At Patreon, we don’t simply need to construct for creators, we need to construct with them. That’s why we launched Voice of the Creator, a sequence a workshops and panels hosted by our Consumer Analysis crew to be taught extra from creators about how Patreon may help them attain their targets.
For our first workshop, we invited six creators to our New York workplace to listen to the most important challenges they face when rising and interesting with their communities, and the way we will work collectively to resolve these issues.
Meet the creators:
As an alternative of an everyday Q&A session, we broke out into teams to get to the core of what neighborhood means to those creators. Every creator teamed up with members of our Government, Consumer Analysis, and Product Design groups to speak about how they constructed their communities and the way we may help them proceed to develop. Listed here are a number of key themes and takeaways:
Neighborhood takes time
Neighborhood engagement doesn’t simply occur. It takes a number of time to handle and join with members, and that may be could be a enormous barrier to entry for some creators.
After Lindsey Sanford, our Senior Director of Enterprise Operations, spent the day with Ryan Rozbiani, she noticed simply what number of hours it really takes. “Ryan works till 11 p.m. or midnight constructing suggestions, sending out notices to his neighborhood, and answering questions. Then he wakes up within the morning and resets the entire thing.”
And no two communities are the identical. Relying on the targets and dimension of the neighborhood, creators want completely different strategies of group, moderation, and engagement. For instance, bigger communities typically want extra sturdy moderation instruments, together with automated assist, whereas smaller communities typically depend on particular person moderators.
Creators want simpler methods to achieve their communities
Creators are bored with having to make use of a bunch of various apps to interact with their communities. If there have been extra built-in methods to attach with their followers, they wouldn’t need to depend on different platforms. Meaning they’d have much less apps to watch and handle (and extra time to create). From the fan’s perspective, if every part occurs in a single place, they is likely to be extra prone to interact.
Julian Gutman, our Chief Product Officer, talked to Queen Po about this actual concern. “It was attention-grabbing to listen to how tough it’s to handle all these areas which are bringing the neighborhood collectively in several methods, and the way useful it will be to combine that extra into Patreon. Simply convey all of it collectively.”
Members have essentially the most helpful suggestions
Creators’ communities are a very powerful supply of suggestions they’ve and one of the simplest ways for them to develop their companies. That’s why they’re excited by extra methods to deeply perceive member sentiment and membership satisfaction. The extra they hear from members and get to know them, the better it’s to establish points, tackle them thoughtfully, and hold members round for longer.
Communities desire a secure house
Creators outline “neighborhood” as a spot the place followers join over frequent pursuits, wants, and targets. For some, which means a shared ardour for preventing local weather change. For others, it’s a love of Dungeons and Dragons. However it doesn’t matter what subject they’re connecting over or what medium they’re utilizing, one factor all communities have in frequent is that they need a secure house the place they will meet, chat, and join with out worry of judgement.
After diving into this subject with Sarah Galli, our Chief Individuals Officer Kathleen Pacini obtained a deep understanding of how Patreon may help her and her neighborhood. “Patreon seems like a secure house and permits [Sarah] to have extra advanced conversations than she would have in her common podcast,” she says. For Kathleen, it raises the query: “how can we construct in that method of getting deeper, extra intentional conversations?”
Hear extra from creators
Thanks to all of the creators who joined us. We’re excited to proceed internet hosting Voice of the Creator periods and looking for suggestions immediately from our creator neighborhood. Keep tuned for upcoming workshops, panels, and different occasions.