Episode #8
“Don’t compete with your community for fandom” ft Community Manager Chandler Wood
Today's guest is Chandler Wood, currently working with Skilltree Marketing. Chandler started his community management career truly in the deep end. He left games journalism, where he'd spent about a decade, to join Avalanche Software in his hometown of Salt Lake City working on Hogwarts Legacy. He only left the role years later when love took him to New York. We chat about Chandler's "oil in the engine" philosophy of community management — being the translator and connective tissue between brand, product, and audience rather than a mascot or figurehead. He shares what it meant to be a community manager for the studio as much as for the players, how he helped Hogwarts Legacy build its own fandom identity distinct from the wider Wizarding World audience. Chandler also gets into the power of listening, making broadcast content feel one-to-one, and his best advice for first-time community managers. Games mentioned in this episode: - Hogwarts Legacy: https://store.steampowered.com/app/990080/Hogwarts_Legacy/ - Expedition 33: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903340/Clair_Obscur_Expedition_33/ - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2909400/FINAL_FANTASY_VII_REBIRTH/ Find Chandler on: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandler-wood/ - Website: https://www.chandler-wood.com/ The Community Lounge is brought to you by Feature Upvote – Painlessly collect feedback from your players. More insights, less noise. Subscribe to the Community Lounge newsletter and get notified of new episodes and articles: https://featureupvote.com/thecommunitylounge/
