photo credit:
US Embassy New Zealand

In the United States, today is Thanksgiving, a holiday where, among other things, we give thanks for the great people, things and opportunities that we have in our lives. In line with that, I’d like to share a few things that I am thankful for on my communities. This isn’t an all-inclusive list by any means, just a few things that came to mind.

Attention to Detail from My Staff

When you are on my staff, I want you to be detail oriented. I want you to care about getting a situation right and to be willing to put in the time to make sure that all situations are handled appropriately.

From how you remove content, to how you document it, to how you speak to members and participate in public. Details matter and while perfection may be unattainable, that does not mean that you give up the pursuit.

Have you heard about the Cooks Source copyright scandal? If you haven’t check out the write up at PlagiarismToday. In short, a small, free print magazine took an article from the internet, put it in their magazine and never asked for permission.

The author of the piece contacted the publication and asked for an apology in the magazine and on their Facebook page and a $130 donation to the Columbia School of Journalism. And that’s where it got interesting. The response from the editor of the magazine included this gem:

When I learned that I would be delivering my first keynote presentation at Podcamp Topeka earlier this month, I was excited. But, what got me more excited was how well the people behind the event were treating me. I really appreciated their faith and investment in me. I liked David Lee King’s vision for the event, as well.

So, I decided to go crazy for them and do something that was not part of my deal with them and that most speakers don’t do – something that I myself had never done, either, because no one had ever had put this level of resources into me before now. I decided to invest an incredible amount of time into bringing people to the event.

photo credit: Mykl Roventine: Out & About

Back in January of 2009, Chris Brogan published “You’re Doing It Wrong.” It was a short, but eloquent post and one that I refer to with some regularity. Chris’ point was that a lot of people will tell you to do something this way or that way and insist it is an absolute – the only choice or, at least, the grossly superior one. And that’s that. One problem: it’s not.

When I write here at ManagingCommunities.com, I am dispensing some advice from my experience, drawing from real situations that I deal with.

Social engagement firm ComBlu has just released “The State of Online Branded Communities,” a new 52-page report that you can download for free on their website.

It includes data from 241 online communities collectively owned by 78 corporations, and the bulk of the report discusses what tools they use and what “best practices” they follow. This data is then drilled down to specific industries and corporations are given a rating based on how well they are supposedly engaging through their online communities.

Overall, ComBlu did a great job collecting and compiling this data and offering it to us to consume – and for free. They certainly could have charged for the report and I would have never seen it unless they sent me a copy, so the fact that they are providing it free of charge makes it a must-download for anyone in the community space.

photo credit: mararie

Chances are that your community has guidelines of some sort and you do your best to read all or a selection (depending on the size of your community) of the posts that are made on your site. The guidelines need to be respected and any post that you are aware of, that fails to do so, receives the appropriate attention from you.

But, even so, sometimes you miss things. It’s only natural and the bigger your community gets, generally speaking, the more likely it is to happen. And, if a member sees a post that has a violation, you probably don’t want them to respond to it and bring more attention to it.

photo credit: jurvetson

Allow me to get on my Kanye West for a second. I’m a soldier of culture. In online communities. I believe that, to create a really beneficial, unique online community, what you win at – more than anything – is culture.

One thing I hear people say with some regularity is “I’ll never be the largest community in my niche” or “There is this well established community in the space I want to enter – I’ll never catch them!” or “I’ve put in so much time, but we’re still not as active as XYZ!”

photo credit: bochalla

If you’re reading this site, chances are that you know that I do something with online communities. You might know that I’ve been managing online communities for 10 years and that I wrote a book about it. In short, online community is a passion for me.

But, long before I managed any online communities, I was a Nintendo Power subscriber. I don’t remember exactly how long I subscribed, but it was something like volume 20 through 80, which according to The Video Game Museum, would take us from January 1991 (when I was 7) through January 1996.

photo credit: the_girl

During the “Building an Irresistible Private Member Community” panel at BlogWorld Expo, I mentioned that one of the biggest challenges that I face, when managing an online community, isn’t spam or some form of hit and run vandalism, but when a veteran member, that you expect better from, does something completely inappropriate.

Those are some of the most personally challenging, stressful situations that I encounter. When someone who has contributed a bunch to your community is veering off the path and you have to correct it. It’s never fun, but that’s why you’re the community manager. Not to have fun, but to do the hard things.

Back in 2007, popular webcomic xkcd published a map of online communities. At the time, MySpace reigned supreme. YouTube, Wikipedia and Yahoo! and Windows Live (the last two, combined, were dubbed “The Icy North”) were the next largest. Facebook, still growing and only a year or so open to the general public, held a nice piece of land, but not larger than Xanga, Orkut, Friendster, Classmates.com and more.

Earlier this month, they posted an update and, as one might expect, there were some major land shifts. The first thing that catches my eye is Facebook, which is by far the biggest player on the map. MySpace has now been relegated to a portion of land much, much smaller than Farmville and Happy Farm and not all that much larger than hi5, Orkut and LinkedIn.