The third Australian Community Managers' Roundtable will be taking place next week in our nation's capital. There are a few spots left and no extravagant $700 tickets to contend with. Maybe next event :P
Details
When: Friday 5 March
Time: 10:00am - 4:00pm
Where: Scarborough House, Woden ACT
RSVP: Join the Facebook group 'Australian Community Managers' where you'll find the event. Or track me down on twitter - @alisonmichalk.
Cost: free. Pay for own lunch - Belluci's 12:30pm. $18 lunch special. Nom nom.
Who is the event for?
The roundtables are designed for community practitioners, whether it be community managers or strategists. The event however focuses on the discrete issues pertaining to the day-to-day challenges of community management rather than broader issues (eg. social media marketing) as we feel these are better catered for by other events/conferences.
As usual we have a bunch of talent folk attending from companies such as Lonely Planet, Earth Hour, Disney, Optus, Community Engine, Channel 10, Fairfax Digital, Headshift and of course Gov 2.0 peoples.
What is discussed?
Discussion topics include serial pests/problems, monetising communities, metrics/ROI/reporting, internal communities, communities as customer support etc.
History of the roundtables & ACM group
The roundtables 'rove' with the aim of being inclusive to attendees around the country. The first was hosted in March '09 by the nerdily brilliant Venessa Paech, in Melbourne at the Lonely Planet (BBC) offices. The second was hosted in Sydney in June '09 by myself at the Fairfax Digital offices. Despite my attempts to 'hot potato' it to someone else, I have failed and organised the 3rd event with the help of Mr Craig Thomler :) Whilst we've all dreamt of hosting the 4th on Hayman Island, the confirmed destination is TBC. Takers?
The facebook group was started by Scott Drummond and myself, and recently migrated (or should I say regressed?) to a Google group, which we've found to be much more convenient. At least in part. There has been talk of the group formalising, which I strongly support. I think as a group of industry professionals, at the very forefront/trenches of community management, it would be great to lend our voice to issues ranging from #nocleanfeed to proposed cyber-bullying legislation.
I look forward to meeting some new faces, and as always the part-therapy like quality of the roundtable :)
If you know any Australian Community Managers' please spread the word.
Showing posts with label community management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label community management. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Community management in 2010: my perspective
There were a lot of interesting predictions for 2010 in the social media space pertaining to community management. One of my favourite quotes was “Regardless of whether or not you have a digital strategy – you have a digital strategy” (sorry don't have attribute, I believe it was Sebastian Gard?).
Social media: a must have
I think this idea ties in nicely with the sentiment that companies are seeing social media participation shift from a “nice to have” to a “must have”.
Retention, Value, Flash communities
In 2009 community became quite the buzz word with companies scrambling over one another to create their own community, everything from nappies to insurance spawned its own forum. Membership acquisition was largely garnered through promotions & competitions, and the "communities" were largely temporary. I think 'flash' communities will become more used through 2010 (primarily for advertising/marketing purposes), but at the other end of the spectrum retention will come into play. With a smorgasboard of communities, members will seek value.
Private invite-only and hyper-local communities
Perhaps as the pendulum swings from big-business huge-SNs (aka FB) we'll see predictions ring true that private invite-only communities will become more popular, "velvet-rope social networks" as Chris Brogan aptly describes them. (Although in true form Brogan was talking about this a year ago.)
Hyper-local communities are also on the rise with the increase in geo-locational devices.
Privacy, authenticity, transparency, identity-portability
Although the issue of privacy stirred the hornet’s nest last year, I actually feel that transparency/authenticity will become stronger and internet anonymity less respected (this is not to say people shouldn't have control over privacy). Facebook connect has made it much easier to join multiple groups and carry your real identity with you, I only see this becoming more robust.
Multi-platform presence, platform-neutrality
I think 2010 will see companies valuing their presence across platforms, in conjunction with creating their own space for a community (I believe their is value in doing so, for knowledge management/content ownership purposes alone it's worth it), they’ll seek out their audience/consumer and engage with them across Facebook, Twitter and anywhere their brand in being discussed. I think it’s important that companies diversify their involvement on the web to maximise their audience reach. I think we've very much reached an era where we expect information to come to us. Give me convenience!
Professional roles: chat managers, moderators, SM/community managers
It’s been said the role of Community Manager will continue its steep trajectory, and I also believe businesses we see the value in hiring professional moderators, chat managers and the like to engage and govern. The increase in social media monitoring matched with ROI, will further justify these roles. As someone who manages a large team of volunteers, I see this as interesting evolution.
