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It’s been a full year since my book, “18 Rules of Community Engagement,” was published and I feel like sharing my excitement here on the blog that inspired it. I didn’t write the book to get rich (well, that wasn’t going to happen even if it was my purpose) but to put something out there that community managers could relate to and that could help them with their day-to-day struggles as they tried to master a domain that had not yet been mastered at all.
The three years I spent launching and growing the GOLO community were probably the most exciting, exhilarating, yet draining and insane years of my career. It was a real emotional roller coaster and I honestly felt like I had very few places to turn when I was most frustrated.
But the point of this post is to share this milestone and also thank everyone who provided testimonials for the book and those who reviewed it early on. Many thanks to Peter Shankman for the wonderful Foreword and Mitchell Levy, the publisher who believed in my idea.
And to those who posted the following reviews, again…many thanks.
- Wise Words from Community Expert, Angela Connor| FreshNetworks
- Book Review: Angela Connor’s “18 Rules of Community Engagement” by Justin Fenwick
- Book Review by Jill Biddington of Sydney, Australia
- Recommendation & Review: TheNextWeb.com
- Angela Connor’s 18 Rules of Community Engagement | eModeration
- Book Review | Ray Gulick of Evo Bloggito
- Book Review | Martin Reed of CommunitySpark.com
- GoodReads Review, by Adeline Amar
- Book Review | Jeremy Lindh’s Interweb Adventures
- Book Review | WiserEarth Blog
- Lessons in Community Building Love | Alchemy United
- Four Books Worth Reading | Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer
- A Valuable Guide for Anyone Interested in Developing Successful Online Connections | Sandra Carrington-Smith, Author
- Common Sense Approach to Online Community Building | Michael Drabenstott of Spark.com
- Midwest Book Review
- 2 Great Books on Online Communities | Online Journalism Blog
- A Must-Have | Richard Kendall of Peterbrorugh, UK
- 10 Book Recommendations from Varied Fields | the eLearning coach
Also, I’m giving away free copies to the first three people who let me know in the comments area that they’d like one.
Thanks again to everyone who reads this blog. Your support has meant more to me than you will ever know.
Angela
Have you heard about Facebook’s newest blow to Fan page administrators?
It basically punishes those with fewer than 10,000 fans, keeping them from sending users to customized tab pages which they may have been using for a promotion of some sort or a specific call-to-action, making the Wall or Info tabs the only options.
Okay, punish may be a strong word, because they can BUY ads that send people directly to these custom pages, but it still seems like the little guy is getting it good with this latest move.
I absolutely understand that this is Facebook’s platform and they can do with it what they very well please. But changing the game midway never seems fair, and they’ve been doing it a lot lately.
So, unless you have 10,000 fans you cannot send them to your own customized landing tab as your default page. So much for using creative methods for growing your fan base without paying for it through ads.
Simply put, I think this is quite lame. Not only is it lame, it’s a kick in the teeth to those who are working hard not only for themselves and their own brands but for Facebook as well. They’re advertising these pages all over the place, sending people to Facebook.
Here is the blurb that was posted on the Facebook developers forum yesterday, which I found on All Facebook (I’d encourage you to go over and read some of the 83 comments):
Hello all,
We apologize for not messaging this earlier. Facebook recently made a change requiring that Pages be authenticated before enabling the ability to set a landing tab beyond Wall or Info.
To be eligible for authentication, a Page must have greater than 10k fans or the Page admin must work with their ads account manager. If you are already working with an account representative, please contact that representative to begin the authentication process. If you do not work with an account representative, you can use this contact form to inquire about working with an account representative.
Also, for advertisers who don’t have a representative or 10k fans, and want to run ads and land users on a specific tab, you can still do so with standard Facebook ads by making their Destination URL as the URL incl. your tab. Unfortunately, this currently will not work with “Fan” ads.
Thanks,
Matt Trainer
I think this will make it much harder to attract new fans. But it also says a lot about building your community in a space other than your own. I know it can be expensive and with everyone throwing around the stat about Facebook being the fourth largest country in the world, were it indeed a country, it’s hard not to gravitate that way.
However, putting all of your eggs in the Facebook Fan Page basket may not be the best thing to do, unless of course you can round-up 10,000 fans.
Creating contests using social media oftentimes seems like the easy way out. Yes, contests are low-hanging fruit in many cases, but thoughtful contests that incorporate a great deal of engagement can make lasting impressions, cultivate brand ambassadors and benefit everyone who gets involved.
I just read about a new contest being launched by Boar’s Head that will seemingly do all of the above. It’s more than a ‘create a recipe with our product and you could win’ contest. It goes a bit further, requiring participants to use EverRoast as a main ingredient, name their creation, and upload a photo of the completed dish to Facebook.
