Community Highlight: Online Geniuses
We spoke with David Markovich, Founder and CEO of Online Geniuses, and Stephen Stanczak, community adviser and former president, to learn more about what's new with their leading marketing Slack group!
What was the inspiration behind creating a community for digital marketers?
Online Geniuses started around 3 years as a small Skype group of digital marketers. The inspiration was just to chat with like-minded professionals and share tips. Online Geniuses eventually outgrew Skype and moved to Slack which is a better platform for online communities. It’s grown significantly from the start and we’ve been fortunate to collaborate with some of the most influential marketers like Rand Fishkin, Neil Patel, and Gary Vaynerchuk.
Where is it based?
Online Geniuses is primarily online on Slack (sign up at onlinegeniuses.com). That said, our community of now 11,000+ love to connect in person when possible so 25 OG Chapters have sprung up across the globe from Austin to Barcelona to Tunisia! Our biggest event chapter is in NYC, where OG started and several of the team members are based.
How would you describe your community culture?
You can join free at OnlineGeniuses.com by filling out a short form. Our community is most often described as intelligent and active. The level of marketing conversation is very high-quality (with some snark mixed in). No question is too advanced...someone will know the answer! The community is also very engaged with thousand of messages sent each week. Lastly, all members are vetted and discussion is moderated to keep spam to a minimum which is refreshing for a community of marketers!
What are some ongoing goals you have for your community?
We always strive for the Online Geniuses community to provide the most value possible. This means providing insightful and useful programs like our weekly CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) teardowns and AMAs (Ask Me Anything). The larger the community the more value it brings so growth is a goal. We would like to continue to spread the word and grow the community so that more resources are available to educate and provide value like job openings.
Tell us more about your community's events and the slack. There are so many members! What’s your advice for someone just joining?
We host several events a year around the globe. The last event in New York was a Content Marketing panel with Outbrain. We have an upcoming event in Barcelona on “smartworking” with Sapenta. The Slack community is very well-rounded in that there is a channel for every aspect of digital marketing: SEO, PPC, email marketing, etc. We also have local channels for most cities. Also if you are looking for a job we have a #hiring channel and our #hangout channel for everything else! Advice for new members: you can only self-promote (post your own content/projects) in #shameless_plug. Otherwise the community may clap back!
What are some podcasts, reads, or marketing campaigns inspiring you and your community?
We typically find a lot of great stuff through the #good_finds channel! Ahrefs, Backlinko and Buzzsumo put our really good blog content, Product Hunt is a great source for new tools. Marketing Smarts and Experts on the Wire are two podcasts that we listen to on the regular.
What's next for your community?
Online Geniuses will aim to grow its member base and programming in 2018. We are constantly adding new collaborations with partners and AMAs as well as new channels when needed. Ultimately it’s up to the community on what they want and we are happy to support those initiatives in the goal of continuous improvement.