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I’ve been spending a lot of time recently thinking about organizational change management. As I work in organizations with traditional and less web savvy audiences, using an online community is a huge change for some of these people. This is especially true for communities used inside of a company or organization where people are being asked to change the way that they work. It can be even more difficult for employees in companies with very conservative cultures where people are afraid that they will jeopardize their career by saying something that isn’t quite correct or will appear less knowledgeable as a result of asking questions.
Read the full post for some thoughts about what we can learn about building online communities from organizational change management best practices.
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Yes, newsletters are a little old-school, web 1.0, not very sexy, etc., etc. However, don’t underestimate the power of a monthly email newsletter for your community. I’ve had newsletters for most online communities that I’ve managed in the past, and I work with clients to start newsletters for their communities. Newsletters are a great way to get in front of people once a month to update them with new information. The key word in that last sentence is information. If you want people to stay subscribed to your newsletter, you have to provide them with plenty of new and interesting information while keeping the promotional items to a minimum.
Read the full post for a few tips and tricks for ways to easily create an email newsletter for your online community.
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Twitter recently posted a Twitter 101 guide for businesses. It is a great resource for companies considering using Twitter or who are just starting to use the service. Historically, Twitter’s documentation has been pretty weak, and I was a little skeptical, but this resource is very well put together. It does a nice job of highlighting what to do and not do with a strong focus on the social norms and user expectations on Twitter.
Read the full blog post for more details about the specific sections that are worth reading along with which sections the more advanced users can safely skip.
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It’s important to approach your external community efforts (including social media) with clear goals and some thought for how you want to approach each site and how everything fits together. The plan should include objectives along with roles and responsibilities that clearly outline who will update each site, how often, and with what content. Without good planning, your corporate presence is likely to look either disorganized and scattered or abandoned and barren.
Read the full post for research about how organizations are incorporating external communities and social media sites in their online strategies along with some cautions about not spending at least a little time in the planning phase.
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In general, community managers for technical communities (developers, etc.) tend to make more than end user, social communities. Salary also changes significantly depending on whether the role is really more low-end, tactical moderation or something more strategic, like building a new community or revitalizing a troubled community site. Job experience, scope, management responsibilities, location and how well known the person is can also make a big difference in the salary range as mentioned above.
Read the full post for recommended salaries, some recent data and an upcoming study on online community manager compensation.
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I’ve been beta testing Iterasi’s PositivePress for a while and was excited to finally see it released to the public! It’s a great way to track and archive blog posts and articles from across the web while creating reports with links to certain articles that can be delivered to clients or friends.
Since PositivePress uses RSS feeds as input, I decided to do a quick video showing you how to use Yahoo Pipes to filter results from your RSS feed to make sure that you are only archiving and reporting on the most relevant results.
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If so, you need to vote! Here’s how it works. People who want to speak at SXSW submit proposals and other people vote on them. The popular vote makes up 30% of the decision for whether or not your session is selected. You can read the full blog post to learn more about SXSW and get links to how to vote for my sessions.
I currently have 2 presentations that are in the running:
- Techniques for Monitoring Online Conversations with Free Tools: Learn about the latest free tools and advanced techniques for monitoring online conversations across the social web. People are talking about the topics that interest you, and people are talking about you, your company and your competitors. How quickly and efficiently can you find this information now?
- Companies and Communities: Participating without being sleazy: Some companies participate in online communities and the social web with finesse, while others engage in sleazy practices that send potential customers running away. Learn some best practices and tips for engaging with communities of people online, and learn how to avoid some of the most common sleazy mistakes.
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You can still get copies of my book, Companies and Communities: Participating without being sleazy in a variety of formats:
- Paperback available for $15.99.
- Kindle version for $9.99.
- PDF eBook for $9.99.
back to top Interesting Articles from Others on Community and Social Media
Interesting reports and data points:
Tools and Hacking:
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If you made it this far down the newsletter, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to read it. You can also get most of this content and more frequent updates by subscribing to my RSS feed in a reader or by email. I also know that interests change and many people prefer to receive content via RSS, instead of email, so I will never be offended by people choosing to unsubscribe.
I plan to release these newsletters about once a month. Please feel free to send me feedback or suggestions for what you would like to see in future newsletters.
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