Buffer Slack Community’s AMA with Alfred Lua, Community Champion at Buffer
Hello here! It’s AMA time! :D
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What do I do: I’m a Community Champion at Buffer and my main role involves building our online community and engaging with our community on the various social media platforms. (Thanks for making my job so fun ;))
My background: I grew up in Singapore and never left Asia until 2 years ago, when I came over to the UK for my university education. I’m currently working part-time for Buffer and studying part-time as an Accounting and Finance undergraduate in University of Warwick. I have been with my girlfriend for 5 years now and we are in the third year of our long distance relationship (UK & Singapore).
Others: I’m a triathlete so I spend quite some time swimming, cycling and running. During my free time, I help out with Remotive.io too, a bimonthly newsletter for remote workers who wants to be productive.
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I’ll try to answer as many questions as I can so fire away!
P.s. Here’s a photo of my girlfriend and I last summer when I went back to Singapore :)
So Remotive is pretty cool, did you do any remote work before Buffer? — Gary Harrower
Not quite! I wrote some blog posts for my friend on www.despreneur.com, if that counts? :)
How are you finding working remotely? :) — Gary Harrower
Amazing! I really love remote working and that is largely why I volunteered to help Rodolphe Dutel with Remotive :) I feel that with the amazing technologies we have now, there are many things that we can do without being physically together :)
And remote working makes it possible for me to do my degree and work for Buffer at the same time, which is 🌟
Firstly, ❤s! Secondly, could we hear your Buffer story? — Chelsea Wallace
Sure! Here’s a quick summary: After moving to the UK and living in the countryside, I wanted to keep in touch with the tech and startup industry so I started to use Twitter a lot more. I then discovered Buffer — app and blog and have been following the blog for about 2 years now. Like most of you here, I believe, I really like the team and culture (+ social media!).
I applied to be a Happiness Hero in January this year, but it wasn’t a good fit since I couldn’t work full-time and Happiness Heroes need to be very responsive to help our customers. In March/April, I applied for the Creative Connector role, made it to my first interview with Nicole, but was eventually rejected 😛 In July, I decided that I really want to work for Buffer and spent some days putting together an application. 8 weeks and 3 interviews later, 🎉😄
Why you decided to go for the community role at Buffer? :) — Annelize Spies (@AnnelizeSpies)
Great one! Sorry that I didn’t really explain this earlier. I have great interest in marketing and communities. I’m always inspired by communities such as Product Hunt and I hope to do something similar — gather people who are passionate about something, connect with and support one another. I find that this role is a great intersection of both :)
I only signed up for Product Hunt this week. What was the last thing that you upvoted and what is your favourite find on there? — Laura Winton
The last thing I upvoted was Productivity:
My favourite find is Gyroscope!
I really love the design and I’m a very outdoor/active person :)
Did they tell you what the difference was by the time you got to application number three that made them want to interview you? — Jason Warner
Ooo, that’s a good one! I never really thought about that, but now I’m quite curious about it 😅
What do you like most about running the Buffer slack community? — Laura Winton
Love this question! :) The relationships I built here! I know if I ever meet any of you IRL, we will be like friends who haven’t seen each other for a long time! (I hope! 😛)
After your journey, do you have any tips on the application & interview process for people in the community who are interested in applying for Buffer? — Gary Harrower
I always recommend people to approach the application as genuine as possible because that’s part of our wholeness approach :) After being in the team for a while, I can sense that everyone is very open about their true self. I’d imagine trying to pretend someone we are not to be really tough.
Going deeper now — Where do you see the community going in 6 months, 12 months, 24 months+? 😛 — Gary Harrower
Greatttt question! I have to admit that I have not been very good at such long term planning. (Always learning~) I just had a sync with Leo yesterday where we briefly touched on this. That’s going to be my main focus for now :) Sorry if this isn’t quite the answer you are looking for!
Do you plan on staying in the UK after your degree, or go home, or live on a boat like Rodolphe? — Jason Warner
Definitely home (Singapore) for the next 2–3 years. Long distance relationship is tough!
