Ever wonder who the people behind the curtain are here at Higher Logic? We’re introducing you to our community managers. They’ll talk about why they love community management, helpful resources to use and weigh in on the dog versus cat debate (as you can see, this is serious stuff…).
In this seventh installment, we’re introducing our newest community manager, Katie Bapple.
A: The future. Community management is still such a progressive field. After decades of being an unknown, organizations are rapidly beginning to see how community impacts retention, advocacy, support overhead, and sales. That’s spurred a great deal of variety and evolution in community strategy and tactics that’s broken community builders out of their shell.
We aren’t just stereotyped as social media support agents anymore, we’re also customer success managers and data analysts. We’re discovering and sharing positive business growth and ROI in new, intriguing, and highly-scalable ways.
A: Lucky happenstance. After college, I wanted to become part of the Foreign Service or Peace Corps, but the timing was all wrong. Then a friend heard about an opening at a local community-as-a-product company, so I gave it a shot. The job instantly clicked, and while I didn’t realize it at the time, I was still fulfilling my goal to help global communities - it was just happening online instead of on the ground. I’ve dedicated my career to online community management ever since.
A: My bookshelf. I prioritize literature with close ties to community strategy like Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit and Nir Eyal’s Hooked. They’re great reads on behavioral economics. Other recommendations are How to Win Friends & Influence People, Predictably Irrational, Thinking, Fast & Slow, and any of Robert Cialdini’s books on persuasion.
I also follow all the great web-based channels for community management, such as Feverbee, CMX, and Community.is as well as make frequent use of free scholarly articles.
A: It’s impossible to pick just one! The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and Champion by Marie Lu are two that really stuck with me recently. I love anything that challenges the reader to see the world through a different lens.
A: Team D-O-G! I have a 12-year-old Jack Russell Terrier named Lola who is my world. I'd probably have a whole farm of rescue dogs if Lola’s strong disagreement could be swayed.