May
03

How to Email New Members to Encourage them to Engage

By | community, members

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I've mentioned before how I email new members at the end of every month. But …. with around 1,500 - 2,000 members joining every month how does that scale, and how do you keep it personal? Firstly my aim is to target members who haven't posted during their first month of membership, or members who posted when they first joined but haven't been back since. Quite often if they haven't posted at all they may not be sure where to start, or even how to post. Not everyone is a seasoned online community user; some … [Read more...]

Mar
07

Time is Your Friend

By | complaints, members

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A member recently contacted me to express concern over another member's avatar. I took a look at the avatar in question, and at first glance I saw the same thing the first member did. However, it didn't seem in character with the member who was using the avatar. She wasn't connected to the issue, nor was she the type of person to cause conflict or controversy within the community. So I took the time to consult with the moderators who oversee the section that the member concerned interacted in. They took a closer … [Read more...]

Feb
08

VirComm 13 – The Outtakes

By | Online Community Management

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The Virtual Community Summit took place in London yesterday. It's the second one they've run and by all accounts was enjoyed by all. Last year they streamed it live on the interwebs, which was great for folk like me who couldn't attend. This year, however, there was no streaming but plenty of tweets from people who shared some great info. I love these out takes from eModeration:   View "undefined" on Storify … [Read more...]

Feb
06

Manually reviewed … it just may take us a little while

By | community

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Manually Review

Not all communities are open for public consumption. Some want to offer a unique and private environment for their members, others want to attract a select audience ... and that's ok. But if that is the route you are taking you still need to make sure your community is welcoming to new members. If you wish to review and approve new registrations in order to maintain the quality of your community content ... then that's ok too, but maybe you may want to look at how long it takes you ... because this just won't … [Read more...]

Jan
03

Never Underestimate the Power of a Lurker

By | community, members

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Lurkers can become brand/community evangelists even if they do not participate. If they enjoy your community enough to consistently lurk, they may spread the word, or recommend your community to others. If you have banner ads on your site lurkers mean you have eyes on those ads, which equate to page views. Lurkers can be drawn to become active participants. Lurkers are evidence that even if someone is not actively posting they are gaining benefit from your community. It's the content that draws them in, … [Read more...]

Nov
21

Buzzing Communities – A Must Read For All Community Managers

By | community

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buzzingcommunities

I am a big fan of Richard Millington's work. He is committed to growing and building communities and doing it right, so I was really pleased, and excited, when he asked me if I wanted an advance copy of his book to read and review. Someone who once worked with Richard told me that working with him wanted to make them "up their game" and that's exactly what Richard's new book "Buzzing Communities" does. Reading it makes you want to do better, and up your own game and that of the community you manage. This book … [Read more...]

Aug
30

Power To The Online People

By | community

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Just wanted to share this infographic by open-site.org which shows what great things an online community can achieve when they pull together.   … [Read more...]

Aug
22

Scaling the Management of Your Online Community Presentation – SXSW

By | community, Online Community Management

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We read (and write) a lot about how to start communities, and where to find community members. But what do you do when your community has grown way past your expectations or plans? How do you scale that community and keep your members bonded together? How do you keep the community feel that first connected members with each other? You're bursting to know aren't you … I can tell. Well wonder no longer. I was very pleased to be asked to collaborate with Patrick O'Keefe on a presentation proposal for South by … [Read more...]

Aug
01

Tales from my Community Manager Mailbox … a little humour now and then helps.

By | issues, members

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Online communities are  on 24/7 and because of this many members expect us Community Managers to be on 24/7 as well. Particuulary in my case because my community has members all over world in many different time zones. I spread my moderators around the time zones so we have as much cover as possible, but there are certain things my moderators do not have moderator privileges for, and so some things just have to wait until I am firing all cylinders. What frustrates me the most is the expectation of some … [Read more...]

Jul
24

You Are Not A Community Manager If ….

By | Online Community Management

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Being in the business of social media marketing does not automatically make one a Community Manager, and yet I so often see people referring to themselves as a community facilitator when they don't seem to display evidence of any actual community building. So out of a sense of utter frustration I'm going to stand on my little soap box and have a moan. (Well it is my blog and I'll cry if I want to.) To add, I had hesitated over publishing this post because I didn't want to come over all negative. However, after … [Read more...]