Anker Community: One Brand Experience or Separate Sub Brand Communities

[AnkerOfficial]

**Hi! Community meetings are happening. Here’s the link with more information and signup. https://forms.gle/VVqb5xZUZKZGFLCJ8 **

Hit me here with any questions.

I come to you, Community, on a learning quest.

Pray tell me … what are the pros and cons of keeping the sub brands separate on the forum?

To put it a different way … some of you say we should consolidate. I wonder … why? In your mind, how would consolidation affect the community user experience? Would it be better? How?

If you favor keeping the community structures as is, explain why.

I can pitch anything I want to leadership, but my mind goes to UEX and operational efficiency.

But also, I’m genuinely curious. And impressed y’all have thought about this a lot already. I’m new here, so enlighten me.

[thebassline]

I’m torn on this.

1. Anker invested heavily into Soundcore when it launched and was 100% up my alley. Partnering with artists, focus on music, putting out fantastic audio equipment, plenty of community involvement, fun contest and youtube live sessions, focus on reviews from all types (influencers, youtubers, and everyday folk), and good conversations/troubleshooting. If it could return to that, then I would be all for it. If it cannot (or cannot come close to replicating) then…

2. Merge the communities. Regardless of where people are, it needs to be moderated and “directed”. If Anker isn’t able to staff it appropriately the users aren’t going to be able to keep it meaningfully operating. For instance, I had no idea there was a Eufy community; I own a eufy device and had no idea that there was a forum there. However, it looks like it may be in worse shape than the Soundcore forums at the moment.

My two cents.

[AnkerOfficial]

Gracias, amigo. I get it. (Old Soundcore sounds incredible!)

Soooo instead of all these sub communities, we just say “have at it in the Product Support forum” on the Anker Community regardless of sub brand? You could see a eufy question stacked on a Soundcore question stacked on a PowerHouse question … is that the thinking?

Do you think that creates a chaotic user experience? (I wonder, too, how search function might be affected, especially time … note to self, lol.)

[thebassline]

I think that seperate communites for each sub-brands is ideal imo. The amount of support questions that come in to each community collectively is really high and you are right, I can see that being very chaotic. However, while the mods are fantastic, they have largely been left alone to direct things and I’ve got to imagine that situation isn’t sustainable nor a fun time. I’ve said this many of times over the last couple of years, but I firmly believe that it is a choice that Anker has to make. Dedicated the manpower to man the battlestations or wave the white flag .

[ndalby]

Was originally torn on the communities being split but for a while it did work rather well, with SoundCore becoming more prominent it made sense especially with their artist sessions and the like having their own dedicated community however this was marred by audio focused chat only…and there is only so much you can talk about on audio, some ‘off topic’ stuff is needed but was eventually kinda outlawed…

Now fast forward 1-2 years and with limited admin input the community is/was starting to unravel like here…

Same with the Eufy community, though I only spent a short time there due to how chaotic it seemed, didn’t need more in my life haha.

I think its fine having different off branches of Anker communities but it needs to be run as a project with dedication, not just to sky rocket the brand name and then cut corners hoping it will survive itself or with its members propping it up because the brand has ‘other’ priorities or understaffing…

Just my little rant…more might surface haha

[Matt_Tabor]

Let me answer your question with a question of my own (and I’m probably not the only one thinking this)… If you are referring to the separate communities representing the different faces (brands) of Anker; are those separate communities going to be receiving new and attentive overlords just like Anker has?

In my opinion, the idea of separating the communities out made a lot of since when there was a ton of activity going on inside of them. By dividing the forums, we knew that if we wanted information/help/contests on headphones that we needed to join and participate in the Soundcore Community. There was still some crossover between them, but you were able to find your “niche” and many people felt comfortable there.

Off the top of my head, here are my thoughts:

PROS FOR KEEPING SEPARATE:

• Creates Smaller communities that make it easier for newcomers to feel welcome and get a grasp of the community as a whole.

• For those without certain product lines, it eliminates a lot of “useless” information that people don’t need. (You join Anker because you have a power bank, therefore I don’t need to see posts about cameras, projectors, vacuums, earbuds, etc.)

PROS FOR COMBINING:

• If the other communities are not going to be invested in by admins, then I would rather them all be under one roof with an admin and multiple moderators.

