Hello, and welcome to community case studies, how belonging is really built.
I'm your host.
My name is Seth Resler of Community Marketing Revolution, and the reason I put together this show is because I wanted to show people what community management looks like in the wild, what real people are doing with it when they are building a community and how they are applying different community building principles.
I'm excited because today, my guest is the community lead at Ideas United where they manage a global community of creators who are committed to driving positive social impact.
They also channel their passion for social change through photography and producing compelling stories.
Please welcome, Vi Andrews.
Vi.
How are you? Hey, Seth.
I'm doing well.
I'm doing well.
Thank you for having me.
I'm really excited to talk about all things community strategy and what we do at IDs United with it.
Yeah.
So let's start there.
What is the Ideas United? What are you guys doing? Yeah.
So we are a agency based in Atlanta, Georgia, we create content and compelling campaigns for our branded partners, but we do that in a very specific way through a global network of freelance talent.
So we have talent all across the world who can do amazing things through designing, strategizing, fetal production, event production.
And what we do is with our IU community, we've built a talent pipeline that's been a way to really stay deeply connected to this next generation of storytelling.
Um, free building a space where creativity, collaboration, and career growth intersect together.
So give me a concrete example of that.
I mean, give me an example of an organization that might come to you and say, hey, I need some creatives, and we need them to do this.
And tell me what types of creatives you're bringing together to actually execute what the client is asking for.
Yeah.
So clients don't necessarily come to us and say we need creatives.
Basically, we go to clients and tell them you have a great story.
We wanna tell a great story for you and with you.
Um, and we have a global network of folks who can help us tell the story depending on what type of story you wanna tell.
So a lot of it is video campaigns specifically for a client that wants to talk about the, um, global initiative that they have for a specific product that they have or a specific, um, part of their of their organization.
And so we wanna really tell a story to help their audience understand that.
And so when we decide on what the story is gonna be, we also need to decide on who are the different players that need to help us create that story.
So is it a video production? Is it scripting? Do we need to bring writers on? Do we need great designers? And does it also go into a uh, overall event or activation.
And so once we have those pieces together and the client wants to work with that, then we go back to where our network is.
And we say, we need a great creative director.
We need a amazing talented designer or editor.
And so we know who are the folks within our network and within our community to tap into.
So that's what we do.
So we'll get the overall idea of what the story is.
We'll figure out who are the people who need to tell that story with us, and then we'll bring them on to that work.
And then while they're on that work, and when they're not on that work, we also keep them engaged, giving them resources to elevate their, uh, creative professional, uh, expertise outside of the work that we do as well with them.
And then also connections to these other amazing creators across the globe to tap into and collaborate with when they're not doing projects with us.
Yeah.
Now we should point out, this is not what Ideas United was originally.
This is an evolution for the organization.
Right? Talk a little bit about the roots and the history of the organization.
So I did united the agency actually started in twenty two thousand and two, um, with, uh, two college students at Emery University, who are our CEO and our president now, David Romer and Dan Costa.
And so it initially was campus movie fest, which was a, uh, on campus event where students just got cameras and, uh, editing equipment, and they were given a one week challenge to create a five minute short film.
And so at the end of that week, um, it was a really great success.
They had a great premiere at the American campus.
They were able to tap into a lot of great, um, storytellers who were just looking for an opportunity to tell the story, and they found that with campus movie fest.
And so then over the next few years, ten to twelve years, that grew into the world's largest student film festival.
And so with that, we found that that was a great pipeline to storytellers who needed opportunities to tell great stories and we're looking for ways to fund those storytelling.
And so while that was happening, we were also getting requests from partners and clients to tell their stories.
So brands like Delta, Starbucks, Lenovo were coming to us saying, we want you to tell our story.
And in our pocket, we had a pipeline to connected, um, creative talented storytellers.
And so that bridge came together.
And so over the last twenty plus years, we've been able to not only tap into emerging creatives and help them get their stories told and gain experience and give them resources to elevate their crafts.
We've also been able to give them real world work through the partners who want us to tell their stories with them.
And so then in about 2021, we decided to really formalize that network and created an online platform where we can house them, but they can also talk to each other, find each other, find other collaborators that they wanted to work with for personal projects and, um, also connect them to in house opportunities that the agency was, um, was, uh, putting out for work with our partners.
