I’ve been participating in various online forums since the early 90’s when I finally had enough left over money from my meager editorial assistant salary to pay for an AOL connection. High speed I wasn’t, but I dug the feel of the early social networks. So much so that I created an online forum for my large family so we can keep in touch on a regular basis. I even volunteered to moderate several more communities over the years. I thought I knew a lot about managing and moderating online forums and communities, but once I read Patrick O’Keefe’s book: “Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards
” I realized my knowledge was very limited.

Oh sure, I knew a thing or two about dealing with trolls, but I never gave a second thought to the legalities of running an online forum. For instance, what happens if a particpant receives bad advice from someone else in your community?Patrick suggests guidelines  so users are aware of which topics are open for discussion and which are better handled by a licensed professional. There’s also the matter of suicide threats . I never considered them before, while Patrick recommends not allowing the community to be involved. (Remove the message, reach out in private).

There’s more though. It’s not enough to throw up a forum and leave it at that. The owner of the community must know how to:

• Choose the right software & design
• Hire the right moderators
• Deal with trolls and negativity
• Create community guidelines
• Deal with disgruntled staff and community members

The members of my community at Freelance Writing Jobs have been asking me for a forum for some time now. I’ve been putting it off due to time constraints, and also the heavy moderating that goes into running a blog network. However, after reading Patrick’s book I’m pretty sure I can do it right.

“Managing Online Forums” is a MUST for anyone wishing to launch a forum. You may not think you need a user’s manual to run a community, but I’m telling you, you do.  The chapter on turning negatives into positives alone is worth the price of the book. Even if you’re not interested in building a forum from scratch, theres a section devoted to buying and moderating and existing community. If forums aren’t your thing at all, read “Managing Online Forums” to build up your community management skills. It may be the most important “community” book in your arsenal.

Patrick O’Keefe is the founder and owner of the iFroggy Network. An Internet network featuring content, community amd e-commerce sites. As he manages several online communities, it’s safe to say he knows what he’s talking about.

72 community managers responded to Kommein’s request to take our community manager survey. The results were quite interesting as I know many of us have been curious about items such as community manager’s pay and where they fit in with their companies. This blog post is revealing the responses to about half of the questions asked. The rest will be discussed in various standalone posts in the future.

Please add your thoughts and comments!

Well, I won’t keep you waiting any longer. Behold, the results of Kommein’s Community Manager

Survey.

While most of us have been community managers for a short time and have felt this to be a new position, plenty of CM's have been at this longer than three years. One respondent has been doing this for 15 years.

Answers to this ranged from project management to marketing to freelance writers. Community managers held all kinds of positions before taking their current gigs, not all having to do with computers, marketing, blogging or any of the obvious transitions. One person who responded was formerly a "sanitation engineer" but landed his CM job as a result of being heavy in his gaming community.

Though it was disappointing to see how many businesses felt a CM position is entry level, or worse, an internship, it was good to see many businesses treat community management as mid-management level position.

Most community managers polled found their CM jobs via word of mouth recommendation or because they were already established members of the community.

Several CM's who responded are also unpaid interns or volunteers.

It's hard to predict where a particular business will place a community manager. Of the CM's polled some report to customer service, some to marketing, some to product development, and others to quality assurance, IT, technical support, editorial and public relations.

As you can see, community managers have a wide assortment of duties including blogging, social networking, customer service, technical support and more.

Judging from the results, there's no "median" income for a CM - they're paid somewhere between $20,00 and $80,00 depending on their business and who they work for.

It appears the bulk of CM's work longer than 8 hours days. Hopefully they're adequately compensated for the extra hours.

It was interesting to read the comments as many community managers are frustrated by internal issues such as not being given a voice as to how the community should be handled. Also, many CM's are frustrated at managements reluctance to embrace the community and really listen to their wants and needs.

Haven’t done my Community Manager Job of the Day in a while. Here’s one for Changyou.com, based in Santa Clara, CA:

Online Community Manager: Build new online communities with Changyou.com
Summary

Changyou.com (NASDAQ:CYOU) is an online gaming company, focusing on MMORPG market globally. We’re looking for an Online Community Manager with a dynamic personality, innovative thinking and a strong background in online community for games. The Online Community Manager will be in a position to build up a sustainable community for millions of members all who will get to enjoy the same rewarding, meaningful experience and fun of our games. The Online Community Manager will serve as a hub and should have the ability to personally connect with the users (humanize the company), and provide feedback to many departments internally (product, PR, marketing, customer service, tech support, etc). This is a chance to build out a scalable community, work in an office that is seriously fun, make millions of people happy, and have the opportunity to contribute to shaping its direction and development.

