Much of the work we do on the community team is thought of as an investment. Build the foundation today and eventually your company will see results. Of course, online community grows exponentially in value over time, but there are immediate benefits that can’t be ignored.
Veeam, a modern data protection solution founded in 2005, is proof that both the immediate and ongoing benefits of peer-to-peer community engagement are critical for today’s organizations. We recently chatted with Madalina Cristil, Community Manager, and Safiya Mohamed, Community Analyst, about how they managed to build their community over almost two decades and what the impact of their commitment has been.
The pair offered incredible insights over the hour-long conversation that is definitely worth watching! But we wanted to share the top three insights that your team can use right now.
1. Create Communities Specific to Members’ Strengths
Veeam’s community started much like all communities in 2006—organically across multiple platforms. Most notably, they had an R&D forum that acted as a direct connection between users and the product management team and a Reddit group with 14,000 users that acted more like a peer-to-peer support group.
In an effort to expand the community that grew organically, Veeam implemented a super user program to reward engagement in the community. They formed Veeam Vanguards, Legends, and MVPs, all groups that catered to each members’ interests and connection to the company. The Vanguards were customers that shared helpful content to the public, Legends were technical experts who helped across platforms, and the MVPs were Veeam employees who were also super users.
The different paths allowed individuals to earn recognition and achieve community status based on what they cared about and how they could be most helpful to others. Safyia mentioned during the discussion that the different pathways are key to the overall success of the program, and something any company can implement right away to improve their own community.
2. Use Content to Connect and Engage Community
Another superpower Veeam recognized early about their online community was the amount of content produced and shared every day. Safyia said leveraging a robust content strategy based on the organic actions of the community ensured engagement from users every day.
To do this, Madalina publishes a poll every month asking the community what they think were the best blogs of the month. She then shares the winning content across all social platforms, as well as awards badges to the members responsible for the winning blogs.
The team also produces a weekly show that covers industry news, introduces new community members, and more. Not only does it function as a natural onboarding experience for those new to the group, but it also works as a resource for future members because all episodes remain on YouTube.
By creating space for new and existing community members to engage, Veeam ensures that no matter where a member is in their customer journey, they have other users they can connect to and a place to ask their questions or reach out to help someone else. Establishing a variety of communication lines allows everyone to connect how they want to when they want to.
3. Provide Your Community with What They Want and Need
Catering to their community’s wants and needs is really the foundation of Veeam’s community building. Both Madalina and Safiya reiterated a few times throughout the conversation that it is essential to ask your community members what they need. Give them the resources they’re asking for and they will run with it.
The results speak for themselves. In just one year, Veeam’s team was able to increase their organic reach by 72.5% with a 16.9% increase in engagement and support. The changes were so impactful, in fact, that when Gartner released their magic quadrant report on Veeam, the top strength listed was loyal and satisfied customer base.
Certainly the big wins that happen once a year matter to Veeam. But it is also the daily engagements where their community is helping and pushing the product forward that also prove the value of their online community.
Dive Deeper Into Unlocking Peer-to-Peer Engagement
To learn more about Veeam’s peer-to-peer engagement strategy and the results they’ve earned, watch the entire webinar on demand.
