Sue On The Web

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.

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.

A Request to the Tech Dept, Please Keep Community Managers In The Loop!

Note to all techies that oversee online communities. Please, please, please do not down-grade, up-grade, back-up, back-down, change colours, fonts, add, takeaway or generally fiddle with any settings before first checking with, and sounding out, the Community Manager. Then once you've done that, and only once you've done that, you (or the community manager) should announce to the membership that at a certain day/time the site will be down for maintenance. That way we are all on the same page and whilst people may miss their community fix at least they were forewarned this would happen and could go and make a cup of tea, or read a book or something.

We always have to remember people are very loyal and territorial where their community is concerned, and they don't like surprises like this. Not to mention the complete and utter plonker it makes the Community Manager look. A CM is supposed to have their finger on the pulse, not be the last in line to discover these things.

Thanks for reading my little rant. I feel much better now I've got that off my chest.

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 job, and when most moderators are volunteers this has to be done very carefully.

My list of important criteria that a community manager should look for when searching for prospective moderators amongst the members of its' community.

• A person should already be an active member of the community, e.g. visiting and interacting almost daily. You don't want a moderator who can only check in on the site once a week.
• He/she is helpful to other members, assisting with site usability questions, etc.
• He/she does not let other members get him or her hot under the collar.
• He/she is not afraid to wade in and calm down an argument they have witnessed within the community
• He/she projects them self as being open to different opinions, and doesn't seem quick to judge. In other words he or she appears diplomatic
• He/she express them self well in posts. The member doesn't have to be the worlds best writer (I know I'm not) but their comments must be clear and concise.
• A must is a great sense of humour
• A very big must is that he or she has a thick skin (because now and then it will be needed)
• He/she must believe in the community and it's aim's.

What do we as community managers offer moderators in return?

• Ensure that the moderators know what is expected of them. We have to make sure we give our moderators the tools to be able to moderate. A handbook, a list of guidelines, and our guidance, will go a long way to ensuring that the moderators feel supported.
• Provide the moderators with a private area where they can hang out with each other, ask questions, share stories, or just plain vent (after all now and again they may just want to let off steam).
• Last, but by no means least; always remember that as volunteers the moderators are giving their time freely for the benefit of the community. Therefore, we have to be fully supportive of them and available  24/7. I've seen many a community that has a CM who works "corporate hours", and isn't around over the weekends and evenings when a moderator may have an issue that needs addressing. It won't look good to a volunteer if they ask a question on a Friday evening, and have to wait until Monday morning to get a response. So even if you are not active within your community during the "off-hours" make sure you are checking your emails and private/direct messages in case one of your moderators needs you.

There are many other things that I could include on my list, but I just wanted to list the basics. Not all communities are the same, and so the needs and wants of each are different, as are the needs and wants of the moderators. However I think I've included a few stepping stones for anyone new to the role who is looking for some idea of where to start.

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 face to face. However, there are many different types of communities on the net these days, and some have been created so that people from different walks of life can get together online and learn about each other: more a "social" community rather than one that has shared interests, or hobbies. In these instances they may not gel well in real-life.

I also wonder if meeting off-line with a community helps or hinders a volunteer moderator in their duties. I have had a couple of instances where members have arranged meet-ups offline, and at these gatherings they have pumped the poor moderators for information, and questioned the decisions the moderators have made online, etc. This does not happen all of the time, but when it does, it certainly puts the moderators in a difficult position: especially when they have become friendly offline with a member and at some point have cause to speak to them online about their forum behavior. In some instances a member assumes they have preferential treatment because they have meet the moderator offline.

What do you think?

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 themselves down, a person's fingers take control of their brain, and without even giving it any thought their fingers are striking the keyboard harder and harder. They are hidden by the pixels on the screen, safe in a virtual world where no one knows their name. They get taken over by "Keyboard Rage" and assume another persona. It's at times like these when I want to wag a finger at them and suggest that they, "step away from the keyboard so no one will get hurt."

I'm convinced that once the keyboard has relinquished its grip, and that person resumes regular face to face contact with another human being that they would not behave in the same manner. Those that suffer from this affliction don't even limit themselves to the discussion forum or groups either, as they've been known to take things to private messages, and even emails. I've lost count of the amount of complaints I've received over the years from members who have been sent inappropriate and insulting personal messages because someone did not agree with a comment he or she had posted on the forum. On occasion, even after polite warnings to stop, I have resorted to banning such members from our community. This has resulted in the person concerned sending me disturbing messages containing veiled threats to my person, and lots of swear words. (I just like to add that it's down to this type of behaviour that my knowledge of different swear words has increased exponentially ;) ) In the midst of their keyboard rage they feel they are justified in behaving in this manner. I can only hope that those same people don't get behind me in a car, because I'm convinced that "Road Rage" and "Keyboard Rage" go hand in hand, and I would hate to see how they react if I looked at them the wrong way through the driver-side window.

As community managers we need to encourage our moderators to lead by example: to ask them to stop and pause before reacting to a heated situation instead of jumping right in. The last thing we want to happen is that our moderators end up getting sucked into a disagreement, and then becoming infected with the keyboard rage virus themselves. If that occurs it could become an epidemic and spread all across the community and will become extremely hard to reign it in.

Community managers have to try and minimize this "disease" and to always remember to take the time to consider how best to handle a thread, or situation, where community members have let keyboard rage get the better of them. We have to be diplomats, counsellors, and comedians, because in order to turn an inflamed conversation around we need to display humour, understanding and diplomacy. Only then can we hope to rid our communities of this affliction. :)

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 online communities and enjoy immensely interacting with people in the virtual world, so it's no hardship for me to monitor my site everyday from early morning to very late at night. This means that if an issue arises I can react quickly to resolve them, which is what the majority of online community members expect. They don't want to have to wait until the next business day for someone to sort out their problem: they want it dealt with now. So even if you are not actively participating within your community during the "off-hours" you need to make sure that you are, at a minimum, monitoring it. Otherwise come Monday morning you may find your email in-box full of complaints and issues, and the next thing you know you are apologizing and putting out fires left, right and center.

If you are new to community management you really need to consider the amount of hours you are willing to dedicate to the job. It's not a 9 - 5, forty hour a week gig. At the end of the day, you get out what you put in. In other words your members and readers will notice, and appreciate a community manager who is there for them when they need them.

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 benefit, it's there for the benefit of the people who use it. If you don't manage your community properly then it suffers, so that means that now and again you are gong to be the bad guy. ;)