Andreia is a community engagement manager based in Lisbon who is an expert at managing both online and offline communities.

Andreia Tulcidás is a Lisbon-based Community Engagement Manager who is passionate about building relationships both on and offline. We were able to chat with her about the ins and outs of being a community manager, how to get started in the industry, and how she feels about events in light of COVID-19.

Hi Andreia! Tell us a little about yourself.

Hello everyone :) I’m Andreia, born and raised in Macau, China, but relocated to Lisbon, Portugal at the age of 10. Child of an Indian father and half-Chinese half-Portuguese mother, I have always been surrounded by a lot of different cultures, which in return feeds my constant curiosity for new things. I’m an obsessed foodie, always looking for a new restaurant to try. I love to travel, I do it as often as I can. And… I love karaoke!

We’d love to learn more about what you do in Lisbon.

I’m a Community Engagement Manager @ OutSystems, a tech company that created a low-code platform that allows companies to develop, deploy, and manage enterprise applications. I’m currently managing the OutSystems User Groups, which are local community meetups for our developer audience. They are distributed through 49 cities around the world :) The goal is to increase the engagement between our community members in their local cities and ensure that they share insights and technical knowledge amongst themselves.

Additionally, I’m one of the hosts of CMX Portugal, the local meetup for Community Managers. It’s a monthly gathering with folks from the industry to discuss best practices around this area and to learn more with each others’ experiences.

What is it like to manage offline communities and how do you reach people?

I am a people person by heart and engaging with people is what I love to do, so managing offline communities is totally in my comfort zone. The only thing that sometimes becomes a bit tricky is that my community is made up of developers, while I’m not technical at all :)

The OutSystems community is global and has several thousand members. I’m based in Portugal but work with all the regions, so I’m either up very early to talk to Australia or I’m up until very late to talk to the US.

We have found different ways to scale when managing our offline community, but my favorite is to find local champions. These local champions are normally very active and proactive community members in the different regions that are our representation in the field, almost like the extension of the OutSystems Community team. Not only do they become focal points for the ecosystem, but they also become the people that our community trusts and relies on - as I can’t be everywhere at the same time.

For communication purposes, our approaches are threefold: via email marketing, to our known audience; via Drift, which is the conversational marketing tool we use; and through social media, where we have curated channels just for our developer audience.

Do you prefer online or in-person events and why?

This is such a tricky question, especially right now given COVID-19 where all in-person events have had to be converted to online.

In-person events are the best for multiple reasons: high engagement between community members; face-to-face interaction between speakers and audience; networking time with food and drinks. However, they come with some downsides, like administrative tasks with venue rentals and catering; they happen less frequently; as most local meetups are not recorded or live streamed, it limits the audience to local people.

When it comes to online events, they are now my holy grail - it has reached a point where we’re organizing up to 4 online User Groups per week. They have practically no costs attached; they are so easy to set up; we can have global meetups and we can record, livestream and share the recordings. However, one thing that online events will never have is a great engagement - speakers will always feel like they are talking in an empty room; community members will not be able to talk to each other; in most conference calls, the video is turned off so you can’t even see people’s faces.

It’s a trade-off, for sure. The way to go in the future is definitely to find a great balance between both types of events.

What is some advice you would offer others who are just getting started in your field?

Community Management is something that is still growing in Portugal. To be honest, when I started out as a Community Manager, I didn’t know exactly what it was and what I was going to do. There is no one-size-fits-all approach in this industry, so you’re going to have to wing it a lot. Also, there is always a lot of confusion between Social Media Management and Community Management, so make sure you know where you’re getting into.

As for what you can do to get ramped up - do your homework. I cannot say how many hours I spent looking through all different resources about Community Management, and I can definitely recommend some:

CMX - this changed my life as a Community Manager, from data to insights to the blog, as well as it provides you a network of all these different people around the world doing the same things as you
Feverbee - Richard Millington is the brains behind Feverbee and he’s been in the community game for years, so not only are you learning from one of the brightest in the industry but you also have so many free courses and guides
Community Roundtable - a lot of data and reports that will make you think wider about Community strategy
In Before the Lock - a podcast with two of the most remarkable Community Gurus in the world, Erica Kuhl and Brian Oblinger, with so many incredible information

And last but not least, tell us where we can find you!

Add me on LinkedIn, follow me on Twitter, or join us in the next CMX Connect in Lisbon :)

Scaling Communities with Andreia Tulcidás