There are many people that would tell you that "community management is most closely related to marketing. Many go as far as to place their community manager in the marketing team. I believe that's a mistake. I'd argue that community management is much more related to...
Activity in any community will always ebb and flow. It's natural. Sometimes the ebbs are unavoidable. For example during the holidays, a lot of communities will slow down a great deal since people are spending time with their family. Other times, it just happens when...
Building a company from the ground up is a major undertaking. There are a lot of logistical, technical and administrative things to figure out when first starting out. But one thing that every company needs in order to succeed are customers. How do you start building...
I was recently asked an interesting question that went something like, "What other fields would you recommend to someone looking for a good potential community manager?" Businesses often look to the Marketing and Public Relations fields to find community managers. Why...
Getting into community management with no experience can be tough. The role is always evolving, and every company will have a unique need from their community manager. Here are some tips to build your community experience and make yourself an appealing candidate to a...
Don't treat your audience like a herd. One of the biggest mistakes I've made when trying to build a community (and I've seen many others make the same mistake) is to mass invite an audience to a community platform like a forum or facebook group and try to get...
One thing that we strive to accomplish with TCM is to bring some clarity to the community industry, and help distinguish community roles from marketing roles that are mislabeled as community. It's a tough, uphill battle. Time after time I hear people talk about social...
More and more companies are hiring for REAL community positions (not social media marketing). It's refreshing. Here are some epic ones you won't want to miss... ScoutMob - NYC Community Manager ScoutMob has an amazing team and a brand that has constantly inspired me...
Recently, I was asked, "Can you bring a dead community back to life?" There was a t-shirt company that had built a massive community, but when the founders lost interest, the community slowly died off and went quiet. This person was asked to bring it back and asked...
The Lean Startup model created by Eric Ries has been applied to a lot of different industries. Turns out, it's the most efficient way to approach community building as well. I've been taking a lean approach to building community after 4 years of learning from things...