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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
25

The Personal Touch

By | community, members

1 Comment

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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

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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

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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...]

Jul
18

Selective Moderation – Tales from My Community Manager Letterbox

By | complaints, issues, members, Online Community Management

1 Comment

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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...]

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...]

Oct
11

Don't Dangle That Worm, I'm Not Biting!

By | Uncategorized

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fish

I am still fairly new to the social media space, only stumbling upon it about 6 months ago when I was started reaching out to other Online Community Managers. I may have totally grasped the wrong end of the stick but as far as I understand it Social Media is supposed to be about building relationships. Now I am sure I am not the only one who has noticed that there appears to be a few in the "social media space" who interpret social media to mean: "I'll only build a relationship with you, if it … [Read more...]