Hawn: Joshua, I heard that before you joined Evernote, you fans like this were a huge fan of Evernote. You could say you were a ‘fanatic’ of the company. What was it that made you such a huge fan?
There were three main reasons why I was such country email list a huge fan of Evernote that I became an early participant in the community.
First, I felt like I mattered when I got closer to the Evernote team
It was really special to have team members listen to my ideas and respond to my feedback immediately.
Second, I had product privileges . I got early to facilitate email marketing access to new features, beta testing opportunities, and information about internal roadmaps.
Third, I was able to connect with others who had similar passions . In a community like this, it’s important to feel like you’re not the only weirdo out there, but that you have colleagues who share the same interests.
Hawn: Based on that experience, what advice would you give to other companies on how to develop evangelists?
There are three steps to building fans of your service.
First, “highlight ” them. When you find passionate users, invite them to speak on webinars or panel discussions. Listen to their stories and introduce fans like this them as experts in front of others.
Second, “provide privileges .” Create special phone number thailand experiences, such as early access to new features, invitations to private events, and opportunities to participate in beta programs.
Third, “ease of sharing” is important. For example, provide evangelists with five customized sample posts in advance so that they can easily share their experiences with others, or prepare images to share. People often want to share their experiences, but they don’t know “how to say it.” Making it as easy as possible is key.
How to create a long-running community
Hawn: It seems like it’s really hard to start a community and keep it going. What should we do to make it last?
The most important thing for community sustainability is a solid content calendar . For example, set content topics for each day of the week: “Every Monday, ask questions; every Wednesday, share insights; every Friday, share success stories.”
When planning content, we focused on increasing ‘stickiness’. We need content that makes members come back. For example, series-type content or topics that naturally lead to follow-up questions were effective. Another important point is to make sure that conversations continue without the moderator . A truly successful community is one where spontaneous conversations take place among members without the moderator asking questions.
Hawn: How did you encourage such fans like this voluntary participation?
In the beginning, the ‘nominating’ strategy was effective. We encouraged participation by naming specific members, such as “I’m curious about @철수’s opinion on this week’s question.” Another method was the ‘rotating expert system.’ Each week, a different member is designated as the weekly expert to answer questions. If you give them a taste of the participation experience like this, they are more likely to participate voluntarily in the future.
Hawn: And if it’s a big concern for the community, we can’t leave out performance measurement. It seems like sometimes it gets lowered in priority because it’s hard to connect to immediate results. What KPIs did you set to measure community performance?
Measuring community performance varies by stage. In the initial zero-to-one stage, where you are building something from nothing, the key KPI is size expansion . It is important to know how many members have joined, how many active members are there , etc. Then, in the one-to-ten stage, you need to move on to deeper engagement metrics such as the number of ambassadors, participation in community events, and the number of times content is shared.