Posts tagged as:

social media

Social Media: You Either Get it Or You Don’t

by Deb Ng on January 30, 2009

in Business, Community Manager Jobs, General, Insights

community-outreach

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.

Tagged as: Community Management, community manager, social media

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Mistakes and Advice in Community Management

by David Peralty on January 30, 2009

in Community Management, Insights

Mashable has a great article up that I think all Community Managers should read entitled, HOW TO: Survive a Social Media Revolt.

Hulu recently made a mistake in how it removed content from its site, and its community turned on the company rather quickly. Of course they tried to fix the mistake, but some damage was already done.

Muhammad Saleem goes over some things that they could have done that would have stopped this whole mess from hurting their brand.

My favourite section, also the first tip from Muhammad is:

Communicate Even If You Have Nothing to Say
It baffles me to see that most of the people running popular social media sites (and new media sites in general) hardly communicate with their communities. When they do, it’s usually for one of two reasons, either an announcement of new features (which is useful for PR purposes), or to apologize for their mistakes (these apologies usually come after massive uproar, not in the absence of). Write to your community and participate in your community even if you don’t have something ground breaking to say, and definitely communicate with your community if you’re going to be making changes that will effect thousands of loyal users.

Read the other four lessons over on Mashable.

Tagged as: community management mistakes, handling mistakes, social media

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You Are What You Tweet

by Deb Ng on January 22, 2009

in Twitter

twitterbird

I recently unfollowed a couple of people from Twitter. The first I unfollowed because of spam. I stopped following the second person because most of her posts are laden with profanity and followed up with “Don’t like swearing? Too bad. Don’t follow me then.” Well ok. I don’t follow people for the sake of haiving a large pool of followers, anyway.

I’m not a prude.  Though cursing doesn’t hold the same pleasure for as it did during my teens, I’ve been know to throw out a bad word now and then, particularly if pain is involved. However, I’m of the belief that creative people can get their points across without resorting to profanity or vulgarity.

You are what you Tweet. Whether you use Twitter for business or pleasure, folks have to think about what they put out there. Employers are cruising Google and the social networks to see what employees and potential employees are up to. Maybe some people don’t think about this stuff - or even care. I do. I care how my community sees me and the example I put forth.

The folks I meet on Twitter are friends, colleagues and even perhaps important business contacts. Why turn them off? I’m not saying not to be you, but it’s always a good idea to take some time out and think about what we’re tossing out there.

When you use Twitter, does it matter to you what your followers think?

Tagged as: Community, social media, social netwowrking, Twitter

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Community Promotion

by David Peralty on December 29, 2008

in Community Building Tips

Once you’ve worked for a long time building a community, how do you get it to that next level? How do you promote it and get it more general attention?

It can be hard to promote because it might now have amazing content like other blogs and website that you can use social media promotion methods for, nor will it have a singular brand name that will always draw people in, unless the leader or a prominent community member is well known.

So then how do you promote your community in order to grow it and make it “better”?

There are some simple techniques that can be used, dependent on how the community is structured.

Write a Blog

If you don’t have any content on your community forum that you can easily promote, then start a blog for the community, and begin to place in depth articles on it about the product, service, or company and its usefulness.

Start a Podcast

Hearing someone’s voice helps create a connection, and so an audio podcast can be exactly what a community needs to draw in new members. The barrier for entry into podcasting has been reduced over the last two years, and there are many services available to do live podcasting, which would allow your community to participate in the show.

Contest

A great way to expand your community is to set up a contest. Make prizes for those that are newly registered, or those that get the most new members. This can sometimes exponentially expand your community, but be cautious, as contests can set certain expectations, or bring people that will detract from the community.

Attend Events

Get to where the people you want to connect with are, even if it is outside of your normal niche. If you have a piece of software that could appeal to bloggers, then you should be attending blog conferences in hopes of meeting people that interest you, and would make great additions to your community.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the many promotional techniques available to community managers as they look for avenues to grow the community that they are paid to maintain. Think outside your niche, and your normal techniques.

Tagged as: blogging, contest, events, podcasting, promotion, social media

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