Engagement in Action

December 8, 2009 in Community Engagement | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

I’ve received quite a few emails over the last year about some of the nuances of community engagement. It is also something I’m often asked after speaking engagements.

People wonder how much time they should put into their communities and what it really takes to keep people interested, engaged and coming back for more.
I think it is important for every community manager to spend time communicating with members publicly and even privately through email when warranted.  It keeps you in touch with the masses and makes it an even more personal experience for members. It also helps you keep your finger on the pulse of the community, whcih is extremely important.

I’ve gone through some of the comments I’ve posted in my community and picked out a few from the last 2-3 days to share with you here.  Some may be out of context since you are only reading my side of the conversation but the goal is to illustrate the personal approach I take with community members and how I work to blend right in, and not necessarily come off as the intimidating all-knowing person in charge. Enjoy!

“Woman, you are the biggest animal lover I know. Love the photos of your newest family member. Need to find a spot on the home page for that face!”

“Wonderful. A new beginning in time for the new year. All the best to you!”

“Hey there poohperson: How long have you been on this voyage to getting in better shape? If you have lots of posts I can create a gallery putting them all in one place. I think people would like a series…”

“I’m with you TIMBO. I was born and raised in Detroit and it is easy to understand because it makes sense. I’ve lived in some places that have no rhyme or reason. I do think Cary is a bit of a wild card though…”

“Okay, I have to give you that one. Detroit is notorious for road construction and detours that can completely screw you up and ruin your plans. I can see how you had a hard time.”

“Good morning. I think you have a great blog and I posted it on the GOLO homepage. BUT, I changed the picture because I didn’t think that was a good photo for the top slot of the homepage. I also included a link to the other blog you referenced in the post.”

“You know, I see my profile in the abuse queue every once in a while and for some reason it cracks me up. Have a great afternoon.”

“Another great image gallery! Happy Holidays, OR.”

“Yes, I do love shoes. I did a blog about Coach shoes with pictures to boot! I didn’t buy them though. I think my dad would want me to have them for Christmas though so I need to revisit Macy’s.”

“Yukon my friend, we HAVE to meet this time so let’s see if we can get you here to the station for a visit, okay? My holiday was low key with just the four of us. Last year I had a house full of family…”

“Hi there. I read your blog. Sometimes the people who comment on those stories are the great MINORITY. I know it can be disheartening to see so many comments and it’s easy to think they represent the community…”

“Irish, I got your email with the info and have forwarded it to the BBB. Thanks to everyone for the advice and information.”

“I am adding this to my favorites to read the next time I get a scathing email deeming me incompetent. I like to have nice stuff to read on the tough days.”

“What an amazing deal on Snuggies! I wish I’d known about that!”

“Hi Quagmire, yes that was great of target. I went there last year and bought a lot of DVD’s but it was crowded. They didn’t have coffee either. Did your son get a laptop?”

“And how do you even eat a hog’s head? Do you just bite a big old chunk somewhere between the ears?”

“Thanks, everyone. Oh and I will enjoy those collards. My kids don’t like them so much but this is one time I don’t care because that leaves more for me. I used my grandfather’s secret recipe.”

This is just some food for thought heading into 2010. Kick your engagement levels up a notch and see what happens.

Oh, I devote an entire chapter to this concept in my book, 18 Rules of Community Engagement. The chapter is called, “Make it Personal.”

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When members lash out at you

December 1, 2009 in Community Building, Community management, abuse | Tags: | 11 comments

I’ve shared stories with you about some of the ups and downs I experience as a community manager and that is one way for me to cope with it without going stir crazy. Sharing these stories is just as hepful for me as it is for you. Thank you for being a sounding board and letting me get things off my chest. It contributes to my sanity.

I am sitting on an Amtrak train at the moment heading to the University of Maryland to speak to a group of reporters, bloggers and editors at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism on engaging the audience. I prepared a presentation with tips on engagement and a series of ideas on how they can connect in ways that will build community for themselves and their news organizations.

I am excited about it, and quite honestly I’m ready for this train ride to end because it seems as though the oxygen level is decreasing and I am a bit light-headed. Thank goodness for an air card and Pandora for streaming music from my favorite artists. But this is not the reason I’m posting. This is…..

So here I am on the train in good spirits and I decide to check my Blackberry for email messages. I see one from a member who has been upset with me for quite a while and whose communications with me have deteriorated to a serious state of rudeness and hate.  I almost left it unopened because it has gotten so bad that I now forward his comments straight to our attorney.

Here is his latest:

All this goes to show that you are indeed not competent to manage the community. You have singular inability to police your own venue, one of the very tasks you were hired to perform.  Many people have left after having been baited by these assholes you so lovingly call friends. So ship this to your legal department….perhaps something will finally get done about the problem you allow to fester.

I know you have a million questions to ask me about this. Is he right? Is this true? Are you playing favorites?  What the heck are you doing Angela?

Let me tell you that this was once one of the top members. He contributed amazing content and was a real advocate for the community. He had been around since our launch.

But he was also a real bully at times, condescending to the point of no return and often mean to people. I received countless emails from members asking me why he was allowed to get away with murder and asking what he “had on me” that made me allow him to stay. You see, I don’t make decisions under duress, and I am fair to people even when others are against them. I take criticism for that, publicly and I accept it. It comes with the territory.

I could argue with him about what my job entails and all that he is misinformed about in terms of what my duties are but it’s pointless. I am now his target and that’s just the way it is. He needs to hate me because he was banned from the community. He isn’t the first and won’t be the last.

So, here I am–preparing to speak tomorrow on the joys of community building and engaging the audience  and  BAM…a “YOU SUCK AT YOUR JOB” note.

I’ll be sure to stay away from my inbox until the presentation is over.

Wish me luck!

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Five Ineffective Social Media Guidelines for 2010 and Beyond

November 23, 2009 in social media | Tags: , | 2 comments

Social Media Guidelines. What exactly are they? How should they be written? Do we need them? How do we enforce them?  We’ve had this discussion a lot this year. From the firestorm that erupted upon the release of the Washington Post’s social media guidelines to the equally riveting conversation surrounding ESPN’s social media policy.

This was one of the biggest tasks I tackled for my company this year as head of our social media task force, and the approach we took seems to be working well. Because of my experience with this, I decided to kick off the lists for 2010 which are certainly to come in droves over the next few weeks. So here is my personal list of social media guidelines that I strongly discourage anyone from adopting across the board.

Don’t be Stupid!

This is an all-encompassing statement that you may think conveys trust in your employees but what it really does is set them up to fail. Let’s consider the word “stupid.” What exactly is the definition? This term is way too subjective and is often based on one’s sense of humor. My interpretation of the word will differ from yours. So imagine how many variations of stupid exist in a room of hundreds?

Consider this: Is it “stupid” to tweet that you had a bad day at work as long as you don’t provide details as to who contributed to that bad day?

Is it stupid to announce that you’ve acquired a new client? It may not be a smart move from the perspective of top management, but an employee who closed a deal may think that putting that out in the universe is a good move and could potentially attract more clients.

That’s the problem with merely issuing this edict. Stupid must be defined, and that means actually putting thought into a strategy to provide your staff with guidance and expectations.

You always represent the company!

Again, what exactly does “always” mean? Does the employee represent the company only when they are “clocked-in” during working hours? Are they representative of the organization on the weekends, during vacation? While the word “always” indicates infinity for some, there are many employees who disassociate themselves from their employers the minute they leave the premises. Sure, the die-hard company man and woman will get this because they are used to representing the company, especially if they’re a manager. You have to be clear with this type of directive. If everything that the employee posts on every social network represents the company then spell it out. Provide a definition that will leave little room for misunderstanding.

Be smart!

This is very similar to “Don’t be stupid.” However, it is more of a “we trust you” than the former. Translation: We are not going to spend our time worrying about this because you guys know how to conduct yourselves. But if you don’t, there will be consequences.”

Consequences for what? Not being smart? I might think it’s smart to share some details about the latest company-wide initiatives, especially if we are striving for “transparency.”  What? That initiative was confidential? I didn’t know. Guess that wasn’t very smart of me, was it?

(See, “Don’t be stupid.”)

We’re watching!

Scare tactics are a sure way to create bad blood between employer and employee. Maybe you are watching, and that’s fine, but is that how you want to rule, with fear? Consider providing tips on how the staff can use social media in ways that reflect well on the company, and watch that. In many cases highlighting favorable behavior is preferable than a detailed list of “don’t.” Encourage and reward the good, don’t hunt down the bad.

Add value!

Again, great intention that can be poorly executed due to misinterpretation. What is value? If my network of friends, followers and readers are all vegetarians, they’d be happy to know that I made an amazing vegetarian dish last night that would make Martha Stewart proud. Is that valuable to my company? Maybe, maybe not. It might be if our overall social media mission statement includes being personable and having fun so that people get to see that side of our staff. But let’s say I work for a huge meat manufacturer and they see me promoting the vegan lifestyle all across the social web. Is that a faux-pas in this case?

Please don’t think this is extreme. This is all still so very new and there will be instances when the most mundane issues take the forefront and cause a meltodwn or chain reaction that seems impossible to turn around.

So there you have it. Five ineffective social media guidelines for 2010 and beyond. Now, could you combine some of these and create a more cohesive message for your staff? Absolutely, but do stay away from the one-liners that lack context, and do allow your guidlines to evolve.

My biggest piece of advice here is to first start with a social media mission statement.

When you’re clear on your reasons for being in the space, the guidelines to support that mission will come.

Good luck.

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Move beyond questions to engage your community

November 21, 2009 in 18 rules of community engagement | Tags: , , | 4 comments

One of the 18 Rules of Community Engagement I outline in my book is simply “Ask Questions.” I believe that people want to express their opinions and asking questions is a sure way to get them to do so. Throw in your own personal story before asking the question and you may strike gold. I’ve gotten many great conversations started that way in the community I manage. It is quite effective.

But I am noticing a trend among bloggers, some that I really respect, and that is ending every blog post with a question.

Come on! Do you always have to ask what we think about something or ask us to contribute to the list that you’ve developed or provide additional steps for whatever it is  you’re providing steps for? We will probably do that anyway, so it really isn’t necessary. Not for every post.  And my favorite is “What did I miss?” If you know you missed something then maybe you should spend a little more time thinking it through and give us your complete thoughts on the topic at hand before hitting “publish.”

I know that asking questions is a way to ask for input and it really is effective in many cases but lately it has felt like  you are trying to crowdsource almost everything and I am just asking you to reconsider that approach.

See what else you can do to keep us engaged. We follow you because you’re smart. Now dazzle us.

 

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Integrate consumer trends with your overall community strategy

November 19, 2009 in Community Building, Community Engagement | Tags: , , | 2 comments

Have you thought much about how you will take your community to the next level in 2010. I’ve been giving that a lot of thought and I’m not sure that it’s new features for me. We’ve done that and I think our users like what we’ve offered. I’m thinking more in terms  of content and by content I mean multimedia content that adds value to their lives and what they indicate is interesting to them through their behavior in the community.

So when I received the latest briefing from Trendwatching.com, my wheels started turning. Instead of viewing it as merely a list, I am thinking more broadly. If these are trends for 2010, how can I be ahead of that and what can I do to bring that to the community?

I will share the list with you here and come back over the next few weeks as 2010 approaches and share what I think I can do to integrate this new list into my overall community strategy. You do the same.

Here it is:

Ten Crucial Consumer Trends for 2010 (Trendwatching.com)

  1. Business as Unusual
  2. Urbany
  3. Real-time Reviews
  4. (F)luxury
  5. Mass Mingling
  6. Eco-easy
  7. Tracking & Alerting
  8. Profile Myning
  9. Maturialism

See the full report here and further definitions here.

There is easily three on the list that should give you ideas right away. What do you think? Does this approach make sense to you? i say we try everything because with communities, you never know just what will stick.

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Can You Build Community Around Life Streams?

June 29, 2009 in Community Building | Tags: , , , | 6 comments

Jeremiah Owyang has a thought-provoking post today about whether or not blogging is evolving into life streams. He notes how bloggers like Robert Scoble and others are much more focused on the real-time web, while seemingly putting their blogs on the back burner or shutting them down altogether.  It’s a great read and I encourage you to go over the Jeremiah’s blog and take it all in.

What I want to focus on for a bit is the concept of building community through these life streams, or through an aggregation of life streams. I’m not sure that it’s possible.

I am a big twitter user. I also use Friendfeed and a great deal of other social media platforms. I like the constant stream of fresh new content coming in. But I also know that I miss a whole lot of it and the stuff that I miss is pretty much gone forever for me.

I may go back a few hours on my twitter stream as time permits, but for the most part, I don’t. I miss 85% of the happenings on Friendfeed, but since so much of it is feeds from twitter, blogs, etc….chances are I may see it somewhere else. So to be fair, I’ll say I miss about 65% of the content streaming on FriendFeed.

Existing solely through life streams seems a bit disjointed to me.

The ultimate aggregation of your activity across 10 or more platforms is not a selling point in my book. Talk about noise.  I do not believe that ones online presence is the sum of it’s parts, and that is what such aggregation suggests.

You can’t combine all of your activity into one place without somehow connecting the dots and expect people to latch on to you, or join your Tribe.

Now, I know that this may work for the superstars and we can see that it does.

But you will lose me if you resort solely to this kind of online presence. I am not saying that blogging is the only way. But your followers, readers and viewers sometimes deserve a complete thought with a beginning, middle and end. If you are providing that in your life stream, kudos to you. Maybe you will continue to build community, which for me is the ultimate goal.

What do you think? Are life streams a bit disjointed or am I way off-base here?

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Guidelines are important, but interpretation is key

July 5, 2009 in social media | Tags: , , , | 13 comments

It is important to have community guidelines. They are imperative for any online community. Members need to know what is expected of them and what types of behaviors are frowned upon or prohibited within the community.

I remember creating the guidelines for the community I manage. It was laborious but imperative.  I scoured the internet for guidelines from other communities and then thought a lot about what kind of community I’d like to see take shape.

Writing such guidelines can make you feel as though you’re building an environment where all will be well. You think that people will refer to these guidelines and perhaps even follow them.

But having those guidelines in place does not make every call I make as a community manager, an easy one.  In fact, I rarely go back to them when making tough decisions. Guidelines are a starting point. Interpreting those guidelines is how you become an effective community manager. The way you do that interpreting can make or break you.

This job is not about being a robot. It’s emotional and we are human.You can stare at the guidelines all day long and never get the answers you need when things get complicated. I know that many of my peers will argue the point and say that guidelines are guidelines. You follow them or you go.  But it’s not that easy with me.

Let me illustrate why I feel this way:  A few months ago a long-time member had posted several comments and even a blog or two that were directed at another member. The comments were mean and degrading. It was really out of character for her. Were those comments abusive according to the guidelines? Yes. I could have stopped right there, marked her comments and blogs as abuse and she would have lost her posting privileges, community profile, the works. In most cases, that should probably be the outcome.

