Community Manager Management

“What IS a Digital Community Manager, and do I need one?” a CEO of a small B2B technology firm asked me this week.  My response was, “What is your goal?”

Since almost everyone now is over the hype and hoopla of the newness of social media, the real work is just beginning.  If your company has stayed relatively up-to-date on online marketing trends (i.e. has a blog, regularly updates web site content, and conducts scheduled email campaigns and marketing promotions), then you do have a community of followers/listeners/customers to manage.

Word of caution:  Be careful with the word “manage.”  Think instead words like nurture… encourage… grow.  As a Digital Community Manager, you definitely want someone in charge of shepherding this form of two-way communications with your company who eats/sleeps/breathes brand, messaging, consistency, usability, and conversation.  AND who completely gets your high-level mission and goals.

Be careful to watch your pre-conceived notions about this position.  Check out a few “Myths of Community Management.”  Go ahead and read it… I’ll wait.

Amber Naslund (I’m a HUGE fan of hers, BTW.  Follow her @AmberCadabra.  She’s incredibly smart and has been hands-on in the development and transition of social over the last several years.) correctly points out that Community Management doesn’t just happen online.  Beware hiring a 26-year-old as your Community Manager just because they’re really active on Twitter as this is not a viable strategy for your business.  Hey, I know how to balance my checkbook every night… Wanna hire me as your CFO?  Come on… Please?  Yeah, I thought so.

The most important thing to grasp about hiring a Digital Community Manager is to realize that this person needs to be extremely close to the heart of the action in the company.  They need to have leadership skills.  They should be the point person and collaborate with cross-functional teams… IT, Legal, Creative/ Brand, Product Management, Community Relations, Marketing, Public Relations, etc.  They are your storyteller and image-maker in the digital world.  They also have the ability to smooth things down and react with respect and kindness when customers get really irate online (where the world can see it and WILL eventually find it).  Treat them with respect and you might be amazed at the strength of the community they can build for your brand.

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Community vs. Content- a Question of Control?

The battle between the need for marketers to be focused on where the community’s conversation organically leads vs. the urge/want/need to “push” company-centered content out on the world is an ongoing struggle.  Here are a few key truths to building and maintaining a successful, thriving community that picks up your company’s “messaging torch” and carries it better that you can, Ms. CMO.

1.  Your community must be owned: Yea, you’re using social media!  But, just who is overseeing it all?  With marketing, sales, R&D and customer-service involved, the task is to get all these teams working together.  Often, a community is launched without any set definitions of who owns what.  In essence, there are three marketing models for social media:

-  CENTRALIZED-  The social media department functions at a senior level, reporting to the CMO or CEO, and is responsible for all social media activation for the brand.  Dangers?  Having a social media head means departments outside that person’s scope might not benefit from efforts in the medium.  I.E., is customer care really being considered if social media is centralized under marketing?  Example of this model:  Ford and Scott Monty, global digital and multimedia communications director.

-  DISTRIBUTED-  In this setup, no one person technically owns social media.  Instead, all employees from customer care, marketing, media, community/media relations and beyond represent the brand and work social media into their roles.  Dangers?  No standardized practices, and social media uncontrolled can veer a brand off-message.  Example of this model:  Best Buy

-  COMBINATION-  Centralized best practices and decentralized execution.  A brand maintains a committee of social media stakeholders to work up its position and voice, which it disseminates to the company at large.  Dangers?  How do you hold departments accountable to a research council?  Also, when a social media program goes sour, who ends up as the fall guy?  Those who build the strategy, or those who implemented it?  Example of this model:  Kodak

2.  You must let your community go: Pay attention to what’s happening in your community and monitor member interactions, but don’t strive to control the conversations and activity that are happening.  Example:  Mountain Dew.  The soda brand took its “Dewmocracy” campaign one step further to find new flavors and allowed skater dudes to take control of its marketing by implementing crowdsourced consumer involvement.  The more you control, the less people participate. It all goes back to trust.

3.  Figure out how to mobilize your community: A community doesn’t just exist within the confines of your online community, and can’t thrive in a silo.  The days when execs made decisions behind closed doors and expected people to rally behind them are gone.  Find opportunities outside your community, and offline even, to continue driving community participation.  When consumers told Mountain Dew they were also looking at and sharing on 12seconds.tv, the brand wasn’t familiar with the outlet.  After investigation, the company started integrating the site into “Dewmocracy.”

Once you’ve engaged your community, you can’t stop.  Make a continuous effort to talk about your industry, ask questions, provide humor at times, and listen, listen, listen.  Let your customers know when you take their advice… and why when you don’t.

