At Patreon, we don’t just want to build for creators, we want to build with them. That’s why we launched Voice of the Creator, a series a workshops and panels hosted by our User Research team to learn more from creators about how Patreon can help them reach their goals.
For our first workshop, we invited six creators to our New York office to hear the biggest challenges they face when growing and engaging with their communities, and how we can work together to solve those problems.
Meet the creators:
Instead of a regular Q&A session, we broke out into groups to get to the core of what community means to these creators. Each creator teamed up with members of our Executive, User Research, and Product Design teams to talk about how they built their communities and how we can help them continue to grow. Here are a few key themes and takeaways:
Community takes time
Community engagement doesn’t just happen. It takes a lot of time to manage and connect with members, and that can be can be a huge barrier to entry for some creators.
After Lindsey Sanford, our Senior Director of Business Operations, spent the day with Ryan Rozbiani, she saw just how many hours it actually takes. “Ryan works until 11 p.m. or midnight building recommendations, sending out notices to his community, and answering questions. Then he wakes up in the morning and resets the whole thing.”
And no two communities are the same. Depending on the goals and size of the community, creators need different methods of organization, moderation, and engagement. For example, larger communities often need more robust moderation tools, including automated support, while smaller communities often rely on individual moderators.
Creators need easier ways to reach their communities
Creators are tired of having to use a bunch of different apps to engage with their communities. If there were more integrated ways to connect with their fans, they wouldn’t have to rely on other platforms. That means they’d have less apps to monitor and manage (and more time to create). From the fan’s perspective, if everything happens in one place, they might be more likely to engage.
Julian Gutman, our Chief Product Officer, talked to Queen Po about this exact issue. “It was interesting to hear how difficult it is to manage all these spaces that are bringing the community together in different ways, and how helpful it would be to integrate that more into Patreon. Just bring it all together.”
Members have the most valuable feedback
Creators’ communities are the most important source of feedback they have and the best way for them to grow their businesses. That’s why they’re interested in more ways to deeply understand member sentiment and satisfaction with their membership. That way, they can identify and address issues and hopefully keep members around for longer.
Communities want a safe space
Creators define “community” as a place where fans connect over common interests, needs, and goals. For some, that means a shared passion for fighting climate change. For others, it’s a love of Dungeons and Dragons. But no matter what topic they’re connecting over or what medium they’re using, one thing all communities have in common is that they want a safe space where they can meet, chat, and connect without fear of judgement.
After diving into this topic with Sarah Galli, our Chief People Officer Kathleen Pacini got a deep understanding of how Patreon can help her and her community. “Patreon feels like a safe space and allows [Sarah] to have more complex conversations than she would have in her regular podcast,” she says. For Kathleen, it raises the question: “how can we build in that way of having deeper, more intentional conversations?”
Hear more from creators
Thank you to all the creators who joined us to help our team understand their worlds better. We’ll continue hosting Voice of the Creator sessions and seeking feedback directly from our creator community. Stay tuned for upcoming workshops, panels, and other events.
