Whether you’re just getting started as a community builder, or you’ve been a longtime professional in the field, you’ve probably benefited from the invaluable advice or resources that have come out of CMX. In fact, this community for community professionals has not one, not two, but three different digital spaces where members gather and interact (Slack, Facebook Group, CMX Pro). Today’s review will be looking only at the CMX Slack Community, of which I am a proud member!
What I love:
Clear and concise (and friendly) guidelines. The guidelines are placed exactly where they should be: pinned to the top of the very first channel listed in the Slack workspace, for optimal viewing. I’m glad to see that CMX avoided corporate-speak here and wrote them in natural language where it almost feels like a friend is reading them off rather than a brand or business.
Responsiveness. Because of the number of community members here (3,500+), and their activity and attentiveness to this workspace, you’re likely to get an almost-immediate-response to your question. The longest I’ve ever waited for a response here was just a few hours. In fact, the users are so quick to respond that I know people who’ve had platform questions answered faster here than the time it took them to hear back from the actual platform company. I would guess that one of the success factors here is thanks to the volunteer moderator program called Communiteers.
Best-in-class process and perks for becoming a local host. One of the best ways to serve your community members is to foster local connections amongst them, and CMX has mastered this through a program called CMX Connect Hosts. If you have an interest in being a host for a local meetup, they have detailed instructions on how to do this, as well as the expectations involved. In addition, one of their Slack rooms is dedicated to these chapter hosts. Perhaps the best part of this, besides how easy it is to apply and begin hosting your own events, is the perks package (free access to CMX Pro and all CMX Academy courses) that comes with being a CMX Connect Host, valued at $1,750 USD! If you’re looking to establish volunteer user groups around the world, you could learn a great many things from what CMX has done here.
Outstanding digital events. Not only are the topics timely and helpful, but each webinar is executed masterfully to offer as many engagement opportunities as possible for the audience. In fact, I’m very much looking forward to their next event (hybrid), CMX Summit, taking place Aug. 31-Sept. 2, with this year’s theme being “The Rise of Community.” Registration is FREE. And if you live in Los Angeles, you’re welcome to come to the Summit Networking Party that I’m hosting at my home.
My wish list:
Better discoverability of quality conversations. I’m sure there have been numerous valuable discussions happening here, with content that any community professional would love to bookmark and reread over and over again. Since Slack search is…well…terrible…it makes it extremely difficult to find and link back to these discussions. As a result, what we see happening is that people end up asking the same questions since it’s not an easy or convenient experience to search for the question before posting it.
ONE digital destination for the community. With so many quality conversations happening both on Slack and the Facebook Group, wouldn’t it make sense to centralize that great content? (Since CMX Pro is a paid membership offering, it makes sense to keep that community separate. If everything IS centralized one day, I would imagine that Pro would be given a private group or space on the new community.) As a regular listener to the Masters of Community podcast, I know this is something that CMX is already aware of and evaluating.
A community for consultants. There are more and more people starting their own practices and businesses dedicated solely to community consulting. (Of course, I am one of them, so perhaps I am biased here.) I would love to see CMX dedicate a Slack room, or perhaps even a membership offering, that serves this audience. They already do this for certain roles in this field for those who work in: community operations, gaming, developer relations. This “sub-group” of consultants is only going to continue to grow, and I’d like to see CMX leading the way to provide a resourceful gathering place for all of us.
Easy-to-find information on Communiteers program. I mentioned above that the Communiteers are part of the reason that the time-to-first-response is so quick. A search on the Slack workspace, and the CMX Blog, didn’t provide me with any info on HOW to become a Communiteer or even what the benefits are. That would be great information for new community members to read through so they understand what the Communiteer badge even means when they are corresponding with someone who has it. And who knows…maybe there are community members out there hoping to become one but they don’t know how?
What do YOU think of the CMX Community? If you’re reading this in your inbox, just hit reply to send me your response privately. If you’d like to share publicly, scroll to the comments section below (or, again, if you’re reading this in your inbox, click on the title at the top of the email. Then, scroll down to the comments section.)
This is part of a weekly series where I’ll select a community I’m inspired by and write about it. Sometimes they’ll be ones that I’m a member of. Sometimes they won’t. Sometimes they’ll be clients. Sometimes they won’t. Each post will share what I enjoy the most about that community, and if you’re familiar with it, I hope you’ll share what you like about it, too.
Do you have a nominee for Community of the Week? If so, send me a brief email with the name, URL, and a few sentences as to why I should highlight it and check it out.
Thank you for sharing. I agree with you about CMX's guidelines. They're among the best I've read.
Hey Jenny! Thank you SO much for spotlighting CMX in your weekly series! This was such a great read. Also just wanted to provide some context on those wishlist items, on behalf of CMX!
- Better discoverability of quality conversations: This is sadly a limitation of our CMX Slack utilizing the free plan, but we're working on curating a living, constantly-updated "Frequently Used Resources" list to help answer some of the most commonly asked questions! Sort of like a wiki. We're hoping to have this done before the year is up!
- ONE digital destination for the community: I actually don't have a comment on this, but yes, we're aware of the limitations and will further evaluate!
- A community for consultants / Easy-to-find information on Communiteers program: We're actively planning to more clearly outline how CMX community members can get more involved, in one centralized, easy-to-access spot. Stay tuned for all the exciting things we've got planned!
Thank you again for your honesty and love for CMX!