Written by: Emily Shuey, Marketing and Events, PopUp Village Berlin
EyeEm Festival and Awards 2014 Berlin recently held a two day summit bringing together their brightest minds from the photography, tech and media industries. Internationally recognised, participants flew in from across the globe in support of EyeEm, the photo-sharing & discovery app. EyeEm’s members are a loyal and growing community of social, amateur and professional photographers symbiotically pushing the boundaries of mobile photography. The festival was in celebration of all of these members.
At the core of EyeEm is a Community Centric philosophy and a deep understanding of the evolution of its members. A community is seen as a living ecosystem defined by the interactions among its members. Influenced by both external and internal factors, individuals and sub-communities, it’s an organic network of socially and intellectually connected individuals. EyeEm doesn’t attempt to control its community but rather influence and support it, paying tribute to its complexities.
Although a forward thinking, tech enabled company, EyeEm knows that the heart of the digital era must still hold community as its central focus. With this in mind, how does one build a loyal following and nurture a long term relationship?
Trust
Trust is the glue that holds all communities together. During The Art of Community panel discussion and the Fireside Chat; Building Communities, trust was a strong theme. EyeEm has built trust and respect in their community through honesty and commitment to their members. Members believe that EyeEm is building a product for them and trust EyeEm to take their feedback onboard.
Network
The quality and diversity of the members, and how these members interact impacts on the health of the community. EyeEm has a diverse yet balanced mix of contributors who regularly contribute and support each other. Members regularly attend meetups with some even claiming that they have met best friends through the platform.
Happiness
Markus Spiering, EyeEm’s Chief Product Officer, discussed “happiness” as a way of ensuring the health and growth of your community. But how do you measure happiness?
“Happiness is a KPI that can only be partially measured in numbers, for example in retention data. What we started to do in our weekly evaluations was to take qualitative feedback in consideration: a tweet by a happy user, a positive comment, a critical email. Even though these only reflect the feelings of a couple of individuals, we noticed that it’s a good indicator of the overall happiness of our community.” – Severin Matusek, VP Community at EyeEm.
Unlike other photo sharing apps, EyeEm offers the opportunity for their members to get paid and published in the global media. This unique feature has become an attractive element positioning EyeEm as a preferred photo-sharing platform.
Although EyeEm is attracting recognition from big names and global brands, it is their focus on community building which ultimately will set them apart. Prioritising its members and paying tribute to their talent will undoubtedly contribute to the growing success of EyeEm.
Photos by: Markus Spiering / EyeEm and Linka A Odom / EyeEm
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