There’s a New Home for #Cmgrchat! June 2, 2011

You won’t see too many posts (if any) on this here wordpress.com page in the future.  WordPress.com has been a pretty good home to us since we first started this chat in September of 2010, but as the chat has grown, so has the needs of the community.   I always hoped this was a temporary site, and that’s indeed what has happened.

I am extremely happy to announce the official launching of TheCommunityManager.com.

So if you’re receiving notifications of new posts via email from this site, you’ll have to head over to TCM to change that.  There’s now a fancy RSS feed on the new page, and there will be much more content for you to enjoy as a community manager or social media friend.  We have posted all of the previous digests on The Community Manager, as well as wrap ups for the NYC #CMMeetup events, and posts from the recent Blog World Expo.  In the future you can expect a lot more in the way of resources, events, news, and all things community.

I’d like to thank all of you who have continued to be a part of #cmgrchat each and every week.  Your support is invaluable and TheCommunityManager.com should feel like your little corner of the internet.   All feedback is welcome, and if you’d like to write for the site, we’d be honored to have you!

Also, with any good community management website, make sure to follow us on Twitter:   @TheCMGR or Like us on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/TheCMGR

 

And of course you can always follow us on the usual accounts:   @JPedde  @Kellylux  @CmgrChat

4/13 – Building Community: Facebook April 27, 2011

We’ve had an interesting time trying to put together these digests.  As you may or may not know, wthashtag.com is no longer so in creating a digest from the transcript has been nothing short of a task.  Luckily Janet from OneForty suggested RowFeeder and it now creates a google doc of all the tweets.  So if you would like the transcript from these chats, please leave a comment below or send me an email and I’ll forward it over!

This week’s chat is the start of our Building Community series and we’ll be looking at various platforms in depth.  We start with that behemoth, Facebook, and figuring out what it all looks like.

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Q1.  Is your goal always to increase likes? What other goals/priorities do you have on Facebook?

SocialMedBtrfly: Likes are good, comments better, shares are the end-all-be-all 🙂

evanhamilton:  I’m mainly posting links to blog content, so likes are less interesting than actual clickthroughs.

LovelyLu: Goal is to engage the audience, would rather seen comments than likes!

SYRDT: Engagement is a HUGE focus, we want to hear from people… the good, the bad and hopefully not too often the ugly!

HSirhan: Talking about FB ‘engagement’ is difficult. FB is *not* a community replacement but an audience platform

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Q2) What are the key data points you focus on in FB insights & what are “Good” numbers?

evanhamilton: Upwards growth. If it’s flat or going down at all, something is bad. Other than that, I look at the % engagement on each post.

mhandy1: Steady lines on FB data are also important… fewer spikes = more consistent/ committed community.

duncan_alney: daily, weekly, monthly users – also tracking evangelist and detractor activity

Craig_Law: Sharing and Commenting, watching videos or viewing images, interacting with apps

GregHollings: I look for positive growth trends to paint the full picture.

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Q3) What extras do you pump into Facebook – Landing Pages? Polls? Tabs? What are good resources?

SocialMedBtrfly: Statistics show more people “like” a page coming through Landing page than through the wall

SocialMedBtrfly: For some clients, I really like to target the updates. Geographically, demographically, etc.

evanhamilton: I try to keep the page simple, but we do have our @UserVoice feedback tab in there. (disclaimer: I work at UV)

_faith: Landing pages are great for 1st time users, but have found profile pictures are good for guiding current fans to tabs/content #cmgrchat

omgitsamr: Not sure if it counts as “extra” but videos & photos are key – anything visual to keep folks on the page

RachelYeomans:  I think landing pages are necessary with the new Facebook page layout but it should be interactive in some way

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 Q4) How do you cultivate community on Facebook to keep ppl coming back? What are best practices?

HSirhan: Best practice is to ask, honestly, whether it’s the right step for your client

jprimost: Acknowledge people’s answers, participate in the comment section (in an authentic way)

omgitsamr: Mentioning people helps engagement – grabs users’ attention and sort of places responsibility on them to respond

_Faith: Sharing content from other pages, esp. partners and assoc. businesses, also commenting on their walls encourages convo.

RachelYeomans: Create engaging content, ask questions, feature semi-regular deals – keep it fun and conversational (it’s FB not your website)

7Huck: Ask fans that engage w the same topic to further develop the topic w you & share w rest of community A4 ** 🙂

tmonhollon: We underestimate the power of asking! Try asking what people active fans want from you, and doing that.

Lovelylu: You have to be part of the community, can’t just be the facilitator

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Thanks to all who participated!  Make sure to come back to #cmgrchat every Wednesday from 2-3pm EST for more chats!

