A dedicated Tableau Community space

0:00Hey, it's Tim here. In today's video, I

0:01want to talk about social networks and

0:03Tableau.

0:04As ever, let's get stuck in. So the Tableau

0:06community has mostly found itself on

0:09Twitter.

0:10Twitter has been the one place when I was

0:11learning Tableau. Twitter was the platform

0:14to have a profile

0:15and communicate with everyone doing

0:17anything interesting in the Tableau space.

0:20Very quickly

0:20after that, I also discovered that the

0:22community forums, Tableau's own community

0:24forums, were

0:25another great place to go and find people

0:27who could not only help, but give some

0:29pretty detailed

0:29answers and breakdowns to solutions and

0:31problems that you might have. I still

0:33recommend those two

0:34resources as a place to go and find

0:36innovation, inspiration, and a whole bunch

0:38of other stuff.

0:39But there's one big problem with social

0:42networks at the moment. And right now,

0:44there's actually a

0:44very interesting situation going on with

0:46Reddit, which has sort of prompted me to

0:48make this video.

0:49I should have also made a video when

0:51Twitter had its own range of problems. But

0:53at that time,

0:53I just thought that was a little bit

0:55unnecessary. But I think now that we've had

0:57a repeat instance

0:58of social networks going rogue, I think it

1:00's time that we start to ask the question,

1:03should Tableau make an effort to create a

1:06space in the social universe that it owns,

1:09it manages,

1:10and most importantly, it moderates? Let's

1:13talk a bit about that. You might be asking,

1:16well, what's the point? What's the point?

1:17Everything's fine on Twitter. People are

1:18still

1:19using Twitter. People are still using

1:20Reddit. Well, what's the point? Well, the

1:22point here is

1:23this. When you're a company like Tableau,

1:26and you are operating in a space that you

1:29ultimately don't

1:30control, as in Twitter, you don't control

1:31the API, you don't control the platform,

1:34essentially,

1:34someone else, another company, another

1:36organization with, quite frankly, needs

1:39that need to meet the

1:40whole world, can make platform decisions

1:42that fundamentally change the nature and

1:44the way in

1:45which your community functions on that

1:47platform. One of the downsides with, you

1:49know, Twitter and

1:50its changes in the most recent months has

1:52been they killed a bunch of APIs. So if,

1:54let's say,

1:54a part of your community was using Twitter

1:57through third-party apps as Tableau, what

2:00you'd see is a

2:00side effect that people would just stop

2:02communicating on Twitter as much as stop

2:04going onto Twitter as

2:05much. And I have to say, I track various

2:08social media metrics on Twitter. And since

2:11the last three

2:12months, Twitter has just fallen off a cliff

2:14. People are not using it. And the people

2:16who are

2:17still using it were the people that were

2:18the vocal, the vocal minority, as it were.

2:20But frankly,

2:21people just aren't consuming Twitter

2:23anymore. I'll even show you some YouTube

2:24stats.

2:25Twitter contributes less than 0.001% of

2:30traffic to pretty much all of the activity

2:33that goes on

2:34on my channel. So when I share something on

2:36Twitter, you'd think a lot of people would

2:37go

2:38and see the video. Actually, the reality is

2:40, if I share a video on Twitter, and let's

2:42say 200

2:43people like the post, in reality, only 10

2:46people are likely to actually go and watch

2:48the video. So

2:50it also sort of plays into this effect that

2:52you see on Twitter, where it starts to

2:54become an echo

2:54chamber, where we kind of, we will post

2:56something we like and re-like and re-share.

2:58But actually,

2:59how many people actually, you know, valid

3:01ating what's being shared, whether it's good

3:02or not,

3:03or we just supporting each other in this

3:05sort of effort to sort of amplify the

3:07message, those two

3:08things and kind of get sort of blurred out.

3:10So, you know, Twitter's had this issue. And

3:12so I just

3:13stopped using Twitter, you'll notice, I've

3:15just stopped using Twitter as much as I don

3:17't, I don't

3:18honestly, you know, want to post on Twitter

3:20much because at the same time, the owner of

3:23the platform

3:24and the way that people behave on the

3:25platform has also led me to dislike the way

3:27it works.

