Jordan Miller

2021 was a big year for Invision Community. 🎉 We launched no-code automation with our Zapier integration, added web push notifications, offline support, stock replies and new reporting metrics. We also improved spam management, SEO crawl efficiency, Clubs, Activity Streams and introduced a native gamification system named Achievements. Not to mention the team grew! 👋 @Matt Finger @Marshall Slemp (and me 🙋🏼‍♂️). We have lots to look forward to in the new year, but before we reveal more let's take a trip down memory lane. 2021 was one of our best-performing years ever! Here are some highlights: Community Activity 2021 We saw an influx of members contributing to our community support forum. 3,832 members submitted new content, followed something, or reacted to something in the community. Points earned: Thanks to the introduction of the Achievements system, members had the opportunity to earn points for contributing to the support community. In total, the community racked up 361,363 points. 📈 Topics created: Members fired off more than 4000 topics, including questions, feature suggestions and community management tips. 😳 New posts: Inside those topics included an array of replies. 31,488 posts to be exact. 😱 Top 10 members with the most amount of Reactions given: Members also engaged with the community using our Reputation system (think of it as our "likes" 👍 system). Here are the top 10 members who gave the most Reactions. @sobrenome @Jordan Miller @SeNioR- @Linux-Is-Best @OptimusBain @Matt @Adriano Faria @Davyc @Marc Stridgen @Unienc Top 10 members with the most amount of Reactions received: If a member's topic or reply is well received, it earns Reputation using our Reactions system. Here are the top 10 members who received the most love. ❤️ @Matt @Adriano Faria @Nathan Explosion @CoffeeCake @opentype @Marc Stridgen @Daniel F @Davyc @Jimi Wikman Members who earned the most badges: Participating in the community also earns members special badges. You get a badge and you get a badge! ✅ @CoffeeCake @TAMAN @opentype @PPlanet @SUBRTX @Sonya* @Afrodude Top Marketplace contributors: Shout-out to our crazy talented third-party developers who take time out of their busy schedules to innovate and create downloads for other Invision Community clients to use! Here are the top Marketplace contributes: @Nathan Explosion @Michael.J @Miss_B @IBTheme @Kirill Gromov @ReyDev @Adriano Faria @shahed Most active forum: You have questions and we have answers. Our support system shifted to our help & support forum and it paid off big time! Thanks to everyone who contributed to making Invision Community a better place. Whether you're an active poster in our community support forums, or a customer who lives to learn and absorb, we greatly appreciate you. Cheers to the exciting ventures on the way in 2022! 🎉

