S1. Ep22 - Should You Automate Your Community?

Katie: Welcome to the AI Automations for Business Podcasts. We're your hosts, Katie and Null, and we'll be discussing how you can use AI for your business along with the latest news, updates and automations to help you stay ahead of the curve, allowing you to grow and scale your business more efficiently. Please be sure to subscribe and I hope you

Noel: enjoy this episode.

Katie: Hello, welcome back to another episode. Hi, I'm Katie and I've got Nol here with me. Hey, Noel. Hello.

Noel: How you doing? Oh, spectacular this week. Spectacular.

Katie: You're mixing it up?

Noel: I am, yeah.

Katie: This is about time.

Noel: It is, yeah. Yeah, 22 episodes in, I better change it.

Katie: I think it was overdue.

Noel: Yeah, very much.

Katie: Well, today we are talking about community. So that could be community as in a membership, or you have a community. community with your mastermind or your course, whatever community you have in your audience, we're talking about should you automate it or not. So this is something that I'm quite passionate about because I have done a lot of community management and I think before we get started, I think it would be good to be clear on what is the difference between a community manager and a community moderator because no I'm going to throw the question out to you do you know what the difference is? No.

Noel: I should know.

Katie: Yes because so in terms of like for a membership most owners think that they need a community manager but what they've hired is a community moderator yeah and there is a massive difference. So So a community moderator will answer, like, members' questions, monitors, discussions, kind of waits for members to post and then will join in the conversation. However, a community manager will lead that engagement. They will create those conversations. they will be aware of things like retention strategies so trying to make sure that members are staying within the membership so they're you know maybe identifying members that are dropping off or not joining in as much as they were they will create systems like for onboarding like for retention for engagement and, you know, keeping members on track so that they have success. They will also be creating post to encourage engagement as well. So a moderator maintains and a manager kind of, I guess, cultivates it.

Noel: Sounds good.

Katie: Yes. So that is the difference.

Noel: And I think it's really,

Katie: yeah, massive difference. So yeah, Many people just think that they've hired a community manager, but in reality, they've just hired a moderator.

Noel: And, yeah,

Katie: a vast difference in skills as well.

Noel: Makes sense, yeah. Okay.

Katie: So let's go back to automated a community. So I think maybe let's start with maybe some pros and cons.

Noel: Okay.

Katie: okay let's start us off then no let's go for it

Noel: should we go over the pros go then or so i guess like a pro would be you could get insights from your community it's from like the back end so if your platform doesn't have those sort of insights that you need to to know whether people are engaged or uh or anything that or who's joined then you could automate that to then get that information so that's a that's a big pro i would say Yeah,

Katie: I would say so. So a pro from like with my community manager hat on would be consistency. So you could like use an automation to make sure that you have post going out frequently without having to, you know, do it manually. Because as a community manager, obviously you're not just in the community. community 24-7, you're doing other things like behind the scenes, like I was saying, like retention and, you know, doing different strategies and creating maybe like even like some challenges or something. So you haven't got your eyes on the community 24-7 because you've got other things. So I think, yeah, maybe automating, scheduling posts is, is a great one. Absolutely, yeah.

Noel: I guess another pro would be you could build tools within your membership, so to give people access to the information. So if your community is huge, you have lots of data, it can be quite overwhelming and hard for people to find. So you could also create methods in which people could easily find that information as well. using a nice sort of sprinkle of AI as well to find that.

Katie: Yeah. Okay, another pro would be to make sure that anyone joining was welcomed. So they had a really great onboarding experience because fist impressions are so, so important.

Noel: And how you

Katie: handle it as well. I have joined memberships and I've had a really terrible first impression. and I always like feel like because I've been in business for almost 14 years I have that kind of like six cents and how business owners deal with like problems or mistakes or errors in their business really has an impact actually on how successful they're going to be so the business owners that have kind of just owned it and you know made things better straight away are the ones that have long-term success and the ones I find that you know maybe onboarding experience wasn't very good or there was a mistake and they've handled it actually really really badly I find they always have short-term success yes

Noel: yeah

Katie: onboarding first impression very important and then if there's any mistakes it's how you handle it's how you handle it them.

