Sue On The Web

By George I think I've just "got" foursquare!

Over the last few months I've been seeing a growing number of posts about foursquare. People tweeting their locations, becoming mayors, and collecting medals. At first I didn't pay much interest. I'm more into community spaces than anything and I couldn't really see the point. I suppose I didn't "get it." That, coupled with the fact that I'm still trying to get to grips with the plethora of social networking platforms on offer, and I wondered if I really wanted to get on another band wagon just because everyone else seemed to be trying it. However, as it turns out my curiosity got the better of me and about a month ago I joined foursquare to see what all the fuss was about. I had "checked-in" to two places and whilst I found the tips handy that other people had shared about the locations, I still wasn't sold ... until today.

Working from home I find myself going a little stir crazy from time to time. As Jake McKee quite succinctly put it, being a community manager can be  the “loneliest job in business,” and no more so when you work out of your home. So today I decided I would do a little work shifting and set off to Panera Bread so I could soak up some "people" atmosphere.  After settling myself down with my laptop, piping hot cup of coffee and delicious souffle I set to work, stopping only to savor my souffle and "check-in" on foursquare. After about 20 minutes a gentleman came up to me and said "Are you on foursquare?" so I replied "Yes" and he said "I thought as much. I just checked in myself and saw your pic as you had also checked in, and then I looked up and realized you were sitting at the table opposite me." Turns out he was a journalist and had just started using Twitter and Foursquare himself and we had a nice conversation about social networking.

So thanks to foursquare I am connecting with new people, and learning more about the places I visit and the people who frequent them. I'm still not 100% convinced that I "get" foursquare, but today I discovered that you can launch a community from many different Social Networking platforms, and in the least likest of places.

The Online Community Manager and the Job Search

I often get asked the best places to look for Community Manager jobs. As this role grows I am seeing more and more jobs posted all over the internet. As yet I am not aware of one main central place where Community Manager jobs are listed. However I will try and give you some ideas of where to start looking.

So in no particular order here are some great places for you to peruse:

1. LinkedIn is a great place for tracking down OCM jobs. I've seen some companies that only list available positions on LinkedIn and no where else. You can also use LinkedIn to search for jobs that are listed elsewhere.

2. Jake Mckee, Chief Strategy Officer at Ant's Eye View, whose background is with online communities and community management, has a great jobs board on his site.

3. Jeremiah Owyang, Web strategist and partner at the Altimeter Group also has a large array of OCM jobs listed on his job board.

4. Forum One Communications, a company that is deeply involved in Social Media and online communities. You can find a list of OCM jobs on their Online Community Report site.

5. The Community Roundtable, a peer network for community managers and social media practitioners, is often contacted by companies looking for community managers. In response to that they have implemented a great idea. If you let them know your skills and experience they can pass along your details to companies who contact them.

6. Search Twitter. Many, many, many people will share jobs they've seen posted elsewhere on Twitter. Run a search using the search function, and you will be surprised by the amount of jobs that you will find. Search phrases such as:

• online community manager,
• web community manager,
• online community management,
• online community moderator,
• online moderator,
• etc, etc.

7. Set-up Google Alerts using the search phrases I've listed above.

8. Last, but by no means list, I am constantly keeping an eye out for OCM jobs and try to list as many as I can on OCMForum. However it is by no means an extensive list. My community manager duties means I do not have as much time as I would like to list all that I see.

These are just a a few things to jump start your job search, but hopefully it will get you on the right path, and will reap the reward of that special Online Community Manager that you have been looking for.

If you know of other OCM job resources that I can add to this list please let me know.

Happy Community Manager Appreciation Day!

"Every fourth Monday of January, let’s take the time to pause, recognize, and celebrate the efforts community managers around the world to improve customer experiences.

Passionate About Customers
The title matters not, whether it’s online customer advocate, online customer support, company evangelist, disgruntled customer handler. Instead, focus on what they do: A customer advocate willing to help regardless of where they are online." .... read more on Jeremiah Owyang's blog. Always a great advocate for Online Community Managers, he is spearheading a call to make today an annual Community Manager Appreciation day. 

