💖 Looking into my Crystal Community Ball

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The Look Ahead for Community Professionals
What 2024 might look like for us

Okay, so this whole introduction is essentially one big disclaimer while explaining why it’s necessary to look ahead with optimism. Some of this will be a wake-up call. For others, including myself, it will be a call to action to come together for more meaningful action.

First off, I’m not going to speculate on any specific projects or people here. One major thing I learned this past cycle is no matter how successful someone has been previously, no matter how they appear on social media or how wealthy they are is absolutely no indicator they will be successful in another industry. Especially in a space as volatile as web3/crypto/AI/emerging tech.

Now that’s out of the way… this week, I read Vitalik’s new massive blog post (linked below) responding to Techno-Optimism. I’ve also been in a checklist mood, constantly dreaming about the future, so the following are some thoughts on where the community industry is heading, with pointers on how you can prepare for it moving forward. I’m not going to talk about the business side of things, nor do I have any special insider knowledge from some (particular) secret group chat. This is simply my intuition based on countless hours of weekly research, learning, and years of experience. Also, these collective dreams are not at all exclusive to the web3 space. Let’s get into it!

🤝 Community Managers & Moderators
First up is the moderator. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be very forgiving with this one. The harsh reality for 2024 and beyond is clear: getting paid just to sit in a Discord, Telegram, or other community platforms, merely moderating discussions, engaging in idle chatter, or answering questions, is becoming obsolete. I’m still seeing replies on Twitter posts asking to be a moderator/intern/vibes guy, yet I’m dying on this hill. This status game will prove pointless in the long term if it’s not being subsidized by further actions. In the coming year we need to collectively step up it. Moderators can consider learning how to implement AI content moderation tools or create content in various community spaces.

Founders and community managers will need more discernment when deputizing community members or making hiring decisions. We create the culture we want to see, so being more proactive with this approach by setting clear expectations will be vital for this. Laziness isn’t an option though slowness with intention is. There’s a difference to get acquainted with.

Next, we have the Community Manager. This one’s a little more nuanced. I’m lumping in the Manager, Head of, and Director into one here since when it comes to exponential advancements in AI (possibly AGI inching along), the skillsets essentially blend into each other with various traditional pay scales, responsibilities, and direct reports. Community professionals must differentiate themselves; clearer branding with purpose alignment are key.

I would personally recommend spending less time scrolling endlessly on LinkedIn (or any social platform, for that matter). But that’s just because I’ve had much more clarity with way less noise in my life since focusing elsewhere. Think about why you’re using a particular platform by moderating time spent.

As more community-building tasks are automated, like content moderation and basic member interaction, this leaves a void for more strategic creativity to flourish. We’ll get into how I see this happening below.

The community team of 2024
New or existing roles I’d like to see that bring new possibilities for immediate value added to existing teams. These are the absolute basics. There’s no telling what others we’ll see emerge. While some of these roles exist today, they will see significant advancements with AI tools.

Content Team: utilizes AI tools to increase creativity, brand advocacy, and attention for any given community. Start learning these tools today

Ethicists: alignment without bias. privacy-first implementations ensure that members are safe while enjoying what you’re spending hours a week building

Event Designers: local, virtual, and hybrid event planning increase heavily, resulting in many varied events for members to attend. rather than a few events each year where only a few members can attend in person or are closed off to specific time zones, automating event creation offers tons of opportunities for engagement

Advertising Overhaul: it’s clear that onchain media + ads will take a big leap forward, adding creative ways for teams to connect with fans in the coming year. normalizing minting ads or artwork that doubles as discounts or ads brings more holistic engagement for members

Consultants/Strategists: more communities will require strategists skilled in AI transformation…while some businesses are still stuck on digital transformation, they now need to take a leap forward into AI. you can help with this!

