Community Management is Not New
There is a problem that I’ve found with a good number of people who refer to themselves as online community managers, builders or professionals. They dismiss, choose to ignore and, in general, don’t really respect what came before them, most of which is still relevant to this day.
That’s a mistake. And it is what separates a poor or mediocre community manager from a good one. It is the difference between having perspective and being short sighted.
Online community isn’t new. As such, community management is not new. I’ve been managing online communities, hands on, for 12 years. Moderating even longer than that, into the late 1990s. But, online community has existed much longer.
Do you know what The WELL is? Info-Mac? Have you ever heard of Howard Rheingold? Moving into the 1990s, what about Gail Ann Williams? Rebecca Newton? Derek Powazek? Amy Jo Kim?
The WELL is a pioneering online community that launched in 1985. Info-Mac did the same in 1984. That is the year I was born! Rheingold, an early member of The WELL, is credited with coining the term “virtual community” and, in 1993, authored “The Virtual Community,” a highly influential book. Williams was involved with The WELL, as a member of staff, for over 20 years. Newton, Powazek and Kim have all been involved in the space since at least the mid-90s. Powazek wrote “Design for Community.” Kim wrote “Community Building on the Web.”
I haven’t read Rheingold’s book. But, I was recently reminded of it and I bought it on Amazon. It arrived yesterday and I plan to read it. I am not a historian. I don’t pretend to be an expert on the history of this space, especially when you get into anything prior to the mid-90s. The list of people I mentioned above is meant to illustrate a few examples, not be all-inclusive. I am sure it is missing some great people. Please mention them in the comments.
My point is that, if you really care about being great at this profession and understanding online community, it is important to understand that people came before you and to educate yourself if you can. That’s my goal, with Rheingold’s book. Expanding your understanding doesn’t make you weak, it makes you strong. For some people, to admit this is a weakness, as if they are no longer the greatest community manager in the world. That’s insecurity. It limits you.
Let me say, I am very confident in my abilities and my experience. I feel comfortable discussing online community with anyone and believe I will be able to hold my own. I have put in the time to build that confidence. But, what separates the confident individual from the arrogant one is when you fail to acknowledge, respect and pay tribute to what came before you. For example, I may not have read Rheingold’s work, but I have heard his name enough from people I respect to know that he deserves my respect. Part of the reason that I am confident in my own abilities is that I am always learning from what others have done. To fail to do so is to put yourself in a very isolated, dangerous place.
I encounter more and more community “managers,” “builders” and “professionals” who lack perspective. Whether it is “forums” being “dead,””online community” only being a handful of social networks or something else, it is all short sighted. There are two big ways to gain perspective. The first is experience. Time spent doing. The second is education. And that’s what I implore you to do. Educate yourself. Look back. Understand that there are people who came before you who helped carve out and create the role that you are now in. Learn from them and respect them.
Two thoughts:
1) Online community management isn’t new, but it ain’t “old” either ;) At least not compared to other marketing departments/ politics.
2) Community management isn’t new at all. Don’t know how it works in the US, but for example in Germany in every professional sports club there is a “fan liaison officer” or “fan’s representative”. He is responsible for all the fan clubs, supporters etc. of the club and has basically doing the “community management” job for years “offline”. Im pretty sure the same exists for car brands etc. Especially brands that have a strong regional basis CM has been there for years, but it had a different name. We can learn so many things from these guys and should see the parallels :)
The acknowledgement of influence is an essential curtesy for sure. I joined my first online managed community in 96 and have been in a sense ‘managing’ online communities since 98 but I do not use the term. Most of my current approach was honed during my years at The Ultralab where ‘facilitation’ rather than management was the philosophy and I still adhere to this concept. I respect Rehingold’s book but really dislike the term “Virtual” especially when coupled with ‘Learning’ or ‘Learning Environment’ or ‘Learning Community’. The learning and the community is very much a reality. I am on a train returning from a meeting with the TEL MAP cluster in Manchester and we discussed the linguistic problems of commonly used labels earlier today. it is not unusual for ‘Face-to-Face’ to be placed as the other end of the spectrum to ‘Online’ interactions.
As a fully online course facilitator I spend a fair bit of time Face to Face with colleagues and students in real conversations via online digital interfaces even though we are often hundreds of miles apart. it is good to see terms like ‘Virtual Community” being replaced by more appropriate constructions, I look forward to the day when virtual reverts to its old meaning and ‘VLE’ no longer exists as a term for a very real environment.
As you know I was perhaps one of those that wrote about forums recently. What you perhaps don’t know though is that I too have been running communities for over a decade.
As you rightly say though, it is good to continue learning about this field, and perhaps more importantly the field of how humans interact with each other.
When you broaden it out into that sphere it’s clear that community management is often just management, and then things soon start to get very ‘mature’ indeed.
It’s particularly interesting when you start to think of how communities can be applied when used on an organisation, rather than as an externally facing community.
The implications for strategy, collaboration and so on are tremendous and offer some really significant wins for the organisation that gets it right.
‘Tis a fascinating area though, with so many interesting fields contained within it.