Coming Soon To the Community: New Ranks, Updated Badges, and Relaunched Advocacy program

[Eugenia]

Hi Community!

My name is Eugenia and I manage Customer Advocacy at HubSpot. Over the past several months I have been working closely with our Community team to bring exciting new features and programs to the Community that I’m thrilled to announce below.

Our goal this year is to make the HubSpot Community a place that offers you even more opportunities to grow professionally, connect with your peers, and build your brand and reputation. To achieve that, in the following weeks we’ll be introducing (drumroll, please….):

• New Community ranks and updated badges
• Re-launched HubStars, the HubSpot Advocacy program (now with ranks, points and badges!)

(1) New Community ranks and updated badges - coming this week

What are the Community ranks?

All Community members have a rank displayed next to their name, for example, Visitor, Top Contributor, Advisor etc. The ranks indicate if someone is relatively new to the Community, or if the person has been an active Community member for a long time and authored multiple solutions.

What are the Community badges?

Badges recognize your achievements in the Community. For example, you can earn badges for replying to a certain number of posts, giving a certain number of upvotes, or authoring a certain number of solutions.

What is changing?

We’re excited to introduce a new Community Ranking system this week. Our goal is to be transparent about how to reach each rank. The criteria are based on Replies, Upvotes received, Upvotes given, and authored Solutions. Soon, your Community profile page will be updated with the number of Replies, Upvotes given, Upvotes received, and Solutions to make it easier for you to track your progress.

Our badges will now look more “HubSpotty” and use HubSpot colors. You’ll keep all the badges you’ve already earned. In addition to the existing badges we’re introducing new types of badges:

• Onboarding badges: badges awarded for completing certain onboarding tasks on the Community.
• Ideation badges: badges that showcase how many ideas the member submitted on the Ideas Forum, how many ideas they commented on and if any ideas were implemented by HubSpot.
• Blogger badge: awarded to the members who publish blog posts in the Community. Currently, you need to be a Community Champion to apply for blogging rights.

Stay tuned for more badges being added throughout 2021.

(2) Relaunching HubStars, the new HubSpot Advocacy program!

HubStars, the HubSpot Advocacy program, is coming to the Community in February. This program is for you if you want to:

• Get access to exclusive events and educational content
• Connect with other advanced users of HubSpot
• Build your brand and reputation as the leading HubSpot expert
• Be featured in HubSpot content and share your HubSpot success stories
• Help others understand what’s possible with HubSpot by speaking at events, taking reference calls, and writing blog posts 
• Have fun with a group of like-minded individuals who love HubSpot as much as you do.

To participate, just start completing HubStars challenges that you’ll see on the HubStars page (launching soon!) and throughout the Community. New challenges will be posted daily. As you complete the challenges, you’ll earn points and unlock special advocacy badges. Continue to earn more points and fly up the advocacy ranks, leveling up your status and achieving more exclusive benefits on your rise to HubSpot stardom.

Note: HubStars ranks are different from the Community ranks. You’ll be able to check your progress, how many points you earned and what badges you collected either on the HubStars page or on your Community profile page (section Advocacy Rank and Badges).

If you work at a solutions partner organization you’re welcome to participate in HubStars, although some of the challenges won’t be applicable to you.

Unlock these benefits as you rise through the HubStars ranks:

• badges to display on your Community user profile and social networks
• access to a private group with exclusive content and events
• small-group networking sessions
• Media introductions 
• 1:1 access to experts within HubSpot
• HubSpot prizes.

Questions?

If you have any questions about these changes and new features, please feel free to ask your questions below or direct message me at eugenia. We have been working on these changes for the past several months, and many of them are direct changes from feedback that many of you have shared with us. We hope you are as excited about these updates as we are!

Thank you,

Eugenia