Got it.
So I have a series of questions here.
And this is just the third episode of, uh, community case studies that we're recording, but people are going to start to notice that I ask the same questions over and over of different community managers, different community leads, people like yourself.
And that's because I wanna see how different communities are applying these concepts and using them.
Uh, let's start here.
We've touched upon this.
Talk to me about the shared mission of your members.
What are they trying to do? Why are they part of the community? But also contrast that with the business purpose or or business value of the community.
Why is Ideas United hosting this community? What do they get out of it? And to what extent do those two things overlap with each other? Yeah.
I think there's a there's a really great overlap.
There's a lot of mutual mutual benefit is why you wanna have a community, not only for your community members to benefit from what you're providing to them, but also for you to provide to be provided benefits from your members.
Um, and so I think there's a lot of great overlap between IU, ID is united, the agency, and what our business purposes is.
And also what our community members are looking to gain.
And so from the community members perspective, our members are united, um, by a vision to really use storytelling and creativity to open doors and create opportunities in the entertainment and media space.
And so we're talking about emerging creators and talented professionals who really believe in storytelling as a tool for impact.
And so they share that desire to connect to collaborate through their craft and to also grow in the ways that amplify their creative work and their career paths.
And so on one hand, you've got really hungry, talented, ambitious creators who are looking to connect and collaborate and grow together.
And then we also have the business purpose of IDs United, which is a to use our community as not only a talent pipeline, but also as a brand differentiator for the partners and clients that we work with.
And so the community really allows us as an organization to nurture and spotlight that emerging talent while also strengthening that relationships with the branded clients that we have, universities who are looking for the innovative storytelling that we have.
And so that allows us to create a fee back loop that keeps our work culturally relevant and deeply connected to these next generation of creators, which is not only helpful and supportive for the creators, but is also helpful for the brands that we work with who are looking to continue to stay above, uh, the curve and continuing to make sure that the work that they do is innovative.
I love that model.
I I mean, it just makes so much sense.
It's it's so perfect.
When we set out to build a community, we are essentially creating a space where people can come together and connect with each other.
And that space, in some cases, it may be a physical space where people connect in real life.
In some cases, it may be a digital space where people are connecting online.
Sometimes it's a hybrid of the two.
You have creators that are geographically dispersed.
They're all over the place.
Tell me a little bit about what your space looks like, where people are coming together.
Yeah.
So you, uh, mentioned a good point is that we do have people who are literally all over the world.
The clients and the work that we've been able to get has taken us from Atlanta, Georgia to Mexico City to Santiago Chile, to Sydney Australia and even to, uh, Tokyo Japan, you know? And so we that's why we decided to formalize and create a space where all of the different people that we've been connected to and the creators that we've been able to tap into over the last few years who are global, we wanted to make sure that we had one central location where they could be connected to each other and to us, and it wasn't just dispersed across different Facebook groups or messages or even spreadsheets.
So in 2021, we created our online hub, which is our online platform where members can engage, uh, with the professional resources that we have.
They can tap into creative opportunities, and they can also tap into each other and collaborate together.
And so around that, we have that platform for anybody, anywhere in the world who wants to tap into those resources and connect to each other.
And we do make sure that we um, do a lot of our online and virtual engagements that steer and center the online hub, but also around that.
I love the fact of being able to be a digital space while also activating, um, in person when possible.
And so we layer in virtual events like virtual workshops, panels, even virtual networking mixers.
And then when possible, we bring our people together in person at, like, industry events at, uh, lunch and learns, at activations, at, um, professional conferences, whether that's based in Atlanta where we are, or if we have any events or productions that are happening in other parts of the world, we also try making, um, an opportunity to bring our local or regional community members that are there into that space as well.
Got it.
So you've touched on this a little bit.
Uh, but let's talk about engagement.
And engagement makes perfect sense to me when you have a project in particular that people are working together because you're, like, avengers assemble and you bring together seven, eight, 12.
However, many people to work on a particular project.
But I imagine that you are constantly trying to engage people in between projects as well, right, that that you're just trying to keep these creatives in the loop so that when you do need to tap on somebody and say, hey, we've got a project for you.
They're there.
Talk to me a little bit about how you encourage that engagement.
