Angela Connor's Blog, page 4

Live from a Community Manager's Inbox

I am always happy to discuss the difficulty of managing an online community. I've written about the misconceptions, provided tips on what it takes to find success, and explained the differences between a community manager and a social media manager. Because I don't actively manage an online community any more, I don't share as many [...]

With new Facebook fan pages, rules of engagement are more relevant than ever

Now that admins of Facebook fan pages can comment on Facebook profiles and other fan pages as the representatives of those pages, not themselves, there is going to be a huge wave of unwanted content floating around. (If you want details, read this Mashable post.) I'm going to go all out and call it a [...]

Community Managers: Be genuine or don't bother

It is not easy being a community manager. It seems that many people are content to call themselves community managers because they manage a Twitter account, post content on a Facebook fan page (with the goal of "engaging" the masses, or at least those who actually visit the page or allow posts on their newsfeeds) [...]

The first rule of social communications: Keep emotions at bay

If you learn anything about communicating across social channels in 2011, let it be this: Never write anything when you're angry. I'll take it one step further and add that you should never  respond to any comments that bring out emotions you feel you cannot control. Here's an example: You're reading a highly critical comment [...]

Don't underestimate the power of lurkers

Diving into a community head first can be intimidating for some people, even though it may be second nature to you and me. Sometimes it's much easier to stay in the background and lurk, enjoying the community with no real commitment. It's the lurkers sometimes, who contribute to that valuable "time spent" stat community managers [...]

Beware of misleading community manager job descriptions

If you're looking for your first job as a community manager, the best piece of advice I can give you is not to get too caught up in the shiny job description. The second best piece of advice I can offer is that you embark on your journey with a clear understanding of the fact [...]

Have you developed your personal social media policy?

Have you ever gotten into a discussion with someone about personal vs. professional accounts on social networks? Some people believe it's impossible to separate the two. Others create two different profiles on their favorite social networks and drive themselves crazy trying to manage it all. There are people who freak out each time they get [...]

Every comment counts

Every tweet, Facebook update and comment posted online is a form of communication. Whether that comment is on a blog post, news article, YouTube video or Flickr photo, it counts. So my question is this: Why isn't this content being held to the same high standard and given the same level of thought as traditional [...]

Find your real story in 2011

This is a post I wrote on August 19, 2007, back when I was trying to decide what I truly wanted to blog about. I'd started a blog called "Newsworthy or Not?" and later abandoned it as I found that community management was what I really wanted to focus on. However, a recent request by [...]

Building relationships online is not a line item for your checklist

As you begin to make resolutions for 2011, please don't add a line item to your list about "building relationships online" or "engaging with customers through social media" without putting some real thought into how you will do it, and most importantly how you will sustain it. But even before doing that, think about why [...]