On the BrazenCareerist networking site, I have created a unique group - Community Managers.
This group is available to anyone working as a community manager to come together and share best practices, new ideas, etc. I encourage you to stop by the group and sign up today.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Do you know who your community really is?
As a community manager, I often find myself evaluating other communities that I visit. The most common mistake is that they do not support my needs. A possible reason for this could be that I am not within their main user group;however, by ignoring my needs they immediately close off my participation. Is this the way communities work? Does the 80/20 rule hold true for online communities?
I propose that we, as community managers, support a diverse set of customers within our community, while still ensuring that the focus remains on the critical segments. My idea is to offer support for fringe “long tail” customers to ensure that your community meets everyone's needs.
How do I do this, you ask? I’ve added a page about Market Segmentas a starting point for my community efforts. By evaluating all the various groups who could possibly visit or need support, via my online community, I am able to create a Community Project Plan that aligns the needs of these various groups with community deliverables. Of course, prioritization of work for the various groups allows the critical customers of your community to be served while still allowing time for delivery of long tail support.
As an example, when working on my latest community, I identified the following customer segments:
• Community Activists - influencers who invest significant time with the community
• Education/Research Group - people who leverage the product in university research or education
• Technical Customers - developers, users and testers
• Non-Technical Customers - marketers, industry journalists and bloggers
• Corporate Group - people who work on project as a paid employee from a corporation
• Advisory Board - "managers" of community
You can see from this list that some segments overlap, which is okay, as people come to the community at various times with different purposes. Also, I have chosen to ignore the geography of people visiting the community and will comment on that in a future blog posting.
After reading this post, I’m curious to find out if you agree with my approach on community support? Have you ever done this type of analysis on your community? Is there another method you chose to use? I look forward to reading your thoughts and gaining a better understanding of your community.
I propose that we, as community managers, support a diverse set of customers within our community, while still ensuring that the focus remains on the critical segments. My idea is to offer support for fringe “long tail” customers to ensure that your community meets everyone's needs.
How do I do this, you ask? I’ve added a page about Market Segmentas a starting point for my community efforts. By evaluating all the various groups who could possibly visit or need support, via my online community, I am able to create a Community Project Plan that aligns the needs of these various groups with community deliverables. Of course, prioritization of work for the various groups allows the critical customers of your community to be served while still allowing time for delivery of long tail support.
As an example, when working on my latest community, I identified the following customer segments:
• Community Activists - influencers who invest significant time with the community
• Education/Research Group - people who leverage the product in university research or education
• Technical Customers - developers, users and testers
• Non-Technical Customers - marketers, industry journalists and bloggers
• Corporate Group - people who work on project as a paid employee from a corporation
• Advisory Board - "managers" of community
You can see from this list that some segments overlap, which is okay, as people come to the community at various times with different purposes. Also, I have chosen to ignore the geography of people visiting the community and will comment on that in a future blog posting.
After reading this post, I’m curious to find out if you agree with my approach on community support? Have you ever done this type of analysis on your community? Is there another method you chose to use? I look forward to reading your thoughts and gaining a better understanding of your community.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Join Me In My Community of Community Managers
Everywhere you turn today, people are looking for the "one stop" community to solve all their problems. Of course, few realize the challenges and issues involved in not just starting a community, but also supporting, sustaining, and expanding existing communities while staying true to the original community mission. Many communities fail as they begin to mature, usually because people running the community get “cold feet” and bail, as they don’t understand how communities work and the true value they provide.
I am currently a community manager for an open source project. Over the past 12 years of my career, I have been responsible for founding a developer program and also transforming partner program communities to scalable, global programs. This blog is a public forum for me to comment on communities in general and share my ideas for new initiatives. It is my intention to start a public discussion about building and supporting communities via this blog, as I need a "Community of Community Managers" to help take me to the next level in my community management skills.
I intend to post 1 or 2 topics a week focused on community areas such as:
o Measurements and Metrics - How do you measure a community’s success?
o Evangelists - How to identify, nurture, and leverage?
o Globalization - What are the primary issues of a global community?
o Promotion - How to have community promote itself/products?
o Open ideas from readers
I look forward to starting this journey with other community managers as we come together to leverage the best ideas in building and maintaining vibrant communities.
I am currently a community manager for an open source project. Over the past 12 years of my career, I have been responsible for founding a developer program and also transforming partner program communities to scalable, global programs. This blog is a public forum for me to comment on communities in general and share my ideas for new initiatives. It is my intention to start a public discussion about building and supporting communities via this blog, as I need a "Community of Community Managers" to help take me to the next level in my community management skills.
I intend to post 1 or 2 topics a week focused on community areas such as:
o Measurements and Metrics - How do you measure a community’s success?
o Evangelists - How to identify, nurture, and leverage?
o Globalization - What are the primary issues of a global community?
o Promotion - How to have community promote itself/products?
o Open ideas from readers
I look forward to starting this journey with other community managers as we come together to leverage the best ideas in building and maintaining vibrant communities.
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