VERO’s Head of Community Tom talks about fostering a sense of belonging and how important the VERO Community is in shaping the social network.

Tom Hodgson

What does it say on your business card?

Tom Hodgson. Head of Community & Editorial at VERO.

Where is home?

South London.

What made you want to get involved with community leadership in VERO?

I joined VERO because I was disappointed by the state of mainstream social media. So many of the big platforms we know today started out as these positive, generative, supportive communities full of excitement and wonder, but over time, they evolved into these unwieldy, addictive, over-commercialized, and manipulated spaces designed to keep us scrolling and scrolling.

I had stepped back from social, deleted most of my accounts, and didn’t feel any inclination to share anything because I didn’t feel like I really belonged on any of the big platforms. Then I met Ayman and listened to him talk about his vision of building a healthier social network that would help people connect on a human-to-human level, put them in control of their experience and data, and treat them like customers, not the product. The invitation to help build this, alongside a great group of people, was too good to pass up.

“We put a lot of emphasis on ensuring VERO is a positive, healthy community and we have zero tolerance for anti-social behavior which undermines that.”

— TOM HODGSON

For you, what does community stand for?

Community means many things to many people, but for me I guess a community is the opposite of an audience. An audience is a passive receptor of what it is they are being given - often from a single source - whereas a community is a group of people, linked by a common interest, experience, passion or belief who are forming peer-to-peer connections and co-creating something of value for themselves and each other. As the old saying goes, “if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”

What’s important to you about community?

What we’re always focused on, and it’s a constant work in progress, is how to foster a sense of belonging amongst our Members and set things up in such a way that people, all people, feel comfortable contributing and building things knowing they’re in a safe, supportive environment. Without feeling psychologically safe to be yourself and to share honestly, connecting meaningfully with others is hard, so we put a lot of emphasis on ensuring VERO is a positive, healthy community and we have zero tolerance for anti-social behavior which undermines that.

“Every day, I see people on VERO going out of their way to lift others up”

— TOM HODGSON

What most excites you about the VERO community?

The optimism and willingness to see the best in people. Every day, I see people on VERO going out of their way to lift others up, be that showcasing their artwork, helping people out when they’re feeling low, collaborating on projects, or simply, to misquote Bill & Ted, being excellent to each other. It’s inspiring and humbling.

How do you think you build a humane community and what are the challenges?

The answer - and the challenge - is there are no absolutely shortcuts. Trust is built through lots of consistent behaviors and signals over time, so we’re committed to keep showing up for our community, listening to them, building with them, and never taking their trust in us for granted.

We try and keep a human, personal touch in all we do, which is why we have a (brilliant) human moderation team and don’t use AI bots for customer service. We’re also pretty accessible (people slide into our DMs on the regular with questions, thoughts, and suggestions!)

There are challenges to scaling this, to be sure, but what we as VERO do is only part of the story. We’ve written the code and launched the ship, but the VERO Community isn’t a top-down enterprise, it’s something millions of us are building together and learning from each other each day. When someone welcomes a new joiner and shows them where we keep the tea bags, they are making the promise of VERO real for that person then and there. A community is a continual team effort and our Members show up day after day to help build a friendly community - and that’s amazing.

How do individuals and project spotlights get showcased on VERO?

VERO’s Community & Editorial Team promotes amazing accounts and projects we feel are deserving of a wider audience and can act as focal points for communities to rally around. We seek to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve and focus on highlighting projects and profiles that are driving positive conversation and discussion. Many showcased accounts and projects are things we have found on the platform ourselves, but we also love when people tag the VERO account alerting us to their favorite discoveries. We also have an open call for submissions - [email protected] - where any VERO Member can nominate themselves or someone else for an in-app showcase.

You’ve commissioned a number of Guest Columns over the past 2 years. Can you tell us more about this?

Guest Columns are a chance for VERO Members to take the mic and share their stories and perspectives with a global audience and to drive conversation, discussion, and action around subjects important to them. Over the past few months, we’ve been proud to commission brilliant guest columns on subjects ranging from the link between technology use and mental health, food and community, Black Joy as an act of resistance, and techno horror films, and much else besides. Sharing our platform is something I’m really passionate about and hope to do more of in the future.

What’s your favorite VERO feature?

Hands-down it’s being able to send Books, Movies, Songs, Places and TV shows to people in VERO Chat. You can drop a movie into VERO Chat, say, and the person you’re chatting to can tap on the poster and explore the film, then go right back to Chat. If many of your friendship group chats reference old movies and songs like mine do, this is a killer feature!