If you have any ideas or suggestions for future topics, leave comments or get in touch with myself or Kelly!

4/6 Designing Engagement April 11, 2011

Sharing the right content at the right time is a challenge for anyone that uses social media. So is offering the right rewards for people who participate and engage. It all really depends on the community.

This week’s #cmgrchat echoes a lot of what Jennita Lopez of SEOmoz recently posted, which is — as CM, you have to do what works for you/your community. See How to Manage Twitter: Do it Your Way.

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Q1) How do you map out engagement, and determine what you need to do to increase it in a community?

mhandy1 On FB I look at feedback ratios… what resonates best and then break it down further to types of questions/links

mor_trisha To map out engagement, start with 1) What pain points are we trying to improve? and 2) What actions are people already doing?

tmonhollon Start with primary research: observe current & potential community where they are engaging, and ask Where, When, Why & What

RachelYeomans Oh boy let’s see – Facebook insights, Google analytics, Twitter (of course!) – just started using TwentyFeet and love it!

momnonstop I use blog views, check mentions, insights on fb and response Percent to see when/what engages

evanhamilton Actions vs views. Length of time since last sign in. Number of actions per visit. Interactions with other members

bluephoenixnyc We measure more than Fbook+Twitter; we look at Quora, blog feedback, forums in our industry. It has to be a mix of channels

thebloggerspost Authenticity in communication is key. Are you messaging just to say something or your actual message?

pushingvision I think seeing what a competitor is doing gives can you an edge and way to do it better.

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Q2) What are the best times of the day/days of the week to engage your audience?

momnonstop According to an article release by mashable for my company (salon/spa) best times are sun/thurs after hours

mor_trisha Hmm, Q2 feels very ‘push’ related. We don’t use a schedule – it is ‘engage as we can’.

ottogrl here is a must read on how to improve engagement on your brand’s Facebook page: http://t.co/mEqIKl4

RachelYeomans Every platform is different with what time(s) are best to engage – plus audiences are different on each platform

omgitsamr depends on what platform you’re engaging… for ex: stats show retweets are highest 2-5 p.m. ET

JamesVKautz I’ve found only FB is time-sensitive due to the news feed. We are the most active there in the late afternoon.

momnonstop I’m limited to three updates a week

evanhamilton I go for 8am PST, though this report about retweets says 2pm PST for RT’s http://slidesha.re/1tSyHu

timbursch Also, some B2B communities that we manage engage 9AM, 12PM, and 4-5PM, checking networks= new smoke break

_faith Engagement = actively responding & *listening*, sometimes we need to know when to let other people talk

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Q3) How do you make it easy for community members to engage (contests/other activities…)?

sarahkayhoffman Open-ended questions. Questions that allow them to talk about themselves. Contests. Sharing tabs

JamesVKautz I use an observation instead of a command, i.e. “Wow” or “This is clever” – the link speaks for itself.

WriterChanelle Honestly, I prefer to avoid contests until the community is actively participating and loyal.

Fisherish identifying influencers within the community & giving them some extent of authority will spark engagement.

corecorina Supernova makes engages by having weekly live events with online voting, and content that changes based on user engagement

RachelYeomans Yes! For Twitter, you start w/ building an audience, then maybe host a twitter contest and then perhaps a twitter chat!

_faith For FB, it’s great to share visuals– allows ppl to share differing interps, find commonalities

bluephoenixnyc Contests always seem dicey unless you’re in B2C. Otherwise, just small talk is a great start. It’s daunting, but it’s sincere.

mhandy1 Twitter chats build engagement develop community… RT contests develop fans… both should play a role

JPedde I think the best way to increase engagement is making sure it’s easy to log in, easy to find you, you’re visible, easy site nav

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Q4) What kinds of rewards are in place (built in mechanics, or points, or sm tools to identify top members)?

RachelYeomans I think the badge system is the most recognized/popular right now – we’re trying to play w/ that out for our community

Fisherish Studies show that recognition by the brand and first time brand’s insight news for top members as the most important reward

evanhamilton In our product, we’ve built in game mechanics that encourage our customers when they make their customers happy.

timbursch We still use old-school #followfriday to call out advocates.

greghollings I think badges are great but the badge system needs to grow organically and naturally, not imposed

7Huck what about discounts?

_faith Hmm, tricky, prefer to share discounts with all fans/followers, they’ve already earned 1 level of engagement

JPedde Kind of blown away by today’s chat… thanks so much to @7huck & @mhandy1, and all of the new CMs who joined, along w/ the old!

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Post by #cmgrchat contributor @7huck, Judi Huck.

Thanks to all who participated!  Make sure to come back to #cmgrchat every Wednesday from 2-3pm EST for more chats!

