Community Building Fundamentals in 2023: Key Takeaways from a Conversation with Yurii Lazaruk

Top tips from a community management expert on how to master the fundamentals

As online communities grow and change with technology, so do the methods and tools for fostering growth. Many of the tenets of community building have become formalized in the last few years, and there’s a lot to be learned from people that have spent the better half of a decade engaged in community growth.

This week, I sat down with Yurii Lazaruk to discuss all things community building. Yurii is a community ambassador at CodeControl and 9am, is the host of the Community Life show, and is a frequent contributor on Communiverse. He was also CMX’s community member of the year. CMX is a community focused on helping community management professionals build best practices and network with like-minded individuals.

This article is a little bit different this week. Our full conversation is linked in the audio above in a podcast format, and I’ve taken the time to also write out key highlights from our conversation and primary takeaways. Overall, Yurii offered a refreshing perspective on how universal the principles of community building are, and how best practices translate across industries.

A TL;DR is at the end of this article that encompasses our conversation and the write-up below.

Learn more about Yurii here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yurii-lazaruk/

An Intro to Yurii

Yurii discovered the CMX community after building communities in Ukraine and trying to understand the ins and outs of community building. He found CMX through Rosie Sherry's Rosie Land newsletter, which led him to David Spinks' podcast.

Yurii's first professional experience wasn't in community management. He started by creating an online shop and learning SEO, after realizing he wasn't getting the results he wanted from the SEO experts he hired. He then started connecting with other SEO professionals and discovered a passion for community building. The rest is history, and now he’s become a sought-after expert on the subject with frequent speaking appearances.

Community Ambassador vs. Community Manager

• Yurii prefers the term "community ambassador" over "community manager".

• Community is about emotional exchange and helping people connect. 

• Community ambassadors connect and support people. 

• As a community consultant, Yurii shares his knowledge and advises others on how to build communities themselves.

On Empowerment, Inspiration, and CM Philosophy

• Yurii's mantra is about empowering people to act. He finds inspiration in connecting people with different strengths and skills.

• Empowerment means helping others succeed and grow by providing support and connecting them with the right resources.

• You can find inspiration in seeing people grow and create together. 

• Community building takes time, involving daily communication and connecting people with each other.

• Community managers act at times like psychologists, and can become the glue connecting people together.

• Dealing with trolls and disarming them is easier when you’ve got a community that supports itself and can often address any negative behavior by asking questions. If the community supports itself, trolls have nothing to feed off of.

Metrics and OKRs in Community Management

• Challenges in quantifying human connection and belonging; we need better tools and analytical software to be introduced to better understand community health.

• Connecting community OKRs to company OKRs.

• Community as the crucial point of communication between clients and other departments, allowing for better understanding and growth.

Yurii's Top Book Recommendations

When building communities online, it’s important to gain different perspectives, especially when you’re first starting out. Yurii advocates for a more holistic approach to reading and personal development, emphasizing the power of how personal stories can help create deep, lasting connections between people. The following recommendations are a great place to start for learning more about fostering communities free of superficiality.

Building Brand Communities - Carrie Melissa Jones

A guide for organizations to create authentic communities that go beyond superficial transactional relationships. The authors provide key lessons from successful global brands like Yelp, Salesforce, and Patagonia, emphasizing the importance of mutual concern, shared values, and meaningful experiences to develop loyal collaborator and customer relationships. The book outlines seven areas where authentic communities can serve organizational goals, along with principles for growing a new brand community to critical mass.

The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker

A book that provides a new approach to gathering, both at home and in the workplace. Parker argues that our gatherings lack distinctiveness and focus too much on routine and convention, and offers a human-centered approach to help everyone create meaningful and memorable experiences. Drawing on her experience as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings, Parker explores a wide range of gatherings and explains how simple changes can invigorate any group experience. The book is both a journey and a guide, full of exciting ideas with practical applications that will forever change the way readers host and attend meetings, conferences, parties, and more.

TL;DR

• Yurii Lazaruk is a community ambassador at CodeControl and 9am, and a sought-after expert on community building.

• Yurii discovered the CMX community after building communities in Ukraine and finding Rosie Sherry's newsletter.

• Yurii prefers the term "community ambassador" over "community manager", as he believes community is about emotional exchange and helping people connect.

• Empowerment is at the core of Yurii's philosophy, and he finds inspiration in connecting people with different strengths and skills.

• Community building takes time and daily communication, and community managers often act as psychologists, connecting people together.

• Quantifying human connection and belonging is a challenge in community management, and better tools and analytical software are needed.

• Community plays a crucial role in communication between clients and other departments, allowing for better understanding and growth.

Summary

Community can be a powerful tool for companies. Fostering a healthy community involves creating a space for genuine human connection, and finding spaces online that feel magical doesn’t happen as often as one might hope. At the end of the day, people can only spend so much time and energy online, and everyone is forced to pick and choose where they spend that energy. The universality of community building principles will remain true as we move into the rest of this decade, and the fundamentals truly matter.

Thanks to Yurii for chatting with me on this subject, and I hope you’ve gleaned a few insights from our conversation.

Chat soon,
Chris