Yes! I have two adorable mutts Mog & Burt and a cat Sigourney who will often interrupt my video calls to demand food and/or attention.

I was the first community manager at Reddit back in 2008. I worked at Reddit for 6 years. Since then, I've been fortunate to work for a variety of community-powered businesses including Depop, WeWork, & Teal. I've been a team of one, and I've managed big teams. I've gotten to work with a wide variety of communities, from older adult fitness influencers at Nike to mental health practitioners at Belongly, to college clubs at Airtime, and Community Pros at Community Club. Each community is different, but the basic principles and the joy of getting to collaborate with amazing people are the same. I love working in community because there are few simple answers. Just when you think you have something figured out, the community surprises you.

Prioritization. With community, the potential to-do list is infinite. Community can impact so many areas of the business, and bring value to members in so many different ways. Which programs and initiatives do I focus on with the limited time and attention in the day.

The members I was fortunate enough to work with. I learned so much from them, and anything positive I help accomplice was because of their ideas or input. Any mistakes I've made are because I didn't listen enough to them.I've had a lot of in depth conversations with community members over the years (sometimes they are also community professionals), and understanding their experience and needs better has helped me develop. Especially with the benefit of time, it's clear which programs people still remember and value years later and why they sustain.

My favourites (not necessarily the ones I would recommend) are the ones that are explicitly designed NOT to be community platforms.  

I've seen delightful communities emerge from using Google Sheets, or unintended corners of video games.

I loved working at Depop for this reason. The platform was designed for commerce. You couldn't make a post without a buy button, but the amazing and creative community wasn't satisfied with that! They created ways to share about themselves and their lives and build communities in spite of some of the platform choices.

I'm in a community that started because someone forgot to BCC correctly 20 years ago.

It's those times when community emerges and finds a way to grow through the cracks in the cold concrete of our world that are my favourites.

Start with something your members will immediately understand how to answer. Prompt for things where almost everyone will have an answer. Book recommendations, favorite conference event, first jobs, etc.

This is just surface level stuff,  but if engagement is low you have to start somewhere. Make it easy for members to jump in and participate.

∞

Bit paradoxical but lot of paradoxes when it comes to community:

1) Connect with other community pros! Join a relevant Community of Practice. Ask more experienced community professionals for advice and guidance. Read some of the incredible content for community professionals that's been created over the past 2 decades.

2) Ignore everything others have done or are doing! There are no strict rules or best practices. Community work has so many variables, your situation is unique in many ways. Though it's been around for a while, building and nurturing communities in an online world is extremely new and emerging. Talk with your members. Talk with your peers and stakeholders at your company. Their needs and desires and long-term goals are more important than anything some community "expert" says, including myself.