I’m always wondering how you manage the community jobs at Buffer and Remotive while also studying accounting and finance and being a triathlete. I just spend some time on your blog today so I already got an overview of your tight schedule. But I’m still impressed by it! Do you always have been so well organized? How did you manage to establish your structure? How do you motivate yourself? Do you have special nutrition strategies? This is something I’m struggling with from time to time and which I want to improve. — Moritz Lampkemeyer
quickly scan through my blog to make sure I didn’t blog anything funny 😂
I think I only became more organised these 2 years. I wouldn’t say I’m really good at managing all my commitments; it’s kind of a balancing act I’m doing day to day, week by week.
Every Sunday, I’d take some time to reflect on the past week and plan for the week ahead. I’d plan for almost everything for the weekdays — Buffer, classes, meals, commute, exercise. Every plan is like an experiment. At the end of the week, I’ll tweak it a little to try and improve it :)
My motivations? I’m quite obsessed about growing/improving. Anything that challenges me to grow excites me and what I do at Buffer does that exactly :) (+ I want to progress my relationship with my girlfriend to the next stage and having this dream job is very helpful 😁)
Nutrition advice? Eat everything in moderation! I think because I know I exercise quite often, I don’t really restrict what I eat — apart from lactose as I’m slightly lactose intolerant.
Another point I really admire is your long distance relationship. I see my girlfriend everyday in person and I couldn’t imagine not to see her for such a long time. How is this working for you? What are hurdles you two have met during your time? — Moritz Lampkemeyer
Tough. But I know it will be all worthwhile when this ends next July!
Main hurdles: Miscommunication and lack of physical contact :( but in a good way, our LDR has helped me with my written communications and got me used to video calls, which are very essential to remote working :) We email and call each other almost every day.
Last question is about your sports. Can you tell us a bit about your activities and your training schedule? What would you recommend to get started with triathlons? — Moritz Lampkemeyer
I used to train about 10 times a week for triathlon (swim x 4–5, bike x 2–3, run x 2, strength x 1–2). I have cut down a lot now because my studies and Buffer are my 2 main priorities now. Currently, bike x 2 and run x 1. I’d love to do a bit more but that means I’ll have to cut down on something elsewhere.
Register for a short triathlon event. That’s how I got started :)
So, I tuned in to my first Bufferchat yesterday. How do you and the other Bufferistas (?) manage to answer questions and reply to tweets? Do you have some sort of strategy or is it more like a ‘reply where and when you can’ vibe? — Annelize Spies (@AnnelizeSpies)
“Bufferistas” 👍 ☕ ️We use SparkCentral for listening and replying on Twitter. Not much strategy on this. We are all empowered to reply to anyone and say what we want :) Maybe the only thing we strategise on is the time coverage so that we can respond quickly!
Dunno if this is something you can answer, but how do you see that (replying on Twitter etc) working as the team grows — Chelsea Wallace
That’s a great one! I think SparkCentral is a really good tool for teams. All our Heroes used to be supporting our customers on Twitter so there were quite a lot of people replying on Twitter at the same time. I think most things would stay the same as the team grows :) If anything, it would most likely mean faster response time, which is great!
I could see in some recent pictures that you’re reading books about building online communities — wondering what sort of lessons you’re learning from them? — Jason Warner
I think my biggest takeaway so far is that there are 2 main metrics to look at (I’m a very metrics/data person)
- Community metrics — how healthy is the community?
- Business metrics — how is the community impacting the business/revenue?
(Credit: David Spinks in his AMA with Product Hunt)
Hope this is helpful!
What metrics determine a ‘healthy’ community? — Jason Warner
David Spinks of CMX Hub gave a good answer on this during his AMA with Product Hunt too. Quoting him:
- Community growth and churn
- Post and comment activity: per user, per day, per thread, over time
- Happiness: NPS, surveys, interviews (can be more qualitative)
Regarding Business Metrics: ROI for community or social media is always a difficult one to explain. Any key findings on how to determine whether community is really impacting business/revenue? — Annelize Spies (@AnnelizeSpies)
I’m still figuring that out — what data we have, what can we measure, etc. I learnt a lot from this video about community ROI and would highly recommend it!
