Getting Started on the Community

ericajfinley
by: Community Manager
Community Manager

HubSpot Voice and Tone Guide

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Greetings, HubSpot Community!

 

Our little corner of the internet is a terrific place for practitioners from myriad industries to pose questions, offer up answers, craft articles, and meet other folks with similar passions and pursuits.

 

We’ve outlined how to ask a good question in the community, but how does one go about posting a stellar answer? And how do you help create a welcoming environment along the way? Enter: our HubSpot Voice and Tone Guide.

 

Think of voice as a constant, a personality that doesn’t change. For us, that means always being humble and empathetic in our approach.

 

Tone is a mood, or how you express yourself in different contexts. When interacting with other members, it’s important to meet them where they are (Are they ecstatic? Are they frustrated?) and adjust accordingly.

 

We’ve curated some real-life answers in the HubSpot Community that exemplify the type of dialogue we aim to foster, in a space that keeps connection and knowledge-sharing at the forefront.

 

Humble

We don’t expect you to be a human version of the HubSpot knowledge base (our team can hop in if need be)! We value your experience and perspective, and keep in mind: There is often more than one way to tackle a challenge, so feel free to suggest ideas and troubleshoot with your fellow members. And don’t worry too much about perfection (things change quickly around here)! Collaboration is king.

 

Example thread from @karstenkoehler: “It depends. (Sorry.) When I consult companies who want to do this, I usually tell them that the actual implementation in HubSpot can be completed within a few hours for prototypical lead management processes. For more complex set-ups, it will take longer.”

 

Empathetic

Always assume positive intent on behalf of your fellow members, and try to put yourself in their shoes before responding. Nothing is perfect, even HubSpot. Software breaks, and sometimes things don't work how you'd like them to. If you're working with someone who's hitting a blocker, empathy can be just as helpful as troubleshooting. We have thousands of community members, so chances are someone has experienced what you are facing.

 

Sample thread from @nikodev: “I’ve run into this rather frustrating problem in the past as well.”

 

Inclusive

We try to leave egos at the door, and remember that our community members represent diverse experience levels and backgrounds. We want everyone to feel a sense of belonging.

 

Sample thread from @danmoyle: “Congratulations on completing the course! If the course is a certification course with an exam, you get the certificate and a link for a badge you can share on social media. If it’s a course that’s not considered a certification, then there’s no badge to share. That’s the case with this specific course. Keep working through more courses though, and get those certifications! :)”

 

Helpful

We love folks who are eager to share their learnings, and it might be tempting to hop into numerous threads, but make sure you’re adding value to the conversation by presenting new ideas. Also, you can always support your peers by adding an upvote to their responses, if you like what they're saying. We have hundreds of new posts each day, so there’s no shortage of threads to engage with!

 

Sample thread from @JonathanS: “I would suggest checking out Associ8, it’s designed to make associations like this! Here’s a workflow I just set up that will associate deals to a company based on the unique_id property.”

 

Empowering

We want members to walk away from interactions feeling like they can tackle what’s in front of them, and, hopefully, return to the community again and again, equipped with knowledge they can pass on to others.

 

Sample thread from @Olivia_Bagnall: “The Restrict User Access plug-in for Wordpress allows you to grant access to specific pages, categories, or posts to different members. Once the plug-in is active, your users can use it to access different gated content. I found that information here. You will likely find the whole article really useful. :)”

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