3:28Quite honestly, I get so much more

3:30interesting engagement and comments on

3:32YouTube comments where

3:34I have a much bigger presence, because the

3:35people that value the content and they

3:37value sort of

3:38the feedback on Twitter, you do get into

3:40this sort of shouting match sometimes, and

3:42it sometimes does

3:43sort of bring out the worst in some debates

3:45in the worst in some discussions. And you

3:48also sort

3:48of get this element where the platform, the

3:52platform sort of cultivates a specific type

3:55of community, it's really hard on Twitter

3:57to have a community that becomes really

3:59vibrant, meets up

4:00weekly and does a bunch of things. What

4:02people tend to do is they tend to share

4:04resources to

4:05things like user groups, they tend to share

4:07resources to other platforms to go and do

4:09those

4:09things. So it ends up just becoming this

4:11sort of place where things move really

4:13quickly and to new

4:14audiences, which is just, you know, archaic

4:16in many ways, the generation of tomorrow,

4:18if I look at my

4:19brother who's 10 years younger than me, he

4:21doesn't spend time on Twitter, they don't

4:22spend time on

4:23social network. So if you're also thinking

4:25about the future of the people who are

4:26going to be using

4:27your product, Twitter is just not a good

4:29place to be. Now, you might say, okay, well

4:31, we have

4:31Tableau forums, we have all these other

4:33places. Well, what's wrong with those? Well

4:35, here's, here's

4:35another problem with these. Frankly, people

4:38don't know they exist. And you have to, you

4:40have to use

4:41the platforms for quite some time to

4:43stumble into someone that will tell you

4:46that these places exist.

4:48A simple good example is when people

4:49suggest ideas, they say, well, Tableau

4:51should do this. And I always

4:53go to people, hey, do you know that Tableau

4:55has a place where you can make a suggestion

4:56? And they

4:57don't know that. And then I'll send them a

4:58link, and they'll go to the link, and they

5:00'll see, oh,

5:01wow, this thing I've had in my mind has

5:02actually been in the community's ideas page

5:05for the last

5:05eight years. And only recently have Tableau

5:07started sort of knocking some of those off.

5:09But

5:10nonetheless, they don't realize that this,

5:11you know, this is happening. And so what

5:13that does

5:14is it changes the dynamic. When you know

5:16something has been asked for, for eight

5:18years, you have a

5:18very different kind of relationship with

5:21the vendor, because what you want to now do

5:23is sort

5:23of play an accountable role with the vendor

5:25and say, hey, why hasn't this feature been

5:27developed?

5:28Instead, you kind of come at this from this

5:29approach where you're thinking, oh, you

5:31know,

5:32why was it such an obvious thing? Why isn't

5:33in the product, and you start to critique

5:35the product

5:35assist now as if no one has ever thought of

5:37the idea. But actually, that leads to a

5:39very different

5:40discussion to just, you know, holding Table

5:42au to critique. The other thing is that

5:43forums just

5:44aren't a dynamic that many people enjoy.

5:46And I hate to say that because forums are

5:48incredibly

5:49useful. I've said at the beginning of this

5:50video, I'll say it again, the kind of help

5:52and the kind

5:52of value you'll find in the Tableau forums

5:55is a really exceptional quality. But if you

5:57try and

5:58introduce again, generation of today,

6:00younger generation, my brother, he's 10

6:02years younger

6:02than me to something like a forum and the

6:05way a forum works, it's just too slow. The

6:08idea that

6:09you create sort of a post in a thread, that

6:11's all happening on much, much more real

6:14time platforms.

6:15For those we're talking things like slack

6:17and discord. And again, you know, people

6:19just look

6:20at those platforms, and they don't want to

6:21create a Salesforce account to have to use

6:23that they

6:23don't want to have to, you know, traverse

6:25the search, they want to have to understand

6:27its

6:27structure. And the forums aren't always set

6:29up in like, the most sort of transparent

6:31way. In fact,

6:32the best way to experience forums is to not

6:34browse the forums is to search for

6:36something and then add

6:37the term Tableau forums. And you'll get

6:39what you want really, really quickly. They

6:41also come up

6:42because when solutions get posted,

6:44sometimes it's a community forum post that

6:46's actually answering

6:47the question whether there's no knowledge

6:49base or no sort of central point. So I

6:51think it's pretty

6:51interesting that, you know, Tableau, a

6:53company that's been around for 20 years,

6:56yes, was forward

6:57thinking when it had forums, yes, was

6:59forward thinking when it built its

7:01community on Twitter.

