Your Customers Don't Want to be Your Friend | Social Media. What is an online community manager? | Community Building. The precise description of an online community manager varies from organisation to organisation. Some companies will describe the responsibilities of an online community manager very differently to others. Some will offer roles with very similar job descriptions but very different job titles. The issue is this – there is no standard definition as to what an online community manager is, or does. We are all still ‘feeling our way’. In this article, I’m going to outline the role and personality of an online community manager. The role of an online community manager A matchmaker The primary role of an online community manager is to encourage, facilitate and develop relationships. A spokesperson Online community managers are often seen as the public face of an organisation. If your business is in the news, whether for good reasons or bad, the community will look to the community manager to speak on behalf of the organisation.
A leader Online communities need leadership. An evangelist A referee. My 9 Favorite Wordpress Social Media Plugins. The WordPress platform never ceases to amaze me. It’s by far one of the greatest pieces of software ever built, and to think that it is free is the icing on the cake. What really makes the platform as successful as it is, are the thousands of themes and plugins that the WordPress community contributes. These add ons turn what essentially is a blogging platform, into just about any type of site you want from community to content management systems to storefronts. It truly is amazing. Over the years I’ve found some very useful plugins, and lately there have been some great developments with social media plugins as well. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Those are my favs.
The Seven Deadly Sins of Online Community Management. The Five Habits of Highly Successful Community Mana. Talking about communities, and newspaper communities in particular, often leaves people with a warm and fuzzy feeling. It’s true that being a community manager enables you to meet wonderful people, but the reality of daily community management can be difficult and unsettling. Every community manager has to deal with community politics (the online equivalent of office politics), disillusionment and a lack of appreciation. However, there are some ways to deal with all of these problems. The Daily life of a community Let me give you an example of a recent issue we faced at my own newspaper. One day on our site’s forum, a well-known and respected community member was the target of some nasty personal attacks from people who resented his success and the fact he obviously enjoys discussing his achievements.
In reaction, the man announced that he wanted to start his own, private discussion group within our site. Second Life Community This example is from the virtual world of Second Life. 1. The Iceberg Effect of Community Management. Starting The Community Roundtable has been a great way to understand better the day to day issues of community managers in a wide array of organizations.
There are a few things that come up somewhat regularly: Community managers are under pressure to justify what they do to peers and bosses that don’t really see or understand what tasks make up their day.Some community managers are dealing with the challenge of inspiring participants to author only to see them become unmotivated when they don’t receive any comments or activity on their content.Almost all the community managers we talk to struggle with ways to maintain or increase engagement. One thing that more experienced community managers know – and will typically be learned over time by anyone in the role – is that the visible activity of a community is only a very small part of the overall activity of a community. There are a huge number of things that happen in the background, between two individuals, or behind a wall.