You've probably got at least five changes you want to make to your community right? Seemingly simple ones perhaps? But you're stuck in a development queue, don't have the resources right now etc to fix or change them.
Can you relate? A recent post on the IOCMA (International Online Community Management Association) thread landed me in a great discussion about putting forward a business case to improve your community.
In essence there was Justin (his boss is the owner) and me (huge corporate)... both in the same boat.
How do we convince the powers that be that changes need to be made etc when there are more "important" things to do. Read = usually issues associated with revenue.
My points included reminding your company that...
- Visible customer/member dissesion about issues, bugs, lack of improvements and so forth is damaging your brand;
- It be time-consuming (and therefore costly) to improve a damaged brand reputation/sentiment in the community (not to mention regaining reputation is an uphill battle);
- These unresolved issues are increasing your workload. And by not utilising their resources (= you) to their full potential that will impact on your ability to perform/acheive what you had planned for that month/quarter;
- All of which may translate to a loss in revenue.
Another member Fiona from deviantART made the point that it is all about Membership Rentention.
If you don't make the required changes/fixes you will lose members and this directly equates to revenue. So if you can find a way to assign value to your issue this may help get it bumped up the to-do queue.
How do you make a business case for improving and/or fixing issues in your community?
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
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?
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?
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?
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Are Women better Community Managers
Connie Benson recently blogged on the topic of whether women make better community managers.
Whilst I agree with a number of points; women are good at multi-tasking, detail-orientated, relationship-focused, experts at compromise/mediation, I feel it comes down to the type of community you are managing.
As I manage a large parenting community that is 99.9% women, I feel I can bring something to the role that a male may not be able to. Whoah I never thought I'd say something that sounds so sexist! But alas until the responsibilities of raising children are equally shared this may still apply.. I don't think enough men yet face the conundrum of how to balance their career and children.
Although I rarely engage with the community on a personal level, there are definitely times where my personal experience as a mother and woman, have helped resolve or soften the issue I am trying to deal with. And revealing that information reminds the members that yes I am human not an evil rule-enforcer!
There are so many ideologically-opposing beliefs when it comes to parenting, and most revolve around the woman. Including breast vs. bottle, stay-at-home vs work, caesar vs vaginal, controlled crying, co-sleeping and so on. Not to diminish the father's/man's role in raising babies but many of these are exclusively the domain of the woman... (although support from the male often assists the outcome).
So for me personally I feel my gender in this instance really assists my ability to do my job. Not to mention the sheer level of empathy and understanding that helps when dealing with forums that include everything from loss of a child, pregnancy complications, children with special needs, traumatic births, long-term trying to conceive,etc. Our community provides an incredible level of support - and I feel quite honoured as a women - to be able to help facilitate that support.
Is your community skewed to one gender? Are you a female community manager in a male-dominated world? Or a male in a female-one?
Whilst I agree with a number of points; women are good at multi-tasking, detail-orientated, relationship-focused, experts at compromise/mediation, I feel it comes down to the type of community you are managing.
As I manage a large parenting community that is 99.9% women, I feel I can bring something to the role that a male may not be able to. Whoah I never thought I'd say something that sounds so sexist! But alas until the responsibilities of raising children are equally shared this may still apply.. I don't think enough men yet face the conundrum of how to balance their career and children.
Although I rarely engage with the community on a personal level, there are definitely times where my personal experience as a mother and woman, have helped resolve or soften the issue I am trying to deal with. And revealing that information reminds the members that yes I am human not an evil rule-enforcer!
There are so many ideologically-opposing beliefs when it comes to parenting, and most revolve around the woman. Including breast vs. bottle, stay-at-home vs work, caesar vs vaginal, controlled crying, co-sleeping and so on. Not to diminish the father's/man's role in raising babies but many of these are exclusively the domain of the woman... (although support from the male often assists the outcome).
So for me personally I feel my gender in this instance really assists my ability to do my job. Not to mention the sheer level of empathy and understanding that helps when dealing with forums that include everything from loss of a child, pregnancy complications, children with special needs, traumatic births, long-term trying to conceive,etc. Our community provides an incredible level of support - and I feel quite honoured as a women - to be able to help facilitate that support.
Is your community skewed to one gender? Are you a female community manager in a male-dominated world? Or a male in a female-one?
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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