Although a lot of businesses are willing to risk placing graduates or interns in social media roles, I think the risk at doing so will become more apparent, unless you also feel comfortable letting them chair the next shareholders' meeting.
Technology, behavioral management software
Needless to say - behind the scenes - technology will be a game changer. As mentioned by Rebecca Newton here, the increase in behavioral management software is going to have a huge impact on how businesses can effectively participate in moderating and managing huge volumes of traffic and user-generated content. It will certainly aide the transition to moderation and management of the real-time web, and is particularly vital for those working with minors. Although legislation never happens quickly we will see governments moving towards stronger cyber-safety laws.
It’s shaping up to be a great year for community management and as always I’m enthusiastic about being involved.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Australian Community Managers' Roundtable
[I was going to apologise as it's been a while since last post, but I've come to the conclusion that as a working mum one should focus on the things we can and do achieve rather than lament those we can't always find the time for... ]
I'm proud to announce that Fairfax Digital is hosting the next Community Managers' Roundtable.
You can read the wrap up of the first event here, which was hosted in Melbourne by Lonely Planet and run by Venessa Paech. Incidentally you can read a brilliant interview with Venessa here which was recently conducted by Community Strategist Angela Connor for her soon to be released book, 18 Rules for Community Engagement.
Australian Community Managers' Roundtable
Friday 12 June 2009
10am-4pm
Fairfax Digital
Lvl 2, 1 Darling Island Rd
Pyrmont, Sydney
Contact: Alison Michalk
Footnote: this event is specifically tailored for the *discrete* discussion of community management, not social marketing/networking etc as there are plenty of broader events that address these issues. In the interest of a 'roundtable' numbers will need to be kept to a minimum.
I'm proud to announce that Fairfax Digital is hosting the next Community Managers' Roundtable.
You can read the wrap up of the first event here, which was hosted in Melbourne by Lonely Planet and run by Venessa Paech. Incidentally you can read a brilliant interview with Venessa here which was recently conducted by Community Strategist Angela Connor for her soon to be released book, 18 Rules for Community Engagement.
Australian Community Managers' Roundtable
Friday 12 June 2009
10am-4pm
Fairfax Digital
Lvl 2, 1 Darling Island Rd
Pyrmont, Sydney
Contact: Alison Michalk
Footnote: this event is specifically tailored for the *discrete* discussion of community management, not social marketing/networking etc as there are plenty of broader events that address these issues. In the interest of a 'roundtable' numbers will need to be kept to a minimum.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Help - the community's too big!
Is 'your' community getting too large? There is a lot of focus on community growth but retaining and managing members is equally as important.
Growth brings challenges - could you lose the intimacy that your members came for?
A little while back (ok months back - you'll have to excuse me) Rich@FeverBee had a great post about keeping your community intimate and sub-dividing when the community reaches a tipping poing.
(This figure is often considered 150 based on Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point theory.)
I wanted to expand on Rich's concept because I think he makes a great point.
Firstly if you are working on a start-up or relatively new community - don't try to skip ahead and create tonnes of forums or areas for members to engage. It's a common mistake companies make when hoping to attract a large and diverse audience.
Successful communities almost always launch with a minimal feature set and relatively few gathering places (Community Building on the Web, Amy Jo Kim).
So what about large communities?
Most companies strive for growth and it may take a clever business case to get them to value membership retention.
In seeking growth - is it possible your community could get too large? Would your members seek a niche experience elsewhere?
To adhere to the Tipping Point concept what can you do to break your community down?
We have a two-tiered approach. The first is the forums, we have over 180 and open them according to need. They are ordered in a 'stage of life' manner (pregnancy/parentinfg site) so a member can effectively move through each one suiting their stage (and again with baby #2 and so on). Hopefully they'll make some great friends along the way!
Our second approach is Buddy Groups (they are a continuous thread).
We have hundred of Buddy Groups (BGs) - they are fantastic for member engagment (and loyalty) - and I believe these provide the intimate relationships people seek in a community.
Our BGs can be broken down into basic categories:
- Geographic (tens of these live in each State forum)
- Lifestyle (a group of members who have become friends get their own BG started)
- Specialised Pregnancy (gestational diabetes, high-risk neonatal results, home-birthers)
- Commonality (eg. wives whose husbands who have fly in/fly out mine jobs, brides-to-be)
Could you break your community into smaller groups based on these categories?
Do you have any tips or suggestions on how to keep your community intimate?
Growth brings challenges - could you lose the intimacy that your members came for?
A little while back (ok months back - you'll have to excuse me) Rich@FeverBee had a great post about keeping your community intimate and sub-dividing when the community reaches a tipping poing.
