Our culture is in the process of emptying out so
many previous barriers to acceptance. Jim implored
us to incorporate some of his guidelines into our
online relationship culture. Maybe then it will be
possible to form true community online.
“Maybe it’s possible to create a miracle,” he said.
Watch Jim’s talk for his 12 guiding principles of
community building and his full story about building
community in this age.
Watch Jim’s Talk:
Maybe it is possible to create true community online. Maybe it is possible for us to create a miracle.”
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Adam WerbachPresident and Cofounder, Yerdle
Adam Werbach, CEO and founder of Yerdle, took
the stage to close out CMX Summit West. He shared
his insights from a life spent organizing grassroots
movements and gave CMX Summit attendees the
tactics and tools they need to make their work go
further in the world.
Adam started his talk with three principles of
community organization.
First, meet people where they are. Make it
convenient for them to help, let them know why
they should care. Why should they want to connect
with others in your community?
Second, build capability. There’s a relationship
between the work your members are doing
individually and what they are achieving together.
How can you share the lasting impact of their work
with them in a way that can be taken away and used
elsewhere?
Third, remember that the organization itself is a
victory. We seek sub-organizations that we cannot
control to take part in. We should be asking: how
can we be part of a larger movement?
He then left the audience with three organizing
building blocks. You must first share gratitude. Then
create a sense of flow, where people can see that
they are doing the thing that they were meant to do.
Finally, as a leader, uphold a sense of service to your
members. You’re building something much larger
than yourself.
Watch Adam’s talk for community-building
inspiration, stories, and the tools to make a lasting
impact.
Watch Adam’s Talk:
People are inclined to take what little power they have and exercise it.”
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Thank you to all of our outstanding sponsorsThese are the companies who are pushing community forward:
Back cover
If we have the commitment to build capability in the people
that we are organizing, they’re going to do extraordinary
things. They are going to do things that we can’t imagine
and they’re going to do things far outside our experience
and our capabilities ourselves. The work that we are doing in
organizing communities is the most important work on the
planet and is perhaps the work that will save the planet itself.”
- Adam Werbach
