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Articles by Suzi
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Suzi Nelson posted thisMy little events-based side hustle runs on 16 chairs. That felt like a weakness until it became the whole strategy. The local bar I work with believes in building community, and gives me some space to host monthly events for free. The tradeoff is the room: 4 tabletops, 4 chairs each. Sixteen seats, no more, no fire code debate to be had. It turns out this constraint presents an authentic opportunity: with a unique offer and limited space, the scarcity is complete authentic, and events sell out quickly. "Do not wait" feels pushy to write and honest to read. My October event is selling faster than the September night did. The only thing I changed was saying the number out loud, as many times as possible. Where are you hiding your scarcity? Also, you can see the event copy for yourself, I'll drop it in the comments 👇
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Suzi Nelson shared thisIn May I thought my side hustle was selling craft kits. By September I knew better. I am selling the night. Quick context for my network: I still do community work at Meta. Rxtra Co is the thing I build at night, 16 women at a time. Last week, those 16 women sat at a neighborhood dive bar in Kansas, bedazzled mirrors, and had the kind of conversation you cannot schedule. The night was the product. The mirror is the souvenir they took home. Everything changed when I stopped marketing the thing and started marketing the feeling. Homepage rewritten. Emails rewritten. The whole business got simpler the moment I got crisp about what people were actually buying. The mirror might end up in a drawer. But everybody remembers the night. What is the thing your customers are actually buying?
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Suzi Nelson shared thisCome join my team! We are, indeed, pretty fun.Suzi Nelson shared thisI'm starting conversations with folks who might be interested in a 6 to 8 month contract role at Meta, starting around October 1. The JD isn't live yet (soon), but I want to get a head start talking now. You'd be joining what is, in my opinion, one of the most fun teams at Meta right now. We sit at the intersection of SMB customer intelligence creation, storytelling, and putting customer voice at the center of everything we market and build. What I'm looking for: - AI curious and excited to learn new AI tools to get the work done - Creative thinker who find opportunities, whether that's new processes or new teams to engage and collaborate with - Analytical thinker and detail oriented - Can sit in a strategy role and also be a doer, not afraid to get their hands dirty - Experience presenting to leadership audiences If that sounds like you, send me a DM!
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Suzi Nelson shared thisThe most effective community programs don't serve one function. They serve all of them. Product, policy, research, legal, comms. The best community programs are a customer intelligence layer that informs decisions across the entire business. But here's the catch: most organizations structure community as a siloed function. Community reports to marketing. Community exists to drive engagement, build brand loyalty, grow the audience. And then product is surprised when they don't know what users actually need. Policy is blindsided by edge cases. Legal doesn't understand the real-world context of how the product is being used. Research is stuck asking questions instead of listening to answers that are already happening. All of this intelligence exists in your community. Right now. But you've compartmentalized the function so much that nobody else can access it. The shift that changes everything is structural: you have to position community as infrastructure, not as a marketing channel. You have to build one shared pool of relationships that multiple teams can draw from. Product asks: "What problems are you actually trying to solve?" Policy asks: "Where are the harms emerging?" Research asks: "What patterns are you seeing?" Legal asks: "How is this being used in the wild?" One community. Multiple stakeholders. Shared intelligence. When you structure it this way, community stops being a cost center and becomes a strategic asset. Because suddenly, the insights flowing from your community inform every decision that matters.
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Suzi Nelson shared thisThe teams that get the best customer responses are the ones who earned the right to ask. Relational investment compounds. I've seen this play out a hundred times. A brand shows up consistently in their community. They add value first, ask for something later. They respond thoughtfully to feedback. They make decisions based on what they hear. They demonstrate that being in relationship with their community actually matters. And then, when they ask for something (when they need feedback on a critical feature, when they're facing a hard decision, when they need their community to help them think through a complex problem) their community shows up. Fully. Thoughtfully. With the kind of depth and insight that you simply can't manufacture. Contrast that with the brand that treats their community like a resource to be activated. They show up when they need something. They extract feedback. They disappear. And then they're surprised when nobody responds when they ask the next time. Relationships work the same way whether they're personal or institutional. You can't withdraw from an account you never deposited into. If you want your community to give you their best thinking, you have to give first. Show up. Add value. Demonstrate that you care about the relationship, not just what they can do for you. The investment compounds. And so does the return.
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Suzi Nelson shared thisIf your members don't feel like they can influence the product, you don't have a community. You have an audience. This is one of the most misunderstood distinctions in community building. An audience is people who consume what you create. They can engage with it. They can like it, share it, comment on it. They feel connected to the creator. A community is people who feel like they have a stake in what gets created next. The difference is influence. Bidirectional influence. Your members believe they can shape the direction of the product, and the product genuinely does get shaped by member input. Without that, you're just a popular audience. Which is fine, if that's what you're building. But don't call it a community. Because community requires reciprocal power. If your members can't answer yes to "my voice matters in how this product evolves," then they're not part of a community. They're part of a content consumption ecosystem. Which one are you actually building?