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WordPress or Woodstock

Over the weekend, my sometimes-partner-in-crime, V. Scott Ellis, wrote a post for WebLogTools Collection called “Exploring the GPL, Viable Models, and Business Risk.”  WebLogTools is a blog about blogs, blogging, WordPress and best practices therein.  It is extensively read and contributed to by the WordPress (WP) developer community, and since Wendistry and all our client sites are built on the WP platform, I (being non-technical) feel the need to wander by this site once in a while.

First, a definition before you start reading the post:

GPL– General Public License; GPL is one of the most commonly-used open-source sofware licenses.  The distinctive feature of the GPL license is that it requires that any code derived from GPL code also uses a GPL license.  What that means is any plug-ins or bolt-on applications that are created for the WordPress platform ALSO must be open-source.  If you are a developer, that doesn’t mean you have to give them away for free.  However, it does mean that if I create a widget for WP and I sell it to Person A for $29, once A pays for it, A then has full legal right to turn around and sell it on A’s web site for $25 (under-cutting my, the creator’s, price).  If A sells only 2 widgets, not only has he recouped his investment, Person A has made a profit on MY work.  Now, let’s take this further…

Person B buys Person A’s widget.  Now, Person B turns around and sells the widget on his web site… for $20.  Again, same principal.  B now has undercut me (the creator and person who did all the work) and Person A.  Eventually, the whole model breaks down because you finally end up with a product that Person Q paid only $1 for and is perfectly willing to give it away for free.

Now, I agree that money is not the only reward for hard work done well, but as the widgets/ plug-ins/ bolt-ons for WordPress become more complex, the need for deep expertise and ever-increasing amounts of support enter the picture.  At some point a person’s (or organization’s) ability to match the demand will not scale.  The need to make a living or support your family though other means becomes the top priority.

When that happens, by default, the amount of time a developer can dedicate to writing more code or providing support tapers off.  If a developer has provided something of particular value, then the WP community suffers when that developer can’t be there, and it’s especially sad when the main reason is because he/she can’t afford it.  The more complex these things become, (expertise required) the higher the barriers to entry.

Free “love” and free items work perfectly well in a small, “community-like” environment (like the WordPress community has been so far) with limited market size and limited complexity involved in widget/ plug-in/ bolt-on creation.  Where all this gets sticky, and the reason why this discussion should be read by business owners/ founders/ designers/ creators, no matter the industry, is because BUSINESSES EXIST TO MAKE MONEY. A commune is not a sustainable business model.

Finally, to show how truly passionate and committed Scott is about supporting developers financially, he launched “Make a Donation to Your Favorite WordPress Developer on March 1st” before the opportunity for him to write this post on WebLogTools even came up.

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Monetize Your B2B Web Site

You know your industry.  You know your audience.  But, do you know how to make your B2B web site start making more money for you?  If you rely on affiliate programs or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising for all or part of your revenue stream, you already know that the hours and dollars you spend on content creation and SEO (search engine optimization) will be spent in vain if the traffic you drive to your site doesn’t purchase from your affiliate merchants, click on your banners, or follow the links in your contextual ads.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of white papers and web sites offer tips for optimizing your content and driving traffic to your B2B site or blog.  Here’s eight surefire strategies for monetizing your B2B web site:

1.  Give the people what they want: Back in the days of Web 1.0, web site operators learned that the key to repeat visitation (the “sticky” factor) is to give your users a compelling reason to come back.  Today’s web sites take those lessons to heart, building member communities, incorporating RSS feeds, and offering specialized, frequently updated content that visitors are hard-pressed to find anywhere else.  But, what if you could apply the “stickiness”  principle to the revenue generating portions of your site?  You know that users of B2B sites go there in search of reliable information that will help them in their jobs.  Why aren’t you charging for papers, case studies, lessons, training, etc.?

2.  Preserve your integrity: Generating revenue shouldn’t mean compromising the user experience.  The messages and offers in banner ads and contextual links from consumer PPC networks can range from mildly off-target to downright embarrassing on a B2B web site.  To preserve your credibility with a highly specialized (and professional) audience, review the ad content on your site just as you would “real” content.  Depending on the placement and prominence of banners and ad modules, an advertisement may be the first thing visitors see when they arrive at your page, so be sure the offers and images presented fit the tone and topic of your site.

3.  Use your time wisely: Many site owners and content managers, B2B and otherwise, spend hours every week pouring over reports and switching out ads in an effort to maximize their site earnings.  While several major ad networks (and some small ones) offer automated widgets and contextual ad modules to help lighten the workload, the options for dedicated B2B networks are limited, and the relevance of consumer offers on B2B sites can be spotty at best.

