Angela Connor's Blog, page 12

Men earn higher salaries in social media

Community Manager positions like most jobs in the social media space are evolving.
There is no real consensus on what the job should pay and it seemingly varies from one company to the next.
On a recent conference call for community managers, one of my peers from the Online Community Research Network who is looking for work gave interesting details about the conversations she's had with potential employers. After gleaning a great deal of insight from her about community management during the...

There is some value in anonymous comments

Before you balk at the title of this post, hear me out. I have written in the past about the cloak of anonymity worn by trolls and how it allows them to run rampant on the internet with no real accountability or repercussions for their actions. I know firsthand the issues that can and often do arise as a result. Believe me.

I've  been dealing with this for some time working for traditional news organizations and being directly involved with user comments. User comments on news stories can be...

Here's why you're not a community manager

Angela Connor blogs from the Social Media Business Forum in Durham, NC.

A community's importance in life, and death

Angela Connor shares a story about a community member's death and how much the community meant to him up until the end.

When you're the only one who cares about the community

It can also be very lonely as a community manager. We face a lot of obstacles. From serving as the lone advocate for the community, to feverishly fighting trolls in a battle that no one sees but us, this work can take you to task.

Stop telling people they're failing at social media

With social media, "My way, or the highway" is the wrong message to send.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer finally acknowledges user comments

It's one thing to be late to the party.

advocate for user comments on news sites I was pleased to read that the Cleveland Plain Dealer is getting proactive and plans to engage with the people who take the time to comment on their news stories.

But the tone in which is was delivered in this post on Cleveland.com made me want to laugh.
The newspaper is acting as though it...

Community manager as babysitter, referee and therapist

This is another rant from the trenches. If you're not in the mood, perhaps you should come back to this one later. I probably received 25 emails last week from members of my community about the most petty issues.

There are times when I feel like a real babysitter and I have to tell you that before I took my vacation back in August, I was at risk of completely losing it. I found myself so caught up in what I felt at the time was my inability to reign in trolls and the sheer nonsense that was...

Take this community manager survey and you could win a copy of my book

It is no secret how much I value the role of community manager. I am pleased to see so many newly created community manager positions each week and I often share links to some of the more interesting job openings on Twitter.

Two of the most recent that I shared just this week were at eHarmony and Land's End. (Check my twitter feed if you want to see more.)
I know I'm not alone in this because those are some of my most popular tweets. They are shared by many and that says a lot about this work...

In communites, little things can mean a lot

I launched a new feature in my online community today.

It's nothing more than a recorded interview with a member, but the feedback was amazing. People LOVED it. I typically do these interviews over the phone and transcribe them on my editor's blog but decided to do something new and see if there was any interest.

All I did was record the interview using Blog Talk Radio, downloaded it…imported it into our CMS, and posted it on the site.

Never underestimate the little things. Remember, you have...