BUT…I knew that her dog had just been hit by a car and died because she’d been blogging about it since the day it happened  and it looked like she was responding to someone who had been taunting her about that.  His comments, however,  had NOT been reported as abuse so it all looked very one-sided.

I sent her an email letting her know that I was not going to dock her for the comments because I knew she was in an emotional state. But I also warned her that she must take control of her emotions because I would not do it again.

She responded with great gratitude and apologized profusely for allowing herself to get sucked in by someone else and for resorting to such antics. She said that she just couldn’t take it because she was feeling guilty about letting her dog run out into the street and his comments about her negligence pushed her over the cyber-edge. She did not want to lose her privileges.

For me, that was time well spent. I know it doesn’t scale, and that’s a real issue for me as the community grows, but that’s the kind of community manager I like to be. One who can empathize and know enough about the members to make a difference.

Guidelines don’t empathize.

You can.

This post was inspired by #CmtyChat, (created by Sonny Gill and Bryan Person) a weekly meeting of the minds where community enthusiasts chat via Twitter about all that ails us and then some.

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The Community Building Aspects of Internet Marketing: An Interview with Phyllis Zimbler Miller

July 13, 2009 in social media, social media marketing | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s a phrase that’s  tossed around more than a football at the Superbowl, and everyone claims to have the secrets of success. I’m talking about internet marketing. I’ve written many posts about the failed marketing efforts I witness in my online community and even offered tips on what to avoid when marketing through online communities. So who’s getting it right? I’ve received some valuable advice from Miller Mosaic’s Phyllis Zimbler Miller and Yael Miller (who designed my book website) so when I heard they were launching a new affordable business to help others wrap their arms around the concept I felt compelled to share.

Here is a Q&A with Phyllis Zimbler Miller about her new endeavor.

What void are you trying to fill with this new endeavor?

When I started learning internet marketing, the information was frequently so much that I was overwhelmed and yet the information was not specific enough for me to act on it.  And then I would find expensive programs or programs only on one aspect of internet marketing when I wanted to learn about all the major aspects.

The Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program is designed to provide one internet marketing topic each month at a reasonable price and in a manner that won’t overwhelm people and that they can implement in easy-to-follow steps.

What are some of the common misconceptions about marketing on the internet?

The major misconception I believe is that people marketing on the internet often act as if their potential customers/clients are mind readers.  Because the people marketing products and services know the benefits of their offerings, they don’t make it easy for potential customers/clients to quickly grasp what’s on offer.

How will your new program help build community and how important is having an established community to successful marketing?

The program will help build community as people going through the program become more confident and reach out to others on social media sites and blogs for cross-promotion and joint ventures.

The expression “no man is an island” is especially apt for internet marketing.  As an effective marketer you want to have as many people as possible to help you spread your reputation as you help them spread their reputations.

There is an ongoing debate about the percentage of marketing one should do on Twitter. Most say less is better. I’ve even heard a 70-30 ratio. What are your thoughts on that?

I’ve heard this same ratio and other ratios.  For me it all boils down to common sense.  I try to share as much information as I can and to support as many other people as possible.  These efforts come before promoting my products and services.

While I can’t give a ratio because it varies for different people, one thing I can caution about is sending an automatic direct message when someone first follows you that gives a link to a product or service being sold.  To me this is “in your face” marketing, which is not a good strategy on Twitter.

How do you successfully market without becoming “that guy?” You know the guy that sells every time he opens his mouth.

You need a sharing mindset.  All my life I’ve always shared information with others.  Thus for me internet marketing is an extension of my natural inclination.

If this is not your natural inclination, you should cultivate a sharing mindset.  What do I mean by this?  I mean first thinking of how you can help others on the internet and only second thinking of how you can occasionally get out the word about your products or services.

How do you gauge success? It has to be more than sales, right?

Correct, it’s more than sales.  For me it’s the connections I make with people.  And these connections don’t have to pay off now.  I’m patient and I believe that, if I sincerely help others, eventually people will help me too.

Do you feel that “social media marketing” is a new phenomenon or is that just a new term for something that has always existed on some level.

When you need a plumber, don’t you ask a friend for a recommendation?  So this level of asking for personal recommendations has always existed.  And now social media marketing has expanded on this concept to create a global village where we can all share our recommendations.

How do you separate the good advice from the bad? So many people claim to know the secrets of internet marketing.

Number one, I’m leery when anyone says he/she is going to reveal the “secrets” of internet marketing.  Do I believe there’s good information that only a few people know?  Absolutely.  But I’m leery of the promise of “secrets.”

In the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program we are NOT revealing secrets.  We are revealing the information we wish we’d known when we started doing internet marketing.

And it’s an ongoing project to separate the good advice from the bad.  I constantly read new material and evaluate it in terms of what I already know.  I have the kind of mind that puts together pieces of information from different people to see what the result is.  Thus many of my internet marketing decisions result from a synthesis of advice I’ve received.

Okay, now tell us about your service and what you hope it will help others accomplish.

The Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program at $19.95 per month is designed for busy people who want to learn how to market their brand, book or business on the internet.  The minimum “requirement” is listening to the one-hour monthly conversation teleseminar on their computer or downloaded to their iPod or reading the transcript of the teleseminar.

Then if people have time for another hour of information in that month – they can participate in or listen to the replay of the mid-month question-and-answer teleseminar, which can clarify any questions about the topic of the month.

There’s no long-term commitment – this is a month-to-month program.  If you’re a member that month, you get access to that month’s material.

Our goal is to make it easy for people to learn internet marketing to promote their brand, book or business without feeling overwhelmed and giving up.  And we want to make it easy for people to implement what they learn.

You can get more program information now at www.WeTeachWebMarketing.com.

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Dear United Airlines: Build Community Around This Dave Carroll Catastrophe

July 17, 2009 in Reputation management | Tags: , , , | 8 comments

Dear United Airlines:

You messed up big. You know it. There is no need for me to rehash it because it is all over the web, TV, radio..you name it. I’ve watched the video twice and even showed it to my husband last night, many days after my first viewing. I couldn’t help it.

The tune is actually catchy, the video funny and well, you really had it coming. The next time someone vows to (In Carroll’s words) l “write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world” I think you should take them to heart.

What I talk about on my blog is community building and engagement and there is still hope for you if you’re willing to put in the work. Right now you are in heavy damage control mode and that is quite understandable. But if you can step back for a minute and think of ways to connect with people who are talking about you in droves right now, you can take this big bowl of lemons and start making lemonade. There was a post by Dan Greenfield earlier this week that chronicled your responses on YouTube and Twitter and compared them to the number of comments made by the public. They completely dwarf your numbers. That is somewhat understandable but you could probably do better.

The key here is that people are talking about you. It may not be in the best light but they are talking about you much more than they were before this happened. You will have to kowtow to Carroll a bit, but that should not be your only strategy. Try building community around all of this chatter.

Here are a few ideas I offer you, free of charge:

Ask people what you could have done better. Seriously. Start your own forum or Facebook page asking people what you could have done better in this case. Don’t worry about looking stupid. That has already happened. This could turn into a good thing.

Find Weird Al Yankovic and have him write a spoof to Carroll’s song on your behalf. Remember this rendition of Michael Jackson’s Beat It, coined “Eat it?” Why not get in on the action? I bet he can fit you into his schedule.

Ask Carroll if someone from your company can be in his next video. He may not be as mad at you by the time the third video is produced and if you keep giving him everything he asks for he may even start to like you again. Big maybe on that.

Read EVERY.SINGLE.COMMENT and reach out to bloggers. Get a team of people to read every single comment and blog connected to that video that you can. Comment heavily.

Create some cool sticker with the YouTube logo and Carroll’s face on music equipment reminding baggage handlers to be careful. You see where I’m going with this. Get your team together and start having fun with this thing.

Think long term and get people talking about how you handled all of this with a bit of humor, after the fact and cared enough about your reputation to let the world help you do better.

Yours truly..and good luck,

Angela Connor

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Moderating youth communities requires eye for detail

July 21, 2009 in online communities, teens and tweens | 1 comment

The good folks over at eModeration have impressed me once again with their amazing insight into what it takes to successfully moderate communities populated with teens and tweens. In their latest white paper, How to Moderate Teens and Tweens, author and company CEO Tamara Littleton reviews some of the  common online behaviors of our youth that could lead danger right to their doorstep.

Much of the information was new to me, as my experience has largely been with moderating and managing adult online communities.

As a community professional I was surprised to learn some of what I’d never considered but as a parent I was  grateful for the information which has certainly given me a heads up on what to discuss with my daughters about online activity and what I should look for when considering which communities they are allowed to access.

Here is an excerpt:

“In our experience of moderating online environment for tweens and teens we find that tweens in particular are more likely to give up personal information about themselves online. This is the single biggest problem for moderators.”

Such personal information, according to eModeration,  could include phone numbers and street names and with teens, is often conveyed using clever wording or clues in an effort to fly underneath the radar. When filters are present, teens get creative and might type something like this: “My number is Too Tree Tree Ate On Fort Hive Steven.”

Alarmed yet? Wait, there’s more. This comment was taken directly from a large children’s brand:

“your my hero as i have no dad. i’m your biggest fan. please call me. my number is (XXX-XXXX)

Here’s another eye-opening excerpt, which the report says includes the jigsaw pieces of which could be enough to identify and befriend a child for a predator:

“My name is Louise and I love your shows! Are you coming to Iowa anytime soon for a show? I love to play soccer. I play number 11. and I know your favourite animal is a lion which is my school mascot.”

Here’s why this should cause concern. Consider this: If there is one middle school in Iowa with a school mascot of a lion, one could find the school, go to a soccer practice and see the young girl wearing a shirt with number 11.

I don’t know about you but that pretty much raises my spider senses to a new level. This is an excellent  whitepaper filled with highly valuable information and is definitely worth your time.

If you’re a community professional this is a topic on which you should become knowledgeable.   If you’re a parent, this is information you can’t afford to be without.

Kudos to eModeration for continuing to provide safe online environments for kids and keeping us all in the loop on their findings.

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Use Current Events to Engage Communities

July 24, 2009 in Community Engagement | 4 comments

Community managers have to stay on top of current events. If you know what’s going on in the world around you, you will always have fodder to successfully engage the masses.

From national news to local news to quirky and even strange news, take some time each day to brush up on the latest happenings and conversation pieces and bring the conversation to your community.

One of the things we did in every morning meeting at every TV station I’ve worked is answer the question: “What are people talking about?” Answering that question almost always yields a ton of great story ideas and makes newscasts relevant to the communities they serve.

As a community manager, you serve a community so figure out how to deliver relevant information to that community and you will see a new notice a new level of engagement. Start with current events and you can’t go wrong.

Now, it wouldn’t be my style to leave you without examples, so here are a few select links to blogs I posted in the community I manage over the last few months, based on current events

Do you see where I’m going with this? Tap into the treasure trove of news out there and make it your own. Give the community something to talk about. It’s the first step toward building a highly engaged community.

Keep me posted on your success.

-Angela

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Public humiliation is no way to build community

July 28, 2009 in social media | 4 comments

There is a time and place for everything, including public humiliation. United Airlines, for example, had it coming. Many of the companies and individuals who find themselves publicly humiliated are deserving. Once doled out by the select few who controlled the media, high-level humiliation is now at the fingertips of many. Denounce an individual’s character or slam the customer service rep who put you on hold and you could become a star. Well, maybe not a star but you will be heard on some level, depending on who you are and your presence across the social web.

As a journalist I am all about free speech and I think it’s great that we are all empowered by the internet and the fact that the voiceless now have a voice is pretty amazing. But I am beginning to think that some people sacrificed class in order to receive that voice.

While it is easy to slam someone on Twitter, in your blog or on YouTube and other social networks, it may not always be the best choice. It is not necessary to slam everyone who gives you grief, at least not publicly and certainly not all the time. Have we forgotten how to vent to a friend and let it go?

I am seeing a constant stream of complaints and gripes about everything from the blogger whose email rubbed someone the wrong way to the first and last name of the unsuspecting store manager who really couldn’t get the repairman out to make a person’s shopping experience a little less humid.

I know, I know…we all have every right to share this type of information and content and I can certainly opt-out of reading any of it.
But to those who claim they want to build community and relationships, stop publicly slamming everyone who doesn’t do things the way you think they should be done.

If someone pitches you in a way that you find off-putting, try telling THEM and not everyone else. Perhaps there is a lesson you can teach them. If you have a bad experience at a restaurant, try talking to the manager about it. It isn’t always necessary to exploit simply because you can.

Let’s not let our ability to be heard hamper our ability to solve our own problems.
Use your insight to help others and build your community that way. Who knows what kind of good karma it will send your way.

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Community enthusiasts talk openly and honestly about engaging communities

August 1, 2009 in Community Engagement | Tags: , , , , , | 4 comments

I had the opportunity to moderate the weekly conversation known as #CmtyChat yesterday, and what a great experience it was.  This weekly chat, (which I have attended since its inception)  started out on Twitter but has since migrated to Friendfeed, where the conversation flows and is no longer limited to 140 characters.

The invitation came from co-founder and Social Media Strategist, Sonny Gill, and I was more than happy to accept. I was given free reign in the topic department, so I’m sure it surprises no one that I chose my favorite subject of engaging and growing communities.

I posed seven questions to the group of talented folks in attendance and the conversation was pretty robust. If you have any interest in communities, the transcript is worth a read.

I will provide each question below, with a link to the conversation that followed so you can get to know some of the contributors and maybe even consider subscribing to their feeds and following them on Twitter.  If you’d like to read more, and see questions and conversations from previous chats, visit the Friendfeed room known as Community Chat.

By the way, the #cmtychat is the brainchild of Bryan Person as well as Sonny Gill. You can find them both on Twitter.
Now, on to the discussion questions:
Q1:Community Managers know what it means to engage a community. Share with us what it means to you.

Q2:Tell us about any features or franchises you’ve created within your community that have taken off? Example: I created the GOLO profiles, where I interview and profile a single member. People love it. What do you do?

Q3: How do disruptive members stifle engagement? Example: Hijack posts with nonsense? And what do you do about it?

Q4: Jon said his “Food Haiku” opened up lurkers when he was at Whole Foods. How else can we pull in the lurkers?

Q5: What about other communities. Do you connect with members of the community you manage on other platforms?

Q6: Do you operate as a member of your own community by commenting, posting images, blogging, chatting or participating in ways similar to the community?

Q7: What is the biggest misconception about what it takes to successfully engage and keep a community engaged over time?

For more on my personal thoughts and experience growing and engaging online communities, consider reading my book, 18 Rules of Community Engagement. If you’d like a review a copy, feel free to contact me directly.

