Welcome to Community Masters, our regular chat with great people doing great things to bring great people together!
This week we’re welcoming Blue Arauz, Global Head of Community at Pexels to the Community Rocket blog – enjoy!
So Blue, tell us more about yourself and where you’re from
Hey, my name is Blue Arauz. I was born and raised in Miami and recently moved to Chicago. I’ve been building communities for 20 years.
When I started hosting niche dance parties in high school, I discovered my superpower: bringing people together. I never looked back!
What’s your current role and what does it consist of?
I’m currently the Global Head of Community at Pexels. We are a royalty-free stock photography and video platform that’s powered by a talented and generous community of photographers all over the globe.
In my role, I currently manage and support a team of 9 community managers from across the world who are building localized communities of photographers. Aside from ensuring my team is set up for success, I’m also responsible for planning the overall community engagement strategy, project managing community-focused product updates, localization efforts and establishing expansion plans.
How does Pexels approach community – what kind of a program do you run?
Our community of photographers are the core of our platform. They share their photos and videos in the library, for people to use in all sorts of creative projects. We put a lot of focus on delivering as much value and delight as possible to our community through a variety of features and programming.
We have leaderboards and individual stats which allow members to see how their content is performing. Our monthly photo and video challenges have unique themes to get photographers out of their comfort zone and experimenting with new styles.
We also run a robust in-person meetups program where photographers meet to collaborate and create together. From cocktail photography classes to in-studio lighting workshops, photowalks through historic city centers to lifestyle photoshoots, our Community Managers and Hosts have created some really memorable experiences. In 2023 we ran over 200 meetups across the globe, with thousands of photographers attending.
What does community mean to you?
A community for me is a place where like-minded individuals can come together over a shared purpose. It’s where you can learn, teach and most important for me, make genuine connections.
Tell us what you think are some of the best community-led campaigns or initiatives you’ve seen during your career?
Duolingo massively fueled its growth through their community. Empowering members to create their own lessons, champion underrepresented languages and host their own meetups not only created an engaged community, it also made the product better.
What other companies do you think do a good job of community engagement?
I’ve spent the majority of my career at Yelp, and they undoubtedly are one of the best businesses and brands for community engagement.
Looking at all of the community professionals that started their careers there and are now doing incredible things at other companies, is a testament to the stellar program Yelp has. They foster hyper-local communities, which is super high-touch, but it’s really impactful work. A lot of the things I learned there, I’ve been able to apply in my current role.
For anyone looking to add a community function to their business, big or small, what advice would you give them and what value do you think a community program would unlock for them?
Community, when done right, is a secret weapon for any business. It has the power to turn passive users into advocates.
The best advice I can give is to listen to your community. The most passionate users will bubble up and gladly share their feedback. Listen to them and leverage the community to make the product better and build something that they actually want.
What is your number one community and customer growth tip?
I’ve focused the majority of my career on offline events as a pillar of my community strategy. I believe there’s nothing like in-person interactions to create true, genuine bonds.
Incorporating some sort of offline (or even online) meetings for members to get to know each other, meet members of your team and feel closer to the brand, has worked the best for me. But don’t just host a mixer. Think of what you want attendees to feel when they leave.
I always preach to my CM team, “We don’t host events, we create experiences”. That means planning every element of the meetup from the moment they arrive, till the time they leave and the follow-up after. It’s important to engineer serendipity and make sure every attendee can’t wait for the next event.
Blue Arauz…Anything else you’d like to add?
A shameless plug for Pexels. If any community builders, marketers, social media managers or anyone really, needs high-quality imagery, check out the millions of free photos and videos on our platform.
From email headers, to event invites, social media posts to a cool wallpaper for your phone, you’ll find the perfect image in the Pexels library.
Thanks Blue, it’s been great to catch up and good luck with your continued impressive community building at Pexels and beyond!