Latest / Community Marketing with Fexingo: Discord, Slack Groups, and Brand Communities / How a Brand Community Vetted Its Content Calendar
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this fitness app- let's call it PulseFit, it's a real company but they'd rather stay anonymous- and they run one of the more active brand communities I've seen. Discord server, a few thousand members, really engaged. And a few months back they decided to stop guessing what content their community wanted. Luna: What do you mean, stop guessing? Most brands just come up with a content calendar and go. Lucas: Exactly. But PulseFit did something different. They turned their content calendar into a referendum. The community got to vote on themes, formats, even the posting times. And the results were pretty dramatic. Luna: Okay, I like the sound of this. But before you go deeper- and I know you want to- if this episode gives you one practical idea you can actually steal for your own community, that's worth the price of a coffee to us. If you feel like it, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, but it does keep us ad-free. Lucas: Yeah, that's the whole show. Appreciate anyone who does. So back to PulseFit. They ran this voting process for a week. They put up a poll in their Discord with a shortlist of content themes- like 'workout tutorials', 'nutrition tips', 'behind the scenes', 'user spotlights'- and asked the community to rank them. They also asked about preferred posting times, and even which content creator they'd want to see featured. Luna: That's a lot of input. How did they keep it manageable? Lucas: They used a simple ranked-choice system. Every member got three votes they could distribute across the themes. And they made it clear that the results would directly shape the next quarter's calendar. So people took it seriously. They had over 800 responses, which is a huge sample for a community that size. Luna: And what did the community actually pick? Lucas: That's the twist. They expected 'workout tutorials' to dominate, but 'behind the scenes' came out on top. Something like 42 percent of the votes. The community wanted to see how the app was built, the team's process, the messy middle. That's not what most brands would have guessed. Luna: That makes sense though. People love feeling like insiders. Lucas: Right. And the posting times also shifted. They assumed evenings would be best, but the data showed a big spike in engagement at lunchtime on weekdays. So they moved their main posts to 12:30 PM and saw an immediate bump. Luna: So they just changed when they posted and that made a difference? Lucas: It wasn't just the time. They overhauled the entire calendar based on the votes. They scheduled two behind the scenes posts a week, one user spotlight, one tutorial, and one nutrition tip. And they kept the more polished stuff for the weekend when engagement was higher. Luna: And did they track everything to see if it worked? Lucas: They did. They set up a simple dashboard, nothing fancy, just tracking engagement per post, click-throughs, and even the sentiment in the comments. After a full quarter, their average engagement per post was up 40 percent. And they saw a 30 percent drop in content-related support queries because people understood the content better. Luna: That's a tangible result. But I'm curious- did they ever go back to the community to validate the outcomes? Like, show them that their votes actually led to these improvements? Lucas: They did, actually. They published a recap in the Discord server, showing the before and after numbers. The community saw that their input wasn't just for show. And that built even more trust and engagement. Some members even started volunteering to help create content. Luna: That's the kind of loop you want. So the key is to treat the community as a partner, not a focus group you run once and forget. Lucas: Exactly. And the interesting thing is, they didn't just ask once. They've committed to doing this every quarter. They've built a recurring ritual where the community shapes the next few months of content. It's become a selling point of the community itself. Luna: What about the flip side? Any challenges or pushback from the team? Lucas: Sure. The content team initially worried about giving up creative control. But once they saw the engagement numbers, they came around. And there was a learning curve with the voting mechanics. Some members wanted to write in their own themes, so they had to add a write-in option for the next round. Luna: So it's not a one-size-fits-all process. You have to adapt it to your own community's culture. Lucas: Absolutely. And one more thing that stood out to me: they also let the community vote on which social platform to prioritize. They had been splitting their time across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, but the community said they wanted more long-form content on YouTube. So they shifted their focus, and that's where they saw the biggest gains. Luna: That's a bold move, to let the community dictate platform strategy. But it makes sense if you trust them. Lucas: Trust is the whole game. And this approach isn't just for fitness apps. Any brand with a community can do this. Even a small one. The key is asking the right questions and being willing to act on the answers. Luna: So what would you say is the one takeaway from this episode? Lucas: If you're planning your next content calendar, don't just sit in a room and guess. Ask your community. They know what they want, and they'll respect you more for asking. The data is right there in your Discord server or your Slack group. You just have to tap into it. Luna: And if you want to see an example of a community that's doing this well, PulseFit's approach is a great case to study. Lucas: Agreed. And a reminder that if you're enjoying these conversations, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It keeps things ad-free and lets us keep digging into stories like this. Luna: Yeah, join us next time when we look at how communities can drive product roadmaps. See you then.