Rebecca Hoffman’s approach to the job
Being a Community Manager is an important role with a vast amount of responsibility attached to it. So, for Rebecca, it’s very important to be a community member first and a Community Manager second.
Rebecca’s user-centric mantra is:
How would I respond to this if I was a user?
Communities don’t function well when one person makes all the decisions. Rebecca tries to provide opportunities for all Griffins to collaborate in the decision-making process. This ensures that the user has expressed her/his points and makes sure that the outcome answers their needs. That’s why Rebecca’s approach is always to engage with the community, their feelings, and frustrations, and work along the community to innovate.
Inspiration
Rebecca feels lucky to work alongside such amazing, talented people. At Axway, her coworkers and community members are one in the same.
Every day is inspiring!
The internal community team is a small one and Rebecca is the only one working full time on it. This means she relies a lot on her fellow Griffins for ideas and feedback to help solve complex issues or just brainstorm new ideas.
Griffins do all sorts of great work by themselves from designing custom graphics and widgets to figuring out complex document trees and tagging systems.
There are many tools and standards she uses for designing new communities and content comes from the wonderful things that have been created over the years.
“It’s enormously inspiring to be able to work on a platform that is already so collaborative and really supports the Better Together spirit that drives all the work we do.”
The best part of your job
Rebecca says it may surprise people to learn she’s an introvert. She doesn’t particularly thrive in intensely packed social spaces.
The best part of her job is that it allows her to connect meaningfully on an individual basis with her colleagues and community members.
One of the best feelings in the world is working with someone on a difficult issue and being able to either solve it together or create something completely new and exciting.
When people feel empowered and excited about the community and well equipped with the skills, tools, and resources they need to succeed, Rebecca knows that she’s done a good job.
What Rebecca likes most about working at Axway
Rebecca says, “I have never worked anywhere that felt so much like a team as Axway does.” The Better Together mantra is taken to heart and is what makes Axway such a great place to work.
“Axway is one of the best companies I have ever worked for.”
Rebecca loves the feeling of having so much support and enthusiasm all the time, from all corners of the world and from all departments. She is amazed at how much the Griffins are keen to always learn new things.
At Axway, almost everyone knows one another, regardless of where they are in the world. This helps the team to work together to support Axway’s customers and one another.
Personal advice for your career
Rebecca says that “Community Management is an interesting field; it requires a broad set of skills.”
Rebecca holds an undergraduate degree in creative writing — which is decidedly not community-related at all!
Yet, as a graduate student of rhetoric, she ended up studying communities of practice online which is how she started her career in this field.
She was used to studying how communities formed and operated and eventually helped run a few communities of her own. This led to her first professional community management role.
Rebecca says it “was never really about the kind of education I’d had, but rather that I could demonstrate the skills needed to serve in a role like this which I’d gotten through real-life experience.”
If you’re interested in community management, Rebecca advises people to get involved in communities about things they like, whether it’s a Facebook group, a Reddit community, a forum, a Discord channel, etc.
Learn how to network and build connections with other members and study the ways that moderators handle conflicts and encourage engagement.
FeverBee, CMX, and The Community Roundtable all offer fantastic and highly reputable community management training that will help level up your skills around the more nuanced parts of community management, like creating community KPIs, engagement campaigns, and more.
Having experience with anything from marketing automation to social media to graphic design to writing and editing will always be beneficial.
Philosophy for life!
Rebecca tries her best to take life as it comes and lets it surprise her! Every time an unexpected door opens, she tries to walk through it as often as possible.
This has resulted in many incredible experiences. Even her first community management role felt like walking through an open door. You never know where a great opportunity will lead or what you’ll learn when you step out on the other side.
It’s worth always keeping your eyes open and being willing to try something new and different.
Downtime
Rebecca likes to stay busy on many levels and has numerous hobbies.
She’s been a silversmith for five years and has been sewing clothing for nearly a decade. She enjoys hands-on crafts and projects as a break from the computer.
She enjoys going outside to learn how to roller skate, which is something she always wanted to learn!
Even though Rebecca is on the computer all day, she tries to write on the side and occasionally publish reviews and articles about video games, and contribute to podcasts and even manage social communities in her off time. Playing Dungeons & Dragons with friends is something she also enjoys.
A funny story from the job
For Rebecca, it’s always fun meeting people in person for the first time. So many of her relationships with community members and colleagues to start online. This can sometimes provide a funny encounter in person.
In almost all cases, she finds that many people she meets for the first time are much taller than she expected.
When Rebecca came to visit the office in Paris, she couldn’t stop thinking about how tall everyone was, it made her laugh just thinking about it.
Misc.
Rebecca has a kind heart to boot. She has two retired racing greyhounds (rescues!), Merida, and Corvo. Since working from home started, she likes to think of them as honorary Griffins since they’re always in the background of all her video calls!
Thank you, Rebecca, for all you do to make the Jive community seamless.
Read more Life at Axway stories.