4.  Take advantage of every touchpoint: Many advertising networks offer only one avenue for monetizing your audience… through the pages of your web site.  But, if you’re like most B2B site operators today, you also communicate with your users through RSS feeds, a blog, email newsletters, and occasional email “blast” updates.  Given the popularity of feed readers, the timeliness and accessibility of blogs, and the still-impressive response rate of legitimate email alerts, taking one-dimensional approach to promotions can mean missing out on significant opportunities to reach users… and leaving significant cash on the table.

5.  Share your expert opinion: Many B2B web site publishers have become trusted sources of information about topics relating to their field of expertise.  Visitors may frequent your site to get insights on industry trends, read the opinions of the site editors, experts or other community members, and keep abreast of happenings in their profession.

6.  Cover all your bases: Consider implementing Google AdSense, Linkshare, the Amazon associates program, or other affiliate-style networks for additional revenue on your site.

Whether your site is an established web presence or just building its online credentials, the key to maximizing your revenue potential is to make the most of the traffic you have.  If you can offer your site visitors revenue-generating content that’s just as valuable and appealing as your primary site content, your revenues will grow along with your traffic.

If you’re in the Dallas area, come check out John Pozazides of One Man’s Blog and founder of Woopra, real-time web site analytics!!!, tomorrow at the Wordpress meetup.  He’ll be talking in greater depth about how to monetize your blog and web site!

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Online Marketing Outlook

The Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) has just published its 70-page “2010 Digital Marketing Outlook” and here are some key takeaways:

Online Marketing Spending
* In 2010, two-thirds expect to spend the same or more than in 2009.
* Approximately 70% plan to increase (1-30%) or significantly increase (30%+) their unpaid/earned/proprietary media.
* The top priorities in 2010 will be social networks/applications and digital infrastructure.

Emerging Trends
* Customer experience will be more important than ever.
* Storytelling will evolve – location will become a key component; the speed at which stories are developed is crucial; and above all, emotional connections matter.
* The beginning of the end of the banner ad.
* Branded content syndication will replace some paid media.
* 40% of opportunity is mobile

Social Media
* Social is becoming increasingly mobile.
* Measurement will be more important than ever.
* Real-time search is inextricably linked to the “statusphere.”
* Forms of content consumption will continue to be fractured; the nimble marketer will need to be in as many places as possible.

In addition, the major trends will be Mobile, Location, Transparency, Measurement, ROI, and Privacy all wrapped up in social media looking less “social” and more exclusive… Obtaining value while filtering out the clutter.  Businesses will begin to leverage the wealth of data we share about ourselves to deliver individualized messages.

Location, Location, Location

Reasons Why 2010 is The Year of Location; the Importance of Hyper-Local, and How to Leverage Location:

1. Immediacy: Location inherently breeds immediacy and action.  If a consumer is at a location, close to a location, or close to a contact, they’re more likely to purchase (if they’re there), travel to purchase (if they’re close), or meet up to share (close to a contact).  Immediacy enables actionable behavior, and actionable behavior is valuable because it provides measureable results.

2. Measurable results: Using location and proximity to measure effects is easier than measuring what happens when eyeballs read a tweet.   Retailers can use the location-based technologies to further understand their consumers.  When consumers check into a location, data such as when consumers visit, how often they visit, and their behavior before and after they visit becomes valuable.  With added incentives from brick and mortar stores partnering with these technologies, it is valuable through the information they can receive.

3. Laser pointer theory: Think of the world as your company’s target – with no map, you’ll fire all over the globe and hit a fraction of your targets.  This happens in business too- intentional or unintentional displaced messaging is the result of mis-firing and ill-placement.  With location, companies can laser pinpoint and succeed.  Misguided marketing and advertising no longer need to be the standard.  Marketing and advertising are sometimes described as an art.  In 2010, they become a science.

How to Leverage Location
The convergence of location-based digital companies and brick and mortar physical stores are breeding a new type of commerce – digital mortar.   Surely different business models will yield different ways to capitalize on it and you can approach it from any angle.  But, the main outcome should always be deeper connections with your consumers and increased value from your company.

Excerpted from GreenBuzz Agency

Hiring for Social Media Roles

If this is the year your company is going to dedicate some serious resources to social media, you may need to consider dedicated people to manage your efforts.  Whether those are marketing or PR roles with a heavier social media focus, customer service roles with a community twist, or purer social media and community positions dedicated to driving strategy as well as execution, there are many skill sets to consider.

THE DOs:

You first want to determine whether your focus is on communications, customer service, internal communication, community development, or some combination of all those things.  Not all social media roles and responsibilities are created equal, and there are many disciplines within social media that can have value:  strategy, execution, integration and management, measurement and analysis, etc.  This fact might mean you need one person, or that you might need a team of specialists who can employ social media specifically to their areas of expertise.  Either way, be sure to:

• Emphasize integration of social media strategy with larger business goals.
• Look for professionals with solid communication skills… writing and speaking.
• Seek out minds that embrace precedent, but that are willing to challenge thinking and create new solutions.
• Facilitate a culture and empower your team to put the customer needs at the forefront of their work.  Find people passionate about doing just that.
• Specify the need to not only understand measurement as it has been, but understand how to evolve and implement new measurements to apply to new initiatives.
• Find people who have the skills to communicate and work on cross-functional teams internally… some who is good at teamwork and collaboration.

