Posts Tagged ‘Community Management’
Safer Internet Day, Feb 7th – Connecting Generations
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.
Communities – Planning For Internal Growth
Whilst a lot of Community Managers focus on community growth (and that’s not a bad thing) there’s another dimension they need to be aware of, especially if you are a one-man band in your organisation. What do your growth plans look like internally if your community suddenly experiences an influx of new users or your organisation expands in to new markets?
Chances are your community will have a core language or target audience based on location. Adding new language support or trying to entice new users from a different territory will need a change of focus. Do you expand your internal team to meet this new requirement? If so, what does the reporting structure and process look like? Who focuses on the tactical and who on the strategic? Do you expand with a new recruit for each new market or language?
Do these new recruits sit in the same office as you or do they work remotely / in local territory offices? These are a few of the questions that I may be faced with in the future as the company expands and looks at new markets. My experience at EA may well have shaped my responses to the above questions but the setup they had there worked well; local CMs for the major territories based in the local territority offices, weekly status calls and yearly offsite symposiums to discuss strategy. Having them based in local territory offices meant they were in a better position to cater to local users and potentially bridge that gap with offline events.
Each organisation and each community is different but the main focus has to remain on the user and what will give them the best experience.