That’s right, they actually have to cook it.
The contest, aptly named ‘EverRoast Dare 2 Prepare’ sounds like a winner. I plan to bookmark the page myself and visit regularly in search of some great new recipes for the summer.
They’re encouraging participation by rewarding the first 150 entrants with a limited edition chef’s apron, making it possible for more than just the finalists and subsequent chosen one to emerge as winners.
I hope to see more of these multi-faceted community-building contests. Anyone can launch a contest, but not everyone can get it right and build positive buzz along the way.
Full press release…
I’m heading to LA tomorrow, to speak to the winners of the 2010 Knight Community Information Challenge during their three-day boot camp at USC Annenberg.
I’ve sat down several times to craft my presentation over the last two weeks, but every time I get started, it just doesn’t feel strong enough. I end up jotting down notes and ideas but never commit to anything concrete.
At first I thought it was about me being a perfectionist,which does happen from time to time, but I know that’s not it. It’s much more than that.
This group isn’t simply thinking about community projects or looking to learn enough to convince the leaders of their organizations that they should invest in online communities. They’ve got the funding to do it and they’re going to do it, so my words can have real impact on the grantees and their projects, and I don’t take that lightly.
It’s an amazing opportunity for me and I am deeply honored to have been invited. But on some level, I’m feeling the pressure because of it. It’s not the kind of pressure that makes you cave, but the kind that makes you want to give 110%.
I’ve read the project summaries at least three times each because I want to understand the mission of each and give the best advice I possibly can. All are part of a growing movement to help fund local news and information projects and ensure that residents are informed and engaged.
If you’re a regular reader, you know my thoughts on what it takes to effectively engage communities. Not to mention the fact that you have to get them there first.
I have to tell them that. They need to know that their job will be difficult at best, and it will take serious commitment to grow any community. But I don’t want to scare them. I suspect that this is why I’ve struggled.
I know from experience that building it is not enough. So maybe that’s what I’ll say first and go from there. After all, I can talk about this stuff all day.
I’ve got a six-hour plane ride ahead of me, which is plenty of time to pull it all together but I’m thinking this time I’ll speak more from the heart and depend less on a Powerpoint.
This group of winners has a unique opportunity to make real change in their communities, both online and off. I just want to give them something to put them on the road to success.
Wish me luck.
Are you working on a new community with big time bells and whistles that caters to a niche that you just know has been waiting for a place to call home? If so, I encourage you to push ahead full steam. But, let me caution you first.
Your new community, no matter how great will not change habits. What I mean by this is you will not be able to stop potential members from posting on Facebook or twitter or their favorite Ning community. If you are assuming that your new community will become the new gathering place for those belonging to the niche, I think you will be disappointed.
Can you make it a great destination with robust content and interesting discussions? Absolutely. I know from experience what that kind of commitment can do and if you want some ideas on how to grow your community, read through some of the archives, or check out my book, “18 Rules of Community Engagement.”
The main point here is, if you are assuming that you can stop people from spending their time in the mainstream communities, you are way off base.
If you have a presence on those other networks, let the community know that and use them as part of an outpost strategy that highlights all that’s going on in your community. Accentuate the positive, or communicate with your audience in other places whenever you can.
Building a community is a labor of love. (Well, it can also be one of hate if you don’t have support from the top, but I digress…)
You will always think it’s better and deserves to be the center of your members attention, but it won’t be. Certainly not in the beginning.
Accept that you are not an island and work hard to grow your membership.
It’s the only way to grow.
I’ve noticed a spike in traffic that has likely stemmed from this Mashable article on Community Engagement, where I am quoted heavily throughout. Many thanks to Leah Betancourt for interviewing me for her most insightful article.
My regular readers know how passionate I am about growing online communities and engaging users online but you may not.
So, welcome to my blog, where I often vent, try to enlighten, and share the good, the bad and the ugly sides of community management.
Please take a few minutes to read through some of my popular posts, interviews and community management tips.
I hope you’ll find something you like.
If you want to reach me, I’m @communitygirl on Twitter, and you can also find me on LinkedIn. Oh, and if you’d like to read the entire first chapter of my book, “18 Rules of Community Engagement” you can find it in the September edition of EContent Magazine.
Angela Connor
Angela-at-AngelaConnor-dot-com.
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!
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)
- Business as Unusual
- Urbany
- Real-time Reviews
- (F)luxury
- Mass Mingling
- Eco-easy
- Tracking & Alerting
- Profile Myning
- 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.
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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