Have you ever wondered how some members of your online community (or any community for that matter) can get so overwhelmingly caught up in online drama with people they hardly know?  I know I have. Well, there could be a real, clinical reason behind it, according to a new study, that goes beyond them needing to “get a life.”

Psychologists from Leeds University say they’ve found “striking” evidence that some avid internet users develop compulsive  habits in which they replace real-life social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites.

The lead author of the study wrote in the the journal of Psychopathology that the study “reinforces the public speculation that over-engaging in websites that serve to replace normal social function might be linked to psychological disorders like depression and addiction.”

WOW, THAT EXPLAINS A LOT.

What the study didn’t glean is which comes first: excessive internet use or depression. In other words… are depressed people drawn to the internet or does the internet cause depression?”

Here is one more interesting quote I just have to share:

“While many of us use the internet to pay bills, shop and send emails, there is a small subset of the population who find it hard to control how much time they spend online, to the point where it interferes with their daily activities.”

This is a really interesting study. Read more about it here in Science Daily, and come back and tell me what you think.Oh, you can also read the complete abstract with methodology and other pertinent information at Psychopathology.

I have two days left as the community manager of a site that has been at the core of my professional existence for nearly three years. I am trying to detach because it’s the right thing to do but it isn’t as easy as I thought it would be.

Many of you may have already experienced this. Perhaps you launched a community and moved on and you  understand what I’m going through.  Others may not have done this yet but know that you will someday leave your community behind for something bigger and better, or simply less stressful.

What I want to do here is share with you my farewell blog.

As of this writing, it has 210 comments, and most are well-wishes and kind words.

Here is the text:

I planned to announce this tomorrow, but with all of the talk of winter weather and a monumental snow event, I thought it might be best to do it now, when more of you have a chance of seeing it.

After three years consisting of conceptualizing, launching, nurturing and growing GOLO, I am moving on.

Words cannot express what this community has meant to me and all that I’ve learned from being here. You all have made me laugh, cry, scream and even curse under my breath from time-to-time, but it has been worth it and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I have often thought of what we could have done differently but then I think about all the great things that have happened as a result of GOLO and the wonderful relationships that have been forged and I know in my heart that it was meant to start the way it did.

I am nothing if not ambitious and I am leaving for a great opportunity that will challenge me and also allow me to do the kind of work that I love.

But launching GOLO has been like bringing a child into the world and watching it grow. I am attached in a way that can’t be characterized.

To those of you who have grown to love GOLO and support us unconditionally, I thank you. I even have a special place in my heart for the trolls, because they prove day in and day out that this place is addictive, and that they are willing to do whatever they have to do to be here. And that says a lot.

My last day is Wednesday, Feb. 3.

I hope to talk to many of you in the days to come.

As I’ve said before, it has been an honor to serve.

All the best my friends.

So when the day comes for you to say goodbye, I hope you will take a page from my book. Let them know it’s been a great ride and find a sense of closure. Remember the good days and how they hopefully outweighed the bad, and pass the baton.

I have a rogue group of members in my community. They don’t think I know it. But I know it all too well. Their tactics are completely juvenile. They plot against other members, and pat each other on the back when their antics cause others grief.

They clearly have a lot of time on their hands.

I have struggled with handling this group. I just want to kick them all out. They all have alter egos. They present themselves to me in one way, and do a complete 180 when they think I’m not looking.

I haven’t mentioned this much until now but I am completely dissatisfied with our registration system and my hands have been tied for a long time.  You see,  my online community registration is tied to a news organization and IP banning isn’t the answer because I can’t ban people from the news. I kick them out and they’re back 15 minutes later. All it takes is a new email account. Sad, but true.  This is an area where the real troublemakers and trolls have the upper hand.

That is why I’ve been so frustrated with my peers who act as though banning IP’s solves all problems.  Not for me. It seems as though something much more archaic might be the cure.I’ve long fought the idea of credit card verification because I think that is elitist. Not everyone has a credit card. Sure, everyone in my office might, but that is not the case for the rest of the world, and I think it would alienate a large group of people.

So even as I struggle with trolls, and crazies I strive for fairness. It is truly a double-edge sword. I know we need to revamp our registration process. Hindsight is 20/20, and I can’t say that I knew how this community would morph when we launched in July of 2007.

If I could go back, I’d do things differently. But I can’t say that all the wonderful things that have happened would still happen if I went back to day one with the full knowledge I have today at day 900.

Managing a community comes with all kinds of unexpected growing pains. And as I look to pass the torch in less than two weeks, I know full well what my successor is up against. But I also know what they will not endure because it fell on me as the person who gave it life and nurtured it for 2 1/2 years.