Noel: Absolutely, yeah. I guess also where it comes from boarding as well, you don't want people to join where it's just you talking in there. So I've joined communities recently and they've gone, hey, come and join it. It's really active. And I join. There's no onboarding. And then I look around and it's like, it's crickets. There's just the owner in there. And there's like 200 people there that aren't doing anything.

Katie: Yeah.

Noel: So yeah, I'm not sure I can automate that. But yeah, It's keeping everyone engaged, keeping them active, isn't it? Yeah,

Katie: what that community needs is a community manager. Oh,

Noel: not a moderator. Non-moderator.

Katie: Yeah, exactly that, exactly that. Yeah, okay, so let's move on to the cons of automating your community. So start us off again, Noel.

Noel: I think the big one would be about coming across as unauthentic where say you're creating loads of posts or even if you go down the route of automating responding to comments with AI like people can soon spot that it's not actually you as the person that's doing it. It's a robot in the background which yeah can can kill things off pretty quickly.

Katie: Yeah I totally agree with with that. That is that is a major con. So a con that I would like to share is that

Noel: if you

Katie: are automating everything within your community, actually you can't listen to what your community is saying back to you. There's no community listening. So you're missing out on key things. And if you're not providing what your community wants, I'm not saying that you've got to listen to every single piece of feedback. but if there's a collective piece of feedback and you're not implementing it, then you're going to find that people are going to leave that community very fast and then you're

Noel: going to be like,

Katie: oh, what happened?

Noel: And it's because,

Katie: yeah, you've just automated everything and

Noel: you couldn't

Katie: listen to your community.

Noel: Yeah, the big thing is being two hands off, isn't it?

Katie: Yeah.

Noel: So if you don't have your finger on the pulse and it's kind of like, I guess when you first start a community, you get all the people that are really excited and chatty and help people out. But you've kind of got to notice when those people go quiet because if you don't notice it early enough, you're in trouble. Absolutely.

Katie: Yeah. And it is then really hard to get that engagement back up and that vibe back again. Yes. Yeah. Definitely.

Noel: Okay,

Katie: so I feel like there's some really good pros and cons there of automating your community. So let's talk about some ways that you can automate your community, but then, like, also ways that you can automate it, but then insert, like, the human touch to it as well.

Noel: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Sounds good.

Katie: Okay. So we were saying that you could automate the onboarding process, like that welcome sequence. Yeah,

Noel: so like we, I guess from an automation perspective, we could sit and watch the membership and then wait for somebody to join. I mean, that could be an email that comes into your inbox or it could be something from your community platform which you use. And then that could then start to then trigger your onboarding process. So you know, it could send them an email or a DM and things that just say, hey, you know, you should go off and do this first. check this out first and things that. So, yeah, that could all be triggered in a number of different ways.

Katie: Yeah. And then if they respond to that automated email, that's when you or your community manager replies manually.

Noel: Yes.

Katie: Very important. Yes.

Noel: You could probably have an automation to put it in the right folder so they know exactly where those emails sit. So if they can spot it, it's a response. So, yeah, just to make it a little easier on that side, because otherwise you're going to have an inbox with a thousand emails with all kinds of stuff, and I have no idea what's going on.

Katie: Yeah.

Noel: Yeah. You might miss that one email where somebody's really struggling as well, so you don't want that either.

Katie: No, you do not. Okay. So let's talk about that as well. So the customer service parts,

Noel: like because

Katie: you just said you don't want to miss an email where someone's emailed in and said, look, I'm really struggling. So I feel like there's a couple of things we could we could do around that. So the first thing is obviously make sure that you have the right inbox folder that if someone is emailing you in saying that you are struggling that, you get to that email, like, as soon as you possibly can.

