etiquette and branding in your community
TRANSCRIPT
Putting Your Best Self Forward: Etiquette and Branding in Your Community
Erica McGillivray Senior Community Manager at Moz
Myth: The fewer rules, the better
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No rules = branding disasters
Reddit’s community freaked
out when they started banning
topics/people
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“Sad Puppies” and their
anti-diversity
voting bloc
Don’t shut down your community
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Community manager soul searching
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Acknowledge we’re not perfect
Take stock of our rank and power
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• 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
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Educate yourself,
don’t force others to
Messed up?
Apologize
rules, Moderation, inclusion, feelings, and Diversity?
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“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
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Your community is your living room
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Use Geek Feminism’s template
Brand the language
Brand-specific needs
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Don’t neglect the details
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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
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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!
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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
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
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