Analyzing my online community’s stats is one of my favorite ways to learn about the people who interact at my blog network on a regular basis.. In fact, my analytics programs sometimes tell me more about my community’s wants and needs than if I had straight out asked them (and, just to be clear, we should be doing that as well.)
Here is what I learn from my daily stats reports:
- Where is search traffic coming from?
- How are current promotions (such as giveaways) doing?
- How are new members of the community learning about products and services?
- Which products and services work – and which need work?
- What are folks searching for before landing on your website?
- Which tags and keywords are working?
- Which community discussions are the most popular?
- What are people saying outside the community?
- Who is linking to my company’s products and services?
- What are people doing once they’re on my site?
- What content gets the most results?
- What content, product or service gets the least amount of interest from users?
- What countries and areas do members of my community come from?
- What languages does the members my community speak?
All of this is important. For instance, when people come from different regions, even different regions of the same country, their wants and needs are different. Also, by learning which content gets the most visits and the biggest response, a community manager or editorial team can write the type of blog posts, articles and other written content tailored to the users’ needs.
I use a combination of Google Analytics and Performancing Metrics, both provide a goldmine of information. If you’re a community manager and your place of employment won’t allow you to have access to the company’s stats, patiently explain the reasons why it’s important. Successful community management depends on knowing your users’ wants and needs. Without knowing where they’re coming from and what they’re doing, the job is made that much more difficult.
Community managers also need to know what is going on outside of the website or online community. What is someone is saying something untrue about the business or has a specific issue in need of trouble shooting? What if a product or service received a glowing review and the community manager would like to reach out and say thanks? Knowing who is linking to you and what they are saying are key when it comes to getting others to drink the Kool Aid.
What do the stats say about YOUR community?
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Successful community managers know cultivating a community is more than just creating a Facebook group or spamming Twitter with some links. It’s about building relationships and touching on users’ wants and needs. The community manager truly is the voice of the community. This means she needs to be knowledgeable about all aspects of the business. Leaving a community manager in the dark, is leaving a community in the dark.
Here’s how to set up a community manager for failure. For your CM to be a success, do not do any of these things:
Don’t train your community manager or let her in on the workings of the various departments
Your community manager likes nothing more than to be clueless. Her favorite thing in the world is for her community to get frustrated with her for not knowing the answers. Nothing gives a community manager more pleasure than to always have to ask other people for answers, rather than saving time by responding to questions on her own. Give yourself bonuses points if, when your CM looks to others for answers, they don’t answer for days – or not at all.
Don’t invite your community manager to departmental meetings or conference calls
To further ensure your community manager’s lack of success, make sure she’s never privy to any of the discussions pertaining to her community, especially customer service. The less she knows about anything having to do with the community the better.
Don’t keep your community manager apprised of new product and service launches
You know the best way to have your community manager look like a fool? Don’t tell her about any product or service launches. Don’t get her opinion on new applications or web designs. Don’t tell her anything until after the launch. She’ll love that, I promise.
Don’t let your community manager answer for herself
Canned, approved by management responses only. Who needs a personal touch?
Have a community manager for appearances only
Just because it’s all about community nowadays, doesn’t mean it has to be about community. Go ahead and hire a community manager but don’t actually allow her to do anything resembling community management. Instead have her act as a glorified assistant handling paperwork, spreadsheets or web research.
Don’t ask your community manger for her opinion
What the heck does she know anyway?
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Here’s a scenario some community managers are facing: You’re hired by a business interested in building a web presence. Your superiors consider themselves hip pioneers for jumping on the social media thing, but they reality is they haven’t a clue. As a result, you can’t do your job properly. They question the amount of time you spend on social networks, shuffle you around to different departments, don’t think conferences are necessary, and don’t take any of your ideas for social media promotion seriously, and really, have no idea what to do with you. Put on a brave face folks, and don’t pull your hair out. You can make it work.
You were hired to create an online presence using forums, blogs, networks and other social media tools. You know you’re good at what you do, and you know there are logical reasons for doing what you do. Now, you have to communicate it to your superiors. This isn’t always easy, and can be very frustrating, but if they didn’t want a heavy Internet campaign they wouldn’t have hired you in the first place, right?