They will be better off than I was, but their challenges will be many. The good thing is he or she will go in knowing them because my documentation will lay them out.

My company is a good one, and I don’t believe that they would leave the community without a community manager, especially after I’ve proved it’s importance day in and day out. But I worry about it.

It started out as an innocent tweet from my soon-to-be employer, Capstrat and turned into a full-blown twitter event that made me feel like Elvis.

In case you missed it, the big news is that I have accepted a great position as Social Media Manager at an amazing communications firm in Raleigh, NC called Capstrat.

To say that Capstrat has a great reputation would be an understatement, and to say that I am excited about the opportunity would be as well. I would not have resigned from my position as Managing Editor of User-Generated Content at WRAL.com and editor of GOLO.com if the opportunity wasn’t worth it’s weight in gold.

And this one is.

I want to share this news with my readers here because you have encouraged me and your continued interest has made me deliver quality content in an effort to keep you coming back. For you, my B-game isn’t good enough and I try to bring my A-game with every post.

I am proud of the community I launched and grew from 0 to 15,000 members. I am also proud of the community that has grown as a result of this blog.

But don’t you think for a minute that this blog is done. It is moving into phase two, so be ready.

Thanks again for taking the time out of your day to read and interact with me here. And if you were one of the many sending well-wishes via Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, THANKS.

Your words mean more to me than you could possibly know.

-Angela

The journalist in me makes it impossible to stop reading press releases. I just can’t do it.  Once a news assignment editor, always a news assignment editor apparently, and part of that job has always been to forage for news via press releases, police scanners, newspapers, beat calls, while eavesdropping during lunch or through any other means that brings in a good story.

But now, since I am no longer responsible for determining what to divulge to the masses during a 22 minute news hole, I’m reading and digesting them a bit differently.

I can now analyze them a bit, laugh at the long-winded nature of many who write them and look for cool things to share with people in my networks.

There is a trend I’m noticing of late. It’s the press release announcing a new twitter account or Facebook page.  (I’ve written about this before.)

If you’re expecting a rant on this one, I may disappoint because I want to think this through a bit more as I type. It seems insane on the surface, but is it really any different than announcing a new product or service?  If your twitter account is a new service, then perhaps it does require a press release. Today I came across 2Insure4Less.com announcing its new twitter page to “share insurance news and answer consumer questions.” 

And before I say anything bad, I have to give them credit for not assuming that every reader would be well-versed on twitter as indicated in this excerpt:

The posts, commonly known as “tweets,” provide insurance-related guidelines, advice and news about legislation and others’ missteps.

They even take it a step further to announce what types of tweets a follower might expect to see:

Many tweets are for national or international trends or phenomena such as a link to a report from Insurance News Net about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s reinforcement of its tsunami warning systems within the United States since the Indonesia 2004 disaster. The article also describes the National Weather Service’s TsunamiReady program and shares recommendations from the Insurance Information Institute. Other posts address the interests of residents in specific states.

And if you want to read a few previous tweets, just to be sure following the account is a good idea,  there’s this:

A December 28, 2009 tweet stated that consumers from the state of Washington have saved more than 300 million insurance dollars since 2000 and presents a link to the relevant news release from the state’s Office of the Insurance Commissioner. Another example is a link to a Medical News Today article about the effect that health care reform could have on Arkansas residents.

Now you actually know what to expect, and that’s not a bad thing. They are providing a service and letting people know about this new resource. I say, announce it as you please.

I started this post with the idea of discussing how some would argue that using old school methods such as press releases, (which Peter Shankman says will be dead in 22 months) to announce a twitter account is a bit backwards, but I haven’t even convinced myself that it is because I think it’s important to use as many tools as possible to get the word out and see nothing wrong with it. So I’m going in a new direction.

After reading that press release, I am now wondering what a spammers press release might look like, so I’ll take a stab at it. Here goes.

Today, we at SpammersRUs launched 4,563 twitter accounts and we are now following 89,342 twitter users, of which 65% are classified as ‘highly influential’ according to Topsy.  This leads us to believe that we will reach an insane amount of users, compromise accounts across numerous continents and send people scrambling to create new passwords.    Our followers can expect several Direct messages with links to salacious sites that could infect their computers or lead them to some really interesting adult websites.  One tweet from January 12, 2009 promised great deals on Viagra and produced amazing click through rates which encourages us to continue.

I could go on but it would get pretty ridiculous. But you get the idea. So, is it backwards  to post a press release about a new twitter account or is it savvy and smart? What are your thoughts?

