I Sat Down With the Brand New Community Manager of Shopify
By: Jessie Van Breugel
Tags: Branding, Social Media, Writing, Marketing, Personal Branding

I Sat Down With the Brand New Community Manager of Shopify

Photo by Antenna on Unsplash

Every one of us communicates, but few connect.

Yet, we all love a community.

There is no community without relationships.

People who will support you. Lift each other up, instead of tearing each other down. Attract like-minded people to exchange ideas and build each other up. You can use it for pre-testing or fine-tuning ideas, generating more value, and strengthening your relationships online.

Do it right, and you will grow richer, smarter, and friendlier. Form a community. On Twitter. When you find the right communities, you feel it: it’s thriving.

In the beginning, you do things that aren’t scalable. But, having your community is priceless. Building a thriving community is hard, but luckily I recently sat down with the brand new Community Manager of Shopify — Krystal Wu.

Here are 8 lessons to grow a vibrant community from scratch using Twitter.

Lesson 1: Start With Why

Like most things in life, the purpose is important:

Why do you want to build a community?

Before you create a community identify the purpose. Is it to be a thought leader in a specific space? Or is it to bring together a bunch of people around a shared topic? Know the purpose before taking action.

The more you are clear of the purpose, the better you can communicate.

Make your purpose S.M.A.R.T.

Specific: How many community members do you want?

Measurable: How are you going to measure the success of your community?

Achievable: Is it doable to build your community in the set time period?

Realistic: Is it doable, after all?

Timebound: When are you going to make up the score?

Lesson 2: Find Your Groove

The first step is obvious: start creating.

The moment you start putting your genuine thoughts and ideas out there, you begin to connect with brilliant, like-minded souls. Besides the fun of creating stuff from thin air, being a creator gives much more upside — it’s a total mindset shift. You begin to see opportunity in every corner and this will literally transform your life.

Limit the time spent on consuming content, increase the time spent creating.

Yet, know this one thing:

Don’t overwhelm your audience at first. Publish at a rate that allows you to stay consistent and put out high-quality content. A reason why early-stage creators fail to show up consistently is the lack of a system that works for them specifically.

Find a rhythm that works for you.

If that means one high-quality tweet a day, that’s okay. If you can maintain high quality with seven tweets a day, that’s fine too.

After all, consistency matters the most.

Lesson 3: Look Out for Others

The moment you land on the Twitter feed for the first time, you feel overwhelmed. Everyone appears to have a great time connecting with each other and sharing their thoughts and ideas.

For an early-stage creator, this can be too much and you ask yourself:

How can I ever find like-minded people?

We feel you, we’ve all been there.

The key is to look for like-minded people who share your lofty ambitions.

It’s about finding ways to make a direct impact on each person. Creators should feel comfortable reaching out to other creators. Whether that’s through Twitter DM, responding to blog posts, or filling in contact forms, a simple “thanks for sharing this today” can go a long way.

So, how do you find people that are in your niche?

Search hashtags you’re interested in.

Engage with the people that posted recently.

Ask them questions or share their content.

Follow the people they follow.

Soon, you’ll find your timeline filled with like-minded individuals.

Lesson 4: Make Friends First

Don’t make the mistake of sending direct messages out of the blue to people you haven’t interacted with first.

This can look needy or like spam at worst.

Focus on building the relationships first, and make sure to get people familiar with your content. Show interest, invest time, and effort in others. This will pay it forward.

Three quick tips to initiate a conversation:

Thank someone for the content they put out. A simple “Thanks for this, it helped me do X” goes a long way.

Ask them about the source of their content to learn more about it.

Ask them about the project they’re currently working on. People on Twitter are eager to share more on the things that excite them.

Here’s a one-word summary: engage.

Lesson 5: Don’t Let Vanity Metrics Trick You

Accounts with a huge following are intimidating.

But, don’t forget that the ancient concept of follow-for-follow still applies in certain corners of Twitter. Besides that, what if their engagement is 💩?

Which situation would you prefer?

Connecting with a person who has a smaller audience, but replies to your comments and engages with your content — or connecting with an account with a huge following, but rarely interacts with your content? And even when you get a reply, it feels like an automated message.

I’m pretty sure you’d pick the first option.

Krystal shares the same philosophy: she rather follows a smaller account with great engagement, than a big account with the marginal engagement of its following.

So, what can we say about vanity metrics as followers and likes?

Therefore, when you start out, focus on engaging with others and you’ll see your profile grow like a weed.

Lesson 6: The Power of Lists

The Twitter feed is a constant battle for attention. The moment you enter the timeline, your eyes are drawn everywhere. It takes a lot of commitment to stay focused and only read the content you need to read.

Do yourself a favor and make it easier for you to focus your attention on the content that’s relevant to you.

Use one of the more hidden features of Twitter: lists.

Image provided by the author

There are private and public Twitter Lists. Private lists can only be seen by you — a great way to keep an eye on the connections that are relevant to you. If you create a public list, other users can see it on your profile and can subscribe to it if they’re also interested in the topic.

We love how Krystal uses the two types of lists:

1. She uses private lists for, what she calls, the real OG’s: the people that helped her at the beginning of her Twitter journey. As a sign of appreciation, but also to continue learning from them, she doesn’t want to miss out on their content.

2. She uses public lists for relevant industry folks and peers. The benefit is two-fold: First, she sees the content that’s relevant for her and which she needs to keep up with. Secondly, she shows the people in those public lists that “they are in this together”. It’s a great way to show people she cares and let them know that she acknowledges them as an authority in their specific field.

Lesson 7: Time-Pressured

Not everyone has time to spend all day on Twitter. Perhaps, the 16-year olds among us, but most of us have places to go, things to do.

So, it’s great to know that for building a strong community, you don’t always have to be online. A blessing for creators on a tight schedule.

Krystal shared three tips to use your time on Twitter as efficiently as possible.

1. Use private lists to keep up with your favorite creators. This way, you can avoid the noise of your whole feed and come in to only read the content of your favorites.

2. Commit to posting at least one tweet a day. One tweet every day is better than six tweets today and none tomorrow. Consistency matters the most. Anything above one is extra and pays off in the long run.

3. Share your post in your Fleets — one of the latest features in the mobile version of Twitter and comparable to the stories on Instagram. It’s a great opportunity for your followers to interact and that automatically creates a private conversation. You will be amazed at how much extra engagement it generates with your followers.

Lesson 8: Practice What You Preach

To build your personal brand around the community, you have to be an active member of a community. There’s no other way around it.

Call it skin in the game or leading by example. You can’t talk about building a community and not being an active contributor to one.

The good thing?

It doesn’t always have to be about you. You should focus on facilitating a community that empowers everyone.

Some examples to tie your personal brand to the community include:

Insert yourself in relevant conversations.

Show up daily and be an active contributor.

Share the content of your peers.

Interact with thoughtful comments to their content.

Again, it’s all about engaging with one another.

Tying It All together

Build a community around what you believe in.

Be proactive in building your community.

Being part of a strong community is one of the most valuable assets of a modern-day digital creator.

Stop wasting your time trying to be a lone wolf — start engaging. The future of collaboration is bright.