Community

So you’re a community manager in charge of growing online engagement for your brand. Now what? Where’s the manual for this thing? What else should you be doing? The concept of community is an evolving one and may carry a variety of responsibilities at every company, depending on size and basic organization. But by overlaying the time-tested 7 deadly sins on the most general of community management job descriptions, we can build  an initial list of “Don’ts.” The 7 deadly sins of community Lust If...

Somewhere recently I read a blogger mention that he turned off the lights each night to the light of his smart phone display, and the first things he did each morning was check his email and browse his RSS feeds. Before ever setting foot into the bathroom or stumbling to the coffee maker.  It was interesting to read someone actually describe a behavior that’s probably typical of many professionals. I mean, we don’t talk about brushing our teeth, right? It’s just one of those routine things...

Funny thing about communities. Sometimes they spring up in spots you haven't been watering. Because they're not clustered in nice fat groups claiming a proud central space in the garden, they're not complimented by neighbors of other carefully-groomed organic matter. They're insubstantial, really. These wild communities may be lone, thriving on a long-thought-dead channel with small membership numbers. It may be easy to discount the discovery of a wild community as unintentional, lacking organization...

Are you one of the cool kids with a custom short URL? I've used a particular free short URL service for awhile. It serves all my needs, from enabling multiple links for a single web page (to track reach in different sources) to respectable analytics. I recently applied for their pro-level service and was tickled to receive acceptance last week. I wanted to experience the custom short URL feature set for myself so that I might be able to advise clients about it.Set-up instructions were short, and to me that...

Recently I covered 5 immutable laws of community-centric organizations.  Below are four more to consider. Make Your Community Character Count Make good choices.  Set the standard. Coaching community members to abide by codes of conduct may be a bit more challenging than censoring your own behavior as a manager. After all, it's your job to moderate what goes on.  You're the eye in the sky.  Set a tone and religiously maintain it.  Most participants will understand where the boundaries...

I want to blow off some steam addressing community building common sense.  Nurturing relationships with members, customers, or merely interested parties isn't rocket science, yet it seems so hard for organizations large and small - even those within the "community" and "digital marketing" spaces! - to get right.  Maybe it's a case of the cobbler's shoes.  Maybe it's a case of arrogance or a lack of checks/balances of the "Are we living our promises?" category.  Whatever the reason, too many businesses...

A Blog And A Partner I had the opportunity to partner with Successful Blog author Liz Strauss, and let me say I'm darned lucky. Not only is Liz the fairy godmother of relationships and conversations, but she can identify kernels of ideas and say big things about them.  Things that get her readers thinking.  And you can be sure, they're always listening to Liz. The post I co-authored was published today and is titled "It's so easy to get stuck repeating what we already know." And you guessed...

Sometimes we are reminded that even those we are close to, those we have friendships and other relationships with, can be dramatically different.  I'm not talking chocolate vs. vanilla, The Office vs. CSI, or even Sean Connery vs. Roger Moore (blasphemy!) kind of different. I'm talking about "So why do you do all this Internet stuff, anyway?" kind of different. What-planet-are-you-from kind of different. Which is interesting, considering I've been married for 14 years.  I understand him better...

AdAge and Twitterville This is a busy weekend in Las Vegas.  At the risk of sounding oxymoronic, let me quickly add that I'm referring to BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2008, the convention for connectivity.  I'm workin' the laptop, and my TwitterFox keeps catching my eye - so I invariably check out the new Tweets and read all about the after parties, the panelists, see the Flikrs.  Good times had by all, it sounds like.  Although I'm here and they're, well, there, the stream of updates and photos...