Meet Tom

Managing a growing server into a healthy community is no easy task. It takes hard work and dedication to foster and maintain a sense of belonging among members in a safe server environment. 

Over two and a half years ago, Tom (aka Bruh!) built the Rocket League Germany Discord as a home for Rocket League fans to come together, make friends and play games. Today, it has over 28,000 members, offering Rocket League news and hosting community events, tournaments, and giveaways. 

“The Discord Server is meant to be a haven where you can stay away from stress and other negative impacts by communicating with the community, playing games, making friends, and more.”  

As an expert community manager, we sat down with Tom (Bruh!) to pick their brain and get their advice on what it takes to successfully run and manage a community on Discord.

Interacting With Your Community

As an admin, it’s key for you and your team are regularly active and engaging with your community in your day-to-day. 

Tom says: “If you are not regularly interacting with your community or if they are not responsive to your wishes [as a Community Manager], this will lead to a collapse at a later point in time. My team and I try to respond to the requests and ideas from the community and implement them as best we can. This way helps to build a direct relationship with members and make the Discord server more attractive, more entertaining, and more professional as well as being user-friendly.”

Creating Connections Between Members

“A strong and well-run community is evident from two important aspects. The first is the activity of its members and the second is the dealings with one another. Everyone should treat everyone with respect in order to prevent disputes and allow for compromise.”

A big part of Rocket League Germany’s community mission is to create an opportunity for members to meet and play together. Encouraging peer-to-peer connections amongst members will be a vital step to mustering up a healthy atmosphere and setting the standard for new members as they join. 

Listening to Your Members

Tom explains that part of the community’s success has been to understand what members want, their motivations, and what they hope to gain from being part of the community. 

“Sit down with the community in a voice channel and respond to direct requests or introduce a suggestion channel where users or groups can offer their personal suggestions for improvement.” 

Not every request from the community will always be possible and that’s okay. However, creating the right spaces for members to share their ideas and making sure your members feel their thoughts are heard will go a long way in building loyalty long-term.

Building a Team and Prioritizing Safety

For Tom, prioritizing the community’s safety has also been vital to running the server. The Rocket League Germany server currently has 15 moderators working together. They’ve found how important it is when people realize that the server is professionally managed; they feel more comfortable and more willing to participate. 

And finally, some advice from Tom: “I would like to give all community managers an important tip for the future—ignore everyone who doesn't believe in you. Don’t get demotivated. If you love what you’re doing and building something that matters to your community you’ll find Discord Partners and friends who are excited to join, too.”

Thank you so much to Tom (Bruh!) for their help in writing this article. If you’d like to join the Rocket League Germany community, you can click here to check it out. Learn more about how to manage a community on Discord.