What is community management? Not a silver bullet

by Scott on January 13, 2009

silver bullet What is community management? Not a silver bullet

As part of what threatens to be the longest series in blogging history (!) here is my second musing on that most thorny of questions, ‘What is community management?’

Check out What is community management? (A work in progress) to read the first post in this series and watch my video presentation about community management.

I like this, which came out in a discussion on Angela Connor’s splendiferous blog, Online Community Strategist:

Funny thing is that we didn’t TRY to build community, though now that we have it, we spend time making sure that the community has what it needs (on a tech level too, such as adding forum features that members request). It naturally grew around the neighborhood coverage we offered that could not be found anywhere else. Our greatest evidence of that has come in the week-plus snow/ice semi-crisis that has gripped our neighborhood and much of the rest of the region — the comment sections of our weather posts have turned into incredible neighbor-helping-neighbor discussions with people sharing information on everything from whether the bus is running to where to buy/borrow a snow shovel.

The quotation comes from an interview Angela conducted with Tracy Record, editor and co-publisher of West Seattle Blog, in which they talked about community building.

Tracy’s words show that instead of setting out to ‘build a community’, you might be better off looking to meet a real need in the marketplace. Once that happens, and if you focus on the product primarily, the community will develop around it because it is actually of benefit in those people’s lives.

I keep hearing people this year talking about how important it is going to be to ‘have a community’, and to ‘build a community’, as though community were just another production line item.

I’m all for community, but it’s not a silver bullet, a simple solution to all of a company’s woes. Having a community manager is no substitute for not having a compelling reason to exist.

A challenge for you:

There are countless posts out there about what a community manager is, but I’d like you to give me your opinion on what a community manager isn’t. I’ve got the ball rolling and I’m really interested to hear your thoughts, so get stuck into the comments and I’ll see you there :-)

UPDATE:

One of the best things about blogging is that it puts you in touch with a whole load of very smart people, and they often share their own really smart thinking with you. In this fashion, everyone should go and read Matt Moore’s post on this very subject.

Community Unmanagement by Matt Moore

It is straight to the point, full of great insight into this question and despite his best protestations, he’s not an egomaniac ;-)

silver bulletsm What is community management? Not a silver bullet [Amazing header image courtesy of Creative Commons and Flickr user surinamensis2000.]

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Tagged as: Angela Connor, CM definition, silver bullet, West Seattle Blog

  • Dude - we need to shift the date of the event from feb 24 to feb 23. can you still do that? Cheers Matt
  • A very interesting article! Here's my thought as to what a community manager isn't:

    A community manager isn't a wannabe rockstar or celebrity. The focus in a community should be on the members, not the manager. If your community revolves around you, you have a problem.

    People are different. Communities are different. Therefore the role of community manager will be different for everyone. There is no 'standard' role of a community manager. We are there to help develop and encourage the forming of relationships. How we do that can vary enormously.

    - Martin
  • It's sad that we so often put the focus on "building" the community, but what's really important is "keeping" a community and making sure it's a place where people want to spend their time. This is all optional for the members and we have to remember that they can check out at any time and they most certainly will. I just finished the first chapter of my book a few nights ago, and the title is "If you build it will they come?" I touch on a lot of this in that, oh and the answer is heck no. Now about that interview with Tracy, you're right...they are committed to creating a stellar product over on West Seattle Blog and they found that people are spending a lot of time there and they value that. A good community manager has to value the time of others. having that value dictates your actions on many fronts. And no, this is not a silver bullet. It's not even a bullet. It's a tool. A community is a method of engagement and is not a sure winner. If you don't invest in it or if you're thinking about building a community and "can't" invest time in it, don't even bother.
    Oh, and thanks for calling my blog "splendiferous." Can't say that anyon has ever used that word next to my name before.
    -Angela
    @communitygirl on twitter
  • Scott & Matt - count me in!
    i often wonder what I might have to offer (succinctly), but am dead keen to hear what others are doing, saying and especially, finding challenging.
    Come February, you'll find me at Friday morning coffee (when I can get my littlie into Pre-School). Otherwise, happy to stay digital to discuss these plans. Get me here : Christy [at] worldnomads.com

    Laters... :-)
  • Hey Christy - fantastic comment and I must admit it's encouraging to hear from another community manager who is still figuring out the role. I consider myself firmly in that camp.

    I think a few of the points you raise are absolutely critical:

    • having a community is a tremendous responsibility;
    • nurturing a sense of community is a wonderful way to stop being a commodity and to start being something more important in the lives of the people you care about;
    • direct ROI might be a little tricky, but value-add is not in question;

    And I couldn't agree more - the role of the community manager is likely to be as varied as the communtiies being managed.

