Judging by the number of posts in July, not many online community management bloggers are taking the summer off. Here are my picks for the top five posts of the month.
1. 5 Traits of Good Online Community Members
Most community managers work hard to grow their communities and attract new participants. But should we be more selective about the types of people we want to bring in? David Sprinks helps us understand how important it is to attract the right kinds of people, especially in a new community.
2. Before You Spend $500k On A Community Platform…
Many organizations looking to build an online community will select a technology platform, spend a lot of money purchasing and implementing that platform, then set about the business of building the community. But Richard Millington argues that spending thousands of dollars on a technology platform before developing a community is a “huge gamble,” and it makes more sense to create a community first. How might you go about doing that? Read on…
3. How to Find An Audience For Your Online Community Before it Launches
So David Sprinks tells us to recruit a certain kind of community member, and Richard Millington says we ought to recruit those members before blowing a lot of money on technology. So how, exactly, do we go about identifying and recruiting those members for our new community? Michael Silverman provides two case studies that show how it can be done.
4. Introducing A/B Testing For Communities
If you’re familiar with A/B testing, you probably know that it’s mostly used in marketing. But Chris Dowsett says community managers shouldn’t let the marketers keep A/B testing to themselves. Pay special attention to the “A/B Testing For More Engagement” part of this post.
5. 10 Roles of an Online Community Manager
I’ve seen lots of blog posts discussing the various hats a community manager must wear, but this one is pretty darn thorough. From “Tech Admin” to “Legislator” to “Thought leader” and perhaps most importantly “Host,” this anonymous post on the Merc Strategy Group blog lays out ten important functions an effective community manager must perform.
Photo credit: Michael Ruiz