Yeah.
I mean, I love that you had the Avengers assemble reference because that's really what it is.
When we get a project and we kinda have an idea of what the in go will be, then it's like, alright.
Who do we have to go to battle with? Who are the peace of the puzzle that we need to really make sure that we execute on, uh, how we want to.
But also engagement for me is making sure that we tap into and stay connected to and they stay connected to us.
Even when they're not on projects with us.
Cause that's really the the value of the Iu community is that we are not only just working with you or in connection with you when we have work for you.
It's also we wanna make sure that we know what are your career goals, how can we support that? What are the ways that we can support you from this project, but also beyond this project? We wanna elevate with you, and we wanna help you elevate because we don't want this to be the last step on your career ladder.
And so for me, with engagement, we create engagement by creating what I call, like, pathways of value.
So we try to make sure that we're helping members feel seen supported and well resourced within our projects and also outside of our projects and just in, uh, everyday community engagement.
And so we highlight opportunities that really help members advance their careers, um, and we also cure spaces where they can showcase their work.
I think platforming these creatives is a huge thing for me, is making sure that they are able to showcase the work that they do outside of just, um, in the in the internal slack channels and things that we have.
We wanna be able to say this person did this work with us or look what they did, um, outside of our projects and showcasing that onto our networks as well.
And then the last piece of engagement is just knowledge share.
Sharing from us to each other, across each other.
So there have been opportunities where, uh, community members, we've tapped into them to say, hey, we really are thinking about how do we bring in AI into the creative industry.
And so we don't really know a lot about that, but we want to ask our community members to talk to each other and to us about some of the ways that you've been using AI to really not only showcase and help us with the work that we're trying to present to partners, but also help other people in the community think about and open their eyes to the possibilities of things like AI or other educational resources that they might not have been thinking about.
And so I feel like I've seen that engagement grows naturally when our members feel seen and resources.
So being able to tap into and showcase and platform these creatives that have worked with us, but also pouring back into them and pouring back into each other, some of the things that they know, is really what we try to do to maintain, um, a healthy blend of that through the different engagement initiatives that we have.
Yeah.
I think what's so important that you just highlighted is the fact that it's it also about them being seen.
So it's not just ongoing training and you sort of talking at them, uh, although those resources are there, but it's also a way to, like you said, showcase their work or do other things to let them be seen.
Let's take a moment to talk about onboarding.
And, uh, it's not always called onboarding depending on what type of community you have.
Sometimes it's called initiation or orientation, but the idea is this when somebody is a new member in the community.
How do you welcome them in? How do you show them how to participate and how to engage? What is that process for, hey.
Welcome to the club.
Yeah.
And I think that's I think about onboarding, um, a lot.
Because I think it's the most important.
It's like the hit or miss when it comes to, like, actually getting somebody in your community and in an actively engaged community, it has to start at the onboarding.
To showcase to them and model to them what they actually can get from the community and also ways that we hope that they will be participating within the community and not just receiving from it.
And so I try to make the onboarding feel really welcoming and purposeful.
So each new member gets a guided introduction to the platform and to our core offerings, and we also really emphasize storytelling within even the onboarding.
So I tell them, like, we wanna hear your goals.
We wanna know what you're looking for so that we can plug you into the right opportunities and people from the start.
And so how that works in actuality is that it usually starts with a detailed welcome email.
That I send out or is triggered to send out to them twenty four hours after they register on the website.
So I give them a little bit of time to, like, uh, a little, like, forget about the fact that they signed up for.
And then a day later, it has a, a subject that says, like, let's get this party started.
Welcome to the I.
E.
Community.
And so this email explains to them what they can expect by being a member.
And so it explains the types of resources that they'll be connected to Uh, we also tell them three first actions that they can take to make the most of their experience so that already entices or or creates, uh, space for them to see that they're also actively anticipating in this.
They're building it with us.
And so some of those three actions can include updating your profile with information about your work, your creative specialties, sharing some of your past work that we'll already be putting on and showcasing on the platform, um, and those things earn them badges as well.
And so after that, we also guide them on how to connect to other creators on the platform.
And then at the end of that email, I asked them to reply to that email with, like, what type of work that they're looking for.