    Great comment Christy.
  • Matt - a thoroughly excellent idea!

    I would be keen to be involved in whatever capacity, and it'd be great to be put under the pressure of delivering a useful discussion of this burgeoning area. Happy to discuss this further, either here (probably not that practical), on Friday (great for anyone coming along to coffee morning at Toast, not great for those who aren't) or in a more collaborative space (email?)

    Christy, are you in?
  • Scott, Christy & whoever else is interested,

    I'm thinking this could make an interesting session here: http://nswkmforum.wordpress.com/

    "Online Communities: Who Gives a Flying One?"

    Maybe a couple of very brief presentations, maybe a panel, maybe some drinks afterwards. These events normally run @ PwC's offices and they get a fair few people from a range of backgrounds.

    Just an idea - there's a couple of other people around who could be likely participants...
  • Hmm... I'm a Community Manager (it says so on my card), but I'm still figuring out what is. And occasionally when presented with some yukky responsibility, rashly decide that must be part of what it isn't!

    Part of the problem is figuring out why you want a community. It's a big, responsible thing to undertake as a company and there are a range of motivations. In my case, the company decided that it wanted to become a better known travel brand; more than just a product. Now that's quite hard when the product is travel insurance (!), rarely more than a grudge purchase.

    I'm not sure we've ended up with what we imagined 5 years ago, a community might be or do. But I do think we've been successful in turning 'customers' into 'members'... the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship.

    So, let's see... I AM:
    + most certainly an 'ear' for them
    + their champion in internal meetings where their needs might be ignored
    + responsible for providing some Value through our community touchpoints
    + busy

    I am NOT :
    + a business conservative - I urge the scaredy cats in the organisation to try social media, or blogging. So far, no nasty scars.
    + a true marketer, PR, or customer service - I talk all day, every day with those people in my organisation and sit somewhere in the middle.
    + yet able to guage the Return on Investment in my role (sorry accountants) ;-) But I sure get a Return on Insight for who our customer/members are, what they want and most importantly where we're going to find them next.

    I'm loving the out-loud thinking here. It's a funny ol' job and I'd be surprised if one Community Manager's day resembled another's!
  • Quick, everyone go and read Matt Moore's post on this very subject. It is straight to the point, full of great insight into this question and despite his best protestations, he's not an egomaniac :-)

    Community Unmanagement by Matt Moore


    Btw Matt, that second comment is golden :-)

    Tyrone - cheers for the comment. We're all just thinking out loud, so don't downplay your knowledge and the value of exposing the gelatinous inner workings of your gulliver #brainsaresexy.

    Tom - short and oh-so deliciously sweet :-)
  • Tyrone
    Ok Scott,

    Here is my loud thinking...aka my inexperienced view on the matter.

    Trying to understand what community management is before I decide what it isn't.

    I think its part of marketing but differentiates from straight brand mgt. and PR in that it attempts to "farm" the communications between business and its customers.

    This is where it deviates from strict brand mgt. and PR. The control (or brand mgt. and PR's attempt to control) the messages are not there, as the community decides where the conversation goes. It merely guides the many-to-many conversations between business to business, business to customers, and customers to customers.

    That is why it would be impossible to build a community without offering value (its reason to exist) and the decision to do so without one, is disastrous. Hence the saying, if you build it (business and its compelling reason to exist), they will come.

    So...thinking out loud, I know its not brand mgt and not PR in the traditional sense. So I now know a little bit more of what it is, by slowly discovering what it isn't.

    Thanks for the great post Scott.

    my2c,

    Tyrone
  • Tom Voirol
    A community manager is not so much a mouth.

    A community manager is an ear.
  • Following on - a community thingybob isn't:
    - an excuse for you to cut your customer service staff
    - a conduit for spam
    - a prison bitch for your salesforce
    - the latest ornament to add to your collection alongside that viral campaign that everyone wants to forget and the TV ad that won your agency an award but actually lost you sales
  • At the risk of being facetious, I don't think a "community manager" is a manager: http://tinyurl.com/9aqz36

    If there is one quality that a community thingybob isn't, it's egocentric (which is an issue for me obviously). It's not about you. It's about all these other people. Which causes problems for organisations, because organisations tend to be collectively selfish - it's all about us. How absolutely ****ing great our brand is and we are and if only those dumb ****s would get this simple fact, our lives and their lives would be so much easier.

    Not good in someone with a community thingybob role.
  • Tyrone
    Hey Scott.

    Nice post. Like these words the most...

    "Having a community manager is no substitute for not having a compelling reason to exist"

    Tyrone
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