When you set fire to your community...

Whether your community is large or small, you or someone at your company, will make a mistake. To err is human.

Not so long ago we experienced a rather (human) unfortunate error, which resulted in a loss of data and sparked the furore of members. The forums were rife with complaint, understandably so, as the information was very important to a significant and close-knit group members as it related to their children.

[Side note: Although you should always launch with a minimal set of features & forums, once you need to branch out and create multiple forums, keep in mind this is a good way for archiving information that pertains to a subject area. If you store all this useful member knowledge in one forum it is a lot harder for members to access/search and most will not click back through pages to find info. Our search function is not as effective as it could be, so this archive system is important.]

Our mistake was time-consuming (and hence costly) to fix it, but we did and by all reports the restore was well received and the community embraced us again, thankfully. But it was a rough few weeks, we were copping a lot of heat, and we weren't sure the problem could be fixed.

Here is what I learnt:

- Admit responsibility and acknowledge the problem and issues it has caused. Without tying an individual to the stake, pinpoint the department if possible so people such as your Mods don't cop the heat or have to field questions beyond their expertise. In our case I stepped in as the Community Manager (we have 30 Mods), with updates from relevant development staff.

- Give regular updates. Promise regular updates (eg. tomorrow by noon, Wed by COB), provide a time and stick to it. If you don't you'll simply be tied up answering questions.

- Provide an email contact. You prob already have a support or feedback email - now is the time to brandish it. This will make it easier to identify the vocal posters who like to complain from the members who have a genuine concern. We received minimal direct contact from members, and these members ended up being very helpful with the issue and were willing to sing our praises when we fixed it.

- Assign a team/person to the problem. If Bob is going to fix the problem, don't forget to point out that Bob is the Operations Manager or Head of the Infrastructure Service Unit. You need to communicate that the most capable person is on the job. This will also eliminate (to some extent) the need to answer difficult technical questions, if tech know-how is not your thing.

- Official statement. You might want to make an official statement about the problem, or how it will be fixed. You could get someone more official to do this - the GM, the site-owner, the tech guy. Be wary if you do this, it might only serve to make you look like the incompetent one. And it could create a demand by members to want this person to answer their queries.

Your members are your community so do everything you can to resolve the problem and communicate with them throughout. Inevitably things do go wrong, from software or server glitches to human error, so good luck.

Have you had any major problems with your blogs or forums? Can you offer any advice?

Why being a community manager is like being a pinata

my new favourite slide
Originally uploaded by heather

Heather Champ, Director of Community at flickr posted this slide - which I found particularly amusing and relevant.

Does being a Community Manager make you feel like a pinata?

How does your community view you in general? Are you a benevolent or ruthless dictator, a long-standing member & participant?

Do you participate actively in your community on a social or 'non-professional' level? Where do you drawn the line?

We know you get beaten with sticks but how do you give out candy, and reward members for model behaviour?