So that's a way for us to continue to give them resources from the start is what type of work are you looking for and what type of ways that you're, uh, looking to grow in the field.
So then I can share a quick resource with them right after that.
So we're always trying to make sure that the onboarding is helpful and supportive and clear, but then also is a way for them to make quick engagement and then also get a quick win as far as the resource that we provide to them.
So they'll hopefully be engaged and willing to continue to be a part of building that community with us.
Can I ask you about, uh, something about that onboarding? I I noticed that there's not an over emphasis on here are the rules.
Here are the things that you're not allowed to do.
Uh, it sounds like you're framing it in a very positive way.
How can we help? Here's how you can get involved.
Let me show you around.
Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah.
I mean, I think that would be counterintuitive to the way that we to our ethos and our values.
Anyway, I think, um, Ideas United, one of our core values is playfulness and unconventionality.
And so, especially when you think about being in a creative space, um, we don't really like rules.
And so we like the fact that there is playfulness.
There is immodularity.
There's a way to see something and shape it in a different way.
So, of course, we give enough structure and enough guardrails to make sure that the community, um, is understood.
Like, these this is what we're doing in here.
This is what the goal for this is.
But when you come into it, we are also working and playing with you as as we build this.
So it definitely is, uh, we're open to understanding what are your needs, understanding how can we better create this community so you can benefit from it and give to it.
And so if we had so many rules at the start, I think it would keep away from that playfulness and that kind of modularity that we that we aspire to so that we can make sure that our community members feel like this is something that they're building with us and not just coming into something that is is already what it is, which I think there are spaces for that, and that's great.
I think people can benefit from those guardrails.
But here, we're continuously learning and growing with each other.
Yeah.
You said something there that this is something that they are building with us.
Uh, and I think that this is so key, especially for people who are used to being content creators where you have control over it until the moment you hit publish and put it out in the world and then you let go of control of it.
That Yeah.
When you build this space, it's really an act of cocreation and iteration, and it's past, you know, constantly changing.
In order to do that, you need feedback loops.
You need to get input from your community members.
Talk to me a little bit about what your feedback loops look like.
I think that feedback loop feedback loops are so important, and I'm always asking for and listening to feedback, but I think it's even more important for me to be sharing that I'm open to feedback.
And, um, it's a more active thing with, especially within the creative space and working with freelance creatives because I there's a thing where they might not want to, um, especially folks who work on our projects with us.
It's like, this is also what I'm, like, getting money for it.
This is like my bread and butter.
I don't wanna rock the boat too much by saying like, oh, this could've been better or I wish it was like this.
So sometimes people feel, um, hesitant to offer that feedback.
Think that's different in other places.
I think there are other platforms where people are like, no, I don't like this.
Let me change that.
But one of the things that when we first started the community that I wanted to make sure of was that people knew that there was an open door to giving feedback to us so that they can understand that.
Then be more open to it in the future.
But it was definitely something that we had to to show by example, uh, to lead by example.
And so we build in feedback loops through surveys that I send out through email, through live discussions, and also through one zero one check ins.
And so I I'm always offering up community coffee chat hours for people to come in and and to hear how they're doing, get updates on them, and they can talk to each other.
But then there's also a space of like, so what's going on? What some ways that we can make this a little bit better for you, what were some things in the past that weren't, um, as helpful or supportive for you, um, and how can we make those better.
And so for me, once I get that, the key then is to act on what I hear.
So I make adjustments quickly and transparently, whether that's taking that to the rest of the team, taking that to the rest of the studio, and then also letting members know that their impact is shaping our community experience.
And so when a change is made, I update folks, um, why that's happening, um, what to expect as it happens, and then also thank them for the support that they've given in certain ways.
Um, and then I provide the opportunity for feedback after it occurs to see how it's going.
So, like, if there's a, uh, update to the site, we had a big update last year, um, and we prepped them on what that update was gonna be, how it was gonna affect, uh, what they knew up to that point.
And then we put in feedback reminders at each step, and then even a couple steps and days and months afterwards to make sure that they knew that the change was happening and to also hear how that change was affecting them.
And so I'm always asking to hear how things are landing for them because as community builders, we can think that something is gonna be, uh, beneficial.