(This figure is often considered 150 based on Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point theory.)
I wanted to expand on Rich's concept because I think he makes a great point.
Firstly if you are working on a start-up or relatively new community - don't try to skip ahead and create tonnes of forums or areas for members to engage. It's a common mistake companies make when hoping to attract a large and diverse audience.
Successful communities almost always launch with a minimal feature set and relatively few gathering places (Community Building on the Web, Amy Jo Kim).
So what about large communities?
Most companies strive for growth and it may take a clever business case to get them to value membership retention.
In seeking growth - is it possible your community could get too large? Would your members seek a niche experience elsewhere?
To adhere to the Tipping Point concept what can you do to break your community down?
We have a two-tiered approach. The first is the forums, we have over 180 and open them according to need. They are ordered in a 'stage of life' manner (pregnancy/parentinfg site) so a member can effectively move through each one suiting their stage (and again with baby #2 and so on). Hopefully they'll make some great friends along the way!
Our second approach is Buddy Groups (they are a continuous thread).
We have hundred of Buddy Groups (BGs) - they are fantastic for member engagment (and loyalty) - and I believe these provide the intimate relationships people seek in a community.
Our BGs can be broken down into basic categories:
- Geographic (tens of these live in each State forum)
- Lifestyle (a group of members who have become friends get their own BG started)
- Specialised Pregnancy (gestational diabetes, high-risk neonatal results, home-birthers)
- Commonality (eg. wives whose husbands who have fly in/fly out mine jobs, brides-to-be)
Could you break your community into smaller groups based on these categories?
Do you have any tips or suggestions on how to keep your community intimate?
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Managing a large community around the clock. Is community management a 24/7 job?
Community Management is a job that's easy to take home with you. I'm often jumping on the check an issue was resolved, see how a thread is running, touching base with the Mods. Especially on Sunday night so my Mon morning is no more hectic than usual.
So is the role of Community Management a 24/7 job?
For me personally, no.
But there definitely are community managers out there burning the candle at both ends so I wanted to contribute some tips on we manage a large scale community around the clock.
It is true that Community Managers need to be approachable and accessible. So you need to strike a balance between being available - and not spreading yourself too thin. This isn't always easy as inevitably you will be contacted with a range of problems that are on sliding scales for priority so here are my personal tips:
#1 Define your team
If your community is small and you are a one-person show, these points still apply. If your community is getting to a size where you could do with the help of a volunteer, now might be the time to get help. If you do, try to plan for growth (of your members and your Mod Team) and define roles as early as possible. They will need to be reviewed and developed but you need to start somewhere.
When you are dealing with remote workers you need to be especially clear.
We have two documents, 'The Role of Mod' and 'Mod Expectations'. Although Mods are wonderful volunteers, it is ok to tell them what you expect of them. It is very time consuming to manage people who potentially aren't contributing much to the community and clearly defining these expectation will assist if you need to politely ask if they are too busy to keep up with the demands of Modding.
#2 Define your rules and responses. Communicate effectively.
Will you PM members who misbehave, will you edit part of their post, will you note it was edited by Mods, will you remove it in total? Will you put them on post approval, or ban them. Will you tell other members what happened?
Moderator consistency is key to good community management. Notifying members of rules being broken might be great in the early stages, but is it sustainable? Decide how breaches will be dealt with and this will save everyone a lot of time to-ing and fro-ing.
We have trialled periods where we did not notify anyone, and where we have. Both throw up a lot of response and questions. In summary I think it is most effective to notify the OP but not engage in open discussion with other members. If the member wants, they can answer others.
This point does seem obvious but as a community manager - you manage relationship - and ineffective communication especially over rule enforcement will waste your time. And the 24hr clock is ticking!
#3 Help your team, so they can help you
Ultimately your team are there to support the members and you, but it is a two way street. Enable Mods to get help and support from one another.
This can be as easy as establishing a private forum, a wiki, an IRL meet-up or getting on MSN. Private forums can be the best way if you need to document/track progess of issues. We have private boards (divided into work & social) and a Wiki. The team most of the time resolves issues with minimal input from me.
#4 Establish a realistic timeframe in which you will reply to queries
As honourable as it is to get back to everyone in haste, you only serve to create an expectation of always doing so (beware the slippery slope!). With the community I work with, we say 24-48hrs.
