The Basics of Online Community Management - as prepared and presented for The PA Network

1. Community Management
A CRASH COURSE IN ONLINE FACILITATION
Susan Tenby
SusanTenby.com
@suzboop
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susantenby

2. Many Roles of the community manager
 Public Face
 Adding Personal Touch/ Trust element
 Metrics and Sentiment: Listening for Organizational Health
 Conversation Facilitator
 Cheerleader
 Volunteer Manager
 Content Editor/Curator
 Party Host

3. Benefits to Online Community
Facilitation
 Give your members a meaningful place to connect between mtgs
 Starting & archiving of thoughtful conversations for future reference
 Provide value to your members
 Geo-location is not an issue
 Encourage affiliate topical sub-group membership
 Encourage a members-only tone to community and lexicon
 Get user input and buy-in
 Procure relevant, dynamic and current content
 Recruit Staff and Volunteers

4. Being a Community Manager
 Own the space
 Stick to a consistent TOS and refer to it when members misbehave
 Help to moderate and close off-topic conversations
 Cross-reference appropriate outside resources
 Cultivate a community of stars
 Benefit from the network by sharing your expertise
 Have management mtgs with Star members to solicit their feedback

5. Profile Personalization
 Create a rich profile with multiple points of contact and a picture
 Encourage other members to do the same
 Connect with other members on outside social networks
Not like this incomplete profile,
but at a minimum, post your
picture

6. Lead by Example
 Create clear paths for members to excel up the ladder
New Member:
Lurker
Participant:
asker
Host:
answerer

7. All three levels are important

8. Every member wants to feel like a
Rockstar
 Ensure your VIPs (Very Important Participants) feel special.
 Mention those who recommended them
 Highlight the contributions of star members
 Invite their ideas and feedback

9. Research and Share, close the loop
 If a member asks a question, and you know the answer, answer it
 If you don’t know the answer, reach out or look it up
 The benefit to all members is important to remember – don’t just answer
to one person
 The more rich and summarized the answer, the more value it is to the
community
 Model this culture of generosity and helpfulness

10. No one wants to dance at an empty
party
 Start conversation threads that encourage members to share
their expertise
 “Is it ever OK to …?”
 “Is … right about …?”
 Has anyone tried…?
 This type of question will perform well in a community of practice with experts
 Share favorite resources regularly, as a generous gesture

11. Create Engaging Post titles
 Helps to make problem more universal, not specific to one case
 Don’t be too vague – be direct in the title
 “Does Anyone know how to---?” questions tend to yield many responses
This one received no
engagement b/c it
required further reading
to understand the need

12. Mobile Version
 A mobile version is available for your forum at panetwork.ning.com
 When you find yourself updating Instagram or FB, peruse the forum
threads
 Try adding images to your posts to capture scrolling reader’s attn
Forward thread feature
auto-populates with
subj and link – send
reminder to yrself

13. Introduce yourself and welcome others
 Start a pinned/featured Introductions Thread
 All of you should introduce yourselves
 Encourage members to introduce themselves. Ask users to answer a fact
about themselves and their interest in PA work/network
 Give new members a call to action, something to do

14. Create a culture in your community
 Along with a TOS, there are cultural conventions unique to each
community
 These include exclusive lexicon and traditional posting themes
 Introduce regular, repeatable conventions
 For ex, Thankful Thursday, to show gratitude to members
 Or pick a specific resource-sharing day
 Bring in monthly experts online to do Q&A online events

15. Advertise your community
 Mention a join us link to the community in your Linkedin
 Include a link in your sigline and use that signature when you want to
encourage other PAs to join
 Encourage your up-and-coming members to share their community
participation with their own networks

16. Solicit Feedback
 You can ask community members about specific topics that they may have
expertise in
 But you can also solicit their feedback regarding what you all could do to
improve the PA Network
 If you see posts with questions languishing, cross-post them to another
community and be sure to request that they answer on the PA Network
 Email pitches : “Hey, I thought you may know the answer”
 FB posts: “Hey Friends, who has an interior painter that they LOVE? “
….. AND LINK BACK TO PA NETWORK

17. Answering pre-asked Questions by Re-
Routing
 If a question gets asked frequently, point the asker to the previous thread,
so multiple or “forked” threads do not occur on the same topic
 Consider summarizing the replies into one blog post (written by one of the
moderators or community members)
 Point future Q askers to this longer-form content

18. Bulletin Boards are another name for
Forums
 Think of the community as a virtual town square
 Encourage participants and community groups to share local
announcements, news, recommendations – not just questions
 Share articles, reports, guides, presentations that you find useful

19. Most are Lurkers: Encourage them up
the ladder of engagement
 On online discussion groups, some will post frequently, some will post
occasionally, and many will just "lurk" and never post at all, or send
questions or comments directly to you instead
 Model the appropriate behavior by re-routing misguided questions
 Build trust by answering openly and within 24 hours

20. Resources

Online Community Resources
Resources compiled or written by Nancy White
 http://www.fullcirc.com/commresources.htm
thecommunitymanager.com
Free Online Community Management Resources On The Web - The Online Community Guide
There are a lot of free resources available on the web to help newcomers and experienced
professionals become better Community Mangers.
Online Facilitation
An online community on YahooGroups facilitated by Nancy White. It is a community for people that
facilitate/moderate online discussion groups, including communities of practice.
onlinefacilitation.wikispaces.com
A comprehensive resource by Nancy While on various, very specific aspects of building and
facilitating online communities.
Top 24 Communities for the Community Manager
by Jenn Pedde, at thecommunitymanager.com