Take a deep breath. Don’t get angry. If you find you’re getting questioned every step of the way or that folks don’t take you seriously, take some time to write up a proposal or outline. List all your social media strategies and why you feel they will benefit the business. Send it to all the players and request a time to discuss follow up. Now gather data and statistics so you can make your case. You CAN make this work!
It’s hard for many old schoolers to embrace social media but it’s part of a community manager’s job to make sure they get it. Don’t let frustration give in to anger. Use your energy to create a rocking community instead.
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So I was having a conversation on Twitter today with @iFroggy (don’t you love using @’s instead of names?) about perhaps planning a Community Manger meetup in Austin during SXSWi, which is going on from March 13 – 17th. I’m trying to gauge interest, and if we have some takers I’ll see what I can do about finding a venue. I don’t know Austin at all, so I’ll have to enlist the aid of others there.
Will you be at SXSWI in March? If so, are you interested in meeting and talking with other community managers?
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Do you know what the first thing I do upon logging on to my laptop each day? No, it’s not checking email. I head directly to my Tweet Deck, to check out Twitter and then I head over to my company’s forum. To me, this is the equivalent of walking into work first thing and stopping at the water cooler or my friends’ desks for a little chit chat. Except that it’s my job. Even if it wasn’t my job, it would still be all about community and people. It’s what I do, it’s what I like to do, and it’s what I am.
When I manage a community, I give it my all. I live, breathe and sleep that community. I check in first thing when I wake in the morning and last thing before I go to sleep. I stop by on weekends and even on holidays. Not because it’s my job, but because it’s my community. I don’t know that many folks who aren’t into the whole online community thing would get this, but it’s a passion.
Anyone looking to take on a community management role must be aware that it’s not just a job. Good community managers form relationships with people and wish to see them succeed. They care about the people in their group and get to know them in a way customer service reps never will.
If you’re thinking of taking on a community management role simply because you want to spend more time on Twitter, please reconisder. While this is a fun job, there’s more to it than hanging out in the social networks. It’s making personal connections with real people and fostering a community among individuals. It’s a 100% committment, not a 9 to 5 job.
So I ask you, how vested are you in your community?
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Last week for homework, my six year old son had to write three facts about Barack Obama for a class discussion. My son’s report read as follows:
- Barack Obama is our first African American President.
- Barack Obama should stop smoking.
- Barack Obama is the first social media President.
As you can imagine, my pride was evident, clearly The Child is his mother’s boy. His teacher asked him to explain to the class what “social media President meant” and he responded “He talked to people on the Internet and told them to vote for him.” Can’t argue with that too much.
President Obama’s successful social media campaign is proof that for any business or individual to succeed, an online presence is necessary. The President embraced Twitter and other social networks, reaching out to rock the vote and find out what was on our minds. Folks like to know the leader of a nation is in touch. It’s embarrassing to hear the person with the most important job in the world talk about not knowing how to turn on a computer or use email. When I learned Barack Obama had to give up his Blackberry I felt his pain.
But this isn’t about being plugged in. It’s about being in tune with a nation and using every resource possible to campaign and reach the American people. The new President of the United States gets the need for a heavy online presence, shouldn’t you do the same for your business?
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Here’s a typical morning for Deb:
- Wake up early
- Put on a jug of coffee
- Turn on the laptop
- Settle down for a good read
Every morning before beginning my day I read my email, respond to as much as possible, answer Twitter DM’s, FaceBook wall comments, and visit forums and groups relating to my jobs and blogs. It can be a lot of work, but I firmly believe in this practice. Though there are times when the email and questions are out of control, I do try and respond to everyone who reaches out to me.
Folks are trusting me to help them solve a problem or get results. I feel like I’d be letting them down if I ignored them. Moreover, it’s a bad representation of the company I work for to ignore emails and messages. If I don’t have the answer, I can find the answer or find the person who can answer.
It’s not just email, either. I answer questions in a busy forum, blog comments, and messages sent via social networks. I think a community manager has to be approachable, but also responsive. I’m being entrusted to be the voice of the community, what kind of voice can I give them if I don’t reach out in return?