A new model for building successful local news and information communities: An interview with Mark Potts of GrowthSpur

August 4, 2009 in Hyperlocal news | Tags: , , | 6 comments

Despite the fact that he has just launched a new company and is working harder than ever consulting media and internet companies, the formidable, self-proclaimed Recovering Journalist, Mark Potts (someone I’ve long admired and respected) found time in his busy schedule to talk with me about his new endeavor. GrowthSpur, is a company that provides tools and ad networks to help local Web sites succeed.

What is the barrier to entry for launching a a successful local news site with a hyperlocal focus, that actually makes money?

There’s almost no barrier to entry of launching a local news site; with blog software, it’s very easy and cheap. But making it successful require a solid business model and a vigorous ad sales effort, including considered several different kinds of advertising revenue (banner, directories, pay-per-click, search, e-commerce, etc.)

Can one person, or a group of people who are passionate about a local community and committed to showcasing news and information from the area, compete with journalists and create a successful local news site?

Sure–just start small. You can’t cover an entire metropolitan area with just one or two people–but you can cover a specific niche, such as a particular town or a specific topic like health, education or crime.

Let’s talk a bit about the dynamics of traditional news organizations which can be counterproductive for a community effort. What is the mindset that needs to go away to see real success.

You have to be entrepreneurial, you have to be flexible and open to new things, and you have to think about ways to do things efficiently and cheaply. Embrace the audience–even let them contribute–rather than holding them at arm’s length, and be more open about ways that advertisers can participate.

With your new venture, GrowthSpur you indicate that you don’t get paid until your clients get paid. You are either one risky guy or extremely  confident in the suite of tools you’ve developed. Which is it?

This isn’t a charity–our model is that we take a percentage of revenue you make by using our services. We expect that that a site will make a considerable amount—six figures in revenue a year—using our tools, training and networks, and we take a percentage of that.

As a pioneer in the hyperlocal space, with Backfence.com, tell us what you know you did right.

We created opportunities for the residents of the towns we served to share their local knowledge and opinions with each others. And we brought advertisers together to pay to reach those residents, who are their best customers.

And what if anything wasn’t right at the time? Were there forces beyond your control?

We made mistakes, as every startup does, but Backfence failed primarily for internal reasons that I’m not at liberty to discuss. But the model we followed of hyperlocal news and advertising was correct, and we were on the right track–we just ran out of track.

Are you seeking out existing entities like West Seattle Blog and others, or are you waiting for them to express interest on their own?

Both. We’ve reached out to several sites, and we’ve had inquiries from dozens of others.

I’m intrigued by the concept of “citizen-ad sales.” How did you come up with this particular model and why does it work?

We expect to empower local entrepreneurs and companies already dealing with small businesses (Realtors, insurance agents, Web design firms, etc.) to sell ads into the local networks we create. It’s a model several companies are looking at, and we hope to prove that it’s effective to add revenue through such citizen ad sales.

You wrote on your blog, Recovering Journalist, that a well-run, sophisticated local site can bring in more than $100,000 a year in revenue from advertising, e-commerce and other sources. What are some of those “other sources?”

The primary revenue source will be advertising, but we want to get way beyond banner ads into search, directories and other forms of advertising. We also want to help sites understand how to make money by offering local businesses e-commerce, mobile services, coupons, etc.

Describe the ideal candidate who will run with the idea and have wild success. What attributes must they possess in your opinion?

Great local contacts and high energy. They should want to be the 21st century version of the classic local editor and publisher.

I love your title of CEO and chief instigator. Do you expect to be involved with all aspects once your clientele soars, as I’m sure it will?

My title is actually just CEO, but I did pull together the group that came up with the company, hence the crack about being chief instigator. Like any startup CEO, I’m involved in every aspect of the company, from answering the mail to raising money–it’s part of the job description.

One selfish question here: Are you going to stop blogging? (Please say no, please say no…)

The RecoveringJournalist blog will continue, though maybe not quite as regularly–I’m very busy! But I expect to keep blogging about the enormous changes affecting media.

So let’s say I own a domain “Citynews.com” because the news orgs in my city didn’t seem to want it, and I want to become a destination source for all things in my city. What kind of staff do I need, and where do I start?

You can start with a blog and cover the city yourself, then add contributors, community elements, videos, etc.–always paying attention to getting word out about the site and pursuing revenue to support what you do. It takes time to build a successful local site, so you need patience and determination.

And finally, as one who lives and breathes community, what role does community interaction play in the success of a hyperlocal news effort?

As Dan Gillmor says, the audience–aka the community–knows more than you do. Bring them into the conversation, give them ways to share and contribute, and you’ll have a far richer site than if it’s a one-way lecture by you.

If you’d like to learn more about GrowthSpur, check out the website. And on a personal note, I’d encourage you to start reading Mark’s blog, “Recovering Journalist.” He can rant with the best of them, but every rant is backed up with experience, facts major insight.

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The Power of Personal Communities and Why ESPN Could Feel Threatened

August 5, 2009 in social networking | Tags: , , | 1 comment

Don’t you think for a New York minute that the new crackdown on social networking by ESPN is all about control. It may have something to do with it, but it likely has more to do with fear.

Don’t we often look to control that which we fear? Think about an obsessive or abusive boyfriend or jealous spouse who won’t allow their significant other to hang out with their friends. It may not be that they don’t want them to have a good time. They just don’t want others to see what a gem they are and possibly try to steal them away. They don’t have enough confidence in what they bring to the relationship to believe that this person won’t look elsewhere to have their needs met in a better fashion. They are afraid so they block the action that could lead them down this road.

I didn’t plan on blogging about this, (only commenting elsewhere) but after posting a comment on Mashable’s  ESPN responds to Criticism and Publishes Social Media Policy, I realized that I had an opinion worth sharing with those who read my blog. So here it is, my post on that story with a few words added for clarity: 

“On-air talent already have a personal brand. It is actually what serves news organizations in the social media space and why many are exploiting it in the first place. They are already well known and people will follow them.

I don’t like what this means for writers and those who are not on-air talent and their ability to build their own personal brands and express their interests outside of the corporate walls. There are lots of opportunities that they will likely miss and that’s too bad.

As journalists, we all sign some sort of code of ethics agreement. It comes with the territory. I’ve signed one at every TV station and newspaper I’ve worked. It just needs to be applied to social media efforts as well. I have written social media guidelines for my news organization, and the key is to embrace social networking and the myriad possibilities and potential it brings and most importantly to state your expectations.

Don’t just say what *not* to do. Tell the staff what they CAN do, and encourage that.”

Those are my thoughts.  Well, some of them. We must remember that there are other news organization embracing social networking and encouraging staff to try new things. There may be a bit of risk, but someone has to figure it out and that’s exactly what’s happening.  They’re trying to figure it out… just like the rest of us.

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Here’s how one web designer deals with negative comments

August 6, 2009 in Reputation management | Tags: , , , | 7 comments

This is a guest post from Heidi Cool, a web strategist and designer based in the Cleveland area. Heidi and I met on LinkedIn and discovered a Cleveland connection and shared habit of taking deep breaths and walking away from negative comments then coming back with a clear head in an effort to respond with dignity and grace. Difficult? Yes. Impossible? No. Here’s more from Heidi on how she deals with negative comments:

The first thing I do is take a deep breath and walk away from the keyboard until I stop grumbling under my breath about the comment. Then I’ll re-read to see which points have merit, which do not, and which may be the result of a misunderstanding. I blog about Web development and don’t tend to stir up much in the way of controversy, but sometimes people will disagree.

I do not censor opposing opinions, I think they can sometimes make interesting discussions. What I do censor is spam. If I received a particularly offensive comment I might censor it for language or edit it–but leave a note in the comment that I had done so. I’ve not had to do that yet, but I think it’s the tactic I would take. In most cases I find it is helpful to leave a tactful response to the comment, so as to clear up any issues that may confuse other readers. The exception would be for someone that is deliberately trying to provoke a reaction.

As the saying goes, “Don’t feed the trolls.” If it looks as though someone is trying to start a flame war I will leave the comment there but ignore it. I recently had a particularly negative comment on a blog entry I wrote, “Is Flash evil? No, but Flash-based sites can be a marketing nightmare. ” I knew this would be a controversial topic, especially for the Flash designers, but I was also trying to point out the potential pitfalls that many designers don’t realize. One fellow referred to the entry as garbage and called it blatantly misleading. However he didn’t state which points he disagreed with, nor did he offer any examples. In this case there was a risk that he may have been just trying to stir up a fight, but I responded by clarifying what my intentions were with the post (which discusses SEO problems I regularly see on Flash-based sites) and asked if he had examples he could share which would demonstrate how these problems could be solved. He didn’t respond, so no flame-war ensued.

Another fellow pointed out a solution to one of the problems. That was a helpful response because it let’s Flash designers know that there is a good work-around for that issue. Overall though most responses, including emails and Twitter feedback, were positive and the entry received many reTweets. This was reassuring because while I knew I had done the proper research it’s always nice to know that others agree.

Sounds like Heidi is a class act. What about you? How do you deal with negative comments on your blog or elsewhere? Do tell.

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A grateful online community

August 11, 2009 in Community management | Tags: , | 3 comments

Gift to Community Manager, Angela Connor Never underestimate the benefits that being a member of your community provides others.

As community managers we focus so much on our daily, monthly, weekly and even annual goals. We want to engage the masses,  get new members, increase the amount of content the community is producing and posting…you name it.

Our job is tough and never-ending and we feel that we can always do better.

That may be true. Perhaps we can do better, but we can also celebrate the things we do right. What we don’t take enough time to do, is reflect on the experiences of our individual members and how being a member of the community can and often does have a profound effect on their lives.

I am sharing this photo with you today so that you will take time time to think about all that your community provides to those it serves. Think about the thank-you’s you’ve received and the emails encouraging you to keep up the good work. Consider  the members who depend on your community for friendship and camraderie. Maybe they don’t have many close friends due to an illness or inability to leave the house and have found great refuge in your community.

I received this clock on the second anniversary of the launch of the online community I currently manage. It was a total surprise and I had no idea who left it for me downstairs in the lobby.  I learned just today through an email that it was a joint effort by a great group of members. Not  everyone could afford to contribute so he didn’t mention names, but here is what he said the email:

A lot of GOLO’ers wanted you to have the thank you gift. I hope you are enjoying it. You have thanked me (and hundreds of others) many many times already for your dedication to making us the cleanest and happiest group of members on the net.

Now do me a favor, and celebrate the successes of your community as well.

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Watch out for long-time community members

August 13, 2009 in Community Building | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

In most online communities, there are those who’ve been there from the very beginning. They were the first to blog, visit daily and pretty much confirmed for you the fact that you built something valuable and worthy of their time. That lead you to believe others would follow suit, and they did. You are grateful for this bunch.

Because of their valiant initial efforts, the community is flourishing and these people are like the elders of the community, even if it’s only a few years old. They remember the old days, (yes, 20 months ago constitutes ‘the old days’ in community-speak) discuss them often, and may have even broken off into their own old-timers group, with an “us against them” attitude to boot.

They have a lot of influence (good and bad) and pretty much treat your community like it belongs to them. This is a good thing, right? Yes it is… on some level.  But it can go very wrong if you’re not careful.  And you have to be mindful of this bunch.

They will go against you if they don’t like your decisions. I’m not talking about sending emails or nasty-grams detailing their thought process, or giving you a piece of their minds, but going to your boss.  In many cases the boss of the community manager doesn’t really understand the day-to-day experiences and issues faced by the community manager, so  explaining exactly what the deal is might get you a blank stare.

Be ready for that. There are some people in your community who think they own it, and you. Watch what you say and how you say it. Be mindful of how you communicate and know that they could be watching your every move.

In other words, don’t be so grateful that you’re blind. Be ready to go against those long-time members.  They cannot run you. They are not in charge of the community nor are they privy to your short or long-term goals, unless you’ve disclosed them.

You can  often feel indebted to them, especially if (like me) you launched the community and have a deep appreciation for the way they helped it grow.  Don’t be jaded by that. This may be their leisure, but it is your job.

Be careful, and most of all…be smart. You know I wouldn’t blog about this if I hadn’t experienced it myself.

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Don’t be bamboozled by the social media elite

August 17, 2009 in Community Building, Community Engagement | Tags: , , | 3 comments

There are a lot of folks out there who understand how social media can help businesses and organizations thrive. There’s also a lot people out there acting as if they do, and don’t have the real experience to back it up.

As someone who manages an online community that I also launched two years ago, I am in the trenches daily. If you are a regular reader here, you know that I share my ups and downs and hard-earned advice. It is no walk in the park by any means.

My book, “18 Rules of Community Engagement” essentially details all that I learned while in the trenches and is a play book for anyone new to community management.I share details about what worked for me and even some of what didn’t.(You can read reviews of the book, here.)

My blog is a continuation of those rich details and advice. There are many bloggers who do the same. I read them faithfully and learn from them. I value their input, insight and the work they do and have done in this space. There are some though who simply repeat information from other bloggers and I am slowly but surely weeding them out of my RSS feed.

One issue I have is this unfounded idea that growing your own community through various social media platforms somehow automatically provides the ability and know how to run, grow and manage an online community as a full-time job.

It does not. I read at least five press releases each day about new company X advising on community building or Big Brand Y building a slew of online communities and what I hardly ever see in these release is information about who will manage them and take on responsibility for their growth. It’s almost like it’s an afterthought, and it should be the first thought.

This is serious work. Why do you think most online communities fail? It’s because there is no real ownership and the “if you build it they will come” mentality. It’s because many of the big-wigs think their products are so unbelievably exciting and interesting that consumers will bang down the doors to  interact with their brand, in their space and on their terms.

This is not true. It may be true for some exciting brands but it won’t last if there is no ‘resident nuturer’ charged with making it a success.

As you are seeking people to help you with this kind of work, look for experience. Sure,  big names are nice, but a big name may not always be able to deliver what you need.

Am I that person? If you are all about engagement tactics, I will go out on a limb and tell you that I am, because engagement is my thing. It is what I do and love. I have also created social media guidelines for my company, something that I rarely talk about in my blog and I’ve worked with a huge restaurant chain to do the same. Again, things I don’t readily talk about. I want people to contact me because of my work and not necessarily the people I’ve done it for.

That might be backwards and a little naive and I may change that at some point, who knows…but it’s important to understand that there are people out there doing the work you need who just arent’ selling it on every corner.

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HARO: A big-time community-building success story

August 18, 2009 in HARO | Tags: , | 1 comment

How does one guy come up with an idea to help others and turn that into an insane empire that continues to grow exponentially and receives rave reviews and word of mouth that most of us would die for?

Don’t ask me, ask Peter Shankman. He’s the one who has taken his passion for helping others, and keen understanding of building relationships and PR and turned it into something pretty amazing in ‘Help a Reporter Out,’ affectionately known as HARO.

The man who told me and others 9 short months ago, that the press release would be dead in 36-months has issued a press release with some amazing figures and that simply cannot be ignored. The man builds community every time he sends an email. Now how many people can lay claim to that? I wish I could, but I can’t…and community building is my thing!

