Nic Tolstoshev's guest appearances

Nic Tolstoshev

Nerd Journey Podcast

Blake Johnson

John White

Andrew Miller

Brad Christian

Jon Hildebrand

Ramzi Marjaba

Don Jones

Chris Wahl

Steven Murawski

Ashley Connell

Josh Duffney

Scott Lowe

Tom Hollingsworth

Brad Tompkins

Joseph Griffiths

OwlTail

Welcome to episode 63 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_), two Pre-Sales Technical Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we discuss online community management and career paths with community manager Nic Tolstoshev. Once again, here’s the Nic Tolstoshev fan art Flickr feed we mentioned. Original Recording Date: 10-26-2019 Topics – Community Management and Career with Nick Tolstoshev 02:35 Community Manager Career Path and Time Commitment  * Do community managers get actively recruited for roles at other places?  * That is exactly how Nic ended up at Automox.* The career path is all over the place.  Some people burn out after a few years in the role, while others get into community management as a stepping stone (i.e. considering it entry level before making a lateral move). * For those in it for the long haul, your skills will eventually be required / wanted elsewhere. * There is not a great path to climb the corporate ladder from the community manager position, but this is starting to change with some companies making a whole department for it.  * A company’s having an online community is a differentiator which could potentially decrease the need for head count. * Nic talks to some things that come out of communities that you never expected.  * Examples – SpiceRex, a special community award* 08:38 – What about the time commitment for this role?  * Don’t make it an hourly position.  There is more that goes into it. * Nic likes to keep an eye out after hours since online communities aren’t just in use during vendor business hours. * As a solo community manager, you can leverage power users of the community as moderators to help.  * Nic likes to select an informal backup within the company that is passionate about community so he can take vacations, sick days, etc. * There is a certain social contract that applies to online community participation.* Getting additional funding / resources requires showing proof of added value to the bottom line.  * Look at things like number of engaged users, page views, traffic, if questions are getting answered (reply %), etc. as key performance indicators. * Product feedback can be requested and given within the online community through feature requests, focus groups, beta tests, etc. * Nic shares a story from Intuit in the QuickBooks for Mac forum when he helped the product team uncover a bug and had to act as the DeFacto PR person in this situation.  * Community managers have to help keep the public informed in a corporate disaster.22:47 – Advice for the Would Be Community Manager and Closing Thoughts  * Technical skills won’t stay as sharp.  Nic mentions missing out on getting his hands dirty in the virtualization movement.  * He worked on the community team at a company outside the technology space but found himself doing a great deal of technical work (back end maintenance on the community platform). * Nic recommends getting very hands on with the products a vendor sells and shares examples of what he has done since joining Automox.  This helps members of the community and also allows for very direct feedback to internal...

Welcome to episode 63 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [<a href="https://twitter.com/NerdJourney/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@NerdJourney</a>]! We’re <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/vJourneyman/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">John White</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/vJourneyman" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@vJourneyman</a>) and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickkortenetworknerd/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nick Korte</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/NetworkNerd_/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@NetworkNerd_</a>), two Pre-Sales Technical Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we discuss online community management and career paths with community manager Nic Tolstoshev. Once again, here’s the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/spiceworks/with/5708561448/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nic Tolstoshev fan art Flickr feed</a> we mentioned. Original Recording Date: 10-26-2019 Topics – Community Management and Career with Nick Tolstoshev 02:35 Community Manager Career Path and Time Commitment * Do community managers get actively recruited for roles at other places? * That is exactly how Nic ended up at Automox. * The career path is all over the place. Some people burn out after a few years in the role, while others get into community management as a stepping stone (i.e. considering it entry level before making a lateral move). * For those in it for the long haul, your skills will eventually be required / wanted elsewhere. * There is not a great path to climb the corporate ladder from the community manager position, but this is starting to change with some companies making a whole department for it. * A company’s having an online community is a differentiator which could potentially decrease the need for head count. * Nic talks to some things that come out of communities that you never expected. * Examples – SpiceRex, a special community award * 08:38 – What about the time commitment for this role? * Don’t make it an hourly position. There is more that goes into it. * Nic likes to keep an eye out after hours since online communities aren’t just in use during vendor business hours. * As a solo community manager, you can leverage power users of the community as moderators to help. * Nic likes to select an informal backup within the company that is passionate about community so he can take vacations, sick days, etc. * There is a certain social contract that applies to online community participation. * Getting additional funding / resources requires showing proof of added value to the bottom line. * Look at things like number of engaged users, page views, traffic, if questions are getting answered (reply %), etc. as key performance indicators. * Product feedback can be requested and given within the online community through feature requests, focus groups, beta tests, etc. * Nic shares a story from Intuit in the QuickBooks for Mac forum when he helped the product team uncover a bug and had to act as the DeFacto PR person in this situation. * Community managers have to help keep the public informed in a corporate disaster. 22:47 – Advice for the Would Be Community Manager and Closing Thoughts * Technical skills won’t stay as sharp. Nic mentions missing out on getting his hands dirty in the virtualization movement. * He worked on the community team at a company outside the technology space but found himself doing a great deal of technical work (back end maintenance on the community platform). * Nic recommends getting very hands on with the products a vendor sells and shares examples of what he has done since joining Automox. This helps members of the community and also allows for very direct feedback to internal...

