The Community Manager Basics Guide is a good starter guide for anyone new to community management. Some of the topics covered include: On-boarding new members, dealing with trolls, choosing moderators and keeping users engaged.

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Table of Contents
Introduction
Being Authentic
Onboarding New Members
Dealing with Trolls
Choosing and Managing Moderators
Keeping Users Engaged
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Introduction
The following guide covers five key aspects of community management. It has been written for
those new to community management, but there may be some concepts or strategies the
seasoned Community Managers may wish to try.
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Being Authentic
The most important part of community management is you, the community manager. How will
you interact with your community? The community manager position is relatively new but
should be taken very seriously. A community manager is on the front lines and has to wear
many hats ( PR, support, moderation, crisis management, etc.) and also be savvy about
different online tools. Then there is the whole aspect of community interaction. How should
you, as a community manager, interact with your community? How will you present yourself?
The best philosophy, or way to approach the role of community management is to be yourself.
People can read through the phoniness or creepiness of a corporate voice.
The importance of ‘authenticity’ cannot be overstated. Even though your end goal might be to
increase sales or customer satisfaction, it will be an uphill battle getting people to join you in
building an active community if your persona is that of cold corporate drone. People are smart
and will not want to spend time on a community run by robots. Find a voice that lets you be
yourself while still representing your employer’s brand. A good community manager can
interact with people in a way that is empathetic and personable while always being consistent
with the brand’s objectives, culture, and policies.
One of the first things you will want to do as a community manager is to spend time on your
profile. While it might seem like a small thing, your profile sends an important message to the
community. Choose a username that is either your real name, a nickname or something
playful. It’s weird to talk to Acme Inc or make a close connection with Admin #4. In
conjunction with a real name, choose an avatar that shows your personality. No one wants to
interact with a company logo. Make it a clear photo, or something that showcases your
personality. Obviously, in a business community, a headshot might be more appropriate than
a shot of Mickey Mouse. The choice of avatar is the visual representation behind your words,
so choose wisely, and in keeping with the kind of community you hope to have or build.
When it comes to non­community
forum profiles (like on social media), if you decide (or are
required) to use a corporate logo as an avatar, make sure people can tell who the person is
behind that logo. You need to make it obvious that it’s people interacting with people. So while
you avatar pic might be a logo, sign your posts with a name and link to a page that has
community manager profiles or bios.
Once you have an authentic profile, you will want to ensure your “community voice” is real.
Keep the marketing speak or corporate words out of your posts. You want to ask questions,
be curious and listen. Most importantly, you want to ensure that the content you share
provides value. Sure sometimes you need to share information for your company, but you can
also post a funny photo or maybe even an insight or two (that you are allowed to share). Who
doesn’t want to feel like they are getting the inside scoop or being asked for ideas about how
to make something better?
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Finally, engage with others in a real way. Try to reply to people when they mention you.
Introduce members to others who may have common interests. Think of it like a big cocktail
party and you are the host. You will want to make sure everyone is having a good time with a
cold drink and something good to eat. You cannot just sit in the corner and listen to your MP3
player. Your job is to keep things moving but you will eventually want it to get it
self­sustaining,
so helping people make connections will increase stickiness. Remember, a
community is full of members who are real people, with other places to be. You want to be
real and make it enjoyable. So be honest, be yourself and build a two­way
dialogue that is
real with your community.
So in conclusion, begin by being authentic, so you are starting on the right foot.
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Onboarding New Members
On­boarding
new members is one of the most critical responsibilities for a community
manager. The more activity in your community, the more valuable it becomes. Getting people
to participate and come back depends greatly on those initial experiences. The following are
some tips to help you with the onboarding of new members.
#1 – Make sure new members get a welcome email with a call to action. When new
members join your community, consider sending a personalized welcome email and ensure
that it includes a clear call­to­action.
For example, encourage them to update their profile with
a photo, or update other details, such as their hobbies. The time to get people engaged is
right from the start, as they are only new members once.
#2 – Follow up with new members after a few weeks. If they don’t update their profile, or
are not engaged in the community after one or two weeks, it might be worthwhile to reach out
again. For example, you can ask if there is something you can do to help them get started.
#3 – Setup a thread for new members for introductions. Encourage new users to
introduce themselves to the community and suggest some things that they can share about
themselves. Consider creating a new thread or category entitled “New to the community?
Introduce yourself”.
#4 Setup a thread or category for new member (newbie) questions and forum rules. A
“Get Started” category can be great place to to include your code of conduct and FAQs.
#5 – Share the inside scoop on how the community works. There is how the community
literally works – the things you can do with the software, and there’s things like rituals, how
moderation works or seasonal events that are a big deal.
#6 – Recruit your super users or volunteer moderators to help out with onboarding.
There’s nothing worse than a first time poster’s question going unanswered or first time
comment going unnoticed. Posting somewhere for the first time is a big deal, encourage your
regulars to pay attention to first timers and give them a pat on the back or +1 a question if it
goes unanswered.
