Community Building Trends with Diana Richardson @DianaRich013 #vcbuzz

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Community Building Trends with Diana Richardson @DianaRich013 #vcbuzz

Community building has long become an integral part of an effective digital marketing strategy.

Brands have been investing in community building for years now, so it is not a new tactic.

But has it changed and how? Let’s talk about community building and management trends!

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About Diana Richardson

Diana Richardson @DianaRich013 is social media and community manager for @Semrush.

She has more than 15 years of experience in digital marketing.

Connect to Diana on Linkedin

Questions we discussed

Q1 How did you become a digital marketer? Please share your career story!

Oh my gosh, this story goes waay back to 2006 when I answered an ad in the paper. The position was for a ‘marketing specialist’ b/c a ‘digital marketer’ wasn’t quite a thing yet. I was hired for a new SEO/SEM division for a company moving from print to digital.

After several years, I ended up leading the search marketing team & becoming more involved with the business at a higher level. I hired a very strong team, many of whom are still at this company today.

But from there I wanted to learn & do more, so I left & found a home at an incredibly talented branding agency where I was the Director of Digital Marketing for a 1 ½ years.

Then I decided I to move & I wasn’t able to keep that job & work remote. It’s then that I found a position with @semrush.

The job is perfect for me. I get to be social & talk to people all day, every day about SEO & digital marketing, talking about what I’ve learned along the way.

Q2 What is community management? What does it entail?

A community manager is someone who loves to interact with others on behalf of a brand or company. Oftentimes, this happens on social media, because in 2021, that’s where a lot of the community is. But that’s not always the only place communities are.

Your first task as a Community Manager is to find where your community is. And then be present & active in that location. If that’s on Twitter – cool – if that’s at your local rec center – cool.

“Managing” a community sounds very official & technical, but it’s really the task of being present for those who interact with your brand or company. You want to be a resource to them, you want to get to know them & build a bond

Q3 How has community management changed over the years?

I’ll tell you what, back in 2006 when I first started as a digital marketer, it wasn’t even a thing. The evolution of a community manager stems from networking.

Community managers are people who like to be & talk to other people & before we did that on social media, we did that in-person. I still like in-person events & hope to expand the community engagement back in that direction soon.

Q4 What are some old community management tactics that need to be changed (or gone)?

  • Starting a conversation & not revisiting it.
  • Assuming people will come to you (they will NOT)
  • Inconsistency. “I’ll be online whenever” isn’t going to cut it.

Q5 What are your favorite community management tools?

I’m old school. I log into each platform manually & check for comments. If I need to, I’ll keep an old fashioned spreadsheet with notes or data, but really, I find that being physically in the social platforms keeps me the most connected to the community & audience.

Our previous social media marketing chats:

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