Front-facing support creates visible opportunities for clients to find answers to both frequently asked and uncommon questions. Earlier this year, Invision Community lifted the veil off support, shifting from a private, 1-on-1, email-driven medium to open topics in our community support forum. We found ourselves answering the same questions because we hadn’t fully leaned into community support, which also gives our existing clients opportunities to weigh in with solutions. While we still do convert a chunk of community support questions to a private ticket, most issues are resolved for all to see. This is important to note because it's created an invaluable resource for others who may be searching for similar answers. We have: Improved support staff time management Improved retention Improved support response times for clients Built a resource library and knowledge base Forged stronger connections A few key stats in our support areas: 71% solved (+80%) in 3 months 9 hours is our average time to find a solution (50% faster) in 3 months 14% of topics became a ticket Feel free to mirror what we do for your own community! This is done through four key steps: 1) Identify, 2) Assess, 3) Execute, 4) Follow up 1) Identify: The first step is to identify the client’s problem or concerns. Our team keeps an eye on the support forums and anticipate new topics are incoming. We are equipped with any stored access details, and cloud access details, to login to a client’s community and take a look if needed (with their consent). This can aid us in identifying the issue. 2) Assess: After assessing the issue and gathering information, we put on our critical thinking caps. One of several things may happen: A solution is provided More information may be requested A ticket can be created if needed for more sensitive issues, or items needing more detailed review Sometimes our support team needs to investigate an issue further. That requires us to take things off the community and open a specialized ticket for our tier two support team to take a closer look. 3) Execute Now that we’ve created a path towards finding a solution, we get to work. Each ticket can result in one of three outcomes: It's resolved It needs to be further investigated Or, it’s a bug Bugs Hey, they happen. If an item is determined to be a bug, that bug is also added as a follow up item and the topic is marked as a known issue. When we follow up on a bug item, we go through a few processes. Our developers will work through these bugs to get them resolved, in order of priority/severity. Once done, they are reviewed and added to a new release. Fun fact: Every week, we list out all of the platform updates and fixes in our Community Manager's Lounge! As items are fixed, our support staff will pick up on this through the followup process. The ticket will be changed from “known issue” to “in future release” to show its status. The follow up item status is also changed to show it being in the next release. Upon release of a new version, the above items are gone through to mark them as solved, then we inform the client that the issue is resolved. We also have weekly development meetings to discuss items with developers, as well as weekly support staff meetings to discuss issues with any support processes for that week. 4) Followup Following up with a client after we found a solution helps us stay connected to our community and improves retention. We like to check back in a few days, a week, or even more depending on what the nature of the issue was. The aim is to provide a working solution to the client then ensure that, well… it worked! If an item is escalated, we have an internal follow up system that allows us to keep an eye on your ticket. Shifting the way you handle support, from behind-the-scenes to center stage, has been one of the most profound and rewarding changes to Invision Community. Not only is our support community a wealth of knowledge and saves our clients time, but it also creates trust with our clients because we’re held accountable. How do you handle support in your community? Drop us a line in the comments; we’d love to hear from (and see) you!

Gratitude is an essential part of building community. One of the most powerful emotions is gratitude. It helps foster meaningful connections, expands awareness and, well, it just feels good! Invision Community features powerful tools to help you maintain relationships with your clients, customers or members. Approaching them with gratitude in mind will inspire your community to blossom into something even greater. Here are five ways to show your community members you are thankful for them: 1) Achievements Our robust Achievements system is the most obvious method to tap into gratitude. As a community leader or moderator, you can literally show thanks by rewarding your members. Manually award members a Badge and Points for exemplifying leadership, posting special content or for their positive contributions. Move members into an exclusive Rank for consistently being a positive force in the community. Display a block of Badges on the community homepage to make members’ accomplishments visible. 2) Newsletter Send a bulk email from the platform directly into your members’ inbox. A newsletter is a wonderful way to intimately communicate with your die-hards. Blast the email to your entire community, or choose specific user groups. For example, relay this special gratitude email to members who’ve posted 100 times or more. 3) Curate content Highlight your members’ topics or blog posts by curating them for more to see. This not only thanks your community for positively contributing, but also encourages others to follow suit. Use the Our Picks widget or the Feature moderation action to prominently display content items. Though different tactics, both showcase what your members are posting. 4) Reputation Our Reputation system is one of the most efficient and effective ways to show gratitude in an instant. “Reacting” to members’ posts visibly shows thanks and communicates to others that the post is worth stopping and reading. Reacting also increases a member’s perceived value in the community. The higher a member’s Reputation score is, the more they are trusted by others. 5) Topics This might be the most powerful but challenging tip of all: create a topic in the Forums and tell your community you’re grateful for them. It’s one thing to award badges and points, curate content and send a newsletter, but it’s another for you, the community leader, to spend a moment and personally thank your members for supporting you. They are spending their time, one of the most valuable assets, with you. That’s worth celebrating! Speaking of… Invision Community would like to take this moment to thank you. Whether you are a serious hobbyist, a medium-sized company or an enterprise industry giant, we want to thank you for believing in us and using our platform to better your business. If you’re someone who’s interested in joining, we’d love to hear from you! 🙏 Get in touch with us! 🙏