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May
15

Should Gaming Community Managers be Men?

By | community, Online Community Management

5 Comments

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If you are a big Call of Duty fan you will already know that Tina Palacios was recently announced as the new Senior Community manager for the Call of Duty community at Infinity Ward. This certainly seems to have stirred up a vocal response from some gamers, most prominent were the negative comments about her being a female. I'm not a gamer, so don't really know the nuances that make up specific gaming communities. However what I do know is that gaming fans are a culture all of there own, and they don't pull any … [Read more...]

Feb
17

Shit Community Managers Shouldn’t Say

By | community, Online Community Management

2 Comments

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I'm sure many of you are familiar with the videos popping up on YouTube entitled " Shit a <fill in the blank> Says."  There is even a recent one called "Shit a Social Media Community Manager Says" Well just for fun (and no I'm not doing a video) here is a quick list of things I think a Community Manager should NEVER say: "Hey a troll ……. great!!!!" "I am so exited to see how much spam has been posted in the community this morning." "Yes of course you can have as many usernames as you … [Read more...]

Feb
14

Your Twitter Followers Aren’t a Community

By | community, Facebook, Twitter

3 Comments

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I believe that the job titles Social Media Manager and Community Manager are becoming confused. Do people often take on both roles under one umbrella … yes they do …. absolutely. Indeed many companies are hiring Social Media Community Managers. But there is a distinct difference between the duties carried out by each. Many Social Media Managers are aligned with the Marketing dept and use social media platforms to reach their customers, and they don't generally manage a community. On the other hand, if you … [Read more...]

Nov
28

A Couple of Minutes – Tales From My Community Manager Letterbox

By | community, members

1 Comment

Contact Us

Do you have a "contact us" link/section in your community? Do you get those emails? If not then you should. As the Community Manager you are on the front line of your community and it's important that you have  your finger on the community pulse. Many people will use the contact us link to ask site usability questions, express concerns, complain, or from time to time (but don't hold your breathe) say thanks. How you deal with those emails is extremely important. Don't just resort to generic responses. Let the … [Read more...]

Oct
27

The Power of Online Community

By | Uncategorized

4 Comments

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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...]

Oct
22

In Case You Missed It …..

By | Uncategorized

Leave a Comment

or ..... Online Community Manager jobs I tweeted links to this week. Online Community Manager for focus.com Community Manager Analyst - Charlotte, NC. Digital Community Manager - Cape Town Online Community Moderator - North American Team - Playstation PR and Community Manager - Honest Tea - Bethesda, Maryland The Harlem Globetrotters are looking for a community manager - Phoenix, AZ Digital Community manager - HTC - Taipei (Taiwan) Online Community Manager in Vancouver, BC - BC … [Read more...]

Aug
11

Sticks and Stones …

By | issues, members

10 Comments

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We are all going to come across situations where people aren't going to like us. I can guarantee you that even if you manage a community for teens/kids, through to people in theirs 80's, you are going to get times when comments are going to be directed at you that are going to cut like a knife. Online it's easy for people to lash out emotionally in ways they would not otherwise do so, and as the Community Manager you are going to be the prime target for those comments. So get a thick skin and get one quick, because … [Read more...]

Jul
12

I’m Banned – From the archives of my Community Manager Letterbox

By | Online Community Management

1 Comment

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Ok, here is another email from my Community Manager Letterbox. Nothing too taxing or complicated, but I'm trying to share some of the more bizarre situations I have come across over the years. If you wonder why I'm doing this go back to this post. A little bit of background. This person was a new member who from some reason only known to himself thought he would introduce himself to the other members by explaining (in his first post) that among other things (I'm not going into details) he liked to walk around … [Read more...]

Jun
12

Oops – What do to when it goes wrong

By | community, complaints, members, Online Community Management

3 Comments

Sorry

Your community is experiencing a little (well alright it might be a big) technical glitch, or you tried something new and it went down like a lead balloon. Here's my little mantra of what I do when it all goes pear-shaped: Listen. Acknowledge. Fix what can be fixed. Change what can be changed. Own up when it goes wrong. Admit when you're wrong, or have messed up. … and when you can't do any of those things say sorry, and mean it. We can't always please every single one of our members every … [Read more...]

May
18

An Example of Doing it Right – Aberystwyth University

By | community, Online Community Management

1 Comment

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It's so easy for us to highlight the cases we come across where community or social media is "done wrong"  and to pick holes in those examples. Yes we all need to understand and learn about doing it wrong so that we can avoid those pitfalls ourselves, but I feel that examples of "doing it right" are just as important. For instance, I've been taking horse riding lessons for the past year, (I know at my grand old age of 45 ... oh blimey did I just type that out loud ... shhh don't tell anyone) and when I'm … [Read more...]