7:02But you have to ask the Tableau the future,

7:04the Tableau that was at the keynote, the

7:05Tableau

7:06that's looking ahead to a dashboard list

7:08feature, the Tableau that wants more and

7:10more people to

7:10come and engage, if they want developers,

7:12if they want this kind of community to come

7:14and get

7:15involved, you got to ask, well, where is

7:17that community. And that's when we get to

7:19really

7:19actually a really interesting opportunity

7:22that I think is just blindingly obvious.

7:24But yeah,

7:26it's quite simple. It's Slack. So Sales

7:30force own Tableau, Salesforce also own Slack

7:34. Now Slack,

7:35bizarrely, is one of the most well

7:37respected community platforms on the planet

7:41. As an analyst,

7:42I can't tell you how many different slacks

7:44I'm part of that to me, just foster a much

7:47more

7:48vibrant, much more dynamic, much more

7:50reactive community. And yes, on Twitter,

7:53you can post

7:53something and get something back. But what

7:55you get on Slack is just of a higher

7:57quality level.

7:58Because things are threaded, things are

8:00organized in a much better way. And I know

8:02there's lots of

8:02people who hate certain dynamics within

8:04Slack. But honestly, Slacks integrations

8:06and the way

8:07Slack works compared to pretty much

8:09everything else are second to none. And so

8:12once people get

8:13over that dynamic, once people sort of

8:14figure out how that dynamic works, the one

8:16thing Slack

8:17sucks you do is customize your own

8:18experience, which is one feature that

8:20forums and Twitter

8:21don't really let you do. And another thing

8:23Slack does, it lets you build and scale

8:25your community

8:26in a way that works. And the irony here is

8:28that Salesforce has the power to do this

8:31for its own

8:31communities. And it to me, it's just the

8:34most obvious place. But we also have a, you

8:36know,

8:37official place on Reddit, and we have

8:39official place pretty much everywhere on

8:40all the key

8:41platforms. Now, the thing with Reddit, and

8:43I don't think you know, Reddit is going to

8:45really

8:45be impacted, Tableau Reddit won't be

8:47impacted by the most recent API changes.

8:49But I think it sort

8:49of speaks to this point, again, where the

8:51platform owner is changing the way and the

8:52dynamic in which

8:54people work with Reddit. And the other

8:56thing I have to say about Reddit is

8:58actually the Tableau

8:59Reddit itself, this is not a criticism,

9:01this is, you know, Reddit has a very

9:03specific identity. And

9:04because of that, you have roles called

9:06moderators, and they decide how a

9:08particular group works.

9:09And the reason they're in that role is

9:10because they know what works. And they're

9:12trying to sort

9:12of stop the bad side of the internet coming

9:14through. And so one of the things with the

9:16Tableau Reddit is it's you can't do self

9:18promotion, you might think, yeah, that's

9:19good.

9:20Actually, that's really a good thing. Why

9:21would you allow people to self promote?

9:23Well, the problem

9:24is, is that when people build something,

9:26and they want to share it, or they make

9:27something they're

9:28proud of, they want to be able to share it,

9:30I made a video explaining Tableau, and that

9:32's now had

9:33600,000 views. Now, when I posted that

9:35video, initially, I wanted to get out to as

9:37many people

9:38as possible. And I put it in the Reddit and

9:40actually ranked to the top ranking post

9:42that week.

9:42But unfortunately, it got sort of removed

9:44by the moderators, because ultimately, I

9:46was doing self

9:47promotion. So what I really needed was for

9:49someone else to go and post the video. But

9:52why would

9:52someone else post the video if they don't

9:54know about it. So it's kind of a strange

9:55thing when

9:56you want to do some good, but the way to do

9:58is to kind of, you know, have a sort of a

9:59backdoor way.

10:00And I just thought, well, that's a weird

10:02dynamic. I don't want to have to do this

10:03every time I post

10:04the video. So I just I just gave up. And so

10:06that's why you probably don't find people

10:08sharing their

10:08work and their resources on somewhere like

10:10Reddit, but you get more of a discussion.

10:12And then what

10:13ends up happening is that the valuable sort

10:15of knowledge ends up sort of coalescing

10:17away from

10:18those places. And it becomes sort of

10:20slightly less to you. So what point am I

10:22trying to make? Well,

10:23ultimately, Tableau have a platform that

10:26they could use that's owned by Salesforce.