Here’s an excerpt from Shankman’s site, detailing this monster growth:

In August 2008, there were 1500 journalists using HARO, sending out 650 queries per month to about 20,000 sources.

Today, there are 30,000 journalists who have used HARO, sending out more than 3000 queries per month to over 80,000 members.

And here’s an excerpt from the official press release:

The number of advertisers for HARO’s free-for-both-subscribers-and-journalists service skyrocketed 3900% from August 2008 to August 2009. The HARO staff rose 400 percent in the past year. (in Non-PR-speak, that means we hired four people.) Revenues over the past year have leaped from $15,000 as of August 2008 to just over $1MM as of August 2009 with advertising inventory on HAROs already sold out for 2009.

Congrats to Peter and HARO. Peter is a very down to earth, fun guy. He wrote the foreword for my book, in the midst of all that he has going on with HARO AND he answers my e-mails.

It doesn’t get any better than Peter.  I look forward to seeing what you do with HARO next.

BTW, you can see the full release on Peter’s site Shankman.com.

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Facebook is great, but it is not the only option

August 21, 2009 in online communities | Leave a comment

This is a cross post from the cool and very interesting social web meets tech innovation blog SiliconANGLE. I asked to be a contributor over there and they said yes. SO, I am going to be posting over there a bit and thought you might like to know. Enjoy….

The migration frenzy to Facebook by every company in America and beyond is something I absolutely understand and appreciate. Who doesn’t want their message in front of that many eyeballs? Just the idea of possibly capturing even a smidgen of a fraction of the Facebook audience is enough to make a room full of top executives salivate for a week straight.

I’m sure the conversations go something like this: “Just think, if someone posts something about our brand and it goes on their wall and the walls of their friends and then they see our logo and get curious and click on a link and the fact that they clicked on a link to our brand shows up on the walls of all of that person’s friends, we could be all over the place!” (Hear the exhaustive panting? See the sweat on the brow?)

…Okay, they may not go exactly that way but I know I’m close because I’ve been involved in such conversations. It’s insane not to give it a try. I get that. Facebook Connect is a wonderful thing.

But, let’s just take a deep breath for a second and remember that there are other online communities out there with huge memberships that might be worth your time as well. If you have a product of services that would be of interest to moms, it might be a good idea to consider shifting some of your online marketing efforts over to sites like CafeMom, or Momtourage. The pool may not be as big, but the water could be just as nice.

If you want to reach car enthusiasts, consider specific niche communities that cater to the audience you are trying to reach….

You can read the full post, Facebook may be the big Kahuna, but there are other fish in the sea..here.

And be sure to read some of the other great content over at SiliconANGLE, while you’re there. Tell them Angela sent you!

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Pfizer will recruit patients through online community

August 24, 2009 in social media | Tags: , , , , , | 2 comments

I’m very big on the power of online communities, mostly because I’ve seen some of the amazing things that can happen when strangers unite online and come together for a common cause or to help “one of their own,” even if they only know them through the community.

It is always nice to read about companies developing online communities because for me, it validates the power they possess and the importance I just mentioned.

I firmly believe that we have yet to tap into the potential of online communities and see the results that a well-nurtured community with a purpose can provide.

Apparently, Pfizer agrees. The pharmaceutical company is hoping to ” unlock the power of online communities to help it recruit more people for clinical trials,’ according to this press release.

Here’s an excerpt:

Pfizer has teamed up with specialist company Private Access to develop a site which allows users to grant online access to their medical records to doctors and healthcare professionals, but otherwise keep them secure and confidential.

The US pharma company is the first to pioneer the system, which could help address the industry-wide problem of recruiting the right patients for clinical trials.

Pfizer’s portal will also encourage social networking and allow patients to share their experience of taking part in clinical trials, which the company clearly hopes will encourage more to take part. The new platform and online community will be rolled out in phases, with the initial launch planned for late 2009.

Finding and recruiting patients who are eligible to take part in trials is apparently a very costly measure. This will help curb some of those cost and I am hoping that it will spread the word about these opportunities due to the large percentage (nearly 85% according to Pfizer)  unaware that clinical trials are even a possible treatment option.

Kudos to Pfizer. Looks like there might be an interesting, rewarding community manager position on the horizon.

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Orbitz, the tweet and the phone call that followed

August 27, 2009 in twitter | Tags: , , | 4 comments

I am dedicating an entire blog post to rave about the use of Twitter as an excellent tool for customer relations. The company I’d like to rave about is Orbitz.
You see, I booked a vacation via Orbitz because of a great deal they were offering at a specific hotel. The deal was ‘kids eat free.’ I have two children and it included breakfast, lunch and dinner during the entire stay, which was a pretty attractive offer, so I booked it and sealed the deal.

The problems started when the hotel staff seemed to be unaware of this great offer and pretty much hassled me about the free meals. They gave me this song and dance about Orbitz being a ‘third party’ and how they had not been informed of any such deal.

I happened to print several copies so they did in fact honor the deal since it was there in black and white. But, that did not minimize the hassle and confusion on the faces of the restaurant staff and even the front desk manager since it took all of them to talk to me about this, rather loudly I must say, as if I was trying to pull the wool over their eyes.
As time went on, I got angry.
I decided to look for Orbitz on Twitter when I got home yesterday and saw that they were pretty active. So, I posted the following on Twitter, hoping to receive a response.

Hello @orbitz. Marriott Carolina Beach was totally unaware of your deal and it was not pleasant for me. Will be writing.

Now, in most cases one would expect a DM or @reply from the company if they are indeed serious about reaching thier customers via Twitter.

I received neither. What I did receive was a PHONE CALL.  A nice woman named Sarah left a message for me on my cell indicating that she saw my message on twitter and wanted to talk to me about what happened. She left her number and urged me to return her call.

I was quite impressed and called her back immediately. She listened to me recount the experience and even empathized. She did not go out of her way to blame the hotel even though I know now the fault lies with the hotel alone. She went on to tell me how the process works and then gave me a $50 voucher to use the next time I book travel through Orbitz.

That phone call was unexpected, and they have surpassed my idea of good customer service. I go by “communitygirl” on Twitter, so they clicked through to my profile to get my real name, looked me up in their system, then contacted me on my cell.

Not too shabby.

We hear so much about Comcast, JetBlue, Dell, BestBuy and others that are serious about transparency and customer service on Twitter. I would like to add Orbitz to the mix. They didn’t care about the world seeing a DM and recognizing them based on that. They only cared about me and made a direct connection. I was impressed and I find that to be huge.

So, here’s to Orbitz, and the customer service representative named Sarah.
Sarah, you had me at ‘hello.’
Keep up the good work!

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Engagement doesn’t necessarily yield influence

September 2, 2009 in Community Engagement, social networking | Tags: , , | 3 comments

The results of a new study are pretty telling in regards to the  influence that brands engaging customers through social media platforms are actually having on customers. Women in particular.

Information gleaned from the study, “Women & Brands Online: ‘The Digital Disconnect’ indicates that 75% of 1,000 women queried are uninfluenced by social networking channels when it comes to making purchases.

And this snippet is even more telling:

While exceptionally engaged, they are overwhelmingly uninfluenced, and often “turned off,” by brands in this space.

Wow. So you could be highly engaging with your nice offers, coupons, info on upcoming sales and information about the product and still have little to no influence on what is purchased. So what’s a brand to do?

Here’s a quote from Matt Wise, President of Q Interactive:

“There lives a growing impetus for marketers – especially those working with Fortune 500 CPG brands who enjoy a majority female customer base, to build a better connection with women in the dynamic social media landscape. “We know women are social creatures and highly active in mediums like Facebook, where they now outnumber men.”

Here are some additional results of the study:

  • 75 percent of women are “more active” in social networking than last year
  • More than half (54 percent) visit social networking sites at least once per day
  • Yet 75 percent share that social networking sites “not really” or “not at all” influence what they buy

They are being engaged, however and to me that is a good thing because a connection is being made based on a conscious decision to associate with the brand in that particular space.  The preferred results could come later, and I wonder what kinds of ideas will emerge to build that better connection Mr. Wise suggests.

The complete study findings are being presented today at Ad:Tech Chicago.  I wish I was there. If you come across any video or presentations related to this study, please share.

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Are you taking your community for granted?

September 9, 2009 in Community Building | Tags: , | Leave a comment

The bigger they are the harder they fall.

And if you have gotten so big and built a community that you believe is fail-proof because of your largess, your fall will resonate across the universe.

I  can hear it already. You’re just too in love with yourself to see it coming.

You are so much of what you are on the web and maybe even off, because of the people who make up the community you’re always bragging about. If you must brag, fine. But keep contributing, and keep doing the things that made people value you in the first place so that they will continue to see the value and support you and your efforts.
You can’t stop.
And you can’t ignore people.
No, you do not scale as an individual.  I get that. But for some reason your jerkitude manages to do just that. It is scaling at an alarming rate.
Remember what’s important.
Stop listening to the people who are constantly telling you how great you are. Perhaps you are great but if that’s all they ever tell you, they are riding your coattails and contributing to the madness that is your ego.

In fact, you should probably try to figure out what it is they want from you because that’s likely their motivation.
And stop treating people like they should worship you and all that you perceive yourself to be. Know your worth, but remain human, okay?
Your community can shrink, the same way it grew.
Remember that.

This rant was brought to you by Angela Connor and is in no way targeting any one individual. But if the shoe fits, wear it and strive to do better.

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When an influential community member leaves

September 11, 2009 in Growing successful online communities, community manager | Tags: , , | 5 comments

You probably know by now that in every online community, there will be highly popular, influential members. Sometimes their star rises quickly and they can become a very important part of your strategy. They morph into a high-profile, go-to member who seems quite vested in the community and displays a great deal of ownership. This type of member can be a community manager’s dream.

When this type of member take on too much ownership, there can be trouble.

If you start to depend on them too much or place them on a pedestal believing that their intentions are always pure, there could be even more trouble.
This may or may not happen because there are many factors to consider and so much depends on their specific personality traits. But it might happen, and you need to be ready.

If an influential community member starts creating havoc, they must be dealt with and you cannot be swayed by their status. If they become a dominant, larger-than-life force throwing their weight around at others expense, you have to do something.

This person could be your very first member. They could be the ultimate creator of content and have hundreds or even thousands of friends. People might get upset if they believe he or she is being ousted. And, this person and/or their die-hard followers may even turn against you in a very public manner.

Remember those essential skills for community managers I wrote about a few months back? This is when they come into play. This is when you need to have a thick skin, make a decision and move on.
Sure, you can try to reason with them. And most community managers will give you several ideas on how you should go about doing this.  I agree that you should do what you can to salvage the relationship and keep the member without compromising your integrity.

If it doesn’t work, let them go. You will live to see another day. Trust me. I did.

This is just one of the lessons I’ve learned while doing this job called community management. Many think it’s glamorous and all fun, games and kumbaya. It isn’t.
When you’re in the trenches of this work, you learn quickly that there may not be a right answer and you learn as you go.

That is why I write this blog. It is documentation of the fact that I learn as I go. That is why I appreciate everyone who sends me emails saying how much they appreciate what I share and how my strategies are working for them for them.

I will continue to share my lessons learned and even more so as part of a new project series specifically for community managers. If you want to know more about it, sign up on my book website and you’ll be one of the first to learn about this new endeavor.

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Excerpt of 18 Rules of Community Engagement Published in EContent Magazine

September 13, 2009 in 18 rules of community engagement, social media | Tags: , , | 1 comment

18Rules_EContentMagazine

If you’d like to read the first chapter of my book, “If you build it will they come?” Check out the September issue of EContent magazine. You can read the print copy or get the online version.

Here’s a link: If You Build it Will They Come?

I’d like to thank editor, Michelle Manafy for her interest in my work and for sharing it with the EContent community.

Enjoy.

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How Counterfeit Coach Purses Could Build Community

September 13, 2009 in Community Building, social media | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Counterfeit purses are a real problem for COACH Leatherware.

I learned tonight that combating counterfeiting is actually a very important objective for the company. I came across this information after searching for an official Facebook fan page to post two photos and share a story about the great COACH shoes I saw at the mall today. I never found an official site (ther were many created by fans and business owners) so I went to Twitter. After I didn’t find what I wanted there, I went to their website, and that’s when I came across the page that encourages people to report COACH counterfeits.

I know it exists. Heck, anyone with an affinity for the purses and other accessories such as mine has  heard about the basement parties or knows someone who knows someone who has the newest knockoffs in the trunk of their car. We may have even  been to one 15 years ago.

When you sport  their products, particularly handbags, people know that you are a loyalist and they will test the waters to see if they can lure you in. Everyone wants to save some cash right? And who cares if you can’t register the purse or if the stitching is wrong, or the style a tad bit off? People like me, that’s who. People who value the brand, the craftsmanship and the service that comes with it. People who got their first COACH purse as a teen, or in my case my 18th birthday and have not turned back.

But I dgress…

I went to the site looking for some kind of social platform but it seems that this was it. The company seems to think it can capitalize on customer and brand loyalty by outlining all that is wrong with counterfeiting and how kids could actually be working in sweatshops to create these fake masterpieces. Perhaps it can and maybe it does, but I think it should be bigger and better than this.  I couldn’t believe that there wasn’t a place to communicate with fellow COACH enthusiasts on their website. There was no forum, no blog and no way to interact.

Counterfeiting is a major priority and they want help from their customers. It makes sense, but I wonder if a bigger opportunity is being missed. Couldn’t they possibly get even more response if they took this campaign social?

You have great fans, COACH. Mobilize and find us. We can help you with this problem. Make this a real initiaitve and see what you can accompish though social channels.

  1. How about a YouTube channel with videos showing the differences between real and fake? Call it: How to spot a Fake. I’m sure you can get a few.
  2. Create a Twitter account where people can communicate with you about fakes. Follow everyone who talks about your products.
  3. Create an official Facebook Fan Page and let your loyalists start discussions about this. Monitor the conversations and I bet you’ll learn a lot.
  4. Let people help you in wasy they want to  help you and you put in the rest of the work. Generate leads and sell more of your product along the way.

I’ve got more ideas. If you happen to come across this post, email me for the rest. I’d love to share.

P.S. Since you didn’t have an obvious place for me to talk about my COACH-aholic tendencies, I posted a blog in the online community I manage. There are a few other fans in the comments section. You may want to check it out.

Good luck,

Angela Connor

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Video Review of 18 Rules of Community Engagement by Jason Falls

September 18, 2009 in 18 rules of community engagement | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

I am both humbled and honored to receive the first video review of my book, “18 Rules of Community Engagement” by Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer and wanted to share it here for my readers.  It comes on the heels of this review on WiserEarth Blog, and this article and excerpt in EContent Magazine.

