#213: Community | B2B Community Growth Strategies with Matthew Carnevale on the Direct Podcast

This episode is from the Direct podcast hosted by Corrina Owens (Fractional ABM consultant) and Taylor Young (Director of Strategy, Professional Services at DemandScience). Corrina and Taylor sit down with Exit Five’s Head of Community, Matthew Carnevale, to discuss his journey in scaling the Exit Five community to over 5,000 members. They dive into engagement strategies, fostering connections, and creating value-driven programming for B2B marketers.Corrina, Taylor, and Matthew cover:How to seed a community with experts and drive engagementThe role of events and content in fostering member participationBalancing long-term community growth with short-term winsTimestamps(00:00) - - Intro to Matt (02:33) - - Defining community and the difference between building community and a community (04:33) - - Why Exit Five moved to a gated Circle community (06:33) - - How Exit Five engages members and drives meaningful engagement (09:33) - - Scaling community management with member contributions (13:33) - - Balancing digital and in-person community strategies (15:33) - - Advice for teams without a founder-led social presence (16:33) - - Creating audience-first media assets to build community (19:37) - - Balancing short-term wins with long-term community goals (24:37) - - Tracking engagement and measuring community success (27:37) - - First steps for starting a community (32:37) - - Closing advice Send guest pitches and ideas to [email protected] the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterCheck out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership***Today’s episode is brought to you by Grammarly.Ever have one of those weeks where you spent more time replying to Slack and email than doing actual marketing work?You’re not alone. The average marketing team spends 28+ hours a week just keeping up with comms.That leads to burnout, frustration, and a whole lot of performative productivity that doesn’t actually move the needle.AI-fluent marketing teams are changing that. Grammarly’s 2025 Productivity Shift Report shows how they’re using AI to:– Cut down on back-and-forth– Automate content, research, and reporting– Eliminate busywork– Make space for strategyWe’re marketers because we love crafting campaigns, driving revenue, and proving impact – not spending all day buried in messages.Get the report and see how top teams are making AI actually useful.Visit go.grammarly.com/exitfive to grab it.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more