If you have any ideas or suggestions for future topics, leave comments or get in touch with myself or Kelly!

3/16 – Trolls and Troublemakers March 23, 2011

Way back when #CmgrChat started in September we discussed the topic of negativity in a community.  This week we dived a little deeper into it, and discussed Trolls and Trouble-Makers.  We had 416 tweets by 102 people and it was a very interesting and thought provoking discussion. The topic was also suggested by @BlaiseGV and as luck would have it, he was also in the co-pilot seat because Kelly was at SXSWi.

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Q1) How do you handle arguments or negativity that arise in your community?

rhogroupee: I like to jump in a try to defuse with humor if possible…

Mitch_M: Everything’s not responded to the same way. Bad language, threats, I delete. Otherwise, I’ll wait to see where it goes.

SocialMedBtrfly: I try and turn my detractors into protractors — I mean, promoters 😉 If they’re not on the #trollpatroll

blaisegv: With a great deal of tact. I think a #cmgr should refrain from getting sucked into one side or the other at all costs.

SueOnTheWeb: One should allow members to disagree as long as there is no name calling/abusive/personal attacks etc.

SueOnTheWeb: I would only step in as a last resort. Once a CM jumps in it can sometimes shut down the convo.

HSirhan: Think about it when you’re using forums – tight moderation is a massive put-off

mhandy1: I actually try to mitigate before and set up a POA (Plan of action) for negativity

IIABNY: Allowing & being aware of disagreements & dissent can help the organization calibrate its approach to achieving policy goals

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Q2: What does your crisis management plan look like?

mhandy1: It looks like a flow chart that categorizes behavior, and then moves to a detailed document for each category

rhogroupee: We have a roster of contact info & escalation in case things go haywire, but it seems each situation is different

wahidinwong: Let the conversation grows while others kick in to ‘correct’ is not a bad option. It in fact lite up the community interaction

HSirhan: Its useful having processes in place but ultimately a response often requires *common sense

JPedde: I alert all of the necessary team members, and we collectively decide who to involve, how to react. Try for 24 hour turnaround

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Q3: We know all about “Don’t Feed the Trolls”, but can trolls ever be good/useful? Why/Why not?

SocialMedBtrfly: It takes experience to know the diff b/t evil trolls and really frustrated customers. MUST respond to the really frustrated.

AskTim: Well, even a troll is capable of making a good point. It’s just hidden among all the insults.

toxicmenges: Trolls are EXCELLENT at making the community bond together. War time mentality

SueOnTheWeb: No good comes from a troll-But we do have 1 who pops up from time to time who can be very funny-until he wears out his welcome

wahidinwong: in some cases maybe, but most of them, No

LStacey: Trolls come in different flavours and sometimes make valid points that can spark positive discussion.

mhandy1: I try to bring trolls into product conversation and give them an ownership stake… they become amazing advocates

asq_trish: AND – If you can turn the troll to the good – you have advocate for life life(usually)

ASQ_Trish: Trolls can also make you work harder to make your community better for all

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Q4: Any tips or tricks to keep negativity down? or to avoid it? How to you maintain a nice atmosphere for all?

HSirhan: Getting interesting dicussions going – and these often can and should be OT

SueOnTheWeb: Kill em with kindness 😀

toxicmenges: never patronise your community, they’ll sniff it out, understand them, respect them

wahidinwong: Stay positive and smile sometimes help 🙂

JPedde: Use as many please and thank yous as you can in interactions. Seriously.

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Thanks to all who participated!  Make sure to come back to #cmgrchat every Wednesday from 2-3pm EST for more chats!

If you have any ideas or suggestions for future topics, leave comments or get in touch with myself or Kelly!

 

 

3/2 – Smartphones, Apps, and Community Management, Oh My. March 3, 2011

It was kind of a fun coincidence that this week’s chat topic of Apps took place directly after the Apple event announcing the new iPad2 and some of the new apps that will be featured on it.  As community managers we generally have a sick fascination with new tech toys, apps, and shiny objects.  Or that might just be me.  Regardless of the type of phone we all use, we all add, try, and delete a number of apps for a variety of reasons.   In the 554 tweets by 87 people there were quite a few amazing suggestions for apps.  See below!

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Q1 What kind of smartphone do you have? and does it matter?

HSirhan: Mostly use iPhone 4 and HTC Desire – it does matter to an extent I think

evanhamilton: G2 (Android). It’s awesome. I think it matters – the interactivity of the apps and the background tasks are essential for me.

blaisegv: I have an iPhone 3GS but switching to an HTC. I’d say depends on role but emails at least a must.

JPedde: It only matters when it comes to #apps & the availability of a lot of them in their stores.