In the event that you have not read my book, perhaps this video will convince you. You’ll also hear about three other social media books Jason is recommending including Connection Generation by Iggy Pintado, Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel and Andy Sernovitz’s upcoming new addition to Word of Mouth Marketing, which has not yet been released.

So take a few minutes and listen to what Jason has to say about the book.

Four Books Worth Reading from Jason Falls on Vimeo.

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Are Facebook accounts being hacked for $100?

September 19, 2009 in facebook | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

According to a recent news release, PandaLabs has Uncovered a hacking service that promises clients access to any Facebook account for $100. The creators of the service, based in the  Ukraine, confirm the cost and say the fee is payable through Western Union.

I’ll leave you to digest this information on your own. Here is the release:

GLENDALE, Calif., Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/ — PandaLabs, Panda Security’s malware analysis and detection laboratory, today announced the discovery of an online service that promises to hack into any Facebook account for $100. The creators claim, “Any Facebook account can be hacked,” promising to provide clients with the login and password credentials to access any account on the popular social networking site. According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, “The service’s real purpose may be hacking Facebook accounts as they say, or profiting from those that want to try the service. In any case, the Web page is very well designed. It is easy to contract the service and become either the victim of an online fraud, or a cyber-criminal and accomplice in identity theft.

Once an intruder hacks into a Facebook account, all personal data published on the site can be stolen. Similarly, those accounts can also be used to send malware, spam or other threats to the victim’s contacts. In the case of celebrities of other well-known entities, they can be used to defame the account holder, spread information in their name, etc. In any event, this is criminal activity.”

In addition to extorting money and obtaining access to clients’ bank account information, the service also has characteristics in line with hacker affiliate programs. Common among cybercriminals, hacker affiliate programs offer other cybercriminals money to spread malware. This strategy is now being used with everyday Internet users through this Facebook hacking site, by offering extra dollar-credits to spend on the service when users hack more accounts. They can become affiliates to help hackers reach a broader audience, receiving 20 percent of what they sell in credits for hacking more accounts.

It is likely that the cybercriminals behind this operation are members of an Eastern European Internet mafia because payments are conducted online through Western Union wire transfers to a payee in Ukraine. The domain that hosts the service is registered in Moscow, providing further evidence of this theory. The company claims to have been offering this service for four years with only one percent of accounts hack-proof. In these cases, they offer clients a money-back guarantee. However, the domain is just a few days old. A series of images illustrating the sales flow can be found on the PandaLabs blog:

What do you think? Is this something of grave concern to us here in the US?

Angela Connor

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Why did you post that comment?

September 19, 2009 in comments, online communities | Tags: , , , | 14 comments

This is the question I wanted to ask the woman who called asking me to remove a comment, actually several comments, she’d posted on a news story.

Wait, let me be honest and tell you that after a ten minute conversation I did ask her that question. And her answer, though lame, is a common answer provided by those who experience commenter’s remorse and go to great lengths to find the person who can actually remove them -  ME.  First they email, then they call. The call comes first if the comment is particularly troublesome.

The woman I’m talking about in this instance said she was caught up in the moment and couldn’t help herself.  Yes, go back and read that sentence again. She couldn’t help herself from posting a comment that could possibly jeopardize her job. She’d posted some telling information on a crime story about the suspect, and guess what? She had that information because she works at the hospital where he was treated.

Some common sense in this situation would have gone a long way.

It would not have taken Nancy Drew to solve that case had it become an issue or if it leaked that the information was on the site.

Since this woman was nearly in tears, I removed all four of the comments, but not before encouraging her to be more careful and making her understand that it was a complete courtesy on my part because it is not our policy to remove comments  and we are not obligated to honor her request.

But in this economy, I don’t want to see anyone lose their job and if I could do my part by removing four comments, so be it.

But just when I thought she understood my message and would take heed, she asked me to ban her account completely because she couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t do it again.

I was floored.

Can we get a little self-control with  that common sense?

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BWD: Blogging While Drunk

September 21, 2009 in blogging | 2 comments

If you missed my last post, “Why did you post that comment?” about a woman with commenter’s remorse who asked me to ban her account so that she would keep from posting any additional comments, I’ve got something else for you.

Drunk Bloggers.Yes. It seems as though BWD is the new DUI, only without the car and the potential to ruin lives.

I’ve been told by a slew of members in the community that there is one blogger in particular who gets drunk at night and goes ballistic  in the blogs. I’ve seen some posts where he is a bit direct but nothing too alarming so I didn’t think much of it.

Well, today I was in the abuse queue and came across at least ten photos that were pretty risque. Okay, they were porn.  I couldn’t believe the magnitude and the audacity it must have taken to post that in the community.

It got him banned.

Tonight he sent me an email asking why on earth his privileges were revoked because he’s never violated the terms of service and is demanding I tell him why. I think those members were right about him.

It must be a full moon this week.

Do you think you’re ever read any blogs that were written under the influence? How could you tell?

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A Conversation on the Decline of Civility

September 27, 2009 in user generated content | Tags: , , , | 5 comments

I was one of three guests on WRAL’s new talk show, “On the Record” which aired on the CBS affiliate in Raleigh this week.

The topic: The Decline of Civility. I was asked about some of the comments posted on news stories and talked a bit about the dynamics of anonymous posting.
It’s a 30-minute show, longer than what most of us like to watch online, but it’s an interesting conversation and I wanted to share it with you here on my blog.

Oh, and don’t think for one minute that the members of the community I manage didn’t see it.  So far there have been two blogs posted about it.  One was all about how nervous I looked, and a comment in the second blog post indicated that I am living in a fantasy believing that things will get better without me putting forth any effort.  I’m going to have to let that one go for now….

At any rate, here’s the link to the video:

On the Record: The Decline of Civility

Let me know what you think, okay?

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Is social media holding you hostage?

October 3, 2009 in social media | Tags: , | 2 comments

Crafting a social media mission statement is crucial if you want to avoid mindlessly spinning your wheels. I’ve found that every time I speak about online communities and social media there is a large group of people in the audience who are simply overwhelmed by all of the options.
The overabundance of options is hindering their ability to focus.
I maintain that if you can’t focus, you will wander. And if you wander you won’t get anywhere.

For some, the fear is paralyzing.

They feel they’re missing the boat but don’t know how to board it. They’re hearing success stories that they don’t understand or know how to achieve. They’ve heard they need to be on Twitter but they’re hesitant. They’ve been told that Facebook is a must but they just don’t know how they will manage it all or fail to see how it can work for business. They are not empowered to choose and stick with the social media platforms that work for them and leave the others that don’t.

One woman told me that she quit LinkedIn because she was getting too many emails. I explained to her that she could deactivate the constant emails and she was stunned.
There are literally people being held hostage by the concept of social media because they are focusing on the platforms. Those who don’t want to acknowledge these fears write it all off with some dismissive comment about social media being stupid or for a different generation.

I spoke to someone at PowerPoint Karaoke RDU, an event I sponsored and hosted over the weekend, who said she was hiring someone to set up her blog. I informed her that she could do it herself and that there’s no need to officially “launch” a blog, you just do it.
She has fallen victim to a social media scam artist and it’s just sad.

Some people are making money off of this fear. Big money. They are not teaching clients how to use the tools but making them feel they don’t need to learn them. I am hopeful that my words stuck with the woman about the blog and she’ll try some of it out herself. I’m going to follow up with her just to offer more encouragement.

If you know someone who is being held hostage by social media, tell them that it isn’t rocket science and offer a few tips.  If being helpful is what the social web is really all about, why not do your part?

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Is alcohol marketing exploiting youth on Facebook?

October 3, 2009 in facebook | 2 comments

With 300 million users worldwide and one-third estimated to be under the legal drinking age, alcohol industry watchdog,  Marin Institute is raising a red flag on what effect excessive alcohol marketing on Facebook is having on these under age users.

Because of this, Marin Institute recommends that Facebook immediately take action by making three changes (outlined in an article  published in the Journal of Global Drug Policy and Practice) that would likely hit the social network deep in the pocket.  Here are the recommendations:

  1. Stop accepting paid advertisements for alcohol products
  2. Stop allowing alcohol-related Pages, Applications, Events and Groups
  3. Hire external monitors to enforce the new regulations

I don’t know what your thoughts are on this, but I can’t imagine Facebook jumping at the chance to do any of these. Not a single one.

Here’s a quote from Sarah Mart, MS, MPH, research and policy manager at Marin Institute and lead author of the article,

“Facebook started as a fun tool for college students to interact and connect, but it has morphed into yet another means for corporations to exploit its users, particularly youth. As Facebook continues to grow as the youth market’s social networking tool of choice, the alcohol industry’s influence on Facebook must not be underestimated.”

And a quote from co-author Jacob Mergendoller:

“The only way to protect youth and young adults from the incessant promotion of alcohol on Facebook is to remove all promotional content about alcohol. Eliminating exposure to this content is necessary if we are ever going to reduce serious alcohol-related harm among young people.”

Have you seen much alcohol advertising on Facebook? I can’t say that I have, but I don’t spend hours and hours on Facebook each day.  I do remember blogger and author Chris Brogan’s post about Gun ads, that he wasn’t too fond of.  I wonder if anti-gun groups are thinking along the lines of the Marin Institute.

At any rate, it sounds like this alcohol marketing could be a real issue.

You can read the entire article published in at globaldrugpolicy.org.

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Breathe new life into old features

October 5, 2009 in Community management | Tags: , , | 2 comments

Remember that cool new feature you launched in your online community six months ago? What about the one you launched 18 months ago?
How much do you want to bet that the members who joined the community in the last month or so may have no idea that those features exist?
It’s true.

As the community manager who is always looking for ways to enhance your offerings, attract new members and keep your community interesting it’s easy to lose sight of the revolving door. New members need some of that nurturing you provided to the very first members when you launched.

Sure, they could have been a lurker for 6 months who finally decided to join and already knows the ins and outs of the community, but what if they weren’t?

I had a newer member ask me just today if there was a way to upload multiple photos to her image gallery because uploading them one-by-one was a bit tedious. I was so glad she asked and I steered her to a blog post I’d written when we started accepting zipped files, back from September of 2007. That was just two months after our launch and I thought most people knew how to do that.

I’ve been thinking about this for about a month now and just got around to blogging it. Another thing I did recently was remind members that we offer RSS feeds on the blogs. With many of them spending time on other social networks I figured that they may not have known they could feed their GOLO blogs there, and many commented that they did not.

Actually it’s an easy way to get our brand onto the other social networks so if they use the RSS feature it’s a win-win for us.

What features have you launched that some of your community members may not be aware of? Give it some thought, and remind them. What’s old to you could be new to them.
Breathe new life into those old features. And come back and let me know how it goes.

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In communites, little things can mean a lot

October 5, 2009 in Community Building, Community Engagement | Tags: | 4 comments

I launched a new feature in my online community today.

It’s nothing more than a recorded interview with a member, but the feedback was amazing. People LOVED it. I typically do these interviews over the phone and transcribe them on my editor’s blog but decided to do something new and see if there was any interest.

All I did was record the interview using Blog Talk Radio, downloaded it…imported it into our CMS, and posted it on the site.

Never underestimate the little things. Remember, you have to take risks because you never know what might stick.

If you’re interested, here is the 15 minute interview with a longtime member.

Community member interview

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Take this community manager survey and you could win a copy of my book

October 8, 2009 in Community management | Tags: , , , , , | 4 comments

It is no secret how much I value the role of community manager. I am pleased to see so many newly created community manager positions each week and I often share links to some of the more interesting job openings on Twitter.

Two of the most recent that I shared just this week were at eHarmony and Land’s End. (Check my twitter feed if you want to see more.)
I know I’m not alone in this because those are some of my most popular tweets. They are shared by many and that says a lot about this work. It has been deemed crucial and these new positions are calls for action.

I also get a great deal of emails from other community managers asking me a multitude of questions from dealing with irrational troublemakers to methods for recruiting new members and luring lurkers into becoming active participants. I answer them all. The private exchanges are great, but those answers could be helpful to so many more.

I’ve been thinking and I feel that it is time for me to kick this thing up a notch. I have something in the works that I believe will be an excellent resource for active community managers and those who are new to the craft. Yes, I call this a craft.
What I’d like to ask of you is 10 minutes of your time to complete a survey that will aid this effort.
I know that 10 minutes can feel like an hour, and if you don’t have the time now, do come back when you have more time to spare.

I’ve grown an online community from zero, to nearly 14 thousand members and we are just beyond the two year mark. It is extremely difficult, all encompassing and can make you feel isolated if no one in your organization really understand what you’re charged with or actually up against.

I think I can help us all, with your help. So please fill out the survey. If you know any other community managers, forward them the link as well.
I will provide a free autographed copy of my book, 18 Rules of Community Engagement to the first person to complete the survey and will randomly pick two more in the next few weeks.

Thank you so much for supporting me by reading Online Community Strategist. And please let me know if I can do anything for you in return.

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Community manager as babysitter, referee and therapist

October 11, 2009 in Community management | 12 comments

This is another rant from the trenches. If you’re not in the mood, perhaps you should come back to this one later. I probably received 25 emails last week from members of my community about the most petty issues.

There are times when I feel like a real babysitter and I have to tell you that before I took my vacation back in August, I was at risk of completely losing it. I found myself so caught up in what I felt at the time was my inability to reign in trolls and the sheer nonsense that was taking place within the community that I could scream. Actually I think I did scream something like “I hate these people.” I certainly don’t hate the community, but I am beginning to wonder if there is some kind of breaking point or designated period of time when it just burns you out and you need to do something else.

I’ve said many times that this is no job for the weary, and weary I am not. But tired, I am becoming. I know that not every community manager will experience this because no two communities are the same. And depending on the makeup of your community, you may never feel this way. Many members of the community I manage have no idea how bad it can really be on the internet. Some are hyper-sensitive and believe that any comment that isn’t in line with their beliefs should be marked as abuse. They meet one another offline and bring innuendo back into the community based on these meetings and expect me to intervene as if I have knowledge of what happens outside of the community.

I’ve made it very clear that I don’t want the back story and will manage the content based on what I see on the surface.

One woman told me that another member has threatened to call her job and inform them of how much time she spends interacting in the community during the day. I feel bad for her, but she’s the one who told her where she works. That is not my problem. And in all fairness it is not a reason for me to ban her because she hasn’t violated our TOS, at least not on the site. Another user is up in arms about someone implying that he is a communist and wants me to deal with it right away.

Someone else says an online foe is stalking their comments and following them around commenting on every blog they comment on. I’m also dealing with claims of what is supposedly a rogue group that targets specific members. It has gotten so bad that I had to address the issue in a blog post last week that made me feel like a middle school teacher.  I swear it gets so very childish and last week really took its toll. If you ever want to see some of this for yourself, read the comments on my profile page.  There are some nice comments there, but also some real doozies. Okay, I feel better already. Next week has to be better.