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Suzi Nelson shared thisCommunity has never been more strategic. Yet it's chronically under-resourced and poorly measured. Findings from 200+ community leaders and major industry reports show the same gap: no standardized frameworks for demonstrating value. The companies that close this gap unlock community as a competitive advantage in retention, innovation, advocacy, and trust. Here are some ideas for measuring what matters 👇Measuring What Matters: How to Know Your Community Intelligence Infrastructure Is WorkingMeasuring What Matters: How to Know Your Community Intelligence Infrastructure Is Working
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Suzi Nelson shared thisYour community members aren't there for the features. They're there for the feeling. Functional value is the minimum. It's the features, the tools, the things your community technically does. You need it, but it’s not why people stay. Emotional value is what keeps them. Belonging, being heard, knowing their voice matters in a space full of people like them. Life-changing value is what turns them into advocates. The sense that being part of this community helped them grow, solve something real, or become who they wanted to be. Most communities max out at functional. They build features and wonder why retention is terrible. The ones that last deliver all three. So ask yourself: What are you actually delivering to your community beyond the mechanics? What feeling do they walk away with? What are they becoming because they're part of your space? That's where loyalty lives.
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Suzi Nelson liked thisSuzi Nelson liked thisAI is changing what we should expect from community platforms. Here are three things they need to get right: 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆. #𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆
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Suzi Nelson reacted on thisShe finally found the courage to go her own way! We’re rooting for you, girl! ❤️
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Suzi Nelson liked thisSuzi Nelson liked thisI absolutely love these lines from one of Bri Leever's case studies: "Bri asked Lori: 'After being in this cohort, what should be different for your members?' Bri challenged Lori to not use the word 'connection' anywhere in the answer." I get it. "Connection" is an obvious go-to for community professionals because technically that's what we're doing - we're facilitating connection! But connection isn't much of a value prop these days. I'm connected over so many (too many) platforms and sometimes feel overwhelmed by that. I have to wade through noise in those channels to get value. And it's clear our audiences do too: every time I use this phrasing in a promotion, it falls flat. And why not? It's like saying "we have an app" in 2026 and expecting that to be a powerful differentiator. The WHAT is not the pitch - the outcomes are. Things to try: "Access to thousands of answers from your peers" "Validation from people like you" "A brain trust you can run ideas past before your boss" "Expert advice from people who have already gone through this" Or take inspiration from the strikingly unique answer Lori and Bri landed on: "After being in The Connect, members should see a noticeable shift in expansion (embracing growth and dreaming big) and contraction (befriending to guide your inner world) in their lives and work." That doesn't sound like just another Slack channel to me.
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Suzi Nelson reacted on thisSuzi Nelson reacted on thisSomeone should have warned my husband about these 3 things when I became an entrepreneur... #1: One day I might be on the biggest high, like literally no one can get me down and the next day I'm ready to throw it all out the window and ready to crawl in a hole. Man, it's a roller coaster. #2. There will be occasional nights where we crawl into bed, and I spill my guts for 3 hours all about the highs, the lows, what I'm learning, and what I'm dreaming about. #3. You're going to see me change so much through this journey, and there is no one I'm more grateful for than you for being my biggest supporter. Thank you, Tyler Cook. 💛
Experience & Education
Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
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Volunteer Coordinator
Jewish Family Services of Greater Kansas City
- 1 year 4 months
Social Services
Americorps VISTA volunteer. Developed and implemented volunteer recruitment and retention plan for two agency programs aimed at helping older adults live independently.
Honors & Awards
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Community Manager of the Year 2017
CMAD - CommunityManagerAppreciationDay.com
The annual Community Manager of the Year Award is based on nominations and decided by an independent committee of community professionals. The award honors community managers based on information shared by their nominators, including how they go above and beyond in the community management industry and examples of how the nominee is involved in community outside of their job.
Award Announcement:…The annual Community Manager of the Year Award is based on nominations and decided by an independent committee of community professionals. The award honors community managers based on information shared by their nominators, including how they go above and beyond in the community management industry and examples of how the nominee is involved in community outside of their job.
Award Announcement: http://communitymanagerappreciationday.com/watch-celebration-community-manager-year-suzi-nelson/
Award Interview: http://communitymanagerappreciationday.com/interview-community-manager-year-suzi-nelson/
Languages
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English
Native or bilingual proficiency
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French
Limited working proficiency
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Spanish
Elementary proficiency
Organizations
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TogetherDigital
Member
- PresentTogetherDigital is an association dedicated to accelerating the advancement and growth of women in digital fields by giving women the most powerful tool in their arsenal: one another.
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Sarah Mattina
Pro tip - Every time someone compliments your work, take a screenshot of their email/Slack DM/text, or write it down if it's said verbally. Save it to a folder called "Compliments." Re-read whenever you have imposter syndrome or a generally sucky workday and need to remind yourself you DO know what you're doing. 🙂
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