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Q2. Can community management be done WITHOUT a smartphone?

KellyLux: I personally could not manage my life (personal or professional) at this pt, without a smartphone. It’s always by my side.

RachelYeomans: It could but wouldn’t be nearly as effective – I always have my smart phone AND iPad handy no matter what

DanKlamm: Yes, but it’s more difficult. I had a regular phone until last June- tough to live tweet events, take photos, etc.

semantic: Seems like it could, but you’d have to be tethered to a laptop at all times

rhogroupee: Smart phones facilitate faster response, but do they make it harder to take a break? Need to use them “smartly”

evanhamilton: Sure, but for most situations I say no. If you’re not available to deal with a crisis on the go, you’re in trouble.

marcuspowers77: Smartphone = faster response and reaction. But I think it depends on what your community expects and the expectation you create

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Q3) How many apps do you have on your phone? How do you manage them?

sacevero: I have 4 pages of apps on my iPhone. Haha. Folders help keep social media apps for work organized.

rhogroupee: 126 (never counted before, whew!) I do occasional purges..

elysa: Yeah I have a good 300 apps. But I’m crazy about organizing apps. I use @appolicious to manage my library/find new apps

SunnyinSyracuse: I use folders to group apps together like “Going Out” or “Shopping”

marcuspowers77: I only have 12 apps on my iphone but I use all of them regularly. I like to keep it clutter free.I’m distracted enough as it is.

elysa: oh speaking of I did a list of iPad apps I use for CM: http://appo.me/fv0me

qualitylogo: I have 8 pages’ worth of apps on my iPhone, but not every page is filled up b/c I manage them by sorting according to category

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Q4) What are the top 3 apps you can’t live without and WHY!?

pushingvision: Anyone use an app like Pandora Box or App Miner to find what apps are currently on sale?

elysa: @pushingvision I do – FreeAppADay & AppDeals are pretty cool

rhogroupee: My top 5 would be: Kik, Flixter, my GaGaJoyJoy app, Evernote, & Twitter

pushingvision: Mail, InstaGram, Echofon/Hootsuite, Facebook & Camera

amfunderburk1: My top 5 apps: Google Reader, tops news app, Twitter for Android, sticky notes and Facebook

JPedde: KIK has changed my life. Saves me $15 a month in texting!

JPedde: I love Red Laser for iPhone. Always scanning bar codes in stores for cheaper deals.

KellyLux: Hootsuite, Smartr, techDygest Instagram and @BrianSolis (yes, he’s an app)

KellyLux: My password keeper, FB, foursquare, NYTimes & PulseNews, Camera+ are some other favs

sacevero: I made a list of tools on @oneforty I use regularly–we should all compare! http://bit.ly/hXcZ5O

RachelYeomans: Seesmic, Evernote, &Google Maps- Seesmic 4 my Twitter addiction, Evernote for memos & Seesmic synch & Gmaps for not getting lost

gilmoreglobal: Jumping in! Apps: UnberSoc, BlackBerry Maps, Drivesafe.ly, QRcodescanner pro, my camera!

rjburkejr: Twitter, bitesms, and skype

elysa: Top 3 for CM purposes: Evernote (gotta have access to everything), BoxCar (push notices on tw/FB), Yammer (we use @bizzy a lot)

Triplyksis: For CM purposes on my iPad… Tap11 (iPhone app – social media), Dropbox (file syncing), FeeddlerRSS (Feed reader)

SunnyinSyracuse: Apps I can’t live without: mail, red laser, tipulator, @instagram, pandora, maps..oh wait, you only wanted 3

KellyLux: Forgot about Instapaper, Bizzy, hipmunk & Vogue Stylist.

CallFireMktg: I can’t live without Words with Friends. It’s not for work or anything, but it’s all I ever do anymore

pushingvision: Have you seen Fooducate? You scan a barcode and it rates the nutritional value and offers alternatives.

maggielmcg: Super late to the chat–apps I use every day: toodledo, Audible (addicted to audiobooks), Twitter

sarahkayhoffman: My dear @swonderlin suggested: @plancast @hashable @groupme @gowalla I’m so excited for @Bump, too!

KellyLux: I use Smartr to find good content for twitter, same for TechDygest…it cuts out all the junk & just leaves the links.

7Huck: Recent app I found pretty helpful was @ZocDoc, book appts instantly!

7Huck: There is an app for ordering movie concessions right from your seat – @munchlymobile. Putting it out there

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Thanks to all who participated! If you would like to see the entire transcript, please click here. Make sure to come back to #cmgrchat every Wednesday from 2-3pm EST for more chats!

If you have any ideas or suggestions for future topics, leave comments or get in touch with either Jenn or Kelly!