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I recently started getting into FaceBook again. I kind of neglected it for a while, save for the occasional BlogTalkRadio event, but the past couple of weeks have seen me getting back into the FaceBook groove again. Now we all know my heart belongs to Twitter, but I’m beginning to see the benefits of using FaceBook for community building as well. I don’t know why I’ve been so hesitant to embrace FaceBook, but I’m already seeing the results. Here are some ways you can use FaceBook to build up your online community.
Make New Friends: Like Twitter, I’m making friends on FaceBook thanks to other friends. We hook up via recommendations or common interests and all of a sudden we’re networking and sharing. As you may already know, once folks follow you on one network, they’re likely to follow you everywhere you go.
Post Events: Blasting your events on FaceBook is an awesome way to alert everyone to your party, podcast, summit or other event. This saves the time of creating numerous emails and allows you to blast one note to all of your friends if you so desire. Don’t use the “event” feature everytime you have a blog post or news or folks will think you’re spamming.
Post Updates: If you want to post regular updates, you can certainly do so by writing messages on your wall. Like Twitter there’s a balance between the whole warm, fuzzy community chat thing and blasting out links every five minutes. Have a good balance. Communicate with your friends, invite them to be a part of your community and share your links.
Create Groups: Did you know you can create a group centered around your business or topic or you can find a group of other like-minded individuals? This is a great way to socialize with members of other communities and turn them on to your own.
How are you using FaceBook?
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In my Twitter travels, I come across many folks looking to land a Community Manager gig. Can’t say that I blame them, being a community manager is probably the only job (besides blogger and freelance writer) that I actually enjoyed. And so, as a service to our fellow Community Managers, the Community Manager Job of the Day. Today’s job came from Crunchboard.
Community Moderator Wanted
This job is full time in San Francisco. Note: it’s not a telecommute position and they don’t appear to want to be convinced of the reasons you should work from home. Still, looks like a fun gig if you’re in the neighborhood. Here’s a brief description from the ad:
Looking for a super smart, and bursting with energy senior moderator for a super-stealth new online company backed and funded by some legendary billionaires. We aren’t raising money, we don’t need VCs, and we are hiring!
We are looking for a person who can help make our new online communities the place for the owners and managers of SMBs. We believe in making sure the community members are ecstatic with the community. If you don’t believe that is possible or don’t know what an SMB is, this job isn’t for you.
Responsibilities include:
- Answering questions from the community
- Finding folks to answer questions if you can’t
- Making sure the community is feeling all warm and fuzzy
- Keeping track of stats and growth
Read the full details at the orginal ad at Crunchboard.
Good luck!
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I hate to break it to you, but as Community Manager you’re going to get blamed for everything whether you’re the culprit or not. It’s not that folks want to blame you, but as the person who is reaching out to the public, it will be you who bears the brunt of the anger when stuff happens. And stuff always happens.
- If folks don’t like a new design or interface, they’ll gripe to the Community Manager.
- If folks are having trouble logging in or the site is down, they’ll gripe to the Community Manager.
- If the forum or user group isn’t functioning, they’ll gripe to the Community Manager.
- If folks aren’t happy with the response from a member of the team they’ll gripe to the Community Manager.
- If results aren’t happening quick enough….you guessed it.
It’s not that your community wants to dump on you, but who else do they have? The CEO who doesn’t respond to emails or the techies who have a pile of support tickets to deal with? They have two options: let it go and not stand up for things they don’t like, or gripe to the Community Manager.
When this happens, be gracious and do everything you can to soothe jangled nerves.
Remember:
- It’s the Community Manager’s job to ensure community happiness. If folks aren’t happy, find the reason why and do everything you can to fix it.
- Check your attitude at the door. You’re sure to receive some nasty emails or comments. When this happens walk away. Come back later when you had a chance to cool down, respond pleasantly to the other’s concerns. Never fire off an email in anger.
- Always let folks know you’re doing everything in your power to address their concerns. Sending them a note telling them you don’t have the answer yet, but are looking into it is much better than not responding at all.
- Apologize even if it’s not your fault. Don’t point blame or make a lot of excuses, but an apology on behalf of your company can do wonders to make a situation better.
- Each individual member of a community is important. Never stop making folks feel special.
You know and your team knows when mistakes aren’t your fault. Still, as community manager there are going to be times when aren’t quite showing you the love. Count to ten and address their concerns. When you have your community’s trust, the angry finger pointing becomes fewer and farther between.
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