Um, but if you're not asking for the feedback, if you're not actually talking to people having these discussions, Um, you'll never know, like, actually, if it's working in the way that it it should be and also being able to pivot and make the change to actually create the solution and the experience that is needed, not necessarily the one that you think is needed.
Yeah.
It's amazing what you can learn and how you think it's working one way, and it turns out people are receiving it a different way.
So Most definitely.
Uh, so here you are.
You are managing this community.
You've got people all over the world, and they're they're creative folks.
Uh, I've worked with a lot of creative folks, uh, and and sometimes it's like herding cats.
What's your biggest challenge as a community manager? Hurting cats.
That's hilarious, especially if they're all over.
Yeah.
Um, I think the biggest challenge for me so far has been balancing scale with intimacy.
And so as our community grows, and as we wanna continue to be connecting to emerging talent.
And as we are seeing that there is more talent out there through, uh, digital accessibility, and there are more people who are putting their their things out there.
We want to invite them into the community share those opportunities with them, but we also don't want our members to feel like just another name in a system, especially when we moved over to a system, to a to a website, we wanted to make sure that we, uh, kept the intimacy.
So I'm constantly working on what ways can we, uh, implement to personalize the experience so that people can continue to feel connected and supported to us and to each other no matter how large we get.
And so, uh, that means, like, keeping some of our gatherings limited to make sure that the conversation and connection is still impactful, um, to make sure that the the room isn't too boisterous and there isn't too much noise happening in that room.
Um, also one of the things I do is I invest in niche ideas and niche engagement opportunities to make sure that certain folks feel valued, even if it's not something that isn't reflected by the larger group.
So similar to, like, that AI and creativity luncheon learned that I mentioned earlier is that was a pretty niche idea, but I had also heard from a handful of people leading up to that idea that that was something that they really thought about and were curious about.
And so it wasn't something that the larger group was talking about, but it was something that a good amount of them were talking about, that I wanted to make sure that we showcase that we were thinking about them and wanted to create space for them, um, by investing in having a a formal event that talked specifically about AI and creativity, which is a niche for them, who's very important and, um, deeply connected thing that they were thinking about already.
So we wanna to create the space of intimacy to make sure that they could, um, have that conversation with us.
You know, we talked about how you are cocreating this space with your members, and it's constant iteration One of the things I wanna do is I wanna give people permission to essentially try things and be okay if they don't work.
Can you talk to me about something that maybe you would do differently or you tried? And it just didn't pan out the way you thought it would.
I feel like I would if I had to do something differently, I probably would've invested in segmentation a lot sooner.
So speaking of going back to to, like, the intimacy and the niche, uh, conversations and engagement opportunities that we offer now.
That was something that I really took a focus in, probably about a year and a half, two years into our community, um, being formalized.
And so I think I would have created more clear segment presentation and really outlining different member journeys.
Because because we do so much, and we work with so many different, um, creators across different experience levels, different members come in at different points in their careers.
And with different goals.
And so whether that's networking or their goal is skill development or exposure or just opportunity creation, um, having those different pathways better defined up upfront would have made it a lot easier for me to deliver tailored value from day one.
And it also would have showcased to them that they don't have to come into this community with just one goal or one thing in my mind, there are different pathways for them that they can, um, tap into.
And also, they could offer up other pathways that I wasn't even thinking about because they saw that there were several that were available.
So I think just giving segmentation, but also showcasing that there is still other paths that we can create together.
Um, I would have figured out a way to to to start that a lot earlier.
So when I hear you talk about segmentation, you're talking not only about what it is they do.
Well, this person's a filmmaker and this person is a musician, but you're also talking about segmenting about where they are in their journey.
So for example, somebody who's fresh out of college never been hired for anything and needs to build up their portfolio looks very different than somebody who's been doing it for twenty years and is like, look, I get paid for this now.
You know? Yeah.
Yeah.
That was a hard one for us because, especially actually, our our early days were in being on campuses and talking to college students.
So we really had that down pat as far as, like, how do we connect to them? But then when we got more formalized and we were talking to different clients at a different we also wanted to make sure that we were bringing in creatives that were also at that different caliber.
And so we were reaching out to and bringing in more experienced talented creatives, but then we also had to offer them different things.
So because the community doesn't just work for giving you opportunities.
We, like, giving you creative gigs.