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Stop telling people they’re failing at social media

October 18, 2009 in social media | 4 comments

I am noticing a pattern among those who consider themselves “social media savvy,” “early-adopters” and “jedi ninjas” or whatever the new term of the week may happen to be.

On one hand, they say there are no rules with social media. They call it the wild, wild, west and offer advice that pretty much says “go out there, try some stuff and see if it sticks.” I like that, and I think it’s important to convey a message of experimentation.

But then they go off on a tangent about what people shouldn’t do, act as if their way for managing Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts and fan pages, blogs and a slew of other platforms is the only way and anyone doing it differently is breaking the code.

So, there are no rules, but there is a code? WTH?

I am the first person to silently grumble about those who use their Facebook accounts as an outlet for their twitter streams and not much else, but who am I to tell them that it isn’t effective? I can simply hide them from my feed or un-friend them, right?

No, I don’t want to join a Mafia family and I don’t choose to learn which car best describes me or which game from the 80’s I am still able to play. But that’s me.  Some people enjoy that and it’s their prerogative.  And they could be reaching thier goals with those tactics.

I do wholeheartedly believe that communities develop a culture somewhat inorganically and that newcomers who don’t understand the culture can have a hard time, but that is pretty much how it works in branded communities. You can’t expect 300 million users to subscribe to the same culture.

I was a panelist at Meet the New Media, at NC State last week when a member of the audience expressed concern over stalkers following her. One of the panelists gave her a very detailed method of determining whether or not someone is worth following.

It included a series of events and involved a formula of comparing the number of followers against the number of people the suspected stalker is following, dividing that by pi, and multiplying it by Avogadro’s Number.  The results would then determine whether or not this person would show up on her doorstep wielding a knife in the wee hours of the night.

Okay, I’m being facetious and I hope my fellow panelist sees the humor if he is indeed reading this post.

But, I felt compelled to grab the mic after him and my advice to her was to not worry about it or over-think it.  I told her to look at their profile and if there is something that seems suspect, block them, especially the porn-types. But if the point is to grow your community, broaden your reach and learn from the masses, you can’t sweat the stalkers, and you certainly can’t worry about every new follower.

Because we all know that if a stalker wants you, they’ll find you. They can just head on over to LinkedIn, find out where you work, and get you in the parking lot. With all the information we are readily providing across social media, stalkers no longer need mad investigative skills to be effective.

So, if you’ve told anyone that they are failing at social media, find a new message. Failure is subjective and it really has no place in the Wild, Wild West. Enlighten them, don’t put them down. Offer new suggestions. And remember: Failing to see the point is not an indication of failure. Perhaps they’ve never been told about the benefits. So tell them.

After all, you are a jedi-ninja, so do your thing and welcome them to the wild, wild west.

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When you’re the only one who cares about the community

October 18, 2009 in Community management | Tags: , | 1 comment

I’ve heard that it’s lonely at the top. I know that it can also be very lonely as a community manager. We face a lot of obstacles. From serving as the lone advocate for the community, to feverishly fighting trolls in a battle that no one sees but us, this work can take you to task.

For some, the support system simply isn’t there. Managers may pay lip service to community initiatives and mention it’s importance from time-to-time, but the larger percentage don’t understand the work, what it entails and for that matter, HOW to support you.

If this is something you allow yourself to think about day in and day out, it can consume you. And depending on how well the community is delivering the results you need it to deliver, you could become apathetic, begin to hate what you do, or simply become so completely overworked that no one recognizes you. And these can all happen in the same day, in a matter of hours.

So if this is you, allow me to offer some encouragement.

Keep Caring. You have a job to do and you are passionate about the community.  The  level of care and concern you have for the community is what makes it great and will move it forward.

Spread the Word. Talk up the community to others in the company every chance you get. Share stories about what’s happening within the community. Forward comments and links to blog posts and photo galleries. Heck, go all out and create a daily round up of what’s going on and send it to key players in your organization.

Talk to other community managers. This, I can’t stress enough. We have to share these experiences and find people who understand and can relate to our issues.  Talk to me, I am always up for a quick email or chat.

Know when to walk away. When you are working around the clock 24/7, you have to check yourself.  I know this because I have been there and quite honestly, I’m not sure that I’m not still there.  You have to find a balance.  I know it’s hard when you’re doing everything on your own, but at some point you have to hang up the cape, and take that S off your chest.

I hope my words have been helpful to you. There’s definitely more where that came from. If you have any words of encouragement you’d like to share, please post them in the comments. We could all use a little help from time-to-time.

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A community’s importance in life, and death

October 21, 2009 in Community Building | Tags: | 3 comments

You may recall the first time I experienced the death of community member.  It was a lot tougher than I’d ever imagined. Actually, I’d never given it much thought, and when it happened it was pretty tough. This member was young, vibrant and very well-liked in the community and believe me…the mourning was real.

Not too long after we had another member die as well. He was on vacation at the time and the news came as a shock. He’d recently blogged about his back surgery but there were no indications that he’d been sick.

When his partner announced in a blog post that he’d died, the community was mourning once again.

But what I want to share with you is his obituary. The online community was so important to him that his loved ones felt the need to mention it in his obituary. That last piece of information characterizing his life for all to remember including his involvement in an online community.

Here are the two excerpts that mention the community specifically:

John (GoPanthers) could frequently be found in the WRAL Community Forum GOLO until sidelined by his back surgery in March 2008. John loved animals both in nature and house pets. He was the proud father of Madison, a miniature Schnauzer and two Persian cats Sophie and Zoey.

…Brenda and Wayne Griffin, Vickie Abate, Peggy Holder and the many friends of John’s (GoPanthers) at WRAL’s GOLO Community Forum, including Juli, Lolly, and Mary.

I find it amazing that three of his best friends, who were important enough to mention in his obituary were found online, in the community I launched and continue to nurture.  That speaks volumes to what communities mean to the people in them.  The next time someone asks you why communities matter, tell them this story.


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Here’s why you’re not a community manager

October 23, 2009 in Community Building | Tags: , | 11 comments

If you follow me on Twitter you know that I spent most of the day at the Social Media Business Forum. Actually I am still here. I am sitting in the second to last row at the Blogger Relations panel with Lucretia Pruitt, Ilina Ewen and Kelby Carr. It has been a really good conference so far.

I attended a session earlier today on Building and Managing an Online Community with panelists Patrick OKeefe, author of Managing Online Forums Laurie Smithwick of Kirtsy and Ryan Boyles.

During that session I commented during a question I asked that you are not a community manager until you have dealt with trolls who threaten to bomb your car. That was re-tweeted quite a bit and even called the tweet of the day, by Gregory Ng.

But the thing is, I am dead serious. My issue is the casual use of the title “community manager” that now somehow encompasses  customer service reps and anyone who monitors a brand on twitter or creates and manages a facebook fan page. Yes, you are reaching out and even communicating with the community but that is not enough.

Until you have been in the depths of this craft by nurturing and growing the community, reaching out to influencers, contributing massive amounts of content, dealing with relentless trolls and working hard to be an advocate of the community to bosses who may not necessarily understand what your work entails, I am not going to acknowledge you as a community manager.

There are many of us who take this work seriously and are put to task on a daily basis dealing with all that comes our way. And it is not pretty.

Laurie Smithwick answered my question saying that people like us need to hunker down and just do what we do and it will all  be clear in the end.

We are still in the very early days of social media and this is going to happen so I really need to just get over it. But right now, I find it annoying. I will hunker down next month.

For complete coverage of the Social Media Business Forum, search the hashtag #smbf. I also have a few photos on Flickr.

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There is some value in anonymous comments

October 29, 2009 in comments | Tags: , , | 11 comments

Before you balk at the title of this post, hear me out. I have written in the past about the cloak of anonymity worn by trolls and how it allows them to run rampant on the internet with no real accountability or repercussions for their actions. I know firsthand the issues that can and often do arise as a result. Believe me.

I’ve  been dealing with this for some time working for traditional news organizations and being directly involved with user comments. User comments on news stories can be vicious and vile.  We happen to have moderators at my current company so our comments are a bit more tame. I oversee the team of moderators charged with approving and disapproving comments in real time and they do a great job.

There is some benefit to allowing screen names. Actually there is a need for anonymity in journalism. We need people to provide tips and leak information so corruption can be exposed.

We want the person who knows the bank robber or who saw the hit and run to step forward. Anonymity has often led to justice. It has brought down corporations, resulted in putting criminals behind bars and would-be serial rapists where they belong. Whistle blowers are very important in our society and anonymity allows a certain safety needed for many people to come forward.

The university or state employee  that can post an internal document on a news  site anonymously can make a big difference and be a great service to a community.

So as much as I hate what anonymity can produce online , let’s not forget about why it is still important. You can’t always put your face behind your message and that’s okay.

Transparency is the buzzword of the moment, but not everything belongs out in the open.

Remember, Deep Throat?

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Men earn higher salaries in social media

November 2, 2009 in Community management | Tags: , , , | 4 comments

Community Manager positions like most jobs in the social media space are evolving.
There is no real consensus on what the job should pay and it seemingly varies from one company to the next.
On a recent conference call for community managers, one of my peers from the Online Community Research Network who is looking for work gave interesting details about the conversations she’s had with potential employers. After gleaning a great deal of insight from her about community management during the initial interview, many have revised their job descriptions to incorporate some of what they learned from her, yet never called her back for a second interview.

It seems that they are benefiting from her experience with a highly respected leader in online video, to craft their own positions, once she has told them what they should be looking for.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds more like a consulting role rather than that of interviewee.  But that’s not the reason for this post. I found it in poor taste and simply wanted to share.

This post is about online community and social media compensation, which is the topic of the latest research released by Forum One Communications. The 46 page document is filled with interesting information and insight into what is really happening in the space from more than 350 professionals and is worth a close look.

One finding that supports the story I just shared is this:
Several respondents mentioned feeling like they were being inadequately compensated because of lack of data available regarding community and social media salaries, as well as lack of understanding of community and social media ROI relative to their organization’s activities.

Here are a few other highlights I’d like to share from the overall summary:

  • The highest average median salary is 89K
  • The gap between the average male and female salaries widened, with male respondents averaging $86,644 (up from $85,423 in ’08) and Females averaging $75,624 (down from $77,319 in ’08).
  • The majority of respondents reported a salary increase in 2009, but the percentage compared to last year was down, as was a significant increase in the number of respondents who took a salary decrease in 2009 compared to 2008.

This is not a free report, however I would encourage you to consider purchasing if it fits your organization’s budget. For more information on the report, visit forumone.com. If you’re interested in OCRN membership, you can find details here.

 

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Thanks for building our community, bye-bye

November 3, 2009 in Community Building, Community management | Tags: , | 8 comments

I heard a bit of disturbing news today about a community manager at a local competitor.

She has been reassigned, and it was not voluntary.

It turns out that the media company feels as though she has created such a robust community that it is now self-sustainable and no longer requires her services.

That’s really a shame. I wonder what their plan of attack will be when people stop contributing or the quality of content begins to spiral, which it will.

You would think I’d revel in this this news, as this is a competitor, but I can’t do it. It’s a hit to the craft and the importance of our work. Nothing about that brings me joy.

What are your thoughts on this? We all know that building it isn’t enough. They built it and people did come. But they only stayed because someone made it worth their while.  I wonder what will happen next. Whatever it is…chances are it won’t be pretty.

I’ll keep you posted.

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If anonymity is no longer needed, let’s ditch the witness protection program

November 5, 2009 in comments | Tags: , , | 2 comments

I asked a question of the Social Media: Engage panel at Internet Summit ‘09 about 30 minutes ago and since that moment I’ve been thinking about online anonymity. People seem to hate it.

When I blogged about the upside and relevance of anonymous comments as they relate to news stories, some people balked. Jason Falls said at Social Media Business Forum last month that he wishes newspaper sites would stop allowing anonymous comments altogether. I get that. I know the drama that ensues when people hide behind the cloak of anonymity. Heck, I live it as part of my job and I don’t always like it.

But I still maintain that there is a place for it. You shouldn’t always have to be who you are just to communicate across the web, whether you’re on a social site or otherwise.And not everyone has awful intentions. So, I am going to take this to the extreme.

If anonymity is no longer needed in society, let’s just get rid of the Witness Protection Program.

Let the people who snitch on the mafia boss and turn in the mass murderer come forward publicly and deal with the consequences that may come their way because they decided to speak up. It’s all about transparency and openness right? That’s what everyone is saying. Be who you are. Show your face. Is this a fair comparison? Maybe not, but I think you can better see what I mean by bringing it to that level.

The statement I made during my question of the panelists was that people are trying very hard to separate their personal lives from their professional lives in the social space, and even though that is probably impossible, they shouldn’t have to share their identity with everyone who visits your site just to interact with your content. That is how I feel about it. Alex Withers, head of Digital Media at the US Golf Association Association agreed. He discussed other options for registration on their site that do not reuire revealing your true self, as did Jennifer Sargent, CEO and Co-Founder of Hitfix. Withers had stated earlier that you should not create your own database of anonymous people, particularly when you can use Facebook Connect, something they didn’t do when placing a live chat window next to a live video stream of the U.S. Open. He went on to say that the content in that chat was not something they wanted on the site so they killed it. That was what they had to do. I’m sure it was ugly. But maybe it would have been better if it were moderated.  I know, I know you need resources to do that and not everyone wants to hire people to do that….

I also know this is a topic that many people disagree with me on, but we can’t agree on everything.

Forcing people to share themselves with your audience may keep them away. So let’s keep that in mind. Perhaps the strategy to focus on if you take this route is engaging lurkers, because I think you’ll have many of them. May as well figure out how to keep them.

 

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An interview with the Chief Operating Officer of Ning

November 8, 2009 in Community Building, Community platforms | Tags: , , | 3 comments

I recently interviewed Ning’s Chief Operating Officer Jason Rosenthal  for an article that will appear in the January issue of EContent Magazine. (It will also be on their website and I will be sure to share the link.) Only portions of the interview will be used in the article, so I’ve decided to share the complete interview with you.

1.      How many Ning sites are there currently?

More than 1.6 million Ning Networks have been created on the Ning Platform and we currently have more than 36 million registered users.

2.      How would you characterize your growth since launch?

The Ning Platform has increased in size by more than 300 percent in the number of Ning Networks created, registered users and active Ning Networks in the past year.  We see approximately 5,000 new Ning Networks being created every day and we are adding about one million registered users every 12 days.

3.      Does Ning have any plans to offer more analytics as companies look more towards specific measurements to gauge the effectiveness of their communities?

We are committed to arming our Network Creators with the tools to make their Ning Network as successful as possible. We currently offer Ning Network Creators a variety of management features to optimize the effectiveness of their Ning Network. This includes the ability to edit the layout of their Ning Network, bring in features unique to their needs, and manage the invitation flow. We also give our Network Creators the ability to easily integrate Google Analytics into their Ning Network.

In addition, for those running Virtual Gifts on their Ning Network, we offer a rich set of analytics tools to measure and quantify gift transactions and frequency.

