etiquette and branding in your community

Putting Your Best Self Forward: Etiquette and Branding in Your Community

Erica McGillivray Senior Community Manager at Moz

Myth: The fewer rules, the better

@emcgillivray

No rules = branding disasters

Reddit’s community freaked

out when they started banning

topics/people

@emcgillivray

“Sad Puppies” and their

anti-diversity

voting bloc

Don’t shut down your community

@emcgillivray

Community manager soul searching

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Acknowledge we’re not perfect

Take stock of our rank and power

@emcgillivray

•  Social •  Psychological •  Spiritual •  Organizational

Social (common societal

privileges)

1

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Social

•  White •  American •  Thin •  Average height

•  Youngish adult (32) •  Bachelor’s degree •  Middle class •  Workintech

1

psychological (self-esteem,

being comfortable with yourself)

2

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psychological

•  Self-confident •  Self-driven •  Frequent traveler •  Public speaking

•  Decisive •  Speak up in

meetings •  Okay with conflict

2

Spiritual (connect yourself

to something bigger)

3

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Spiritual

•  A purpose in life •  Event organizer •  Community

manager

•  Writing and books •  Hosting parties •  Family and friends

who love me

3

Organizational (in your

community or at your work)

4

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Organizational

•  Tenure (4+ years) •  Full-time

employee•  Controlabudget

•  10 years experience •  Reputation for

getting stuff done •  Know people

4

Privilege and implicit bias tests bit.ly/bias-test

@emcgillivray

Educate yourself,

don’t force others to

Messed up?

Apologize

rules, Moderation, inclusion, feelings, and Diversity?

@emcgillivray

“I really hate the word 'diversity,' it suggests something…other. As if it is something…special. Or rare. As if there is something unusual about telling stories involving women and people of color and LGBTQ characters on TV. I have a different word: NORMALIZING. I’m normalizing TV.” – Shonda Rhimes

Surprise! Your community may be diverse already

@emcgillivray

Big Moz fans!

@emcgillivray

Building Codes of Conduct and policies

@emcgillivray

Your community is your living room

@emcgillivray

Use Geek Feminism’s template

Brand the language

Brand-specific needs

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Don’t neglect the details

@emcgillivray

Definition

Microaggression: a subtle, but offensive, comment or action directed at a minority or other non-dominant group that is often unintentional or unconsciously reinforces a stereotype

Save yourself a headache

@emcgillivray

What the author wrote

What the reader thinks

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Knows they’re wrong, does it

anyway

1

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Unknown wrong 2

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Sometimes just @#$%^&

3

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Sometimes just @#$%^&

3

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Internal trainings

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Teams must consistently enforce and understand policies

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Our customer service team’s live chats

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Our graphic design team

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Code of conduct fallacies

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You must enforce it!

@emcgillivray

When you tell people they’ve been bad:

So sorry!

Silence

I hate you too!

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People (don’t) talk about problems

The Pay-off?

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Happy and growing communities

Got questions? @emcgillivray

erica@moz.com

Resources

#11 - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/16/shonda-rhimes-diversity-normalize-television_n_6878842.html #4 - http://gawker.com/5950981/unmasking-reddits-violentacrez-the-biggest-troll-on-the-web #5 - http://www.npr.org/2015/08/26/434644645/how-the-sad-puppies-won-by-losing #6 - http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/why-were-shutting-our-comments #18 - http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/how-privileged-are-you#.xlBWaRLx8 and https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html #20 - https://medium.com/mozzer-expressions/i-was-racist-in-front-of-1300-people-2d622ad27ce8#.mlo2o78lr #27 - http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassment/Policy_resources #28-29 - https://moz.com/mozcon/code-of-conduct #31 - http://academicaffairs.ucsc.edu/events/documents/Microaggressions_Examples_Arial_2014_11_12.pdf #33 - http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psysociety/e2809cbut-i-didne28099t-mean-ite2809d-why-ite28099s-so-hard-to-prioritize-impacts-over-intents/ #34 - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/7423530/Duke-of-Edinburgh-asks-female-sea-cadet-if-she-works-at-a-strip-club.html #39 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkR6xjpzJck

@emcgillivray