Angela Connor's Blog, page 8

Building community through contests: Boar's Head gets it right

Creating contests using social media oftentimes seems like the easy way out. Yes, contests are low-hanging fruit in  many cases, but thoughtful contests that incorporate a great deal of engagement can make lasting impressions, cultivate brand ambassadors and benefit everyone who gets involved.

I just read about a new contest being launched by  Boar's Head that will seemingly do all of the above. It's more than a 'create a recipe with our product and you could win' contest. It goes a bit...

Agency life is expanding my horizons

When you handle social media initiatives for one organization, it is easy to develop linear thinking. Even when you follow the trends, stay on top of all the latest developments and devour all the social media news you can stand, you still tend to apply it to your own company or think about how certain tactics can work for your industry.

This is certainly not the case for everyone so please don't take offense. I know when I worked at a news organization I was very focused on how we could...

How blogger outreach differs from media relations

This is a cross-post from my company blog.

Blogger outreach is serious business. But it is also hard work. If you underestimate the level of research and personalization needed to do it well, you will fail. Okay, maybe you won't fail, but you will limit the level of success that could potentially be obtained with a thoughtful, smart and engaging strategy that is not about you as much as it is the individual blogger and his or her audience.

The term "blogger outreach" is being thrown...

Ning is phasing out "free" and communities will die

If you're one of the hundreds of thousands or even millions of people running an online community on Ning, it's time to pull out your credit card or look for new digs.

The company announced earlier this week that the free model is going away. TechCrunch published the memo issued by Ning CEO Jason Rosenthal and I encourage you to read it. You may recall that I interviewed Mr. Rosenthal back in November when he was Chief Operating Officer of Ning and he had nothing but great things to say about ...

Special Report: The Community Manager Survey

I am happy to announce the release of my very first Special Report.

The Community Manager Survey provides unique insights from 50 practicing community managers. It's a in-depth look at the common struggles and intricate details of what it takes to succeed in a role that is growing in importance but commonly misunderstood.

The participants were open and honest, and their answers are quite revealing. I simply cannot thank them enough.

The report is geared toward managers looking to hire for this k...

Community Manager vs. Social Media Manager

I was asked recently to share my thoughts on what exactly I do as a Social Media Manager at Capstrat, for a blog post over on 10000 Words. What's funny is before I even started talking about that, I mentioned the work I did as a Community Manager and before I knew it I was comparing the two.

Since many of you don't have the insane interest in journalism that I do, I thought I'd share my comments here and also  introduce you to a blog that I read regularly, that may not be on your radar.

So...

On building new communities

I'm heading to LA tomorrow, to speak to the winners of the 2010 Knight Community Information Challenge during their three-day boot camp at USC Annenberg.

I've sat down several times to craft my presentation over the last two weeks, but every time I get started, it just doesn't feel strong enough. I end up jotting down notes and ideas but never commit to anything concrete.

At first I thought it was about me being a perfectionist,which does happen from time to time, but I know that's not it...

User engagement doesn't happen overnight

Its one thing to charge someone with growing your membership, but quite another to truly understand what it is you're asking.

No one can effectively grow and maintain a community without the resources to make it happen.

What are those resources you might ask?

Well, the most important is time. They need time to nurture the community, seed it with content, create discussions, build relationships and interact with the masses.

But wait!

They can't do any of that if they don't know what the users...

Your new community won't change habits

Are you working on a new community with big time bells and whistles that caters to a niche that you just know has been waiting for a place to call home? If so, I encourage you to push ahead full steam. But, let me caution you first.

Your new community, no matter how great will not change habits. What I mean by this is you will not be able to stop potential members from posting on Facebook or twitter or their favorite Ning community.  If you are assuming that your new community will become the ...

What social media guidelines say about your company

This post originally appeared on my company blog, where I write more about social media in general. On this blog, I throw it in from time to time but focus more on online communities. I thought this would be of interest to my regular readers here as well.

I am fascinated by social media guidelines. The whole process of getting the stakeholders around the table to discuss strategies for creating a document that usually makes employees cringe or rejoice is a challenge I welcome. The...