Noel: Yes, yeah. So we can do that straight away so you get the 100% human touch. There is other ways where you could responsibly use a little bit of AI. So let's say you could screen all of those emails that come in straight away anyway. So you might have some commonly asked questions. Like, where do I start? Where can I find this bit of information? so we could preload that into an AI and then that can go oh cool I know the answer to this one I'll go off and answer it and if it can't figure out an answer then it would then you know flag it for somebody else to have a look at kind of thing so that's that's quite quite powerful to do really because then at least that user who's asking that common question isn't waiting for somebody to get through more important stuff before getting to their request

Katie: yeah definitely and then what we can do as well so people aren't struggling or they don't know you know they're struggling where to start or they don't know what to go next you could build out a chat bot or your community

Noel: yes yes so it I guess it all kind of depends on the platform that you're currently using whether or not that's allowed but there there are ways um around these sort of things so one platform that we I tend to like using they have a look up a bit of a back door into their DMs so we can sit there and watch like an account and then once it receives a message it then starts an automation and sends a message back so yeah not many not many community tools out there kind of like that sort of thing but yeah it can be done if you do it responsibly of course

Katie: yes of course if we always tell people able to use AI and automations responsibly and always for the good.

Noel: Absolutely, yes. Because I built one of these out for a community last year. And maybe we should, you know, put out a post and say how it works. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Let's not do that because then that kind of gives people like the, could give people the idea of like creating like a DM bot, which then outreaches to everybody. the community automatically. And it's like, no, no, we don't want that.

Katie: No, we don't want that.

Noel: So we need to keep that information to ourselves.

Katie: Yes.

Noel: Don't get still

Katie: on how to do that, Noel. I know what you're like, we're giving loads of information away.

Noel: I know, I know. I could go keep quiet, yeah.

Katie: Yes, please too.

Noel: The creator of the platform, when he found out what we built was like, that's great, but God, don't tell anyone else how to do it.

Katie: Yeah. Okay, that's good. But yeah, I feel like then when they've got a chatbot that they

Noel: can talk

Katie: to and they can ask it questions, that does take away a lot of the overwhelm because I find that if you have got a community for a membership, one of the main reasons people leave is because they feel overwhelmed. It's because whether they don't know how to move through the content, they don't know where to start or there is just too much content and there can be a thing as too much content. So actually I think having that chat bot where they can ask it questions where they feel like then they're not, you know, bugging someone with all of their questions or having to wait even for a response, especially like if the customer service team is in a completely different time.

Noel: Yeah.

Katie: Yeah. Yeah.

Noel: I feel like. I've got to think of this on a global scale. Yes.

Katie: Absolutely.

Noel: But there's

Katie: also people as well who will not work like the hours of 9 to 5. They might actually have a 9 to 5 and be in your community on an evening. And then do you have that evening customer support, even if they're in the same country as you and most people don't. You could have people, you know, that maybe, I don't know, you know, their complete night hours. and they stay up until 4 a.m., you know, and then, you know, go to sleep until mid-morning. So you've got to think about this in, you know, the different patterns that, you know, people live their lives in, and you can't have custom support 24-7, but I feel like that chatbot is a really great way to, you know, get people past that overwhelm and to get unstuck.

Noel: Yeah, I guess there's also, also another superpower with that as well is not only would you train it on your own data which is great but if you're running something that's maybe a bit more technical and you encourage people to share like YouTube videos or like tips and tricks they found you could also include that in there as well so if somebody's got like a random question about a tool that you've the support guys have never heard about either you could then have potentially if it's been posted that information could already be in the community they just have haven't found it. So that bot would then be able to go off and find that information that supply it back. So it kind of also helps you save a lot of time on, you know, those awkward questions where you're like, I've never even heard of this tool, let alone know how to answer this question. Yeah.

Katie: When I was in a community, I had been in it for, I think at this point, about eight years and I joined about six months after it started. The community manager often used to email me and say, we've had this person email in, and they're talking about a workbook or a particular training. We hear at the customer support team have got no idea what they're talking about. Have you got any idea what they're talking about? And I would be like, yeah. And I was like, I think have you. we still got like a copy of it somewhere.

Noel: Brilliant.

Katie: Yeah. So if you don't have members who have been in your community for years and, you know, squirrel things away for a rainy day, then a chat bot is going to be absolutely fantastic for you. Absolutely, yeah.

Noel: Brilliant. Yes, brilliant.

