The Nitty Gritty Life of an Online Community Manager
Merry Christmas to all the Community Managers out there. I hope you all get to experience some downtime over this holiday period. We are all engaged 24/7 it seems but generally many communities are fairly quiet at this time of year, so take the opportunity to recharge your batteries and get ready for the new year. I have really enjoyed getting to know so many of you, and look forward to many more conversations in 2012! Merry Christmas Community Managers Everywhere!!! … [Read more...]
Whether you run a branded community, a tech community, or a community about recipes it's always a great idea to have an off-topic area for your members to chat and get to know each other. In this section they can have a little fun, chit-chat about everyday stuff or topical events, and slowly start to connect and build relationships with each other. Here are some ideas of conversation starters that you could seed the off-topic area with to get them going, or even discussions you could periodically start yourself to … [Read more...]
I thought I would share this story on my blog. It truly is a great example of what often goes behind the scenes in an online community and one of the reasons why I love communities so much. It's a prime example of how we aren't pixels on the end of a screen, we are living, breathing human beings who reach out to each other, no matter where in the world we are, or our personal circumstances. We get to touch lives we wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to connect with if it wasn't for this virtual connection that … [Read more...]
After a little break (having been busy doing stuff elsewhere. I know, I actually do some stuff away from online communities … shock horror … please don't tell anyone). Here is another letter from my inbox. As always I've removed personally identifiable information, and other stuff (don't you love my technical jargon) that pertains to the community I manage … so please bear that in mind when reading. I am sharing some of my correspondence so that you can view firsthand how I deal with different situations. … [Read more...]
I don't normally do this (have a rant about a company on my blog) but today I am spurned to do so by the actions of SiriusXM. Our household has 3 subscriptions for SiriusXM, two for cars, and one for online listening (which I stream to my internet radio). One subscription is for my son's car, but the other two are for me alone. You may think "Wow she listens to lots of different channels" but in fact I don't. I only listen to one channel, BBC Radio 1. For those not familiar with Radio 1, it's a radio station … [Read more...]
… I can't stay away …. maybe I was going through a bad week/month??? Who knows. So I am going to start blogging again ..... please let me know if I waffle too much, or get on a soap box and preach too much, or failing that I bore you all to death. (Well I say "all" but perhaps "few" would be the correct team) Note to self, stop and think for a while before you hit the "post" button. ;) … [Read more...]
As you can see I haven't been around this blog for quite a while now. Not being a natural writer it takes me a while to get the motivation up, and start writing. Then when I do, I often take ages to finish it off. So I've been wondering what I've really am doing having a blog in the first place. I think at the time I started it I felt that everyone in my line of work was blogging and perhaps I should give it a go too, so maybe I felt I "should" have a blog rather than really "wanting" to blog. As evidenced but my … [Read more...]
"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 … [Read more...]
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 … [Read more...]
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