We also want to give you opportunities to, like, have certain resources and have educational and platforming opportunities.
So a college student or an emerging creator might be more open to oh, I just want a freebie to a, um, a subscription to Adobe Creative Suite or I just want, um, a quick gig, but a established creative might want more forming opportunities or might want more opportunities to really think about how can I be seen as a a thought leader in this field? And so what are some of those, uh, possibilities and opportunities that I can be providing to those people? Because they're so different than what the, uh, goals for someone at a different point is.
Do you have opportunities for people who are farther along in their community journey? You know, more senior members of the community, they've been involved for a long time.
To then turn around and share their wisdom, their experience, maybe teach younger members of the community.
What does that mean? That's exactly that's exactly what we do is because and I think that's the that's a really important thing, um, that community leaders have to be thinking about as well is how can you utilize senior members or members who are really well versed in whatever your community is talking about to then utilize them as thought leaders, um, and tap into them as people who can also help steward the growth.
And I think about that, um, from the perspective of a couple years ago, we had an initiative called freelance fundamentals, where we were creating the building blocks for emerging creatives who wanted to more formalize their, uh, create a professional work.
And they didn't know where to start.
They didn't know how do I build a network? How do I find clients, what are the business sides of those things? And so we actually tapped into a couple of, uh, creative freelancers, creative freelancers who were a lot further in their career to say, what are some of the things that you've seen? How do people how how would it be best for people to, um, handle the business side of this? How do people get their branding? What are some of the tools that they need to be doing? And basically asking them if you were fifteen, twenty years, before, what were some of the things that you would be telling yourself now, that you know that you didn't have at that time? And then we utilized that information to help create a blueprint and a a workbook and a series of engagement events to for these established, uh, creative professionals to share their resources and share their insights directly to some of the emerging folks who were looking for those insights.
I love that.
Uh, I always think of when I think about this, I think about I was a martial artist at one point.
I just take a hotkeydoke.
And, yeah, I didn't I wasn't great at it.
We need the photos staff.
We need the photos.
There probably are some somewhere.
But, you know, what would happen is that you would get obviously, there's a a black belt instructor, but as you had students that rose through the ranks and became red belts or brown belts, you know, the more senior members, they would often turn around and teach you know, us yellow belts and white belts Yeah.
How to do things, and and also not just teach, but ensure that they were doing it properly and everybody was safe and and all sorts of that.
And I love those opportunities for senior members the community to be able to turn around and teach younger members of the community.
Uh, alright.
I have one last question for you.
Let's let's celebrate here a little bit.
What is a big win that you've had in the community? What are you proud of when you think about your community work? I think it goes to what you were just talking about.
Um, because, of course, like, seeing members get the real tangible outcomes, like getting gigs, getting collaboration opportunities, professional breakthroughs, that's always a win for me, and I love to see that.
But I think the biggest win for me has been watching, members create opportunities with each other.
So senior creatives supporting, uh, emerging creatives.
And seeing the community really become self sustaining in those moments.
Um, members connecting with each other directly, creating opportunities that we didn't even orchestrate, but seeing, um, getting messages from other creatives saying, hey, I reached out to this person, and we connected and we did this great production and look at what came from this.
For me, that's the proof that the community is alive and thriving.
And at first, I had to be like, oh, I didn't know that that was happening.
I had a little bit of jealous see of like, oh, y'all really went and did this cool thing and I didn't know about it.
I wish I could have been there, but then it was just like, oh, y'all did this cool thing because you connected via the platform and the resources that we had for y'all, and you saw potential of working with each other and learning from each other, and then you took the next step and initiative to make it actually happen.
And then you shared it with me, so I could celebrate that with you.
So it's always great to, uh, to see that happening in real time.
I love that.
When it grows beyond you, when it grows bigger and it becomes yeah.
That's absolutely fantastic.
Uh, well, Vi Andrews, you are the community lead at, uh, Ideas
United people can learn more by going to ideasunited.
com.
Thank you so much.
This was actually really helpful.
I love these examples, and I love hearing about what you're doing, and congratulations.
This is all fantastic.
Thanks so much for joining me.
Thank you so much, Seth.
This is such a great experience.
And keep up with the great work with communicate stays.
I'm sure this be so helpful to so many people