Katie: Okay, so we talked a little bit, didn't we, about like, automated. those posts for consistency. So I think these are really great. Like if you want to post something every day to get your community involved, you know, like a thread or it could be like a Q&A post, a check-in, wins, something like that.

Noel: I think those are really great.

Katie: And I think, you know, just having those lined up scheduled a few a week would be really great. I would also say, though, allow like some spontaneous threads. So, you know, things that have popped up in the news maybe related to your industry or, you know, that's related to your community. I think that's really important as well. But I think those posts need to be answered. and I always think that every, like, comment on those type of posts should be answered. And I think that that is a human's job.

Noel: Yes, definitely, yeah. It's, there's also some platforms, one in particular that I use, that they're kind of dead against people scheduling content. That doesn't mean you can't automate it and store that somewhere else. Yeah. You know, you could create all of your weekly content in a spreadsheet and then just start copy-pacing across because that functionality doesn't exist on the platform. But I guess what we should also do is include our good old brand voice as well, shouldn't we? Because we don't want a robotic chat chachibit post in there, do we?

Katie: No, but this brand voice, so whether you are the first, face of the business and then the community or whether there is like a team, you should all be using the same brand voice. What you don't want is community moderators or community managers using a completely different brand voice to that of the business. But again, a community manager would 100% know that and implement that straight away. Yep,

Noel: good to know. Another one to strike off the list for a moderator.

Katie: Yeah, but moderators totally have their place and they work really well underneath a community manager. I've had community moderators work with me and they have been absolutely fantastic. You know, when I've gone on holiday taking time off, I know that my moderators, you know, have absolutely, you know, got it like I don't

Noel: need to

Katie: worry you

Noel: don't can

Katie: really go enjoy my time off or my holiday but yeah they aren't a community manager they are a community moderator so they can very much keep the conversations going the community active but they wouldn't be doing things like retention onboarding you know looking at members who are at risk or you know you know helping maybe ongoing member's success, you know, they wouldn't be doing the challenges or things like that. Maybe they're not doing those, you know, sporadic posts. You know, maybe they are just keeping very much strict to, you know, those scheduled posts. And that's fine. That's absolutely fine, you know, for a couple of weeks. But you do need that community you manage it back.

Noel: Oh, definitely.

Katie: Yes.

Noel: I guess what we're talking about moderation, though, is there are ways that you could automate your moderation team as well, slightly, or at least help them out. So one way you could do it is to every time somebody posts, you know, you could go off and then do a quick check. So if you like have a, there's no promotion posts allowed in this community. and AI goes a hold on a minute they're selling their services here we could then flag that to the moderation team so you know so nothing gets missed because there's always if it's really busy and something's always going to get missed but yeah especially with gaps in time zones as well like we mentioned earlier yeah

Katie: yeah for sure

Noel: yeah so yeah I guess it could get quite expensive if we've got a really busy community but yeah it'll pay for itself in the long room

Katie: yeah definitely and then kind of like what we were talking about it was you know using AI to spot the inactive members oh yeah um so you know maybe it is the ones that have dropped off they're you know they're at risk and you know that's when AI can like flag that for you. But then again, it's to connect with them personally and not use AI for that.

Noel: Yes, yeah. So you could scrape the membership and then say, well, look, when it comes through the automation and say, well, if they've been active 30 days or more, you know, add it to this list, you know, and then send that in an email to your admins, moderators, managers, owner, whoever, and then, yeah, leave it up to them guys to figure out how to contact them and things like, because they've probably already got a personal connection with them anyway, haven't they?

Katie: Absolutely, absolutely. And most people would be thinking, oh, like, say if there was like a traffic-like system, so the greens, they're active, they're not at risk, maybe the amber, you know, maybe they're not connecting with others. as much or going through the membership or, you know, whatever they need to go through within the community, those you still need to keep an eye on. And then the red are the ones that are really at risk. And that's the ones you need to be reaching out to to see what's going on. But actually, the green, the people in the green section, if you have got time, you know, or enough, say, moderators, then that's when actually you should be reaching out to them and just saying, you know, thank you so much for being part of this community. We see you. You know, we know what you're doing. We love having you part of this community, you know, and just like a big thanks. Because then that makes them feel really good and feel really valued as a community member. They, the green people are not to be ignored.