4.      What are some of the most successful communities using the NING platform?

Success on Ning comes in all forms depending on the goals of the Network Creator and the interests of their members. Some examples include:

The Twilight Saga – A Ning Network for fans of the Twilight book series with over 200,000 members

- Brooklyn Art Project – A Ning Network for fans of Brooklyn artists  with over 6,500 members

- GovLoop – a Ning Network for over 20,000 government employees and contractors at the federal, state, and local level

- IPL Nation – a Ning Network for over 700,000 fans of the Indian Premier Cricket League

-The Pickens Plan – a 200,000+ person strong Ning Network for grassroots organizing of T. Boone Pickens’ “wind energy army.”

5.      What are your short and long-term plans for the future of NING?

Ning’s vision is to enable everyone to live the most interesting and vibrant life possible by giving people a platform where they can join and create Ning Networks around interests and passions. We also want Ning to be a service that provides people with a way to become more and more unique through membership in a wide array of Ning Networks and express that uniqueness to the world. With this in mind, we want the Ning Platform to grow with people as their interests, passions and friendships evolve in ways that we can’t even imagine today.
We focus every day on adding more value for our Ning Network Creators and their members. We recently launched two new products, Ning Apps and Ning Virtual Gifts, which we will continue to expand upon. We will also have more to announce in the coming months – stay tuned!

6.      Do you find that many communities become dormant shortly after launch? If so, why?

We see a lot of experimenting on Ning, as well as Ning Networks created for timely topics, which leads to some Ning Networks becoming inactive, or having activity spikes at certain times of the year. This experimentation is natural in the area of social creation and technologies. However, many of our Ning Networks only increase in growth due to the way that we’ve built the invitation flow and other features inherent in the Ning Platform.

7.      What are your thoughts on what it takes to run a successful Ning community and how are you working to spread that knowledge to your users?

The Ning Help Center and the Ning Blog are great resources for Network Creators looking for ideas on how to maximize all the options and features Ning has to offer.


(Author’s note: I’ve also interviewed a slew of community managers currently using Ning and will publish their thoughts on it’s beneifits and shortcomings in the next few weeks.)

 

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Let the community interview you

November 10, 2009 in Community management | Tags: | 2 comments

On several occasions I’ve shared with you one of the most popular franchises I created and continue to produce in my online community. What I do is interview members over the phone and then transcribe the conversation into a blog post. People love it.

Well, one day last year, members of the community were asked to turn the tables on me by a co-worker and they submitted their questions they’d like to have me answer. I answered them all and again, the community loved it.

I just realized that I never shared that with you and I think it is something you may want to consider in the future. Sharing a bit more of yourself with the community always makes it easier for them to share more of themselves.  If you’re interested in the 47 comments posted, here is the original interview.  But I’m also posting the entire interview below. Warning: Some of the screen names are a bit wild.  Enjoy!

 

Well, since you decided to go behind my back with the help of  web editor, Kelly H. with a sneak attack and force me to do my own profile, I suppose I had no choice but to succumb. And since it would be a bit odd to introduce myself in the third person, I won’t.  So, without further adieu, here are the answers to some of your questions. Enjoy!

Bosoxbaby: How in the world do you put up with some of the attitudes on here day in and day out?

Angela: I really don’t know. I guess I have a high tolerance for “crazy.”

 

Meh_whatever: I’d like to hear more about Angela’s history prior to coming to GOLO. What sort of jobs she’s held, etc.

Angela: I’ve worked in newsrooms my entire career. I started out in Cleveland, Ohio where I was an assignment editor at the CBS turned Fox station and Planning Editor at the NBC affiliate. I then moved to Tampa and worked at WFLA as an assignment manager. After that I worked at WPTV in West Palm Beach and then moved to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel where I was a broadcast producer and ultimately managed all of our media partnerships and served as multimedia editor.

 

Prayergirl: Do you read ALL of the blog posts everyday?

Angela: I could never get through them all but I do read a great deal. I suppose there are days when I read about 90% of them though.  It really depends on my workload, what other projects I’m working on and how much administrative stuff I have to deal with.  Contrary to popular belief, I don’t sit on the GOLO homepage all day waiting for the latest posts. I will look at something if a person points it out though. And I do have to read those that are reported as abuse.

 

Mythoughts22: When you read racial comments does it bother you?

Angela: What bothers me most about those types of comments is the fact that the person behind the comment is probably raising children. I mastered the art of not caring much about what others say about me a long time ago. Particularly when I know it’s not true.

 

Beauty Comes from within: Did you know this was what you wanted to be when you grew up?

Angela: I knew I wanted to be a journalist. I love to write and research and I can never ask enough questions.  There was an anchorwoman in Detroit, where I grew up whom I admired a great deal. I thought she seemed so smart and I wanted to be like her. She’s still on the air.

 

Kewlmom: What is your criteria for screening comments? Do you try to keep people from being offended, or do you simply look for cursing/public attacks?

Angela: I try to be fair and adhere to our guidelines. But oftentimes I do it based on what my gut tells me.  I know that many will beg to differ, but it’s tough.

 

BlaBlah: How do you keep sane, Angela?

Angela: Why do you think I’m sane?

 

Rocknhorse: OK, here’s my question: We know by your comments and the job you do here that you are very dedicated to both your family and your job. But sometimes everyone needs those “ME” moments. What do you do for yourself that keeps you grounded and at peace?

Angela: I enjoy bubble baths and I love to read. Put the two together and I’m good for at least a day.

 

Historians_13th: Tell us about the report you wrote on Ella Fitzgerald in the fourth grade, and what it  meant to you then and now?

Angela: I don’t remember the details 100%, but listening to my grandfather talk about her and mimic  her singing and dancing was quite the treat.

 

Sue Donym: If you could have dinner with any famous person past or present, whom would you choose and why?

Angela: Past: Harriet Tubman. I’d like to understand that kind of determination and perseverance. Also (and this might sound a little crazy) Adolf Hitler. I once interviewed three Holocaust survivors for a story I was producing and the way they recounted their experiences has stuck with me since. If I could talk with him in a controlled environment where it was impossible for him to kill me, I’d like to get to the root of all of that hate. Present: Oprah Winfrey and Tom Brokaw. Oh, and maybe Alice Walker. Love The Color Purple. Okay, one more…George Washington Carver. I’d like to know how the heck he got so involved with the peanut.

 

Deer Slayer: Do you like venison?

Angela: I’ve never had it. Does it taste like chicken?

 

Squirrelingdervish: If the Mothership flew down and picked up one Golo’er and took them off forever, who would you pick?

Angela: It already came and got him.  But a few more trips would be welcome.

 

Godbless: When you started this, did you have any idea it would be as successful as it is? Or were you thinking this was temporary?

Angela: I really didn’t know what to expect. I’m pleased, but I’d like to see it grow exponentially. I keep a notepad in my passenger’s seat because I’m always flooded with ideas. My mind runs a mile a minute.

Full_Decker: What are some features that you feel would benefit GOLO even more?

Angela: It’s not so much the features. Those are easy. More members. More distinct voices. Active participation from the majority of the members. I’d like to see GOLO filled with invaluable content.

 

GoldenLvr: I would like to know what job you would like to move up to in the WRAL family after you finally go insane babysitting all us Golo’ers. By the way, Kelly is a cutie!
Angela: I’m not sure where my career will lead me. Hopefully to some amazing job that doesn’t yet exist.  Oh, and I’ll be sure to let her parents know you think they did a good job.
Sweet Rose: I’d like to know more about her growing up … where she was from … how she came to be in NC … how does she like the area.

Angela: I’m from Detroit. Most of my family is still there. I left for college at 17 and never went back there to live. I visit often. I enjoy NC so far, but I’m still learning. The verdict is still out on whether or not this is home for good. I don’t think I’ve lived here long enough to make that assessment.

 

Sue Donym: What advice will you give your daughters when they get old enough to start playing on sites such as golo?

Angela: Be smart, and use common sense.

 

Tarheel Army Mom: What kind of meds do you have to take to manage GOLO? :D

Angela: I believe that’s classified information.

 

Sue Donym: It is clear that your work entails MUCH more than simply moderating golo comments. What are some of the other responsibilities you have as part of your job?

Angela: Well, I am responsible for all things GOLO and all things generated by our users for GOLO and WRAL.com.  I also hire, train and supervise the moderators. I interact with users a great deal so a large part of my responsibility is communicating with people. I manage the Pet Page on WRAL.com and make decisions about a lot of other projects. I am called on to incorporate community into our products.  There’s so much more…but I’ll stop there.

 

Rabid_Wolf_3: When I talked to you at the outing, you told me that your lawyer got you off of a triple murder charge after you spent 12 years in a maximum security prison, on a technicality! Can I have that lawyers name?
I really can’t believe they called you ‘Cell Block Momma A’ either . . .
Did you really make the warden cry?
I know, I know . . . rabid_wolf_4 . . .

Angela: Go talk to Tarheel Army Mom about getting some meds. You need them more than I do.

 

Nauticagirl501: How many children do you have?

Angela: Two girls. And they are fabulous!

 

Patty002: Angela, why do some of the blogs get through with offensive words and some don’t?

Angela: I can’t see everything. That’s the answer.

 

Iluvwilmy: How much does WRAL pay you? I would love to be a co-editor of Golo. Golo as a job? How awesome would that be?!

Angela: There are two things you never ask a person. When the baby is due, and how much money they make. Remember that.

 

Chill0913: Angela, if you and rabid_wolf? were driving in a car having a debate and he wanted to get out, whould you A: slow down and pull over, ask him to calm down, close door and continue your route. or B: Pull over slow down some when he opens the door shove his behind out and proceed on with your business?
LOL…Personally, I’m prone for option B. LOL

Angela: I would be hesitant to get in a car with him.

 

Con Amor: Angela… Does anyone in your family GOLO? …. Do you ever GOLO under a different profile? …. Do you secretly enjoy looking at the juicey hott hunk blogs that I post before they get pulled for being too hott?(hahahahahahahaha!)

Angela: No. I would never go incognito. My ethics won’t allow. No family members on GOLO. I plead the 5th on the hunks question.

 

NCMomof3: Angela, I think you do an awesome job referring, mediating, and just plain babysitting us characters on GOLO. Are there times where you have to sit back, take a deep breath, count to 10, then go outside and scream anyway?

Angela: Yes.

 

Made in USA: Angela… What part of your job gives you the most satisfaction and what part of your job do you dislike the most?

Angela: Making a difference is extremely satisfying to me. If I tell you what I dislike the most, I will be exposed and vulnerable. I don’t want to be either.

 

Steve Crisp: How much does Canada weigh?

Angela: I thought you knew everything. That’s what your profile says.

 

Javajoe: To our dearest, most tolerant Mother-of-GOLO, Angela — what’s your biggest, worst, skin-crawlingest, nerve-splittingest pet peeve?

Angela: The sight of chewed gum. YUCK! And please, NEVER read over my shoulder.

 

Halyard: If you only had ONE chance, what person, living or dead, would you like to sit down and have a one-on-one conversation with?

Angela: My father. He died when I was 16. I’d love another chance to talk to him.

 

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An interview with Fraser Kelton of GetGlue

November 12, 2009 in Community Building, Interviews | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Have you heard of GetGlue? It’s another sharing community that allows you to keep your friends in the loop on what you’re reading, listening to and other things you find interesting across the web. Glue shows you items that you’ll like based on your tastes, what your friends like and what’s popular with everyone else.

I caught up with Fraser Kelton, VP of Business Development to learn a little bit more about Glue:

 

Who is AdaptiveBlue and what is Glue?

AdaptiveBlue is a young NYC-based company that was founded by Alex Iskold. Our mission is to create a better browsing experience for individuals on the web. We’ve created a product that connects you to friends around the things you like on popular sites around the web.

 

What was your motivation for creating GetGlue, and what needs were you originally trying to meet?

The motivation for Glue was that the current web required too much work from people to get valuable information when looking at books, movies and music online. Currently, if you’re interested in books and you’d like to know what your friends are reading and what they think of a specific book you have to do a lot of work – you have to either send them an email, contact them via IM, or dig into their profile on a social network. None of this is easy work. Glue works hard to make it easy to find out what your friends think of the books that you visit on the web. When you visit a book on Powell’s (for example) Glue appears automatically to show you friends who visited the same book on any popular book site around the web. You can see who visited it, read their review, and then access smart shortcuts to interact with the book in deeper ways.

 

What made you decide to move forward after realizing it was a good idea?

Alex drives the vision for the company and the team is filled with stellar people who can help realize the idea. What has been awesome is that the community on Glue has really started to gel so we can get a lot of feedback and insight on changes to make to the product, features to add, and functionality that people would like to see.

 

When I joined GetGlue during the Tweetchat with you and Phylis Zimbler Miller several months ago, I noticed the ability to connect with my Facebook and twitter friends. Do you plan to add any other social networking sites?

Not right now. We think that between Facebook and Twitter we have most of your friend relationships covered and adding more sites would introduce additional complexity with minimal benefit. We do, however, allow you to claim a number of different social networking sites on the web – you can claim your Blog, LinkedIn, Last.fm, MySpace, and other online profiles.

How do you convince those who are on the fence or don’t really see how GetGlue will fit into their lives to give it a try?

We rely on the strength and passion of our user community to help spread their love to Glue. You can read some of the incredible testimonials on our website, on our blog or by doing a Twitter Search.

One of my favorite features is the 140 character reviews which you call “2 Cents” and the ability to interact with others via private messaging. What other features are you working on?

We’re really trying to keep Glue focused on a small set of valuable features. Glue-rs love the ability to add a short 2cent comment to a book and have it appear on all of the popular book sites. Another great feature is the ability to look at all of the books that your friends like. Probably the newest, most popular feature is the ability to see what’s most popular with your friends. You can go to a screen called Glue For You and see the most popular books with your friends.

You’re clearly building community here, or helping others do it. What are your thoughts on online communities overall, and how to make them effective and successful?

The best way to grow a community is to be authentic and genuine and take a sincere interest in each individual who contributes to the community. We pride ourselves on openness and excellent customer service. We actively engage with our passionate users and solicit them for product feedback. Part of being sincere and genuine is to only ask them for input when it matters – that is, be willing to execute on the feedback that’s provided. In the most recent release there are a dozen features that were suggested directly from people within the Glue community. Another way to encourage a healthy community is to appropriately thank those who provide so much. We’ve recently created shirts for a select few as a way to say thanks. We call them Super Glue-rs :)

What are your plans for the next 6 months? How about the next 2-5 years?

We’re going to continue to deliver an excellent product that people love and provide improvements to Glue.

Since I have you, in what communities are you active, mainstream and not-so-mainstream?

I used to be very active in a music community on IRC but I’m now predominantly active on Glue (it’s important to eat your own dog food) and Twitter.

And one final opportunity to toot your own horn:

Toot toot!