10:29I say Tableau,

10:30I should just really stop saying Tableau

10:31and just say Salesforce. Salesforce have a

10:33platform they

10:34own, it's called Slack. Slack could be an

10:36incredible place, not just for the Tableau

10:39community,

10:39but it could also be an incredible place

10:41for bringing all of its communities. We're

10:43talking

10:43about the Slack community itself, which

10:45runs on Slack, surprise, surprise, we're

10:47talking about

10:47the Salesforce MVP program that could also

10:49run on Slack. And we're talking about the

10:51Tableau

10:52community program, which could also run on

10:54Slack. In fact, if you're part of those

10:56community

10:56programs, you do get invited to the

10:59internal Slack space for the company, Table

11:03au. But here's the

11:04thing. I think it's somewhat of a limited

11:07experience, because we don't have a place

11:10for other people in the community to openly

11:13come in and take part in that we don't have

11:14a place for

11:15these discussions and threads to take place

11:17in a much bigger setup. And so what you get

11:20there

11:20is essentially a misrepresentation of the

11:23wider community base. And I think this is

11:26what sort of

11:27speaks to some of the disconnect that you

11:28get at conference, you see Tableau going on

11:30with the

11:31cloud, saying that the cloud is the biggest

11:32product, this is where people are pushing.

11:35And what we get internally sometimes is

11:37this idea about where's server, where's

11:39server going. And

11:40that's because fundamentally, a lot of the

11:42people who've been using the core product

11:44are still on

11:45server, but actually a lot of the new

11:47customers are on Tableau cloud, but they're

11:49not in that

11:49Slack, they're not represented as much. So

11:51you get this sort of disconnect. So I

11:53really do think

11:54something like Slack would be a

11:56fundamentally amazing addition to open it

11:58up to create a Tableau

12:00community Slack where not only can we

12:02communicate directly with Tableau, not only

12:04can we communicate

12:05with each other, but we could have threads

12:07about certification, we could have threads

12:09about

12:09visualizations, a visit a day feed could be

12:11in there, we could have people being tagged

12:14on lots

12:14of different threads, we could have even

12:16videos from the community, blog posts from

12:18the community

12:18being dynamically shared and entered into a

12:21specific feed automatically. So you add

12:24yourself

12:24to a form, we actually have a weekly post

12:27called this week in Tableau in Tableau. And

12:30it has a

12:30bunch of different posts that could all be

12:32automated without needing to sort of have

12:34someone

12:35manually put it together, all these autom

12:37ations already exist in other communities. I

12:39have to say

12:40the community I sort of like to refer to as

12:42the DBT community. And whilst it's fairly

12:44quiet in

12:44the Tableau channel, I actually enjoy just

12:46reading the threads in other channels. I'm

12:48one of these

12:48people that just sort of sits quietly in

12:50pretty much all communities, I just read

12:52the content,

12:53I for my own opinions, I disagree

12:54passionately with most of it. But I just

12:56don't share them

12:57because I think you know, sometimes we'll

12:59only share something if you're willing to

13:00actually

13:01take action and push for that outcome and

13:03fight for that outcome. And so if you're

13:05not willing

13:06to do that, what's the point in sharing,

13:07you know, you kind of got to, you got to

13:09choose your battles

13:10wisely. So I talk when I'm really

13:11passionate about something. And so for

13:13everything else,

13:14for 99% of stuff, I'm just, I'm just

13:17looking on making opinions for my own

13:19judgments and

13:20sort of enjoying the content that way. But

13:21anyway, I think Tableau Salesforce should

13:25seriously

13:26consider a community slack. And why am I

13:28making this video? Well, I started to

13:31believe in life

13:33that if you want something to happen, you

13:34kind of have to put it out there, you have

13:36to put the idea

13:37out there as a way of manifesting it

13:39yourself. I'm not into manifestation. But I

13:41do think that

13:42when you start to socialize ideas, people

13:44start thinking, and you never know the

13:47ideas might just

13:48end up somewhere useful. Anyway, that's

13:49pretty much it for this video. Thanks for

13:51watching,

13:52and I'll see you in the next one. Trans

13:54cribed by https://otter.ai

13:55Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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