Responsibilities
? Plan strategically the functions and development of the community
? Maintain strong familiarity and dialog with the game community by reading and posting to official forums, external forums and Web sites and deliver regular community feedback reports
? Creatively and proactively assist users and go the extra mile to make sure our users have a wonderful community experience
? Solve community disputes and enforce community rules
? Manage the teams of volunteer moderators that oversee the forums, adoption areas, groups
? Identify and analyze issues, patterns and trends in users requests & product performance
? Stay up to date on new social media tools, best practices and how other organizations and companies are using them, so that the company can continue to be an early adopter of these technologies
? Create events, write copy and work with the Marketing team to promote the product
? Participate in professional networking by following the prominent bloggers and online writers & attending events
? Work in concert with the Product and Customer Service teams to ensure an all-around great user experience and product additions/enhancements
? Support the growth of external community Web sites by establishing and maintaining contact with Web site operators, in conjunction with Marketing
? Take an analytical approach to improve the efficiency of online community and customer service processes

Qualifications for the position:

• Previous experience moderating online communities through forums, Web sites and other platforms;
• The ability to communicate and comprehend technical topics clearly. Both written and verbally;
• Proven time and project and team management skills with demonstrable ability in handling multiple responsibilities concurrently while working well under deadline pressures;
• An understanding of marketing strategies and online business models;
• The ability to prepare reports and analyze customers’ trend and characteristics;
• Strong organizational, analytical, and presentation skills;
• Superb interpersonal skills;
• A creative mindset. Adept at finding new ways to deliver old material;
• A proven ability to take initiative and be proactive;
• Proven experience in successfully developing and managing people, resources and schedules;
• A passion for online games and an understanding of MMO games and the market.

This is a full-time, on-site position located in the Santa Clara , Ca Office. Salary based on experience and skills. Growth opportunities based on achievements.
Email your resume and cover letter to job_us@cyou.com

Original ad

Are you a community manager? If so, we’re interested in learning about your experience. We’ve put together a survey for community managers that will tell us a little something about community managers salaries, who they report to, job challenges and more. And yes, we’ll post the results here.

Please note, we’re not asking for names and don’t need to know who you are. Feel free to speak openly and candidly about the issues facing you as a community manager.

Please access the community manager survey here. We’d be doubly appreciative if you could pass this around to other community managers in your network.

Analyzing my online community’s stats is one of my favorite ways to learn about the people who interact at my blog network on a regular basis.. In fact, my analytics programs sometimes tell me more about my community’s wants and needs than if I had straight out asked them (and, just to be clear, we should be doing that as well.)

Here is what I learn from my daily stats reports:

• Where is search traffic coming from?
• How are current promotions (such as giveaways) doing?
• How are new members of the community learning about products and services?
• Which products and services work - and which need work?
• What are folks searching for before landing on your website?
• Which tags and keywords are working?
• Which community discussions are the most popular?
• What are people saying outside the community?
• Who is linking to my company’s products and services?
• What are people doing once they’re on my site?
• What content gets the most results?
• What content, product or service gets the least amount of interest from users?
• What countries and areas do members of my community come from?
• What languages does the members my community speak?

All of this is important. For instance, when people come from different regions, even different regions of the same country, their wants and needs are different.  Also, by learning which content gets the most visits and the biggest response, a community manager or editorial team can write the type of blog posts, articles and other written content tailored to the users’ needs.

I use a combination of Google Analytics and Performancing Metrics, both provide a goldmine of information. If you’re a community manager and your place of employment won’t allow you to have access to the company’s stats, patiently explain the reasons why it’s important. Successful community management depends on knowing your users’ wants and needs. Without knowing where they’re coming from and what they’re doing, the job is made that much more difficult.

Community managers also need to know what is going on outside of the website or online community. What is someone is saying something untrue about the business or has a specific issue in need of trouble shooting?  What if a product or service received a glowing review and the community manager would like to reach out and say thanks? Knowing who is linking to you and what they are saying are key when it comes to getting others to drink the Kool Aid.

