When Community Managers Cross the Line

Posted on May 24, 2013 Written by 1 Comment

I have to admit, I enjoy some of the perks that come with being a community manager.  I love traveling to conferences and other events on behalf of my employer and I enjoy when I’m asked to beta test or be an early adapter. I enjoy receiving books to review and I absolutely adore talking to people all day ever day. But you know what I won’t do? Use my status with the brand to ask for free stuff for my personal use. I would never contact a brand out of the blue and ask if I could have free codes to use their products and services, for example, simply because i might work for a prestigious or popular name.

Sometimes a brand will contact me and offer swag or items to review. In each case I make sure it’s not a conflict of interest by checking with my team first. However, I never, ever, contacted a brand to ask for stuff simply because I’m the community manager for XYZ brand.

Entitlement

One thing that bothers me about some of the people I know who work in community management is the entitlement. It makes me see red when they use their name or rank to ask for perks for their personal use as I feel it reflects poorly on all community managers as a whole. Now, it’s one thing to contact a brand representative to work out a cross promotion or engage in a bit of back scratching. It’s also not such a terrible thing when friends who work for certain brands ask us to test out their products. However, it’s an entirely different matter to use the brand account to contact another community manager out of the blue and say something to the effect of “hey, can I have some free coupon codes for your service for my own personal use.” Now a line has been crossed.

We’ve all read the stories of entitled bloggers and their swag fests, but it seems some community managers are doing the same thing albeit a bit more subtle. Contrary to popular opinion, and with apologies to Mack Collier, we’re not rock stars. We’re community managers and we have to represent our brands and community appropriately.

Stop asking for hand outs and cultivate relationships instead. If the brand is feeling it, they’ll reach out accordingly. Don’t use people for what they can give you and don’t use your status within the brand to ask for stuff.

It’s tacky.

 

 

Filed Under: Community Management

24 Places to Find Social Media Jobs – Updated for 2013

Posted on May 21, 2013 Written by 2 Comments

In July 2010, I listed 25 Places to Find Social Media Jobs. Though much of the list is still relevant it’s badly in need of updating. Today I’d like to share an updated list of places to find social media jobs. Most of these places are aggregators and job search engines, but that doesn’t mean they’re not valuable resources.

25 Places to Find Social Media Jobs

  1. Social Media Jobs: Posts a variety of gigs each day, mostly from the U.S, but also from around the world.
  2. Social Job Ops – Combs the web to provide listings of the best social media, community management, digital marketing and even freelance writing and blogging jobs daily.
  3. Craigslist: Craigslist has a bad reputation becauase it’s a haven for scammers and spammy types. However, if you take the time to dig a little deeper you’ll find there are some gems hidden among the smarmy stuff.
  4. Indeed.com: A job search engine, yielding results from various job boards.
  5. Simply Hired: Another job search engine, but I sometimes find different results from the Indeed job search.
  6. ProBlogger: Features blogging jobs and the occasional social media job.
  7. Jobs in Social Media: A social media talent marketplace.
  8. Mashable Job Board: Features jobs in tech and social media.
  9. Twitter: Follow your favorite businesses to learn when they’re hiring. Also, follow job listing sites and aggregators for updates. Use Twitter search to look for the jobs you’re most interested in.
  10. Twit Job Search: A search engine for jobs advertised on Twitter.
  11. Social Media Job Wire: Features listings from around the U.S.
  12. Web Strategy and Social Media Jobs: Jeremiah Owyang’s job board.
  13. Social Media Biz: A bidding site, which means many clients are looking to low ball.
  14. Monster.com – Lists all sorts of jobs, social media included.
  15. Startuply – Lists startup jobs in tech, social media and marketing, mostly.
  16. Career Builder – Lists social media jobs, among others.
  17. The Ladders : Features only jobs paying $100,000 or more, annually. Before you flock over though, keep in mind that this is a paying job board. You can sign up for the free trial, but expect to receive regular spam if you do.
  18. Dice: Features mostly tech jobs but you’ll find a few social media jobs thrown in there as well.
  19. FlexJobs: Another pay to play job site, FlexJobs lists a variety of telecommuting opportunities including social media.
  20. Beyond.com: A search on “social media” yields a variety of opportunities.
  21. FlipDog: Search locally.
  22. Kommein.com – We have a job search engine here at Kommein. It’s powered by Indeed.
  23. Social Media Jobs at Facebook – A community powered jobs group at FAcebook.
  24. Conferences – Your favorite conferences offer a variety of networking opportunities including the kind of networking that can land you a job

Your turn!

Do you have any favorite job search places to add to this list? Post them in the comments and I’ll add it in.

Filed Under: Business, Resources for Community Managers, social media

Engaging With Your Community So You Actually Learn From Them

Posted on April 29, 2013 Written by Leave a Comment
question

"Name a fruit that starts with P" "Peanut butter or jelly?" "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?" These are all fun questions I've seen asked on Facebook pages recently. The community managers who posted … [Continue reading]

Filed Under: Communication, Community, Community Building Tips, Marketing, Uncategorized

Community Building Requires Brand-Wide Participation

Posted on April 22, 2013 Written by 1 Comment
Teamwork

If you were to ask me to give one important reason why people want to be part of a brand's community, I'd probably tell you it's because people who believe in the brand like to feel as if they're part of the brand and they especially enjoy sharing in … [Continue reading]

Filed Under: Communication, Community Building Tips, Community Discussions, Customer Service, Marketing, Relationships

The Three Types of People Your Brand Can’t Afford to Ignore

Posted on April 3, 2013 Written by 1 Comment
Community

Your brand's most important asset isn't a product, service, stock options, or inventory. It's not real estate, web sites, or your Facebook page. Your brand's most important asset is people. And before you start laughing about how corny I am or that … [Continue reading]

Filed Under: Community Building Tips, Community Management

Dongles, Forks and the Community Evangelist Responsibility

Posted on March 25, 2013 Written by 3 Comments
twitter

  Recently, controversy arose among the tech community when Adria Richards, a developer evangelist, overheard a conversation at a tech conference where the two men behind her were joking to each other about “dongles” and “forks.” The … [Continue reading]

Filed Under: Community Management
« Older Posts