Thank You Shawn – And Best of Luck!

Shawn Hessinger, our long-time Community Manager here at BizSugar, has gotten an offer he couldn’t refuse.  He has taken a full-time job as an employee with another B2B site.  As a result, he’s not able to continue in the part-time Community Manager role here at BizSugar.

We’re going to miss Shawn! I’m very happy that he has found a full-time job and that our association together working on BizSugar helped prepare him for that role.

As I look back, I’m grateful for all that Shawn has done.  His leadership here enabled us to recruit and retain a team of part-time Moderators who many of you have come to know well for being so active on the site:  Duncan, Valentine, Amanda, Martin, Marie,  Heather and Staci.  Shawn also was responsible for helping coordinate the Sugartone contests, and instituting our interview series and the BizSugar Contributor of the Week recognitions.

But his public role was just the tip of the iceberg. It was only about 1/10th of what he did for BizSugar each week.  Shawn and his business’s team (yes, he started his own business) have been responsible for keeping the site spam free and maintaining a positive welcoming tone;  fielding customer service inquiries on Twitter;  responding to customer service emails; and working with the tech team to report and help troubleshoot technical issues.   Shawn also made regular reports to me about the site’s progress and growth, and assisted in developing community growth strategies.

So what’s next?

First of all, I am recruiting for a part-time Community Manager to replace Shawn’s public facing role.  But in the meantime, I anticipate absolutely no interruption in the site.

Even though Shawn will no longer be involved, we’re fortunate that the business Shawn started will continue to assist with behind-the-scenes site management.  Our dedicated Moderators will remain visible as they have always been.  And of course, everything continues to operate under my supervision.  Even though I may not appear visibly on the site, I am and remain hands on.  I visit multiple times a day, every single day, including weekends.

All of that will continue.  And we look forward to doing even more to serve you in the future — kicking it up another notch.

Meanwhile, please join me in wishing Shawn the best of success in his new role!