#7 Get feedback on community improvements and suggestions for the onboarding
process from your new members. After the second or third month of membership, you
might consider an email survey or a poll in your forum. Ask them what they like or dislike
about the community, or invite them to share suggestions on how you can make the
on­boarding
process better. Asking for feedback to make things better is a great way to
ensure you are doing the right things in keeping your community healthy and growing.
#8 Measure to identify future volunteers from your new members. Keep an eye on the
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community stats of members and identify new members who are still highly engaged after 4 to
6 months. Consider approaching them about getting involved further, for example, writing blog
content or volunteering to join the welcoming committee to engage right away with your
newest members.
These are only some tips to assist you in increasing and growing your community, but there
are certainly more that can be done.
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Dealing with Trolls
Your community is humming along, and all of a sudden, an individual joins who takes
personal pleasure in disrupting your community. It may be inflammatory remarks, attacking
others for no reason, or simply taking an extreme contrarian view on every topic to drive
everyone nuts. Unfortunately, it also means your community may have a troll problem. Civility
and logic pretty much go out the window with trolls. They are not in your community to build
relationships, to add to the discussion, or be friends. They have come solely to cause
mayhem. So what can a community manager do? Below are three tips we have seen to be
effective when dealing with trolls.
#1 Identify properly, but never name someone a troll
If you realize you have a troll problem, or an individual is being a troll, don’t call them out as a
troll. Not only will you give them the attention they seek, you could be wrong and make
someone who wasn’t really a troll, feel like they need to live up to that label. Keep in mind that
trolls are different than someone who makes a one­off
controversial comment. A troll is
someone who comes to your community to cause disruption across your community and revel
in joy as others fall into their trap. If you do identify an individual as a troll, advise your
moderators and keep an eye on them in case you need to take further action.
#2 Do not engage with the troll in direct confrontation
You often hear “don’t feed the trolls” and if your community has a web­savvy
audience, they
should already be familiar with this advice. The thought behind this advice is responding to
the antics of trolls encourages them to continue to be disruptive. Trolls will purposefully not
listen to logic and they don’t care to abide by your forum rules. If you see people in your
community engaging in verbal wars with trolls, remind them that ignoring an inflammatory
comment is the best course of action and explain how they can flag future offensive posts.
Finally, don’t be shy to delete or close discussions that cause your community harm.
#3 Use the moderation tools at your disposal.
If a troll starts to become a major disruption and won’t respond to friendly warnings, it might
be time to use some of the forum software moderation functionality. While some may think
banning the account or blocking an IP address is a good enough remedy, it’s not the effective
solution it once was. It’s easy for a banned user to re­register
under a new name. Usually all it
takes is a new email address. Even an IP address ban is not perfect. Many modern ISP’s
(Internet Service Providers) use dynamic (ever changing) IP address and it’s easy for a troll to
use a proxy to get around any ban you have in place.
So what is the best plugin or add­on?
Most forum software has a feature that lets you mark a
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member as a ‘Troll’. This makes them invisible to everyone but themselves. The point of these
plugins is to make the troll waste their time, posting away, while your community continues
on, completely unaware. Once a Troll gets bored, because no one is interacting with them,
the hope is that they will move on to another target and leave your community alone. By
so­called
“freezing them out”, you can avoid situations from escalating out of control and the
community can become almost self­sufficient
at combating trolls.
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Choosing and Managing Moderators
One day your forum may grow to the point that you may want to consider adding moderators
to help manage your community. A moderator (or Mod) is a member of the community that
can be given privileges beyond normal users and can be a Godsend if you are swamped with
community management tasks. Some of the powers a moderator can be given include:
pinning topics, locking discussions, deleting or moving posts, issuing warnings or even
banning members. In short, a moderator becomes your representative in the forum, enforcing
your community rules and being your eyes and ears in the forum. For this reason, you really
need to make sure you choose the right moderator and manage them correctly. But how can
you select the right person in your community? Below we have come up with some tips for
choosing (and afterwards managing) moderators. We hope that they come in handy.
Choosing A Moderator
Since choosing a representative for you and your brand is crucial to the community, make
sure you take the proper time for your decision. Regardless of how long you take, discussions
about who should become a moderator should be done in private, either via email or personal
message. Talking publicly in your community about moderator selection will only add drama
to your life that you don’t need. Besides keeping the discussions private between you and the
selective candidates, here are some traits and questions to think about when selecting a
moderator:
● Have they been campaigning to be a moderator? The best moderators tend to be ones
who are reluctant (but willing). Be wary of anyone asking or contacting you for a
position as moderator.
● Do they understand your goal or mission of the community?
● Are they passionate about the topic?
● Do they actively participate in the community on a regular basis? Over an acceptable
timespan (more than 6 months)? It’s not so much post count, but do they visit on a
regular basis without being prompted.
● Are they someone who reports violators of rules of the community to your team? (i.e.
do they flag posts, or do they walk by and ignore issues).
● Do they tend be even­tempered
in their behaviour and their responses, including
rational with the irrational and patient with the new?
● Do they follow the rules themselves? Might be a bad idea to select a moderator if they
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don’t follow your rules.
● When they add comments to a discussion are they detailed and full of insight, or are
most of their comments monosyllabic?
● Are they well respected by others in the community ?