Yeah, I’m curious how you measure how much the community is worth in a monetary sense. I think as an extension of the overall spirit of Buffer, it has to be doing positive things. I glanced at some competitor tools, and they just don’t seem to speak with the same unifying spirit. — Jason Warner
The video I shared above goes into a lot more details, but just to summarise it quickly: Retention, Acquisitions and Referrals can be linked back to the financials. Eg. People who are exposed to the community are more likely to keep paying for Buffer (Retention) than people who are not -> Increase customer life time value -> Increase revenue. Note: Correlation not equals to causation :)
Also, I think different companies attract different types of people, and hence different communities :) Though, you are so sweet! Hehe ❤ Really happy about our community!
How do you stay motivated to exercise with UK weather? 😛 — Gary Harrower
Haha good one! Friends! Training with others helps a lot! 💪
Sounds like Bufferoos (I’m still fighting for Buffertonians) all have a chance to dip into different roles. Are there any other roles you’ve been exposed to that surprised you? — Jason Warner
Surprised in a good way. I was given the responsibility to engage with our community on Facebook, LinkedIn, G+, YouTube, Pinterest and IG! I used to be on the other side — following and commenting, but now I’m replying to comments! 💥 Really amazed by that!
Is there a particular strategy you’re utilizing in your role with this Slack community? I know the Buffer values are very real guidelines here, but any other points of reference you go back to? — Chelsea Wallace
Yeah, you are right, Buffer values are great guidelines I follow. The other main thing is that I treat everyone here as my friends and this Slack community as a massive chat room with my friends. Then I try to think if I would or wouldn’t do something. For example, I don’t send my friends in FB messenger a lot of links without adding any thoughts/comments. Then I try not to do that here :)
(Not sure if this is even possible to answer…) What are your thoughts on an airport running a community for plane spotters? Any potential in that? :) e.g. these are people who aren’t necessarily our customers, but they love the space we’re in. Do you just focus on customers, or is there ROI in dealing with people who aren’t direct customers (if that makes any sense)— Gary Harrower
Wow! My grandfather is one, I believe. He loves to collect plane models too :) I think very likely! As long as the group of people is passionate about a particular thing, I think there’s a great opportunity for building a community and would recommend it! It’s lovely when people come together for a passion ❤ I think an airport is in a good position to do that! (Sorry, not very familiar with the industry though!)
To your follow up question, hmm. That’s a tricky one! I guess I would go back and look at what’s my objective of building a community? If it’s for a passion/hobby, then I think there probably wouldn’t be financial ROI? More of the joy of gathering like-minded people. I think for an organisation, it might make more sense to focus on people who would help your bottom line eventually :)
What’s been your favorite music this year? — Jason Warner
Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence!
Do you have any side projects outside of helping Rodolphe that you want to start sometime in the future? — Chelsea Wallace
Hmm, not quite! I have kind of stopped most of my side projects because I want to be really focused with what I’m doing now. I don’t think I can do more without compromising what I’m doing now and I don’t really want to do that :)
What comedians/comedy things make you laugh the most? — Jason Warner
A lot of Singapore films/shows make me laugh a lot! I think it’s because I can relate to them a lot! I played Card Against Humanity with my British friends yesterday and there were so many times when they laughed so much and I didn’t understand the joke ><
Which is your favourite discipline as a triathlete? Running, swimming or biking? — Laura Winton
Colin asked me this before and I remember saying that it is like choosing who’s my favourite child among my children (assuming that I have any. Not yet!) I really love all 3 of them — that’s why I do them.
Did you have any community building experience before this position? — Chelsea Wallace
Hmm not directly. I have worked in an events team before and I think events is part of community building :)
Are there any Buffer Values you have had to put more effort into to fully live by, or were you just a natural? — Gary Harrower
Oh definitely! Making time to reflect! I have been wanting to reflect and blog once every week but my last blog post was a few months ago. For now, I do mini reflections weekly or when something happens.
So, I understand that starting a community requires a good topic that is broad enough but still slightly narrow & fun that the community can surround itself with (something like social media). Do you think there is something else particularly necessary for a startup to start it’s own community? Is there a particular time frame only after which a startup should start thinking about building a community? (I’m sorry if this question has already been asked) — Vikash Koushik
That’s a great one, Vikash! As for time frame, I would say not really. Ryan Hoover built an audience/community with his blog, and then with email list, even before he started the company properly. So I think there isn’t the most optimal time to start a community.
Might be helpful to look at the resources you have right now and consider if building a community is the best thing you can do now with those resources, in terms of growing the company.
Thank you so much for the questions and ❤! The pleasure is mine!
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