This is exactly what nearly 5,000 members (or should I say “former” members) of the website BeautifulPeople.com were told after packing on the pounds during the holidays, according to a story on CNN.com.

Founder, Robert Hintze states in the article that they “mourn the loss of any member,” but that his community demands a high standard of beauty.

“Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded,” he told CNN.com.

While my initial reaction included a smidgen of outrage, it soon faded because you know what? The community belongs to the members, and if they don’t want so-called “fatties” it is certainly their prerogative.

The good news is, these members will have a chance to redeem themselves once they lose the weight as characterized here:

“We responded to complaints by moving the newly chubby members back to the rating stage. This is the same as having them re-apply.” That comment comes from Greg Hodge, managing director of BeautifulPeople.com.

While I do find this a bit amusing I think there’s a lesson here about online communities. It’s one that I truly believe in. The community will develop its own culture and the members who are vested will work to keep that culture. It was the members after all who flagged these fatties.

Why?

Because like it or not, they care about what their community stands for.

And in this case, its beautiful people who can clearly exercise self-control around the holidays.

(This post originally appeared on the blog, SiliconAngle, where I am a regular contributor)

It is very rare for me to devote a post on my blog to dismantling another posted elsewhere on the web.  And I’m not going to do that exactly, but I wouldn’t be able to rest  if I didn’t share this misguided post on Advertising Age with those who value community management and work their butts off daily trying to grow an online community.  These are people who I know read my blog. So be sure to read that AdAge post and all the comments when you can.

First off, this is not to bash the author. It really isn’t. But I do want to applaud the people who spoke up against claims that “out of work copywriter’s and journalists can reinvent themselves as social-media brand advocates,” as if this is an easy task.

Secondly, can we stop the madness about Twitter, Facebook and Linked-In savvy as enough training for the role of community manager? It is much more difficult than that!

And the checklist in the article is a bit of an insult.

Do you subscribe to RSS feeds?

What e-mail service do you use?

Do you have a blog?

In fairness, the other six are important, but again it is much bigger than this. I will let you read the post for yourself, but the good stuff is in the comments.

Just to pull out a few….this was posted by a user anamed JulieWalker:

Interesting article and comments – most of which refelct the lack of understanding of community management within the marketing services industry.

Community management and moderation services have been in existance since the late 80’s when online communities, online strategy games and bulletin boards went live. Since then professional community management and online moderation companies have evolved. These include http://www.emoderation.com/ (UK and US) and www.tempero.co.uk (UK for international clients) two of the leading online moderation companies. In addition other full time community management professionals have been employed by leading brands to ensure the safety of children online (if their online community is focused on children and teens for example habbo hotel and the penguin club).

Professionals have come from many backgrounds into this area and it is growing however – their core skills sets are not facebook, twitter or linkedin…….

These social tools are lightweight tools which when used create more value for those networks than for the individual brands using them – these are merely other channels where conversations can take plce – but they are not the core places for conversations around brands to take place.

Moving into community management is not an easy move – there is more to it than managing a twitter and facebook account – dont be fooled – do your research and find out if it is a career you are interested in – most community managers I know are passionate about what they do and that is key to being successful.

AMEN, JULIE! And here’s another posted by a user named Jeepers:

There is so much wrong with this article I’m not even sure where to start. Is it actually supposed to be a serious piece?

The entire thing displays staggering ignorance of the role it beggers belief.

1. Community Managers have been sweating away behind the scenes for close to 2 decades now, the fact that the advertising world had just discovered the role doesn’t make it new.

2. It takes more than a Twitter account and a ‘personal brand’ to make a Community Manager. The fact that the author even mentions a ‘personal brand’ (and what a load of meaningless ad speak that phrase is) as an important attribute is hilarious. Good Community Managers show their worth in a trail of healthy communities, not a smokescreen of self-promoting twaddle.

3. A number of key skills for community management didn’t even get a mention in the article. How about people management? What about awareness of safety issues? And that thorny little subject of customer service?

4. Brand advocate. A nice little phrase tossed around by people who generally don’t give a flying whatsit about the customer. A good Community Manager is a customer advocate and that knowledge can aid in keeping the brand healthy.

I will be so glad when community management is no longer flavour of the month and those of us who know what we’re doing, and have worked in this field for years (even decades), can be left by the chattering classes to get on with what we do best.

I am not saying that out-of-work journalists cannot do this job. Heck, I’m a journalist and I think that many of the skills journalists posses come into play heavily in community m anagement. But it isn’t something you can just jump into and think you’ll do a bang-up job.

Let’s be a bit more respectful of the craft.

Want to make a few changes in your online community in 2010? Consider adopting these resolutions. If you like them, don’t wait two days. Start today.