What do the stats say about YOUR community?

Many businesses hire community managers because they hear one might be necessary, but once hired have no clue what to do with him. Is he a customer service person? Does he hang out with the marketing team or is he on board to help close sales?

What should you do with your community manager?

Customer Service: The obvious place for a CM is with customer service. Many business use the CM to talk with users via blogs and online networks. Therefore it’s a customer service experience, right? For sure the community manager should work with service or support so they know what the people who use their products or services are saying about them. They should know the areas in which they’re doing the best, and also the areas that need a little work. The community manager is an integral part of the customer service team..but that’s not all.

Marketing: The community manager should be part of the marketing team as well. Who else to better plan promotional strategies than the person who speaks to the people taking part? The community manger has his finger on the pulse of the people and will help plan the programs that best fit the community. Every good community manager also knows other community managers and could offer ideas and suggestions for cross promotions that would enable communities to mingle.

Public Relations & Editorial: See marketing. Also the community manager could assist with announcements and letters to the community as well as the company blog and newsletter. Most community managers moonlight as bloggers anyway.

Sales: Community managers aren’t there to close sales, but with their heavy social media presence they might be able to suggest potential advertising and business clients.

Social Media: A no brainer. Many community managers are  social media savvy and are the best people in the company to handle social media campaigns. No doubt they’re majorly into blogging and have a heavy online presence. Take advantage of this, trust me.

All of the Above: The most successful community managers aren’t departmentalized. They answer to the community, first and foremost, and also play parts in the success of several different departments.

If you’re not sure where to put your community manager, ask him. The answers may surprise - and enlighten you.

Successful community managers know cultivating a community is more than just creating a Facebook group or spamming Twitter with some links. It’s about building relationships and touching on users’ wants and needs. The community manager truly is the voice of the community. This means she needs to be knowledgeable about all aspects of the business. Leaving a community manager in the dark, is leaving a community in the dark.

Here’s how to set up a community manager for failure. For your CM to be a success, do not do any of these things:

Don’t train your community manager or let her in on the workings of the various departments

Your community manager likes nothing more than to be clueless. Her favorite thing in the world is for her community to get frustrated with her for not knowing the answers.  Nothing gives a community manager more pleasure than to always have to ask other people for answers, rather than saving time by responding to questions on her own. Give yourself bonuses points if, when your CM looks to others for answers, they don’t answer for days - or not at all.

Don’t invite your community manager to departmental meetings or conference calls

To further ensure your community manager’s lack of success, make sure she’s never privy to any of the discussions pertaining to her community, especially customer service. The less she knows about anything having to do with the community the better.

Don’t keep your community manager apprised of new product and service launches

You know the best way to have your community manager look like a fool? Don’t tell her about any product or service launches. Don’t get her opinion on new applications or web designs. Don’t tell her anything until after the launch. She’ll love that, I promise.

Don’t let your community manager answer for herself

Canned, approved  by management responses only. Who needs a personal touch?

Have a community manager for appearances only

Just because it’s all about community nowadays, doesn’t mean it has to be about community. Go ahead and hire a community manager but don’t actually allow her to do anything resembling community management. Instead have her act as a glorified assistant handling paperwork, spreadsheets or web research.

Don’t ask your community manger for her opinion

What the heck does she know anyway?

Here’s a situation to ponder:

You’re a fairly well known professional blogger. You’re also moving up in the world of social media. People are respecting your opinion and your brand and you feel you’re going places. Respect isn’t paying the bills, however. You take a job in social media with a fairly well-known organization, and work hard at building their brand. There’s only one problem, your brand, the one you worked so hard to build up all those years, is falling to the wayside. Weekend branding is taking its toll. What do you do when the place you work wants you to lose your brand in order to build up theirs?

I’m thinking it would be a good thing to hire a social media expert with a good following.  Using a well known brand to promote another well known brand could only be a good thing, right? Not all businesses feel that way. Especially those that thing they get the whole social media thing, but don’t have much of a clue.

So I’ll put it to you - how do you build up your brand, and build up a businesses brand, without losing your identity or making your employer think your more concerned with your own brand than theirs?

Discuss…