The Three E’s: Community Management in Three Simple Steps

Though it’s one of the most rewarding positions one can hold, community management can feel daunting, overwhelming, and at times, impossible. I’ve found that this position requires a clear set of principles that guide your actions and decisions. For me, the three core principles are Empathy, Expectation Setting, and Education, or as I lovingly refer to them, the Three E's. Though there’s more nuance to implementing these principles, let’s discuss why each one is essential to being a successful community manager.

No. 1: Empathy - Stepping into other people's shoes

Empathy is the foundation of any successful community. As community leaders, it's essential to have experience in the space you’re managing. This, and a welcoming disposition, are critical to helping your community celebrate their wins, console them during times of doubt, and generally understand how they feel from day to day. Guiding members towards positivity during difficult times is beneficial, but toxic positivity must be avoided.

When approaching an upset community member, I’ve found it helpful to consider exposure both to the project and to the overall ecosystem. Emotionally-charged responses often come from the holder being overinvested rather than a genuine place of anger. Explain that you feel for them, acknowledge their anger or frustrations, and if appropriate, offer to continue discussing the issue in DM’s. No one benefits from (often) lengthy public rants about floor price, unsubstantiated ravings about founders or rugs, or other FUD in general chat.

Your goal as an empathetic community leader is to be someone who takes the time to listen to community members' concerns and feedback, and gives either actionable constructive feedback, or provides a comforting ear to listen if that individual is inconsolable. I’ve seen too many CMs dismiss community members' concerns without providing a constructive response, and all this does is make that person feel invalidated and unwanted. Set the emotional tone as the leader, and the community will follow.

No. 2: Expectation Setting - Clear guidelines, consistent communication

Setting clear expectations early and often is crucial for managing a community effectively. By this, I don’t just mean telling everyone what’s on the calendar for the week. Instead, this means receiving and synthesizing opinions from team members, holders new and old, and the web3 community at large, and presenting that feedback to the community in an easily-digestible manner. By grouping goals and communicating them clearly to your community, you avoid the fear of a rug pull and give folks something to look forward to.

When setting expectations, it's essential to have short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. This approach helps the community understand the direction of the project and keeps them engaged in the long run. For example, after running the first iteration of our bi-annual holders survey, members of the TIMEPieces community noted that they loved the number of events, but they had no idea how to keep track of them. They also told us that they wanted to feel like they could participate in the programming without necessarily jumping up on stage to speak. This led me to implement a calendaring system in our discord that we still use today, and also helped me introduce more passive contests and speaker nomination forms, to facilitate consistent participation and holder engagement in those events.

By making both your project’s goals and your expectations of holders clear from the beginning, and by providing clear and actionable responses to holder concerns about the shifting needs of the community, you’ll establish a community with a solid foundation based on trust.

No. 3: Education - A smart community member is a safe community member

In a fast-paced environment like web3, community education is essential. Many industries have their pitfalls, but web3 is currently the Wild West, with new and ever-evolving scams showing up every single day. Educating community members on not only your project, but also how to stay safe, and how to teach others the same information is critical.

In my experience, creative means like Jeopardy and trivia-style quizzes, talks with interesting and knowledgeable guests suggested by the community, and rewards for participants (like POAPs) can keep community members engaged. I try to steer clear of standard lectures or heavy reading materials for two main reasons: they’re often not as engaging, and also web3 is a global community with a vast amount of non-native English speakers. By gamifying education, you not only increase the likelihood that folks will attend your educational events, but you also dramatically increase the chances of them retaining the information you present.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and educating the community about the project's intricacies and potential risks can prevent potential problems in the future.

My General Mindset for Community Management

The above principles are based on a clear and frequent communication approach, both internally and externally. Below is the general timeline, as well as the steps I took to grow the community while serving the TIMEPieces community:

• Initial Mint: September 2021, lots of FUD for hectic price action and inability to mint.

• Tymo Hired: November 2021, tasked with organizing moderators and turning around the community sentiment.

  • Short-Term Changes: Remove FUD and holders who will never be happy, while building up those who are understanding and giving grace to the team while they work on remedies.

  • Medium-Term Changes: Platform individuals who stuck with us using our social arms as a reward, diversify content for all audiences, and build out team/brand as leaders.

  • Long-Term Changes: Move away from single faces being responsible for the project, incorporate community feedback into both art and programming and expand beyond just NFTs.

• Far Future: Leave a legacy of how a corporation should bridge from web2 - web3.
  

The TIMEPieces community currently has nearly 40,000 followers on Twitter and over 15,000 on Discord! We hosted three IRL activations in 2022 with a few more planned in 2023; we have over 150 rostered artists; and we have so much more to come!

I’ll leave you with this: effective community management requires a clear set of principles that guide your actions and decisions. The Three E's, Empathy, Expectation Setting, and Education, provide a framework for successful community management. By putting these principles into practice, I know you can build a strong and engaged community that will support both you and your project in the long run. Best of luck!

- Tyler “Tymo” Morgan