1. Stop taking things personally.The members don’t know you. They know your work. If a few dislike you, it’s probably because you are doing your job. You cannot please everyone. Accept that this is impossible and focus on what really matters: Growing the community and bringing people together.
2. Greet at least three newcomers daily. Do this with a personal greeting beyond “Welcome to ____.” Find something about them that you can comment on. Perhaps they have a cool avatar or mentioned that they like horseback riding in their profile.  Find a way to relate  from the very beginning.Your personal touch will go a long way.
3. Reinvent your newsletter.Whether it’s weekly or monthly it’s time to fine-tune your newsletter and include content that people actually care about.If you have news to share about the organization, put it toward the end. Make members feel special by highlighting their work. Look for the most interesting, not necessarily the content with the most page views or comments. And whenever possible…make it short! (Here is a copy of one of mine.)
4. Focus on the members, not the organization. You know you have goals and you also know that the company and it’s initiatives are important. You should be the only one who knows that. Your members need to believe that the community is about them and their needs. Find a way to do do this.  Interviewing members is a good start. Here is my archive of member interviews.
5. Share great stories up the chain. Start tooting your community’s horn with your superiors. How will they ever know what’s going on and how effective the community has become if you don’t tell them? You know the stories but you have to share them. Send an email all the way up the chain when your community comes together for a great cause. Let the powers that be know that they’ve created something that hundreds or even thousands of people find valuable. Forward those emails from users that may seem a bit personal but provide insight into how much the community means to them or how it has made a difference in their lives.

Remember, this job is what you make it. I’ve learned that and I’m sure you know it by now as well.  And in the event that this turns out to be my last post of 2009, let me thank you for being here and sharing my posts across your social networks.  I have quite a few things planned for 2010, including the release of my first Community Manager Survey and informational products on increasing user participation, crafting community guidelines and much much more. Stay tuned…

Angela

I hope you’ve enjoyed updating your Facebook status, making connections on LinkedIn, tweeting for the masses and watching YouTube videos from the comfort of your employer’s keyboard, but I think that will change for many in the next year.

I shared my thoughts on this over on SiliconAngle, where I am a contributing writer and decided to cross-post for you. So, have a read and tell me what you think.

I don’t have a list of ten predictions. I don’t even have five. But I do have one and I feel rather strongly about it.

Okay, a great number of people are predicting that social media will be even bigger next year and businesses will continue to latch on and make use of the space. They’ve learned that it is an important strategy and that social media must become a huge part of their overall marketing and PR efforts.

Great.

However, I believe that many employees (state workers, for sure) will find themselves blockedfrom Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and maybe even LinkedIn entirely next year.

I’ve written quite a bit about social media guidelines and even led the charge in developing them for my current company, which supports employee involvement.  We want people to get involved and become brand advocates. But that’s us.  That may not be the case where you work and you could soon find out the hard way.

For many companies there is nothing to gain but a loss of productivity for allowing this access and they’ve known it for a while.  Therefore, I maintain that many will soon pull the plug.

I know of a hotel that just made this change. Their employees can’t even access their personal Gmail or yahoo accounts. This edict was literally passed down from corporate just last week.

They won’t be checking personal email on their employers watch and they sure as heck won’t be chatting it up on Facebook.

Sure, you can still update your status on your BlackBerry or iPhone and not miss a beat.  But if your device was issued by your employer, you might want to think twice.

Agree with me or not, I think this is a trend that has legs. Just wait and see.

I certainly hope that my stories about irate members won’t follow me into 2010 and end up as posts on this blog, but I think that may be wishful thinking. Remember my last story about the member who sent an email informing me about the horrible way I manage the community?

Well, I’ve got another one for you. Today, a member whose account was banned sent an email to many people in my organization indicating that I’d sent him a racist email. (You may also recall the time I was referred to as the n-word and the b-word)

Unbelievable! This person who refers to himself as a doctor posted a horrible comment and indicated that it came from me, from a yahoo account that he has determined belongs to me. He wants to know how they could tolerate that and allow me to represent the organization.

It is such a sickening paragraph filled with racist crap that I could never even think, let alone write. And as much as you probably want to read it, I cannot post it on my blog.  I just can’t.

And the thing is, people know it isn’t true so I really shouldn’t worry about it much.  But I have to tell you that I am so sick of this.  It’s nice that people care about the community but when you care so much about being banned that you want to take down the person you deem responsible, that’s just ridiculous. It’s an online community!

Yes, I have a thick skin and I know that you take it and move on but at some point it feels like too much. This level of abuse is getting old. It’s getting old fast.

Hopefully I will emerge with a more positive post in the next few days.