If there is some way that you can delegate 'urgent' queries to a different person/email address etc consider doing so, even if they all go to you it will help prioritise them, which leads me onto point
#5 Establish an escalation system
Clearly define what issues need to be raised to you from your Mod Team, or even above you is this is how your company is structured. For me the Mod Team escalates minor issues to two Paid Mods/Admin staff, and in turn they escalate potential legal issues and posts of a nature that allude to member self-harm, or child at risk circumstances. I notify the Gen Manager of anything that needs to be referred to legal, or could blow up into a major drama. (I don't bog her down with detail, but it much easier to say "you know that issues I emailed you about 3 weeks ago...")
#6 Call for backup. And pretzels.
No matter what size your community is, volunteers, Mods and you will need a break. Our community has a Buddy System. If a Mod needs to take a break, anything from a day to weeks, she belongs to a buddy group of 2-3 Mods.
With 180 forums it is problematic to throw a new cat amongst the pigeons, and much easier for all if the Mods have an understanding of that forum and it's issues.
We also have a sticky with a clear breakdown of each forum, likely problems, things to watch out for.
#7 Appreciate time zones.
A minor point but if your community spans time zones, work it to your advantage. In Australia the West Coast is 3hrs behind us, which means on average our forums are covered for close to 20hr per day. And our un(wo)manned hours reflect the site's quiet downtimes. Perfect.
How does the structure/organisational process of your community work? What tips can you share?
So is the role of Community Management a 24/7 job?
For me personally, no.
But there definitely are community managers out there burning the candle at both ends so I wanted to contribute some tips on we manage a large scale community around the clock.
It is true that Community Managers need to be approachable and accessible. So you need to strike a balance between being available - and not spreading yourself too thin. This isn't always easy as inevitably you will be contacted with a range of problems that are on sliding scales for priority so here are my personal tips:
#1 Define your team
If your community is small and you are a one-person show, these points still apply. If your community is getting to a size where you could do with the help of a volunteer, now might be the time to get help. If you do, try to plan for growth (of your members and your Mod Team) and define roles as early as possible. They will need to be reviewed and developed but you need to start somewhere.
When you are dealing with remote workers you need to be especially clear.
We have two documents, 'The Role of Mod' and 'Mod Expectations'. Although Mods are wonderful volunteers, it is ok to tell them what you expect of them. It is very time consuming to manage people who potentially aren't contributing much to the community and clearly defining these expectation will assist if you need to politely ask if they are too busy to keep up with the demands of Modding.
#2 Define your rules and responses. Communicate effectively.
Will you PM members who misbehave, will you edit part of their post, will you note it was edited by Mods, will you remove it in total? Will you put them on post approval, or ban them. Will you tell other members what happened?
Moderator consistency is key to good community management. Notifying members of rules being broken might be great in the early stages, but is it sustainable? Decide how breaches will be dealt with and this will save everyone a lot of time to-ing and fro-ing.
We have trialled periods where we did not notify anyone, and where we have. Both throw up a lot of response and questions. In summary I think it is most effective to notify the OP but not engage in open discussion with other members. If the member wants, they can answer others.
This point does seem obvious but as a community manager - you manage relationship - and ineffective communication especially over rule enforcement will waste your time. And the 24hr clock is ticking!
#3 Help your team, so they can help you
Ultimately your team are there to support the members and you, but it is a two way street. Enable Mods to get help and support from one another.
This can be as easy as establishing a private forum, a wiki, an IRL meet-up or getting on MSN. Private forums can be the best way if you need to document/track progess of issues. We have private boards (divided into work & social) and a Wiki. The team most of the time resolves issues with minimal input from me.
#4 Establish a realistic timeframe in which you will reply to queries
As honourable as it is to get back to everyone in haste, you only serve to create an expectation of always doing so (beware the slippery slope!). With the community I work with, we say 24-48hrs.
If there is some way that you can delegate 'urgent' queries to a different person/email address etc consider doing so, even if they all go to you it will help prioritise them, which leads me onto point
#5 Establish an escalation system
Clearly define what issues need to be raised to you from your Mod Team, or even above you is this is how your company is structured. For me the Mod Team escalates minor issues to two Paid Mods/Admin staff, and in turn they escalate potential legal issues and posts of a nature that allude to member self-harm, or child at risk circumstances. I notify the Gen Manager of anything that needs to be referred to legal, or could blow up into a major drama. (I don't bog her down with detail, but it much easier to say "you know that issues I emailed you about 3 weeks ago...")
#6 Call for backup. And pretzels.
No matter what size your community is, volunteers, Mods and you will need a break. Our community has a Buddy System. If a Mod needs to take a break, anything from a day to weeks, she belongs to a buddy group of 2-3 Mods.
