APRIL 8, 2022

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Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

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In this issue:

• Full Tilt: Thwart Trouble in Your Community​
• Stan: Zach King Didn’t Die on Vine​
• CEX: Meet and Hear These World-Class Content Creators​
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Ever been in an online community where someone prattles on about an unrelated topic or attacks another member who shared a different opinion? And what about those posts that are thinly veiled promotions of their products or services?

When those things happen, the community’s intent changes, prompting you to visit it less frequently. You may pop in from time to time to see if it’s back to staying on topic and operating without volatility. But when you don’t see any changes, you move on, never to return.

As a content entrepreneur, though, that behavior is far more troubling. You don’t want to see people moving out of your neighborhood. How do you cultivate a community that stays on topic where fellow members treat each other respectfully?

You build a framework to make a well-moderated community. And that starts with guidelines – the do’s and don’ts of community member behavior.

Set the tone for your community: Create a vision for the ideal community behavior. Briefly explain the reason for your community. By explaining your “why,” people will be more receptive to the do’s and don’ts.

Write down all the possible rules, then cut most of them: Detail every rule to cover every possible behavior or action you do or don’t want. If you already have an audience, ask for their input.

Now pare that list down to a handful that you’ll actually use. Look for commonalities among the list so you can create several broad rules that cover many. This entry in the National Geographic Society’s community guideline does this well:

Be civil. The Society encourages open and candid discussions and debates. However, all communications should be respectful. Differences of opinion are okay; personal attacks are not. Comments or content that are violent, threatening, abusive, sexually explicit, obscene, offensive, hateful, derogatory, defamatory, or are racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable content will be removed.

Enforce the rules. Yes, your guidelines are worthless unless you ensure they’re followed.

It can be helpful to address the violation directly with the community member at first. Then, if that person doesn’t edit, remove, or apologize for their misstep, you can take public actions to do it for them.

In some cases, the community will police itself. As your community grows, you may want to make that more official, appointing trustworthy members to become moderators.

The power of community is great. However, that power can quickly be lost if the members encounter irrelevant conversations, personal attacks, spammers, and more. Publicly shared – and enforced – community guidelines can prevent that from happening.

– Ann Gynn

​Read more to avoid or thwart troubles in your community.​
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Entrepreneur: Zach King

Tilt: Magical film editing

Scene: Website, YouTube (13.4M), TikTok ​​(67.9M), Instagram (24.5M), Facebook (7.2M)

Snack Bites:

• Zach used his rejection from film school to fuel his online content creation beginnings.
• He gained millions on Vine, the short-form video, now-defunct platform.
• Among his first YouTube channel’s videos is Jedi Kittens Strike Back.
• He’s been so successful that among his most popular videos is one of Zach recreating fans’ videos recreating Zach’s videos.
• Zach finds TikTok’s hashtag trends a helpful tool to explore as he creates content.

​Why We’re a Stan: Zach didn’t die on the vine after film school rejection or the ending of the short-form video platform. Instead, he launched a business that is thriving over a decade later, making him one of the most popular online video creators in the world.

– Shameyka McCalman​
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Caught on … Twitter​

“You can’t be successful if you don’t try. Most of us are making it up as we go — trial and error.” – Ashley R. Cummings

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• ​You - The Content Entrepreneur (Content Inc.)
• ​Web3 Will Be More Centralized Than You Think (This Old Marketing)
• ​I Answered Over 200 Entrepreneurs’ Questions. Here’s What I Learned (Joe Procopio)
• ​A Less Risky Path to Entrepreneurship: Acquisition (KelloggInsight)
• ​Solopreneurs Are Changing the Face of the Economy (Entrepreneur)

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Your team for this issue: Joe Pulizzi, Ann Gynn, Laura Kozak, Marc Maxhimer, and Dave Anthony, with an assist from Angelina Kaminski, Shameyka McCalman, and Don Borger.

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