Already on board are companies like the HR Zone who have today publicly recognized and thanked their community manager Becky Midgely.

OCM's do so much for so many, most with little support, so to all the companies out there who have Community Managers, don't forget to say thanks today.

Another New Year

Oh dear, a few cobwebs in here and I really shouldn't have left that cup of tea on the table … I think there may be a new life-form growing in it. What can I say except I have been busy of late. Nurturing my community, taking finals for classes, visiting family back in the UK, organizing Christmas, and then of course on Boxing day I came down with the obligatory "Christmas cold." Those are my feeble (but real) excuses for not keeping things ticking along in my little blog. Not that anyone has missed me except for the small spider that has started to wind its way around the little corners of this page.

Anyway I digress, back to the job in hand. I've been reading lots this past week about predictions, goals and the future of community management. I've even seen it touted as a "second job" or "fall-back career" which I actually don't agree with and thinks demeans those already in the job who have a passion and calling toward community management. Just because you are a writer, or a journalist, doesn't necessarily mean that you will make a great community manager: it's an  entirely different skill set. However I am not going to go down that road now, that's a conversation for another day, I just wanted to share a brief thought I had on the matter.

Going back to predictions etc, I don't have any big goals or lofty predictions. Actually I lie, my only goal for 2010 is to get a bigger sun umbrella so I can work more outside this year and less at my desk. Have computer will travel …. well at least 8 feet. I feel so much more productive working outside in the breeze than my home office. Other than that I have no major goals, predictions or aspirations. I just want to continue working with communities; to be able to facilitate people in their interaction with each other online. I also have no big fancy words for communities, measuring communities, interacting with communities or learning from communities. The only way you are ever going to learn about, or grow, a community is to spend time getting to know the people who participate in it. A community manager has to be a people person - you don't need any fancy words or gadgets for that - you just have to be honest, straight and true; anything more is fluff no one wants, or cares about. If you are not true to yourself, or the reason for the community you manage, members of your community will see straight through you.

Happy 2010 to all.

Sorry - A Little Word With Big Meaning

Let's face it things go wrong - online communities have tech issues, a moderator or a Community Manager makes a mistake. It's the nature of the beast. It's how we handle those situations that count. Do we fix them and forget about them? Do we ignore the community's concerns? Do we brush the issue under the carpet? No, we apologize.

As online community managers it's our job to ensure that we create an environment in which members can communicate, and interact with each other. We keep things ticking along - responding to concerns, engaging, enabling and helping. But from time to time things go wrong, and it's important when things go pear-shaped that we step-up, and sort it out.

What sort of things can go wrong? Well for starters site tech issues can be the vein of a community managers life. You know the sort of thing I am referring to I'm sure. The site won't load, or people can't use the chat room or upload pictures ... etc, etc ... the list can be endless, and more often than not it's beyond our control, and yet we are in the direct line of fire. Community members moan, and complain to us because we are on the front lines. We pass along the comments and report issues to the tech team, and then cross our fingers and hope that things will be fixed as soon as possible. In the meantime we try and calm the waters. How do we do this? We pass along as much info to the community as possible. We acknowledge the issue; explain the problem is being dealt with and provide regular updates. We must never keep people in the dark. If they do not know what is going on, or feel that as CM's we are not listening to their concerns, they will feel they their membership is not valued. Whether it be a site technical problem, a complaint a person has about another member's behaviour, or maybe a bone of contention someone has with one of the site rules; whatever the concern we need to respond quickly, and let people know that we are taking it seriously.

Bottom line - we mustn't be afraid to say sorry. We need to acknowledge the problem, get it fixed and then make sure we apologize, otherwise our community is going to get the impression that they are the bottom of our priority list when they should be at the top!

Sorry goes a long way, and our membership will be appreciative that we think enough of them to express it as often as we need to.

Don't Dangle That Worm, I'm Not Biting!

