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Archive for February, 2012

Communities – Dear Recruiters…

Monday, February 27, 2012 @ 03:02 PM
Phil Wride

Whilst I’m hoping this post doesn’t come across as too much of a rant there’s something I’ve definitely noticed when it comes to Community Management. Recruiters don’t get it. Ok so I know internally we as Community Managers haven’t yet fully agreed on what a Community Manager is or the basic responsibilities for the role given that the requirements differ from company to company. Leaving this in the background for a moment let’s come back to recruiters.

I unfortunately have very little time for them unless they are genuine, bonafide digital recruiters with a track record in this space. Sending me a message on LinkedIn alerting me to a “Social Media Manager” role after looking at my profile page comes with a lingering smell of cluelessness. My profile clearly states Community Manager and Strategist with an emphasis on the strategy. Therefore it’s a pretty safe bet I’m not looking for a Social Media Manager role as that’s widely regarded as a Channel Manager rather than a Community Manager.

Likewise, sending me a description for a Community Management job that doesn’t make sense and uses the wrong terminology will automatically get my claws pointing in your direction (figure of speech, I haven’t got any!). Please please please, if you are a recruiter take the time to understand the landscape, the terminology and general responsibilities of a Community Manager and how it differs from a Social Media Manager. Don’t just blindly accept the brief to fill a position and then hope you stumble upon someone that might fit the bill because you don’t fully understand what’s actually being asked for. Further to that, it would be great for us if you actually spent time educating your clients and tweaking their roles accordingly.

That’s not to say there aren’t some fantastic recruiters out there in the digital space, there are and I’ve met a number of them but there seems to be an increasing number of “generalists” who are trying to move in to digital. Time to wise up and understand how the game is played. Rant over.

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Safer Internet Day, Feb 7th – Connecting Generations

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 @ 02:02 PM
Phil Wride

Today is Safer Internet Day and I’ve got the pleasure of attending an event that will be sprinkled with MPs, young people, grandparents and various industry stakeholders. The subject for Safer Internet Day this year is Connecting Generations and it is interesting to learn how different demographics view and use the internet.

As a tenuous link to Community Management, crossing the generational divide and understanding what it is different demographics want from their internet experience can aid you in building your community. If you are targeting younger people how do you plan to gain buy in from parents or guardians? If you are targeting the slightly older generation what functionality do you need to include, or terminology?

On the safety side of things, what different moderation tools do you need to include and what self-service options should there be for users to help themselves resolve or report an issue? I can appreciate every community is different, and that different platforms come with their own challenges but some of the fundamentals remain the same; catering to your audience and being able to manage the community.

For more information about Safer Internet Day and the activities going on head over to the UK Safer Internet Centre.

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Communities – #digitaltrends12 To Keep An Eye On

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 @ 10:02 AM
Phil Wride

Yesterday morning I attended a #digitaltrends12 breakfast briefing hosted by the Hotwire group, one of the UK’s leading PR / Digital agencies. With a combination of speakers from Hotwire, the Financial Times and eBay it looked at what some of the major digital trends for this year will be.

So how does this relate to online communities? Well, four of the topics covered I think have relevance and three of them I’ve already written about here on the blog.

  • Forums
  • Tablets
  • Gamification
  • Interest Graph

Forums aren’t dead and this point was covered off by eBay who mentioned their forums / boards continue to grow in size and number of contributions. Tablets (and mobile) are now one of the main ways to access Social Networks and it’s important to ensure your community is mobile and tablet friendly. Gamification, a hot topic at the moment but something that many communities already have built in without even realising it.

That leaves the Interest Graph. With Facebook adding more verbs and the ability to read what your friends are reading, listen to what music they are playing and various other bits and pieces focusing on the Interest Graph dimension could pay dividends for online communities. When someone registers for your community and they don’t yet have any existing relationships with other members why not look at suggesting associations or members with similar interests? Having a field on the registration form or in the edit profile area for personal interests could open up a whole new avenue for community building; bringing people together in to smaller related groups, proposing mutual relationships, easing new members in to your environment.

The other question to ask; will users start to expect this from your community if it becomes the norm on the big social networks like Facebook. If so, wouldn’t it be better to start looking at it now rather than later?

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Philip Wride – Social Media Marketer and Community Manager