• Having everything in one location tends to be easier with rules on what is and is not allowed as well as receiving communication from Anker as a whole instead of Soundcore telling us one thing, Eufy saying something different, and members getting confuse. (Not saying this has happened before, but could easily see how it could).

So long story short, I agree with what others above have said. Separate communities are probably ideal, but the realist in me says that due to lack of admin involvement, it would make more sense to consolidate and have one community that functions extremely well and provides a great experience to newcomers and veterans alike.

[Chiquinho]

When I entered the forum.
There were all sub brands represented.
It worked fine.

[AnkerOfficial]

It worked fine, but it wasn’t sustainable it seems. My task, and aim, in this conversation is to see if I can bridge what the community wants and what the organization can support:)

[AnkerOfficial]

are those separate communities going to be receiving new and attentive overlords just like Anker has?

That’s what I’m working out. What are the advantages to the community in having the communities separated out?

What if we just kept the forum the same and I built out support for each brand? (IOW, no new headcount.)

That said, here’s what I’m hearing from you:

1. Forums without admin support of any kind are a fail.
2. Better onboarding/entry experience will support member acquisition.
3. Having an overarching brand presence is important to community trust.

Your read on this situation, @Matt_Tabor, mirrors mine. I’m glad you shared that information.

But let me know if I’m missing a key point. I want to hear it.

[AnkerOfficial]

t needs to be run as a project with dedication, not just to sky rocket the brand name

I hear you, and I agree.

[Duane_Lester]

My two cents may come soon…but been dealing with a few thing last few days… it may be part here and DM.

[SpencerJames]

I actually don’t know how this works at the moment, but I’m in favor of separate forums with the same login/usernames for all, please.

[Duane_Lester]

So let see if I can help lay out the communities for you as I have seen them in order to help Juliette decide on what is needed

My overall view is that either is acceptable depending on the support that can be given.

I do agree on the point of the above with no admin support is a fail but it is more that that. Admin support should have at least some interaction to stimulate the site from being stagnant (ie can have just community activities, to give info, directing members to and from other social media of Anker or other Anker brands as needed).

It may seem silly but I think you can be stagnant even with admin support as well. ( I mean on the soundcore site several products came out but unless a member did not mention it or knew it was coming from other sources of info, it may not have been known there was a new product was released.

If Juliette do not know each community has community mods who are community members who help moderate the sites. @ndalby is one on Anker and I am one on soundcore. We help on site issues such as merging threads, flagged post n such. This help admins to do their other duties such as info of new product and to guide folks to and from social and community (or at least is my thoughts as social media seems bigger roll in media)

With that said you have the following member mods… 2 for Anker, 2 for soundcore ( me but the other mod basically stopped the community) and 3 for eufy security communities)

With no admin then it left community mods manning the store for you all. It is not bad unless a community has issues and needed someone to relay issues or have relayed information of issues and needed some support to resolve those issue but can not due to a lack of admin support.

Thoughts of each community and current status…

Anker … Never had an issue with it. It is set up pretty decently. I believe from past comments that some would like a gallery section that soundcore and eufy securities has. (soundcore was removed due to leaderboard issues)

Soundcore… it had a strong start with a leaderboard and a big contest and on boarding several Anker members jointed and had their levels transferred (except for mine which had an issue). Leadboard gave the top 10 prizes and and coupons in lowering levels for the other 90 in the top 100 for the 1stt month.

The leaderboard concept was kept and it continued to show issues as time went on. At first the leaderboard concept eliminated the gallery due to points for folks submitting same pics different angles, then over use of off topic caused a reduced conversation topics, and toward the end of the use of the leaderboard conflict from members as admin support was minimal.

As issues rose it ultimately lead to no leaderboard being used as admin support had decreased during the same time.

Eufy security…
I feel that with soundcore successful at community launch lead to Eufy securities being launched soon after. I think it was launched too soon. I think Eufy lacked a solid project development and seemed blended from the other two communities.