● If you have an existing Mod team, will their personality fit in with the rest of the mod
team?
When selecting a moderator, you may want to ask other moderators for their opinion (if this is
not your first pick), or from others within your company that may propose an interesting
selection you might have missed.
Managing Moderators
Once you find the right moderator, you cannot put your community on auto­pilot
and hope
your new moderator “gets it”. The moderators are your representative in the community, so
it’s important to train them, but also share your expectations with them. The end goal is to
ensure consistency with how they moderate the community. Here are some things to consider
when it comes to managing your new moderator:
● Create a space for moderators to chat in your community among themselves and you.
● Encourage them to ask questions, seek guidance where they want clarification.
● Monitor their actions and correct where necessary by providing polite constructive
feedback.
● Make sure they share with you major decisions like when they delete content, close a
discussion or ban a user.
● You still have the duty to moderate, but in your role as a community manager, you will
want to ensure consistent application of the rules.
● You may also wish to create some moderator guidelines, not only because it will help
them, but it will help you if your community continues to grow and you need more
moderators.
● Some communities use a probation period to make sure new moderators capture the
right tone.
● Take proper time to review how they are doing and provide feedback.
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Rewarding Moderators
Being a moderator is usually a volunteer (unpaid) role, but that does not mean you cannot
reward them in other ways. Make sure to say thank you and encourage them in private and
public. Involve them in discussions about the future of the community and listen to their
suggestions.You might consider sending them some swag or the occasional gift. Sometimes
even a small thank you card in the mail can go a long way in making people feel valued for
their contributions.
Final Thoughts
Nobody is perfect. Sometimes in spite of your best intentions you might choose the wrong
person to be a moderator. Do not be afraid to remove a moderator if you made a mistake.
Leaving a bad moderator in your community can cause damage to your community and even
worse, member morale. Act quick and fairly. If you’ve tried to correct their behaviour and
things have not improved, sometimes it’s just time to move on. Do not discuss the issue in
public as much as you may be tempted and don’t be shy to try again. With the experience
under your belt you will get better at not making the same mistake twice.
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Keeping Users Engaged
Community engagement is more than just increasing pageviews or the number of registered
users. You need to look at member actions. Does your most active user list fluctuate or is it only
one or two members who dominate? Do users return after their first visit and engage with the
community? Do you have lots of lurkers but few posters? These are the kind of things you will
want to tackle to keep users engaged. Below are some tips to help make that happen.
1- Create an email newsletter to highlight content in the community.
A great way to keep users in the loop, and have them come back to your site, is by simply letting
them know “what's new”. Email software like MailChimp, is super easy to use even for people
who are not design experts. It’s also a great way to highlight discussions, topics or events
occurring in your community. Over the month, you can bookmark discussions, or keep a draft
handy to remember what content to include. With the newsletter you can also reward engaged
members. For example, a community for small business owners could award a member with the
highest number of karma points a free banner or ad slot in that month’s newsletter. Regardless
of how you approach what content to include, the goal is to pique user interest, so they come
back to the community and participate.
2- Choose a Forum Software that has email notifications that bring users back to the
community.
Choose a forum software that allows users to get email notifications. In Vanilla, for example,
when a user is mentioned in a forum post, they will get an email telling them that they were
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mentioned. This is on by default. In the email, the actual comment is not included. This is to drive
the mentioned user back to the community and engage with the poster.
3- Enable social media sharing, but use social media content to direct people back to your
community.
Social media networks are a great way to engage users and bring their attention to community
content that may be interesting. There are two ways to use social media for community
engagement.
For inbound purposes, I have found Twitter to be most effective. It’s a great way to share a
discussion with your followers and invite them to comment. To be effective, you want to make
sure to invite new (and existing) users sign up and follow you on Twitter. Include your Twitter
handle on the initial email to members, when they join your forum, and include it in your
monthly newsletter. If you use your community as a support tool, you can also gently remind
users to engage in the community.
Some brands use Facebook. This can be tough, as discussions might happen on Facebook, and
not on your community. If you do use Facebook, encourage them in the message to discuss
things in the community. Also, if you decide to employ this strategy, enable social logins on your
community platform so new users can easily create an account to engage.
As an outbound strategy, make it easy for users to share content from your community. Enable
simple Twitter or Facebook share buttons, or use a service like ShareThis.
4- Use gamification features, but tie it to something meaningful.
Use your community platform to reward positive behaviour. One way you can do this is by
creating unique and creative badges, but it can also be by tying positive engagement to special
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privileges earned with karma points. Some of the perks you could give include, access to a
special insider category, or ability to add a signature in their posts.
5- Have a content schedule and plan to create content worth talking about.
Especially when you start out, ensure you or your team have a plan to post content that creates
discussion. Focus on interactions by always thinking about why members should care to engage.
Maybe take a contrarian point of view or include a poll.
The goal is to get people talking. Ask opinions, solicit ideas, collect suggestions. In short, ask for
users to engage with you. Always think about how you can get interaction and avoid just
publishing great reading material.
Summary
Keeping users engaged takes work, but using a combination of email marketing, gamification,
social media and great content, you can encourage your members to keep engaging with you.
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