Managing Online Communities and Career Path Pt. 2 with Nic Tolstoshev

Welcome to episode 62 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_), two Pre-Sales Technical Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we discuss online community management and its role within an organization with community manager Nic Tolstoshev. Here’s the Nic Tolstoshev fan art Flickr feed we mentioned. Original Recording Date: 10-26-2019 Topics – Community Management and the Community Management Role 3:20 Online Communities and Community Management  * Nic is currently a community manager at Automox. * He has been working as an online community manager for 15 years and worked in IT as a systems administrator before that. * What does a community manager do?  * They manage an online community, ensure it is thriving, make sure people are getting along, and serve as a conduit for information between community participants and employees of the company who sponsors the community.  * Think providing feedback to product teams, helping engage customers for beta testing, helping with announcements, etc.* Why do companies invest in having an online community?  * This provides an additional channel to interact with customers online but also a peer-to-peer interaction opportunity for customers. * Some companies separate online community from a formal advocacy program, while others do not.  * Many companies do not know where to put the community management discipline inside the organization (Development / Engineering, Marketing, Support, etc.) because the discipline is still fairly new. * Depending on where the role falls within an organization, it can affect perceived internal value of this role, resources and headcount available, etc.* When an online community grows up with a company, it seems to be seen as more valuable than a community started by a well-established company (might be more challenge to get buy in).  * At Automox, Nic has executive level support for establishment and growth of the online community.* Do community managers have social media functions also?  * The roles between community managers and social media functions have mostly diverged with the social media responsibilities being a branch of Marketing. * While there is some overlap between social media management (i.e. interactions on Twitter, etc.) and online community management, the skillsets needed are different.  * John gives the example of the VMware community and how this comes out heavily on Twitter.  Individual contributors spend time building brand by expanding reach on social media. * Social media platforms do not support having a good conversation* Social media platforms do not support having a good conversation like a discussion thread in an online community does.15:37  Learning about the Community Management Role  *  The transition happened while Nic was at Intuit supporting Quickbooks Enterprise.  * He did phone support, trained front line engineers, and covered tier 2 support. * An opening came up in the community department and seemed interesting.*  Nic took an internship at NIH while in high school to write code.  During this time is when he got his first

Welcome to episode 62 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [<a href="https://twitter.com/NerdJourney/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@NerdJourney</a>]! We’re <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/vJourneyman/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">John White</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/vJourneyman" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@vJourneyman</a>) and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickkortenetworknerd/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nick Korte</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/NetworkNerd_/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@NetworkNerd_</a>), two Pre-Sales Technical Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we discuss online community management and its role within an organization with community manager Nic Tolstoshev. Here’s the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/spiceworks/with/5708561448/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nic Tolstoshev fan art Flickr feed</a> we mentioned. Original Recording Date: 10-26-2019 Topics – Community Management and the Community Management Role 3:20 Online Communities and Community Management * Nic is currently a community manager at <a href="https://www.automox.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Automox</a>. * He has been working as an online community manager for 15 years and worked in IT as a systems administrator before that. * What does a community manager do? * They manage an online community, ensure it is thriving, make sure people are getting along, and serve as a conduit for information between community participants and employees of the company who sponsors the community. * Think providing feedback to product teams, helping engage customers for beta testing, helping with announcements, etc. * Why do companies invest in having an online community? * This provides an additional channel to interact with customers online but also a peer-to-peer interaction opportunity for customers. * Some companies separate online community from a formal advocacy program, while others do not. * Many companies do not know where to put the community management discipline inside the organization (Development / Engineering, Marketing, Support, etc.) because the discipline is still fairly new. * Depending on where the role falls within an organization, it can affect perceived internal value of this role, resources and headcount available, etc. * When an online community grows up with a company, it seems to be seen as more valuable than a community started by a well-established company (might be more challenge to get buy in). * At Automox, Nic has executive level support for establishment and growth of the online community. * Do community managers have social media functions also? * The roles between community managers and social media functions have mostly diverged with the social media responsibilities being a branch of Marketing. * While there is some overlap between social media management (i.e. interactions on Twitter, etc.) and online community management, the skillsets needed are different. * John gives the example of the VMware community and how this comes out heavily on Twitter. Individual contributors spend time building brand by expanding reach on social media. * Social media platforms do not support having a good conversation* Social media platforms do not support having a good conversation like a discussion thread in an online community does. 15:37 Learning about the Community Management Role * The transition happened while Nic was at Intuit supporting Quickbooks Enterprise. * He did phone support, trained front line engineers, and covered tier 2 support. * An opening came up in the community department and seemed interesting. * Nic took an internship at NIH while in high school to write code. During this time is when he got his first

Managing Online Communities Pt. 1 with Nic Tolstoshev