 

Who is AdaptiveBlue and what is Glue?

AdaptiveBlue is a young NYC-based company that was founded by Alex Iskold. Our mission is to create a better browsing experience for individuals on the web. We’ve created a product, Glue [link: www.getglue.com], that connects you to friends around the things you like on popular sites around the web.

What was your motivation for creating GetGlue, and what needs were you originally trying to meet?

The motivation for Glue was that the current web required too much work from people to get valuable information when looking at books, movies and music online. Currently, if you’re interested in books and you’d like to know what your friends are reading and what they think of a specific book you have to do a lot of work – you have to either send them an email, contact them via IM, or dig into their profile on a social network. None of this is easy work. Glue works hard to make it easy to find out what your friends think of the books that you visit on the web. When you visit a book on Powells (for example) Glue appears automatically to show you friends who visited the same book on any popular book site around the web. You can see who visited it, read their review, and then access smart shortcuts to interact with the book in deeper ways.

What made you decide to move forward after realizing it was a good idea?

Alex drives the vision for the company and the team is filled with stellar people who can help realize the idea. What has been awesome is that the community on Glue has really started to gel so we can get a lot of feedback and insight on changes to make to the product, features to add, and functionality that people would like to see.

When I joined GetGlue during the tweetchat with you and Phylis Zimbler Miller, I noticed the ability to connect with my Facebook and twitter friends. Do you plan to add any other social networking sites?

Not right now. We think that between Facebook and Twitter we have most of your friend relationships covered and adding more sites would introduce additional complexity with minimal benefit. We do, however, allow you to claim a number of different social networking sites on the web – you can claim your Blog, LinkedIn, Last.fm, MySpace, and other online profiles.

How do you convince those who are on the fence or don’t really see how GetGlue will fit into their lives to give it a try?

We rely on the strength and passion of our user community to help spread their love to Glue. You can read some of the incredible testimonials on our website [www.getglue.com], on our blog [http://blog.adaptiveblue.com/?p=1552] or by doing a Twitter Search [http://search.twitter.com/search?q=getglue]

One of my favorite features is the 140 character reviews which you call “2 Cents” and the ability to interact with others via private messaging. What other features are you working on?

We’re really trying to keep Glue focused on a small set of valuable features. Glue-rs love the ability to add a short 2cent comment to a book and have it appear on all of the popular book sites. Another great feature is the ability to look at all of the books that your friends like. Probably the newest, most popular feature is the ability to see what’s most popular with your friends. You can go to a screen called Glue For You and see the most popular books with your friends.

You’re clearly building community here, or helping others do it. What are your thoughts on online communities overall, and how to make them effective and successful?

The best way to grow a community is to be authentic and genuine and take a sincere interest in each individual who contributes to the community. We pride ourselves on openness and excellent customer service. We actively engage with our passionate users and solicit them for product feedback. Part of being sincere and genuine is to only ask them for input when it matters – that is, be willing to execute on the feedback that’s provided. In the most recent release there are a dozen features that were suggested directly from people within the Glue community. Another way to encourage a healthy community is to appropriately thank those who provide so much. We’ve recently created shirts for a select few as a way to say thanks. We call them Super Glue-rs :) http://bit.ly/SuperGluer

What are your plans for the next 6 months? How about the next 2-5 years?

We’re going to continue to deliver an excellent product that people love and provide improvements to Glue.

Since I have you, in what communities are you active, mainstream and not-so-mainstream?

I used to be very active in a music community on IRC but I’m now predominantly active on Glue (it’s important to eat your own dog food) and Twitter.

And one final opportunity to toot your own horn: Toot toot!

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Focus on the good when the going gets tough

November 13, 2009 in Community management | Tags: , | Leave a comment

I received this note from a member of my community today and it came at a great time for me because I have been feeling the weight of community management on my shoulders for a while now.  I am sharing it because these are the types of comments we have to relish. We need them to get us through the tough times. So when you get one, hold on to it and read it on the days when you feel as though you’ve reached the end of your rope. Here it is:

Hey Angela, Just wanted to let you know that through the efforts of GOLO I was able to send my son, 82nd Airborne, Afghanistan, 100 packs of beef jerky. He said it was hard to find over there. I mentioned it in a blog and it snowballed into a ground swell of donations, thanks to Sandra, Lolly, and Gingerleigh, as well as other GOLOers that donated. Gingerleigh used her military credentials to buy the jerky at Fort Bragg. She’s so awesome. Zack said he would hide his stash and hand it out at church this Sunday. But anyhow I just wanted you to know that GOLO is doing good things, so don’t get discouraged by the trolls. We love you!

It’s nice to know that the members of your community care about one another and their actions underscore that sentiment. I can’t tell you how much I needed that today.

The next time you get one of these, please share it with me.

 

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Opting-out in 2010

December 14, 2009 in social networking | Tags: , , | 1 comment

Here’s something you can do to jump start your year, clear out your inbox and make better use of your time in the social space next year.

Start opting-out.

Take a few minutes to assess every piece of email you receive that comes from someone who promised to teach you how to become an internet marketing genius, double your number of Facebook fans, guarantee that you’ll get 15 retweets per day by following 8 simple rules or any other claim that simply did not deliver.

You’ve waited and waited for that one email that would give you the idea of a lifetime but it didn’t come. It probably isn’t coming. Perhaps you’ve received one valuable e-mail blast and the other 11 were crap. Why continue to reward this person with a personal invitation into your world? They wanted your email address for their own gain, not yours.  You gave them a chance and they didn’t meet your needs, so let them go. This is YOUR time we’re talking about here.

After my book was published earlier this year, I opted in to all kinds of emails from experts who knew how to get me super publicity. I dialed in to a few teleseminars and even participated in a webinar or two. It was all junk. Regurgitated junk and empty promises, week after week.  There was one gem though. A woman who offers great practical advice on book marketing. I was so impressed with her that I paid for one of her information products on how to get your book in libraries.  It cost $19 and I am happy to say that after following her advice to the letter, I did get my book in a few libraries and learned how to navigate the bureaucracy. That was worth it,

But back to the topic at hand….

Opt-out of communities that have turned into ghost-towns. If there is no community manager there contributing content, why should you? Stop subscribing to daily roundups of all 30 LinkedIn Groups you belong to. Choose the most relevant. Or at least make some weekly instead of daily. You’ve seen most of those article posts on Twitter anyway.

Close your twitter client sometimes. Yes they are time-savers, lifesavers and provide us with the elixir of connectedness, but taking a break is a good thing. If you’re monitoring brands as part of your job, I understand that this may not be possible, but try to remove yourself every once in a while.

If you don’t use Plaxo or any other number of seemingly dead-in-the-water social networks, close your account or at least stop the emails from flooding your box. Check your email settings on Facebook and stop the floodgate if it’s pulling you away from your daily work routine.

Don’t say yes to every social media related invitation. Look for value. If you don’t value your own time, how will others?

I know that much of this may seem anti-social but if you’ve been deep in the trenches for a while, you have some idea where you can make cuts.

Make 2010 the year you work smarter.  And stop trying to keep up with the geeks.

Poll: Teens expect access to social networks at work

December 10, 2009 in social networking, teens and tweens | Tags: , | 2 comments

A new survey conducted by Junior Achievement and Deloitte finds that teens fully expect to access social networking sites on-the-job. Will they get a rude awakening, or will this be the status quo by the time they enter the workforce?

I think we have yet to determine the answer to this one, and it will likely depend on what happens in the next few years. Employers need to realize that policies will have to be created and they need to really figure out their stance sooner than later. I’ve been an advocate of social media guidelines, and those who haven’t may be after reading the results of this poll.

I’ve included the entire press release for your reading pleasure:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ — Online social networks have become so central to teens’ lifestyles that they would consider their ability to access them during working hours when weighing a job offer. This is according to the seventh annual Junior Achievement/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey, which focused on the ethical implications of the popularity of social networking.

Nearly nine-in-10 (88 percent) teens surveyed use social networks every day, with 70 percent saying they participate in social networking an hour or more daily. More than half (58 percent) said they would consider their ability to access social networks at work when considering a job offer from a potential employer. This comes as many organizations have begun implementing policies that limit access to social networks during the workday due to concerns about unethical usages, such as time theft, spreading rumors about co-workers or managers and leaking proprietary information, among other reasons.

Most of the teens surveyed feel prepared to make ethical decisions at work (82 percent) and a significant majority of teens say they do not behave unethically while using social networks (83 percent). Yet, despite this confidence in the integrity of their online behavior, significant numbers of teens do not consider the reactions of specific groups of influencers in their lives when posting content on social networks. Specifically, 40 percent do not consider the potential reactions of college admissions officers, 38 percent do not consider the reactions of present or future employers, and 30 percent do not consider their parents’ reactions. Moreover, 16 percent readily admitted to behavior that included posting content embarrassing to others, spreading rumors and pretending to be someone other than themselves. Ultimately, more than half of those who did admit to posting this type of content about others (54 percent) said they later regretted doing so.

The data have heightened meaning in light of the findings of another Ethics & Workplace Survey, also conducted recently by Deloitte. The survey showed that more than a third of adult respondents also rarely, if ever, consider what their bosses, colleagues or clients would think when they post comments, photos or videos online.

“The contemplation of how one’s actions will be received by others is a hallmark of emotional and ethical maturity,” said Professor David W. Miller, ethicist and director of the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative. “A lack of consideration of how one’s behavior will impact others suggests that teens need to be more mindful of the ramifications of their actions. If this lack of reflection continues into adulthood, it’s a signal to employers that the workplace implications could be considerable. Even though teens may have a higher threshold than adults for what constitutes an ‘embarrassing’ posting, these future employees need to understand that behavior deemed appropriate in one’s personal life may not be acceptable or even ethical in one’s professional life.”

To provide teens with ethics education and decision-making tools, Junior Achievement and Deloitte have collaborated to create JA Business Ethics, an in-classroom ethics program for high school students, and on Excellence through Ethics, a series of free, downloadable ethics lessons for students in grades 4-12 available at www.ja.org/ethics.

Ainar D. Aijala, global managing partner, Consulting, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and immediate past chairman of JA Worldwide, added: “From an employer’s perspective, it’s clear that organizations need enhanced training and communication relative to social networking. This is particularly the case when more than half of the future talent pool feels so strongly about social networking, that their ability to access those sites at work would play into their decision to take a job. Teens who will soon be entering the workforce must understand the value of their ‘personal brand,’ that their online postings live in perpetuity, and also need ethical decision-making tools to help them understand the importance of behaving with integrity on- and offline.”

The Junior Achievement/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey also revealed some positive findings. Many teens are harnessing social networking platforms to promote causes of importance to them or to help others. Specifically, slightly more than half (51 percent) of teens surveyed had used social networking sites to help others, and nearly as many (44 percent) had used social networks to encourage or support others. Nearly three-in-10 (29 percent) had used social networks to create awareness for a cause.

Jack Kosakowski, president, Junior Achievement USA, noted, “It’s encouraging to see teens leveraging the power of social networking to promote good causes. Yet the results of our survey indicate that teens need to continue to build on this foundation as the need is very real for more ethics education and decision-making tools to help them understand the ramifications of their online behavior. The Junior Achievement/Deloitte curricula can help students be better ethically prepared to enter the workforce so that they’re adding value in the workplace.”

  Additional resource: Deloitte Ethics & Workplace Survey

  Methodology:

The 2009 Junior Achievement/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation the week of September 21, 2009. A total of 1,000 U.S. teens ages 12-17 were surveyed by telephone; the survey’s margin of error is +/- 3.2 percent.

About Junior Achievement® (JA)

Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy. Through a dedicated volunteer network, Junior Achievement provides in-school and after-school programs for students which focus on three key content areas: work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. Today, 129 individual area operations reach more than four million students in the United States, with an additional 5.7 million students served by operations in 121 other countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.ja.org.

About Deloitte

As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte LLP and Deloitte Services LP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries.

Source: Deloitte

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A study of 600,000 Facebook fan pages

December 9, 2009 in Community management, facebook | Tags: , | 1 comment

In one of the first large-scale studies of Facebook pages ever conducted, Toronto-based  Sysomos analyzed and investigated usage patterns in nearly 600,000.

The results include information on various aspects including popularity, amount of content posted, number of fans and categories. This is a study of interest if you manage Facebook Fan pages or plan to create one.

Here are a few highlights from the analysis:

  • On average, a Facebook Page has 4,596 fans.
  • Four percent of pages have more than 10,000 fans, 0.76% of pages have more than 100,000 fans, and 0.05% of pages (or 297 in total) have more than a million fans.
  • Pages with more than one million fans have nearly three times as much owner-generated content as the average Facebook page. (Where “owner-generated content” means things like photos, videos, and links posted by the page’s administrators.)
  • Pages with more than one million fans have nearly 60 times as much fan-generated content (photos, videos) as the average Facebook page.
  • On an average Facebook Page, the administrators create one wall post every 15.7 days. Among pages with more than one million fans, one wall post is created for every 16.1 days. This suggests that wall post frequency does not correlate with a page’s popularity.
  • Overall, the most popular “category” for Facebook pages is “non-profits”, while “celebrities”, “music”, and “products” are the most popular categories among pages with more than one million fans.

There is much more to this study and you can find it all here.

The point I’d like to make here is that major engagement on a Facebook fan page like any other community takes a lot of work and often times the administrator (community manager) is charged with creating the bulk of the content. Facebook may be biggest, baddest,  go-to-social network on the planet with it’s 350 million members, but don’t let that number fool you. They’re not knocking down doors to fan your page.

It still takes a lot of work to find success.

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Engaging the Audience: A Presentation by Angela Connor

December 4, 2009 in Community Engagement | Tags: , , | 2 comments

It is with a bit of trepidation that I post this presentation for what may or may not be your viewing pleasure.

It’s the presentation I gave at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism a few days ago.  I have not viewed it in it’s entirety because if I do, I’ll never post it. You know we are most critical of ourselves and I have to admit,  I could use some work in the speaking department.

So here you go. This is a message I delivered to a group of reporters, editors and bloggers, on December 2, 2009. I hope you get something out of it.

Here’s the Link to Engaging the Audience, by Angela Connor

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Social media strategists to watch in 2010

November 20, 2009 in social media | Tags: , | 1 comment

I received a nice surprise yesterday upon learning that I was listed among 451 Marketing’s top social media strategists to watch in 2010.  I don’t  look for such accolades, I just do my own thing…but it does feel nice.

So this is my public word of thanks to those who read this blog, follow me on twitter and elsewhere, send me emails asking for advice and insight, challenge my thoughts and share my work with their peers.

It is always my goal to inform, sometimes persuade, rarely convince but always provoke thought.

Here is the list. There are some really smart people on that list and I am just honored to be there.  Oh, there’s also a twitter list of everyone included on the list, here.

It was compiled by the very smart, Tom Humbarger. He should be on your radar.

 

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