Nothing against who did it but I think they may have lacked the time to develop it. (example their points were a blended of points structure of Anker community and naming their other points notes which was a soundcore points structure) Eufy community has recently in the last several months has redone the site (which I feel is way more awful now than what it was initially)

For keeping them separate

Soundcore is big enough to keep separate but it needs better admin interaction than a status quo with no leaderboard (which caused more harm than good)

Eufy security … I am not sure now… Overall it is big enough to be separate and it seems several do use it to help figure out their issues on their cams

Why to bring to one

Overall one community would allow admins to have with additional material to provide info on or to do other activities such as contest or to just provide info on products.

( I do know that for a previous contest on Eufy they gave 5 locks that was like a thousand for all after it was all said and done. One community may help for not to have an expanded budget for a contest (ie a bigger budget for a contest may end up meaning less interactions on community.

Communities together means that there is more info to report on for info over several brands vs less info on brand due to products are dispersed

Complications if it came back to 1 community

1. Since you had 7 community mods over 3 communities, you will need to keep the 2 Anker mods (and let the other know they will be returned to member status). You can the evaluate if there is a need for more than the two (since the other two communities had gotten larger) and pick anew or from one of the past mods. Since the two mods were here before the expanded communities, it may be that 2 are the only ones you will need when they all come back.

2. Comments and thread.
   Do not think you can pull all of the info from the other communities as it would be a logistical nightmare.

I mean several members are members of all three sites and I think to try to match all of that would cause more trouble than it is worth or are only members of one community and not the Anker community.

Example- I am level 16 on soundcore, 9 on Anker and 5 on eufy. Although when we went from Anker to soundcore most folks got their levels moved from Anker to soundcore community except me and I had to re-level. Now it would be trying to add 2 communities to one and then potentially merging those accounts back to one.

I do know on soundcore community that there may be several fake accounts being created. As a new month comes you can see names with just numbers and that seems to be done a lot and reported… I am not sure if I would want to bring some of those over (just saying)

3. Points and notes
   Eufy has no points as they quit it.

Soundcore has points and notes. The notes are similar to bucks on Anker. Several members can earn notes to cash in for coupons. Coupons can range from 5 dollars off up to 100 dollars off an item. If it does goes back to one, you may need to do a time period to where folks can cash in their notes as some had a decent amount still saved.

[AnkerOfficial]

Thank you so much. I’ll confess I haven’t read through this, but I wanted to acknowledge the time and effort. I’m going to make a proposal to leadership in consideration of our available resources and how that relates to user experience. Thank you! I’ll focus on this effort this afternoon if the goddess is willing:)

[Chiquinho]

We are here to help anyway.
You can count on us.

[Duane_Lester]

I will say sorry for the spelling and grammar mistakes. It is what you get for doing most of the typing late at night before going to bed n finishing it up later on. Lol

[Chiquinho]

I use a spell checker embedded in the browser, otherwise it would be horrible.
I have installed those for DE, EN and PT.

[Shenoy]

Nice to see some actions going on in Anker community.

I think it would have been better to have a single community for all brands, same point structure, just keeping it simple, save time for yojr followers to focus and go to one community than go to 3/4 communities.

[Chiquinho]

Great to see you after such a long abstinence.

[professor]

A con of the separate communities is you get the question asked on the wrong forum or duplicated. We’d often get Soundcore of Eufy questions in the Anker community.

There is a theoretical pro of you can get more specialist interests in the niche communities but I would prefer the notify vs mute control in one common community. e.g. you can mute a topic not interesting.

Another pro is would lower Anker’s costs, fewer installations to maintain.

I’d like points (which lead to free stuff) not given on new threads so folks will tend to more often reply in a thread than create a thread to point farm. Then with the notification vs mute capability you can mute a thread you’d not interested in. Then those really into some gawd awful music can talk amongst themselves in a notified thread while those with decent taste in music can mute a thread.

I was against the forking out and am for them being merged, but I’d like to ensure the notification vs mute controls are clear and workable.

So the categories section

I’d have a Soundcore category.

Then I can decide on a category basis to mute or notify to match no-interest or very-interested.

And then can further mute or notify on a per-thread basis

So via categories, mute or notify or “normal” you can make sure you don’t see, or see all or “as it comes”. I don’t see how anyone who is interested in a small section of Anker’s products would struggle with that, they can mute-all-bar-their-interest to get the same as the separate forked communities have now.

It is vital you do not give points on new threads in any community it leads to boring point-farming where people make a daily thread and a dozen people like that just clutter with useless threads.