You are here: Home / Archives for members
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...]

Nov
25

The Personal Touch

By | community, members

1 Comment

1.jpg

Back in May I explained how I email new members of my community each month. With over 1000 members joining monthly it's impossible for me to contact each and everyone of them, but I still believe it's important to try and connect with as many community members as possible. I still use the same email template, as the one I posted in May, but with slight variations, and as I mentioned in my original post the key to this email is that it comes from my personal site email address as opposed to a "contact@email.com or … [Read more...]

Nov
09

Lets Talk Chat About ….

By | Uncategorized

3 Comments

3574742620_6c65635459_m

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...]

Oct
27

The Power of Online Community

By | Uncategorized

4 Comments

3505955900_b521c7329e_m

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...]

Jul
18

Selective Moderation – Tales from My Community Manager Letterbox

By | complaints, issues, members, Online Community Management

1 Comment

5350382220_48d46283ed_m

I generally only respond once to an email of complaint from a member, otherwise the conversation just goes around and around in circles. So I endeavour to succinctly and politely explain the reason for the banning/thread deletion/post editing .... etc, etc. However on occasion I may have to follow that up with a second email. I would suggest to anyone who oversees a community that you never ever get into an argument, either in public or in private, with a disgruntled member. It's not professional and it doesn't … [Read more...]

Jul
12

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

By | Online Community Management

1 Comment

.jpg

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...]

Jul
08

From My Community Manager LetterBox

By | community, issues

2 Comments

3409508275_2f53c68a9e_m

Over the years I've had everything from swearing, threats, questions, suggestions, and the odd compliment drop into my Community Manager's letterbox. So I thought it would be fun if I posted some of the emails and my responses here.  Of course you may handle these situations differently (and that's absolutely fine) but I would ask that you take into account that due to privacy issues etc, (and the culture of the community I manage that) that it won't always be possible for me to go into the background of each … [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
05

How To Get New Members To Post – What I do

By | members

2 Comments

4660273582_167a3fbece_m

Every time someone joins our community they get an automated welcome email, that while it shares great information and encourages them to post, it is, at the end of the day, automated. So how to get new members who haven't posted to post? Well at the end of every month I send an email to all new members who have joined that month, and have made less than 3 posts. We get approx 1,000 new members every month so I can't possible email each and every one of them individually, however I send them all an email through … [Read more...]

Jun
18

Community Relationships

By | community, forum, manager, members, Online Community Management

1 Comment

relationships

It's the relationships your members are able to create with each other, that makes the difference between a good community and a great one. People come together because a common element draws them in, but what happens after that initial buzz wears off? You can create as many special offers, and campaigns, as you want, but those only provide short term responses. So what is it that keeps people coming back? The relationships they form. So how do you encourage members to build relationships? Make each new … [Read more...]