Another year, another Community Manager Appreciation Day (CMAD). This time last year I was quitting community management. That lasted about ten minutes because I missed it : ) Now I’m back, or trying to be back, and continuing to fight the good fight for community management in the association world. Things are inching forward, with […]
New Resource from Online Community Results
Friend Ben Martin over at Online Community Results has a new resource to help introduce you to some of the vendors in the association community vendor space. The guide addresses many variables about each platform, such as resource library features, messaging, mobile friendliness, compatibility with AMS systems, open API, code base, design flexibility, and more. […]
Is “Most Active” the Best Metric for Online Communities?
It occurred to me this morning as I visited ASAE’s community, Collaborate, that just as a lot of social metrics are focused on quantity over quality, so are private community metrics. Featured on the home page of the community is the popular leaderboard showcasing “most active members”–aka the members who post the most and/or visit […]
The State of Social Media in Membership Marketing
Each year, Marketing General puts out a Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report. And of course, each year I read the report from the social media/community management lens. Here are some social media highlights I pulled out of the 2013 report: One of the top challenges cited by associations is difficulty attracting/maintaining younger members 74% of responding […]
2013 State of Community Management Report Stresses Importance of Community Managers
Even though my current role is broader than community management, I’m still a community manager at heart and it’s still my passion. So I was super excited to get a peek at the first report of the Community Roundtable’s 2013 State of Community Management yesterday and even more excited to see that it contains some […]
Why I Quit Community Management
Community Manager Appreciation Day feels weird this year because I’m no longer a community manager–or at least it is no longer my primary, full-time role. Even though 2010 was apparently the year of the community manager, to me it feels like this year is the year that community management has gone mainstream. I admit, it […]
Community Un-Managing: Cheat Sheet for Community Managers and Tips for Companies
As I wrote in my last post, I recently left my position managing social media and online community for a large professional association. In the process of disconnecting myself from the organization’s various social media accounts, it occurred to me that I haven’t seen a lot–or anything–written about how to leave a community management position. […]
Threat to Associations? The $10,000 a Year Online Community
Yesterday I saw a job on Twitter: “Membership sales for Social Media.org.” As an association veteran, I’m used to membership director or manager positions–but have never seen a membership position billed as a sales position. So I went to check out Social Media.org, and discovered it is a “community for social media leaders at the […]
Knowing When to say Goodbye to Community Management
There’s a time and place for everything…and sometimes you’re in the right place at the wrong time. Like if you’re a community manager in all but a handful of companies today. Community management is the “it” job right now–it sounds so hip and glamorous and like a great career move. After all, isn’t the future […]
31% of Associations Have Online Communities. Where are the Association Community Managers?
I just read a post about an upcoming membership marketing benchmarking report, specifically detailing the part of the report that addresses social media use by associations. The report surveyed 700 associations and, according to the summary of the upcoming report, among associations with over 20,000 members, 31% reported having a private social network. Hm, I […]