Another great month of articles to start the new year. We’ve got four posts from people who have graced these pages before, and one newcomer.
1. The Online Community Lifecycle
Calling this article a “blog post” does it a disservice. What Richard Millington has written here is a brief handbook for community managers (though not a replacement for his actual handbook for community managers). Richard breaks community development down to four stages and provides guidelines for managing each stage. He even provides useful charts that tell you what you need to do at each point in the community’s development. It’s not a quick read, but it’s definitely a worthwhile one.
2. Your Product and Community are One
In many companies, the community management function sits in the marketing department. That may make sense if the community manager is actually a social media manager (yes, there is a difference). But when a true online community is part and parcel of the customer experience, David Spinks argues that the community manager belongs with the product management team, and gives five good reasons why that’s so.
3. 4 Tips for Managing a Community When You Don’t Speak the Language
Most online communities speak a single language. If your company has lots of customers that speak a different language, that’s a problem. Short of hiring a community manager that speaks that language, what can you do? Plenty, according to Jesse F. LaRue. Jesse provides some creative and useful tips for engaging members across linguistic and cultural borders.
4. 5 Signs Your Online User Community Will Thrive in Its First 12 Months
Successful online communities don’t happen by accident. They take careful planning, hard work, and perseverance. In this post, Joshua Paul writes about five things that — if well executed — are signs that your community will turn out just fine.
5. Make your community like a cult movie
There’s something about cult movies — you either get them or you don’t. But those who do latch on to these films are passionate and committed, two key ingredients for successful online communities. In this post, Rosemary O’Neill urges us to make our communities like cult movies. Make them worthy of repeat viewing. Make them worthy of heated debate. Make them worthy of a passionate following.
Wow you made my day! Thanks for including me Dave!