Meet Noel Aruliah, Founder and CEO of CurryTraits and GrowingOC.
Noel’s story starts with his parents coming to Australia in the mid 90’s & shortly after he was born. He grew up Aussie, was immersed in the culture & had a thick Aussie accent yet had this south Asian façade & felt misplaced. He realised growing up there were many like him & in 2018 to celebrate that unique culture he started this online community called Subtle Curry Traits.
What started as a joke has now become one of the largest private Facebook groups on the planet with over 1.1 million members & an Instagram of 100K strong. He has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world including Meta & notable celebrities like Hassan Minhaj. This opened his eyes to the world of Online Community & he hasn’t looked back since!
But, more than owning a media brand, his experience includes starting an Online Community Consultancy helping brands thrive in the online space as they deserve to from my experience in the industry.
At Swarm this year Noel will talk us through Unity = Virality using Subtle Curry Traits as his case study.
Tickets are on sale now – grab yours!
What’s unique about working on your community?
South Asian’s typically don’t get along. There is a lot of tension between Indian, Pakistani & Bangladeshi people groups. Our community’s mission is to ‘Heal with Humor’ & through our community we’ve united these people groups together in new ways never seen before.
What’s your favourite community right now and why?
The Zorali Outdoor community group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zorali
One of the best online communities created by a brand where customers are engaged and posting around the brand’s mission, which is getting people outdoors. The brand has created an incredible place where:
- Fans of the brand organically engage and share their adventures. This sparked conversations between customers around the brand;
- User generated content was posted saving Zorali the time & money on photoshoots. (The photo in the bottom left was taken by a customer and posted in the group);
- Real customer feedback was obtained through polls to help improve and implement current/future products and services from the brand.
What do you consider the most exciting thing about the community management space today?
The Internet. Community has been an age-old need for humans, however, being online with the internet changes the game & creates an infinite amount of ways we can meet whilst smashing the barriers of entry to meet others across the globe.
What do you consider the most challenging thing about the community management space today?
Lack of commitment. In today’s day and age people have infinite choices on which communities to join and be involved in. Often people are spread across a large quantity of communities and often miss out on investing deeply in a handful of spaces to see meaningful growth. In the 21st century we must rediscover the meaning of being planted and how pouring into a community in the good, bad and different times is what translates to growth.
What are you reading/watching/listening to right now that all community professionals should read/watch/listen to?
Learning from industry leaders like Jason T Smith. His weekly video updates of 2 minute convictions provide vital principles with how we run community. https://www.youtube.com/@jasontsmithAUS/videos
Watching my local council meetings. Your local council where you live is by default a community you are part of. Today most councils have their monthly meetings online & other meetings you can attend. Observe these meetings and ask yourself as someone with skin in the game, what do they do well, what can they do better & how can I apply this to the community I run?
Why should community people come to Swarm?
As humans we are built to do life together. Community is not a nice to have, it’s a necessity for humans to survive and the lack of this commodity is why we see incredible dissatisfaction in our world. Learn from the leaders of the industry and apply principles to transform your everyday.
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