I am still fairly new to the social media space, only stumbling upon it about 6 months ago when I was started reaching out to other Online Community Managers. I may have totally grasped the wrong end of the stick but as far as I understand it Social Media is supposed to be about building relationships. Now I am sure I am not the only one who has noticed that there appears to be a few in the "social media space" who interpret social media to mean: "I'll only build a relationship with you, if it will benefit me." Talk about counter productive.

Now I am not a big fish in a little pond, nor am I a little fish in a little pond. I am more a teeny, tiny fish in a huge ocean. One teeny, tiny fish out of millions, and I enjoy connecting with all those other little fish, not because I think they can do something for me, but because I enjoy interacting with them and learning new things. From time to time I come across a big fish who is more than happy to connect with me, and because of this I am growing in leaps and bounds. Those big fish don't push me out of the way because I can't do anything for them, instead they embrace me into their network, and let me hang onto their fish tails. They answer questions, share experience and give advice, all the while happy to do so, asking nothing in return.  Now that IS Social Media. I attended Social Fresh in August and learnt from many great people, among them Keith Burtis, who said, "Don't go into Social Media with a one sided agenda." Now I believe that some are not getting that message, they think they are above the little fish. My message to them ... little fish feed bigger fish - fisherman hang out where the little fish go, because they know that the big fish will come.

Even big business is coming to the conclusion that they need to hang out where the little fish are meeting and chatting. They have realized that they can no longer dangle a worm on the end of the fish hook and hope to snag a fish or two. They've got to put on their diving gear and start swimming with the rest of us. So don't go into social media with the impression that you are a bigger fish than me, or that you can bypass me simply because you think I can't do anything for you. We little fish have things to say, and our voices can be heard. If you do go into SM with a "one-sided agenda" you may find that you are catching less and less fish on that fish hook of yours.

Newbie Alert

How many times have you taken the time to stop and examine your community through the eyes of a newbie? I must admit to having dropped the ball on this of late. I think I had neglected to remember what it was like to feel like a newbie until I started some college classes recently. Everything was new, and strange and I had no idea what was going on. The first day of my International Business class I must have looked like a deer caught in car headlights lights as the professor loaded us up with rules, guidelines and our first assignment. I got home that evening with my head spinning wondering what I had let myself in for. That feeling of being the "newbie" is certainly not a nice one.

I feel extremely lucky to have the opportunity to learn at the feet of many great community managers who are terrific at sharing their experiences and tips. All those different ways of looking at the way I carry out things has made me realize that I have dropped the ball on "newbie relations" over the last year or so. Something that during the last 3 months I've been trying to rectify.

I don't have any fancy solutions for this, but one thing I do know is that, "one size doesn't fit all". Needless to say, the first place to start is to take a long look around your community. See if there are any gaps that a newbie could slip through. Any unmarked exits or pot holes that would swallow them up.

You also need take into account that not everyone is a seasoned internet user, and your newbie may not only be new to "your" community, but also new to online communities: period. So don't turn your community into a maze. Make sure the site navigation/menus are very clear and concise with plenty of bread crumbs. If it looks like a maze upon entry it may put your newbie off posting or else they will get lost in the many pathways never to resurface.

Make your community as welcoming to new members as you can. There are around 60-80 people joining our community every day. That's too large an amount to email each person individually. We have a standard email that we send to each person upon registration, but what I've recently started doing is sending a batch email at the end of every month; targeting those people who have joined in the last 30 days and have made a minimum of 3 posts. I've tried to make the email as personal as possible: sent from me, using my email address. I welcome each member to the community with a personal message asking them that if they have questions or any site usability queries to contact me. This has shown great results for me so far, with people responding in a positive way; asking questions and thanking me for my email. It's made them feel special, and that their membership really matters to me, and the community. Give it a try, see if it works for you.

Bottom line is that I've had to relearn what it is like to be a new member, and re-evaluate where I was going wrong. So if like me you've done the same thing don't sweat it. Instead, take a look at your community with fresh eyes and find a way to encourage newbies to post, or lurkers to stop lurking. It's never too late to fix what's broken, or to look at things from a new angle. The only way you can go wrong is to do nothing at all. What have you got to loose?

