Gary is very wise, and I hope you will all check out this great video.
As I continue as Community Manager for PicApp, I constantly am trying to assess how much I have done, who is listening, how can we grow the community, and watching Gary Vaynerchuk’s video put me at ease, and opened my eyes.
You have a community when even one person is listening is very important stuff for every blogger to realize.
Originally posted on June 5, 2008 @ 2:06 pm
Deb, a good friend of mine online, has recently announced her own Community Manager position with BlogTalkRadio, which only furthers how I feel about blogging as a career and the transferrable skills that come with it.
I’ve been saying for some time now as blogging reaches the main stream more full time, salaried gigs are going to open up. Corporations will want bloggers and social networking gurus on staff to help spread the word about their products and services. David and I are both proof of that.
Deb Ng is going to be great in the new position, an BlogTalkRadio couldn’t have picked a better person. This has meant changing her freelance blogging routine, but other than losing some of the great content she produced, I couldn’t be happier for her.
Other companies might want to take note of this, and start talking to some talented bloggers before your competition offers them a career first!
Originally posted on June 9, 2008 @ 5:44 pm
When I started my new job as Community Manager for PicApp, I knew it would take up a fair bit of my time, especially since it isn’t a job I am completely familiar with. I love to talk, I love to connect with bloggers, but I don’t think of myself as a public relations person.
Today, we received a mention on TechCrunch (big thanks to b5media for all that they do) which sent things into a crazy spiral with a fair bit of people noticing the article, and as such the PicApp service. It has been a fun whirlwind.
I have so many articles queued up in my brain on promoting a site, brand management, and whatnot, so keep an eye out for a return to near daily posting here.
Originally posted on May 30, 2008 @ 11:12 pm
So, by now you have all probably heard about my new job, as Community Manager for PicApp, and you are probably asking yourself “what does that mean? What will he do?”
To sum it up in one sentence, I will be the bridge between bloggers and the company, passing information between both parties in ways that make sense and are efficient. I will be the contact point for the community, making sure your voice is heard inside the company, and that the features you want to see are prioritized properly.
On the flip side, I will be the voice of the company, letting you know how things are progressing, and being an open window into the companies thought process. I will help you make the most of PicApp, and in turn, you will help me and PicApp through your critiques of the service.
If you are looking for a service to provide you with the best images possible for your blog posts, and you can’t afford the high prices of most stock photography websites, you should definitely be checking out PicApp, and let me know what you think of it.
Let me know what you like and dislike about it, or what features you are looking for. You have a chance to work with me on making this the best photo service ever, don’t let it pass.
Originally posted on May 7, 2008 @ 4:09 pm
One thing that keeps popping up lately is how different people expect communities to rise up and work together. Communities are hard to build. They don’t happen over night, and you can’t force them. I have been part of many forums since connecting to the Internet, and very few have been able to sustain themselves for any long period of time.
Much like the trend I am seeing with blogs, forums rise in popularity, do well for a period of time, and then slowly decline as a new site takes its place.
Someone asked me how easy it would be to build a community forum around their site, where each person helped each other, much like happens on WordPress’ support forum, and just like with other people that have asked me, I had to tell them that it isn’t easy.
Most of the time when I am searching Google to try to find a solution to a problem, I run across forums where the problem is posted, a dozen people agree that the problem exists, but no one ever chimes in to solve it.
This is the case on a variety of forums because once you have found your answer, most people forget to come back and share it with others. This even occurs on the WordPress Support forum from time to time.
If you want to build a community, there are a few things that need to take place.
Don’t think that having one person leading a community of thousands is enough. You will want to put in place a group of around one “leader” type personality for every few hundred members.
The leaders must be strong willed individuals willing to carry conversations, and spend a fair bit of time doing damage control, polling the needs of the user base, solving issues, answering questions, and starting most of the biggest and best conversations.
You would assume that people joining a forum would have a common need, but that isn’t always the case, and this can be due to weak leadership. Think long and hard about what needs the forum is trying to fulfill, and make sure users, before they sign up, understand exactly why the forum was created.
Don’t just expect them to help each other, most people in any community are looking for ways to help themselves, not spend all day helping others. What do you offer them above a place to air their problems? What does you community do for your members?
Why do most forums have multiple topics about the same issue? Because the normal forum interface is horrible for finding the information you need and want, or even just learning where the more active conversations are.
This is why many communities are trying a variety of different setups in hopes of optimizing the user experience, reducing repeat posts, and encouraging conversation.
When it comes to phpBB forums, I don’t even participate if they don’t have some form of Quick Reply hack installed.
One system that I like is the Talk section on BlogFlux. The only issues I see are the lack of a top discussions list, and the ability to subscribe to conversations in some way, but I find it much nicer to use than most traditional forum software.
Eighty percent of the content on any community forum is going to come from twenty percent of the membership. This is pretty much a bankable fact. If you have all the other key factors in place, for every hundred members you have, only twenty will really put time and energy into growing or communicating with the community.
What’s sometimes worse is that out of the twenty percent, only half are there to help the community, while the other half are usually only there to help themselves. Certain types of users can be detrimental to a community, even if they are providing a wide variety of content.
A community is a wonderful thing, and can be very powerful, but if you try to force it, or manage it incorrectly, you will only be doing yourself and your members a disservice, and most likely, they will move on to a more vibrant, helpful place to get the answers or help they seek.
Originally posted on May 11, 2008 @ 5:56 pm