Governance Specialists: this involves proposal coordination, mediation, conflict resolution, legal and ethics, plus education in various governance styles

Culture Architects: cult & culture formation is a topic for another post, but this is even more important than ever as smaller communities flourish and large communities solidify themselves

Identity Specialist: creates and manages social graph creation for community members. perfect for marketing pivots or Spotify-wrapped style engagement. preferably not onchain identity, opt-in, consentful identity measures

Agent Generators: developer-minded community professionals create agents that simplify and automate work done by entire teams in small agent swarms

I also think we will see more spiritual/mystical leaders in communities, i.e., meditation, esoteric practices, playfulness guides, mindfulness, and counter-culture types. This will be a better year for mental health projects.

There’s optimism for these professionals. Though there are bumpy, uncertain roads ahead, enthusiasm within us will help to guide these cultures forward.

Here’s what current or prospective community professionals should do:

The role of a community builder is of increasing relevance as more businesses are built by one person or extra small teams. Providing clear value is an ever-present necessity looming over us all when AI tools inch us closer to independence.

We stand at the threshold of a fundamental shift in what technology does for and with us as culture creators.

With this in mind, I encourage us all to spend as much time as possible learning these tools that will provide us with the keys to a more creative future. Sit with yourself to create a set of goals with a clear trajectory so you are prepared both culturally and technically for the impending changes ahead.

✨ If 2023 was about AI excitement, 2024 will be all about deployment. Get focused now if you aren’t already.

As I’ve said many times— curiosity is more important with each passing day. Sharing unconditionally with one another is vital to lifting others up with you. Sharing is love. Wisdom is love.

I would worry less about reporting, slides, metrics, or CRMs as these should become automated very soon. Let’s work on fostering creative efforts elsewhere to provide product and member value.

Instead, moving to multi-disciplinary focuses like ethics, philosophy, or even more artful, creative modes of play allows us to think more deeply about identity, self, and connection with others.

For so long, we’ve thought about connection to be a linear mode of transporting ideas. It’s time we dig deeper into connection. I’m excited to get into this idea in a future issue.

Things NOT to do:

Yes, we’ve seen the essays about the confusing duality between what consumers say they want with the actions they actually take. Regardless, community or product teams should absolutely discourage ponzinomics, pyramids or nasty MLMs, no matter the industry.

Don’t wait for an opportunity to come to you.

Don’t wait to create consistent content, even if you’re not being paid for it.

Don’t ghost your friends. They care about you more than you think.

Don’t spread negativity or excess criticism. Community professionals are well respected, holding more influence than we think, even if we don’t see it right away. Constructive feedback, on the other hand, is vital to improve the products we wish to continue building. These teams need us too.

⭐️ Examples and Ideas to Build

It would be unfair for me to waffle on about all this without giving at least some ideas for things you can build or try out today to increase your value as a community professional.

Onboarding: provide automated solutions for members to find their way, and introduce themselves to get started right away. the tired, repetitive intros channel filtering people to the correct channels or docs is OUT imo.

Exits: In the space I’ve been operating for the past two years, someone who wants to exit could simply sell their membership to someone else. Well, that’s not the case for all communities. Maybe a member wants to keep their membership token but no longer wants to participate. Creating clear paths to opting out of participation is just as key as their engagement.

Engagement Funnels: exponential advancements in AI will allow us to personalize or highly customize how we participate in community with others both digitally and in person. dynamic interfaces outside chat platforms will enable members to interact in all the ways they prefer rather than dictating from the top. Think AR, upcoming Apple Vision, scavenger hunts, geo-location with credentials.

Allow new members to opt out of default participation to encourage interaction by showing them expected behavior alignment from the start.

I welcome questions, feedback, and responses. If you’re working on a community, I’m happy to lend a hand. Feel free to reply or send me a message anytime.

Hunting & Gathering 🔗 

Here are some things I found through the week

📰 Read This 

Vitalik’s take on techno-optimism

👀 Watch This

David Shapiro’s 2024 AI predictions

😍 Try this

Clipdrop Stability.AI real-time text-to-image generator (new!)

Voiceover GPT - create demos with ease, especially useful for ESL

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