With 180 forums it is problematic to throw a new cat amongst the pigeons, and much easier for all if the Mods have an understanding of that forum and it's issues.
We also have a sticky with a clear breakdown of each forum, likely problems, things to watch out for.
#7 Appreciate time zones.
A minor point but if your community spans time zones, work it to your advantage. In Australia the West Coast is 3hrs behind us, which means on average our forums are covered for close to 20hr per day. And our un(wo)manned hours reflect the site's quiet downtimes. Perfect.
How does the structure/organisational process of your community work? What tips can you share?
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Why being a community manager is like being a pinata
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?
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?
Thursday, September 4, 2008
My Name Is...
Alison. Hi! This is my first post in this blog, so I'll fill you in...
I manage a community of 135,000 women - growing at a rate of approximately 500 newbies per week. The social media component is primarily forums but we also host over 4500 member diaries.
Of our 135,000 members approx. 1500 members are active on the forums at any given hour of the day. Participation inequality would suggest thousands more lurk (almost a certain according to Jakob Nielsen's 90-9-1 rule) and this conversion will form one of many challenges I face.
We have a team of 30 Volunteer Moderators. It goes without saying that they are a priceless asset but managing a volunteer team has its challenges, and add to the mix they are remote, not to mention are all busy Mums with kids to keep them busy.
They have all worked their way up from being members which means they have an exceptional understanding of the 150+ forums we have, but it skews their user experience to our site predominately. Almost all of them came to the site as new parents (many over 5 yrs ago) so they are involved in the site on a personal level.
I’ll be blogging about how much visibility (social/professional) Community Managers should have at some point, as this is something I often ponder.
The forums have been running for over eight years, which means changing the culture is a little more tricky. There seems to be a lot of great info & resources for starting & building a community, but not quite as much for managing huge communities. I could be wrong? Point me in the right direction if so. Either way I’ll be happy to road-test a lot of theories (within reason) on our community.
Background info: the site was started by two women nearly eight years ago and was recently acquired by a large media organisation, so the community (and new staff) are in the midst of adjusting to this change. FYI I came on board post-acquisition as there wasn't any scope to have a Community Manager when run by an independent team.
This blog aims to document some of the challenges I meet along the way... there have been plenty already so there'll be plenty more to come.
As a Community Manager I can often getting bogged down in the minutia so I am hoping this blog allows me to step back, see the bigger picture and help develop overarching social media strategic planning.
I’m starting Connie Benson’s Community Manager training course shortly and am really looking forward to it. If you’re a CM too you should jump over to Connie’s site Community Strategist and join in the discussion… As the Online Community Research Network (OCRN) says “the best source of information (by far) is other professionals”.
I manage a community of 135,000 women - growing at a rate of approximately 500 newbies per week. The social media component is primarily forums but we also host over 4500 member diaries.
Of our 135,000 members approx. 1500 members are active on the forums at any given hour of the day. Participation inequality would suggest thousands more lurk (almost a certain according to Jakob Nielsen's 90-9-1 rule) and this conversion will form one of many challenges I face.
We have a team of 30 Volunteer Moderators. It goes without saying that they are a priceless asset but managing a volunteer team has its challenges, and add to the mix they are remote, not to mention are all busy Mums with kids to keep them busy.
They have all worked their way up from being members which means they have an exceptional understanding of the 150+ forums we have, but it skews their user experience to our site predominately. Almost all of them came to the site as new parents (many over 5 yrs ago) so they are involved in the site on a personal level.
I’ll be blogging about how much visibility (social/professional) Community Managers should have at some point, as this is something I often ponder.
The forums have been running for over eight years, which means changing the culture is a little more tricky. There seems to be a lot of great info & resources for starting & building a community, but not quite as much for managing huge communities. I could be wrong? Point me in the right direction if so. Either way I’ll be happy to road-test a lot of theories (within reason) on our community.
Background info: the site was started by two women nearly eight years ago and was recently acquired by a large media organisation, so the community (and new staff) are in the midst of adjusting to this change. FYI I came on board post-acquisition as there wasn't any scope to have a Community Manager when run by an independent team.
This blog aims to document some of the challenges I meet along the way... there have been plenty already so there'll be plenty more to come.
As a Community Manager I can often getting bogged down in the minutia so I am hoping this blog allows me to step back, see the bigger picture and help develop overarching social media strategic planning.
I’m starting Connie Benson’s Community Manager training course shortly and am really looking forward to it. If you’re a CM too you should jump over to Connie’s site Community Strategist and join in the discussion… As the Online Community Research Network (OCRN) says “the best source of information (by far) is other professionals”.
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