As we figure out that we can get more good things done by working with others, I believe (who doesn’t?) we’ll put more of our apples in the cart of online communities.  Why?  A good chunk of our work relationships and networks are online.  When our online communities succeed, we succeed.   A good community manager can be the difference between success and failure.

Conflict management is part of the community management picture. We at SocialMedi8r specialize in managing conflict, online.  We know, though, that conflict is contextual, and what’s going on in the community as a whole can feed into the conflict journey,  in content, emotions, and future outcomes.  A healthy overall community improves the resolution odds, when conflict or crisis management is on your agenda.

Social media is a mighty resource.  Lately, I’ve been tracking Feverbee (@Feverbee).  Founded by Rich Millington (@RichMillington), they are a consultancy specializing in online communities, and I’ve been impressed with their insights.

The other day I came across a lengthy interview of Rich M, with Josh Paul of Socious Software (@SociousSoftware) as the interviewer.   Here’s the link to that post and video.

And, here is some good advice for online community managers, that I culled from the interview:

• sometimes what Community Managers (CMs) think are the biggest issues aren’t what holding them back from growing their community; e.g., is it internal conflicts that’s holding the community back or lack of vision?
• know the processes that can be applied to all communities; pattern recognition
• believe in, and measure, ROI; chunk it down to measure
• when starting your community, interview 50 key people in that community; peel the onion on their needs
• know how much of your community management time is reactive vs. proactice; proactive offers the long-term value… keep a diary and track your progress
• recognize the CM role changes over the life of the community; from facilitative, building relationships one-by-one, to larger group impacts, optimizing user experience, recruitment so can grow/scale…
• have a roadmap for your community; don’t just wing it
• attract the people you really want in your community; it will make buy-in / conversion easier
• CM’s are multi-taskers; ground zero for good CM’s is passion for the topic
• Build your community in small steps (change a little, for the better, every day)
• some communities aren’t suited to the online social milieu; have a checklist – is an online community the right thing for this organization ready? If yes, get commitment/signoff.
• to the young (and old!) CM: don’t get hung up on the social media platforms; focus more on people/relationships… start building your own communities

Thanks for sharing Rich M.  Lots of success clues there!  Rich M has a book on this subject coming out later this year.  It’s on my “buy” list.

What success nugget would you add to the above list?   Your turn to share, in this online community. 

photo source: dannybrown.me