A Community Manager Should Never Stop Learning

I truly am fascinated with the interaction of people online, it's one of the reasons I've been a community manager for almost 10 years. The last 6 months or so I have slowly come to the realization that I am good at what I do, and that the community management knowledge that I have accumulated over the years does have worth. I may not be as corporate savvy as some, but is that necessarily a disadvantage? Instead of having my head up in the clouds I have been down in the trenches getting myself dirty, and learning how people tick, but I felt I needed to be better at communicating that knowledge to others. So with that in mind I decided I would take some college classes and dust of some of my brain cells. I figured I've got all this junk going around in my head and I need to learn the tools of the trade to dig it all out.

So why am I waffling on about taking classes and learning new things? Well as we all know communities grow and evolve all the time. New members join, old members leave, the dynamics of the membership change and the site matures and adapts. So all this change means that as a community manager I need to grow with the needs of the community. To be ready for change, to anticipate the needs of the members and to act accordingly

When you've been with your community a long time, and watched it grow in size, its very easy to get stuck in your ways. The "if it's not broken, don't fix it" mentality is hard to break free from, especially if you are afraid that rocking the boat will result in something falling out. But if we don't learn new ways of doing things then the communities that are entrusted into our care will not flourish.

If you don't want to stretch your brain muscles in a classroom then instead learn from other community managers. Find out what works for them, what doesn't. Ask questions of others. Participate in communities for Online Community Managers, read some blogs, read some books. The most important thing is not where, or from whom we learn, but rather that we are open to new ideas and suggestions so that we can grow along with the communities we manage.

Musings of an Online Community Manager

Here are some of my recent musings about community management that I have shared on Twitter over the last few weeks.

• If your moderators are volunteers you need to keep them happy, management doesn't always get that. Today is one of those Community Manager piggy in the middle days

• Being in a pixel bubble can, on occasion, bring out someone's nasty side.

• I'm not an expert on anything. I just know what I know.

• An online community manager learns lots of new swear words - mainly due to disgruntled banned members. My vocabulary is growing daily.

• Please don't join a community with your full name, and then later think "oops" and ask the Community Manager to remove all your posts. Thanks

• An online community manager doesn't "manage" a community. Instead he or she listens, learns, guides, participates, supports, communicates and enjoys.

• I know I've said this many times but if you manage a large community you have to be there for your moderators. Be supportive, guide them and don't forget to thank them often.

• The inbox of an Online Community Manager first thing in the morning is not a pretty sight.

• Community binds, community supports, community laughs with you, community cries with you. Offline or online community is still community.

• Every community is different: every discussion is different, every member is different. So being a Community Manager is never cut and dry, black or white, right or wrong.

• An Online Community Manager has to be as neutral as possible when dealing with issues that can sometimes arise between community members.

• If you're going to join a really large online community please ensure you have engaged your sense of humour chip first.

• Troll's never sleep. I think they must borrow batteries from the Duracell bunny.

What have you mused about this week?

Some Great Blogs I Read About Online Community Management

There are some fantastic Online Community Managers out there who are wonderful at sharing information, and experiences, about Online Community Management. Here are some of my favourites:

Connie Bensen.
Is a huge advocate of Community Managers and shares her insight on job descriptions, roles, responsibilities and salaries of CM's. A great blog for anyone in a CM role, looking to enter the role, or for companies looking to hire an Online Community Manager.

Community Spark
Martin Reed has been an Online Community Manager for almost 10 years and has been quoted in many publications and has helped organizations with their community management needs.

Jono Bacon
Online Community Manager for Ubunto and author of "Managing Online Communities"

Community Girl
Angela Connor writes from the front lines about her day-to-day management of a community she manages for a NC news station.

Holly Seddon and Matt Rhodes, from Fresh Networks, blog about many aspects of community management from many different perspectives.

Rachel Happe
Co-founder of The Community Roundtable, a private peer network for community managers and social media practitioners.


This is just a quick list, I've got more I read and will add them soon.