Well I did it. Today I registered to attend my first Social Media Conference. Not a big deal you may be thinking, but for me it is. Not used to these types of events I will probably be doing less mingling, and more hiding in the shadows. I'm not really going for the mingling though, rather the chance to hear some great speakers. A couple of whom I follow on Twitter. I've been quite jealous reading many blogs and tweets where people have attended some great social media conferences and shared their excitement and … [Read more...]
Jun
03
Moderators make the world go round.
One of the most important tasks for any Community Manager is the selecting and hiring of moderators. If you have a really large community you will know where I am coming from when I say that without moderators your forum/group/community would go downhill fast. A community manager can not read each and everyone of the thousands of posts that are made daily within large communities. It's impossible, there are not enough hours in the day. So as CM's we need to ensure that we recruit the best moderators for the … [Read more...]
May
26
Two More Community Manager Jobs
As promised here are a couple more Community Manager jobs that I've come across during my daily browse of the Internet.Online Community Marketing Manager (North of Boston) Senior Community Manager at Lunch.com (El Segundo) … [Read more...]
May
22
Is there a line between " online community " and " offline community " and where should it be drawn?
A blog that I read today highlighted the topic about online communities meeting offline. Whilst I agree that it is a great idea for members of an online community to meet-up in real life, I'm not sure this works for all groups.Communities that concentrate on shared interests such as cars, bikes, health issues, business, computing etc, etc have a theme in common, and the people who participate would probably enjoy taking that communication one step further by the sharing and exchanging of ideas, and experiences … [Read more...]
May
16
Keyboard Rage. What is it, do I have it, and can it be cured?
You have seen it hundreds of time. You read a thread that your gut tells you is going to get someone's blood boiling. Not so much a troll posting, but more that the topic is one that gets people's fingers itching to type a response ... and respond they do! The conversation gets heated and comments start getting personal, and before you know it there are insults flying around left, right and center. Rather than taking time-out to consider a response, or even inhaling and exhaling in order to try and calm … [Read more...]
May
13
Look what I ' ve found!
As social networking, and social media continues to grow and grow, so does the need for people to manage these communities. So periodically I will try and list some of the jobs I come across whilst on my internet travels. So to start, here goes:-Online Community Manager for a Crime Website - Based in Los Angeles.Social Media Community Specialist - Based in Wilmington, DE.Online Community Manager - Based in London, UKDust of that resume and apply ... what have you got to loose? … [Read more...]
May
04
It ' s not 9 til 5
It's Sunday morning and I'm answering emails, and private messages from members and moderators asking questions. Online communities don't rest because its the weekend: they don't rest at 5pm, and they don't rest on public holidays, or at Christmas. As an online community manager you have to commit to managing your community 24/7, this role is not 9-5 Monday - Friday.I've been doing this for almost 10 years so for me it's no big deal. In fact, I love what I do. I am passionate about … [Read more...]
Apr
30
Never Underestimate The Power of a Smilie
I was recently asked by some of our members to add and update some of the smilies on our discussion forum. Now I'm not one of those who likes to see smilies and emoticons of all sizes, shapes, and colours all over the place, but it got me thinking about how they assist in our interruption of how we perceive someone's post and I wondered .... do smilies help or hinder us, and how many is too many??You can't hear the tone of someone's voice with the written word. Nor can you see their facial … [Read more...]
Apr
26
You can t be liked, all of the time, by all of the people.
I manage a board with over 7 million posts, 105,000 registered members and 25 moderators, and with that many people all interacting with each other I came to the realization many, many years ago that you can't please all of the people all of the time. That's something that not all community managers have come to terms with, and the thought of not being liked all of the time is not something that sits well with them. At the end of the day you have to remember that the board/community is not there for your … [Read more...]
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