March was another great month for online community management blog posts. Here are my picks for the top five:
Every company wants (or should want) to move beyond broadcasting messages to fans on Facebook or Twitter. The real goal is to have customers talking with one another about the product. But how does this process work? More importantly, how can your company benefit? David Sprinks describes this process as the “User Engagement Cycle,” and says that peer-to-peer product conversations do more than create loyal customers — they make the product itself more valuable.
2. Understanding Motivation In Online Communities
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the use of gamification in developing online communities. Richard Millington of FeverBee writes that incentives like giveaways may help community growth in the short term, but they’re harmful in the long term. Richard reminds us that people have been participating in communities of various kinds for years, and they’ve done so without the promise of a free t-shirt or complimentary month of service.
3. Online community managers – we weren’t born last week.
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one that gets ticked off every time I hear from some “expert” who thinks the history of community management began with the launch of Facebook. Quiip‘s Alison Michalk has the same gripe, and she calls out one of these experts who seems to think that healthy communities just happen on their own. They don’t.
4. How To Build A Community From The Ground Up
If you build an online community, will they come? Maybe. Or maybe not. The Community Roundtable‘s Leanne Chase says there are no guarantees that your new community will succeed, but you have a much better chance of success if you take the time to establish goals, reach out to potential members, and post useful content. And if things still don’t take off? Try something new.
5. 10 Types of Content that Drive Adoption in Private Online Communities
Most community managers agree on the need to program useful, engaging content in order to provide value to those participating in the community. But what kind of content? And how can you create all of this content without working 80 hours a week? Joshua Paul of Socious suggests ten types of content that you can create to keep users engaged, while letting you get out of the office at a reasonable hour.
Photo credit: Alan Campbell
Thanks for the mention Dave! I knew I’d represent at least a few CMs when I got on that soapbox 😛 Some excellent posts here – thanks for sharing.