Creating a radically safe, welcoming space online 🏳️🌈 Shana Sumers, HER
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“Ask your community: What they want to see out of the company to make them feel supported? I don't do anything until I talk to the community or reach out to them or say, ‘What do you want to see next? And then I make that a part of my plan.’” - Shana Sumers
Show Notes
HER Social App is the largest community and dating app for LGBTQ+ womxn and queer people.
Unlike other dating apps that tend to end a user journey when people find a match, HER is also a place for users to return to for queer friendship and conversation.
Shana (middle in denim shirt) with HER community members, moderators, and team via HER.
Shana Sumers is the master behind the intersectional, welcoming, inclusive space community at HER.
She started as an ambassador of the app and now serves as the Head of Community, helping launch and grow it to over five million users worldwide.
She also co-hosts her own podcast, Bad Queers. And she worked as a music therapist for 5 years before joining the tech world, which influences her approach as a moderator.
On the podcast, Shana shares how she doesn’t do anything without consulting her community first and how she has gone about making difficult decisions on the HER social app forums, where people would list their dating preferences that were sometimes phobic.
While you’re listening, keep an ear out for some of our favorite insights from Shana:
Community gives people a reason to keep coming back to HER.
HER functions mainly as a dating app. But while most dating apps, like Tinder and Bumble, tend to end the user journey when people find a match, HER is different. Instead of measuring their success based on a match, HER encourages users to return for the queer community they can access through the product.There’s even a community side of the app, which functions like a Reddit thread or Facebook group, and people visit the space to discuss queer culture and personal experiences with others all around the world. .
Inside the interface of HER from dating to community.
Listen to your community, then “own up” to your mistakes.
Shana explains that community-building is an ongoing learning process. She makes herself accessible and prominent so the HER community can feel heard when they are unhappy. And she emphasizes that it’s okay to make mistakes, but it’s important to own up to them and share how you’re going to correct your behavior and make it better in the future. For the companies wanting to support BLM and anti-racism, it’s the same principle — listen to your community, and take it one step at a time.
Supercharge your superusers.
Shana runs a moderator program where she identifies engaged members of the community and trains them to moderate the forums. She gives them ways to connect online via Facebook groups and offline at social events. After training, she lets them fly free. Now, this program is at a mature stage where the moderator community organizes itself. Moderators can identify others who can rise up in the community, and Shana doesn’t do as much individual work training them.
Your community is your greatest source of ideas.
Shana is constantly listening to her community, reading the forums. They give her topic ideas for her podcast, community conversations, and what they want out of the app.
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