Noel: as much

Katie: as the red people do not need to be ignored.

Noel: Yes, definitely, yeah. I was at a community where they were kind of, I had a finger on the pulse when it came to, like, people that were being really helpful. And, you know, like every month, they'd be like, there's a post to say, look, really big thanks to these people. You've been fantastic. And, you know, we're send, you know, send us a DM and we'll send you, like, a voucher to pay for your week's coffee, you know. So, yeah,

Katie: that's very generous. It was, yeah.

Noel: Yeah, I racked up a few of those.

Katie: Yeah. But again, like, I'm not saying that you have to give something away.

Noel: No.

Katie: Just to say thanks, even if it's a personal message.

Noel: And I think

Katie: personal message rather than a group message goes a lot further. Oh, definitely, yeah.

Noel: Especially from the owner.

Katie: Yeah. Yeah. Or the community manager. Because they will have that relationship. with the community manager they

Noel: will guess yeah yeah

Katie: definitely so i think we've actually covered a lot there and a lot of the basics for a community and whether you should automate it or not and i think from this conversation no there are some things you can automate

Noel: yeah definitely

Katie: and some things you shouldn't automate

Noel: yeah and no if anyone asks i'm not telling them how to create that bot on a platform. Okay.

Katie: So before people are in the DMs.

Noel: Yeah, I'm not telling.

Katie: Okay.

Noel: Tight-lipped. Okay.

Katie: And we have some news ourselves, Noel, don't we?

Noel: That is involved.

Katie: Community.

Noel: I know. Who's a thought?

Katie: Yeah. Big news. So Noel and I are going to be launching our own membership, our own community. Hopefully we will have a launch date for you on the next podcast episode. So as of today, it is mid-July. And so we're hoping to have everything ready and rearing to go in a few weeks' time. We are going to be building a membership for business owners who want to learn about AI and automations or AI automations, both of them together. Yeah,

Noel: absolutely. Yeah, they fit rather well.

Katie: They do. Do you want to tell people a little bit more about it, Noel?

Noel: Yeah, so if people listen to this and join the community and have had no idea about make.com, don't worry, I've got a whole section on that. Yeah, it takes you through all of the basics. And I guess in the future we'll then start to cover some more advanced topics and things like that. But there's also bits there about prompt engineering as well. And there's a few automation builds that we take you through step by step. So if you've never built one before, that's fine. We can take you through. And of course, everything will be in meg.com. And then obviously, You've got some other bits in there as well with marketing as well.

Katie: Yes, we've got some about automating your social media, repurposing your social media, and also about content planning as well. So actually just talking you through different types of content to be posting, to get clients as well. Yeah, there is going to be a lot in there. So, yeah, it's going to be a little bit about marketing, some AI automations, and AI automations as well. And this is going to be based at people who are beginners. And then obviously, as we add things, you hopefully will become more advanced as well as the topic and information that we add in there as well.

Noel: absolutely yeah we also have potentially some exclusive guests in there as well don't we so we

Katie: we do

Noel: so some of the guests that we've had on the podcast will also be in there and helping you out answer any questions and i guess the other main thing as well is you know it's one thing listening to us on a weekly basis and hearing how to do things and automate it but within there we'll actually show you a bit more and maybe how to implement that as well so so yeah you're not having to figure it out. Oh, a hell of a lot more. Yeah. But not about that DM bot though. No, no, no.

Katie: And of course, if you're building it out and you get stuck, you can come and ask in the community for help as well.

Noel: Definitely.

Katie: So if you want to be on the VIP list for our new membership for when it opens and maybe like get a little bonus, then you can. just either send us an email at hello at makeautomations.a.i or you can send us a DM on LinkedIn or just come and let us know in our free LinkedIn group that we have called AI Automations for Businesses. Everyone is very welcome to join that as well by the way. So we will see you in all those places and we will catch you for another episode very soon.