Meet Evan Hamilton, Director of Community and Hubspot.
We’re so excited to have Evan Hamilton appear as part of our Swarm 2024 lineup. He’s been one of our most requested return Swarm speakers, and is a valued part of the Swarm community.
At Swarm this year, Evan will deliver one of our webinars on 30 August, with a presentation titled “Maintaining Quality Communities at Scale: Lessons from Reddit and HubSpot”.
Tickets are on sale now – grab yours!
We recently interviewed Evan to provide you with more insight into our San Franciso-based speaker and how he sees the world.
(Before you read further, we’ll remind everyone Evan is American, and we’ve quoted him verbatim. American spelling and all.)
Tell me about yourself and your community management history:
I stumbled into community through a Craigslist post about a MySpace page (just to date myself) and discovered that I had been waiting my whole life for such a role. I’m an introvert who loves understanding people, bringing them together, and creating joyful experiences for them. I was hooked, and I’ve been building communities professionally for the 15+ years since then.
What has been your favourite role/community?
I’m not sure I can pick a favorite role because they’re all amazing and hard in different ways. Leading community at Reddit was an incredible experience that I’m so grateful for (though it was also incredibly exhausting).
What’s unique about working on your current community?
HubSpot has always been on the cutting edge of SaaS and, unsurprisingly, is on the cutting edge of community. It’s really fun and exciting to try really different things but within the support and confines of a very big company. The work is definitely on multi-year horizons, but I’m really excited about where it’s going. If we pull this off, community will be a central component of most of our public-facing efforts.
What community platforms do you personally hang out on? (either socially or professionally)
I’ve loved Reddit since before I worked there and still hang out there quite a bit.
I’m enjoying Threads, though I miss Twitter (but I don’t miss supporting a terrible person).
I’m a part of a lot of small slacks and text threads that feel probably the most intimate and valuable to me.
What is your favourite aspect about your community (either on you manage or one you’re a part of)?
I love that HubSpot fans are so passionate and so smart. A big chunk of my job is just figuring out how we can get out of the way and let them cook, because when we do they create amazing outcomes like events spread across the globe, thousands of excellent answers in our success community, and amazing content on social.
How are you tackling the constantly changing social media space (i.e. The Twitter to X rebrand, Meta’s changing rules re: journalism, owned platforms vs social based communities)?
First, I try to build a core audience via email. I have an email newsletter called Community Manager Breakfast that goes out once a week and features 3 curated links about community building. Having that direct access every week is really important.
Second, I try new platforms all the time. I don’t invest deeply unless it’s a fit, but I want to be aware of what’s out there and move when I see an opportunity.
Lastly, always focus on quality. I’ve skipped weeks of my newsletter because I didn’t feel the quality was high enough. I might post 8 times in one week and then 2 the next week because I just don’t have anything of value to provide. Although the algorithm likes volume and consistency, I’ve found that PEOPLE want quality.
What are you reading/watching/listening to right now that all community professionals should read/watch/listen to?
The best things I find go into Community Manager Breakfast so you should definitely subscribe to that. 😉
That said, I’ve been really impressed with the insights on the Beginner Maps podcast and I will basically read anything written by Tiffany Oda, Brian Oblinger, Richard Millington, or Carrie Melissa Jones.
What do you love most about Swarm?
The people who attend Swarm are SO smart and thoughtful and passionate. I’ve had some of the most intriguing conversations of any conference at Swarm!
Tickets are on sale now – grab yours!
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