THE DON’Ts:

First of all, resist the urge to run out and get a community manager or a social media director just because someone else has one.  And, break out of your typical job description format.  Write down what your company needs for this role and what it doesn’t and build a role description from there.

• Don’t focus too much on specific platforms like Twitter and/or Facebook.  Familiarity with them is good, but the tools are changing almost daily, and they are much easier to learn than the mindset behind them.
• Think carefully before making your primary social media roles junior or entry level ones.  Yes, we all know that social media use is predominant in the 18-24 age bracket, by and large.  However, the culture and operational implications of a social shift means you need someone a bit more experiences with brand management, strategy, and project management.
• When looking at deliverables and expectations, don’t forget an engagement strategy.  Links, fans, followers, and eyeballs aren’t enough.  You need loyal, product-buying customers to come out of this strategy.
• Remember that content is the means, not the end.  The goal of content creation should be an improvement in some aspect of customer relationships beyond just delivering messages, and you need someone who understands that.
• Don’t lump SEO, content, traffic generation and social media all in the same bucket.  They are different skills and different strategies.  Not all “online” roles are alike.
• One social media or community manager isn’t going to create social media brilliance for your company.  They might be able to get you on the path, but if you’re committed, you’ll need to have them help infuse the social media strategy into lots of different roles across your company.
• Don’t limit yourself by parking social media in the marketing department.  Might it be better suited to a customer service role within your company?  (think H&R Block, Dell, Zappos)

Adapted from Radian6 and “This is the Year!  Social Media Resolutions 2010″

Hey, BCS…

If marketers are looking for a concrete example that social media can’t cure their ills, they need look no further than college football’s Bowl Championship Series.  Almost two months ago, the BCS took to Facebook and Twitter and was immediately dogpiled by thousands of angry college-football fans.  The BCS learned quickly that if your product is hated, social media might not be the place for you.

Now, I’ll give the BCS some props for trying… even though execs should have known the reaction before this initiative even moved out of the “napkin” stage.  And, perhaps it deserves a couple more points for saying the right things some of the time.  BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said the series wants a “two-way conversation… That’s the great thing about social media. (duh)  It gives everybody a chance to weigh in.”  (golf clap everyone)

Of course, that sentiment was undercut by other statements, including the claim that the BCS is encouraging active debate on its Facebook page (which I can’t believe is still active), and Hancock dragging out the standard statement the BCS has been issuing for years:  “We think a lot of the feelings out there are because people just don’t understand it.”

That’s right, Bill… your audience else is wrong.  The problem isn’t the product; it’s the customers.  Wow.  The truth is that other than the executives of the BCS, the sponsors who have money tied into the current bowl system, and the coaches who are at the top of the BCS standings when interviewed (and therefore have a financial interest in “staying happy” with the system), it’s hard to find any real fans who support this system as it stands.

Sure, the BCS has turned to social media because of a everyone-else-is-there-so-we-should-be-too mindset, but it has also closed its eyes and covered its ears as it goes on saying the same message it always has.  If doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is the definition of insanity, then saying the same thing over and over and expecting people to start believing isn’t much better.

Excerpted from Ken Wheaton’s editorial commentary “Viewpoint” in the November 30, 2009 issue of Advertising Age.

Exceptional Email Campaigns

Load and send?  Batch and blast?  These direct marketing concepts are becoming ancient history in the modern email environment.  Today’s online marketers who utilize email must navigate their way through a complicated landscape of shifting prospect and customer expectations, challenging new technologies, evolving government regulations and other issues old-school direct marketers never had to face.

Wendistry has compiled an extremely short list of five essentials you should employ to greatly improve email marketing initiatives.  Keep in mind that this list is by no means comprehensive, however missing any one of these aspects can affect your ROI, secure your position on blacklists, or damage your reputation with clients and prospects.

1.  Permission is not optional:   When you send unsolicited email, you hurt your brand, your campaign and your sender reputation.  Don’t use “stealth” methods to collect email addresses such as pre-checked boxes on site registration forms.  Use a proper, two-stage opt-in process that requires confirmation before the address goes into your database.

2.  Manage your sender reputation:   Don’t get on an ISP’s (or your customer’s) bad side by sending too many emails too often or by generating a high number of spam complaints.  ISPs will block your emails, shunt them into oblivion in the bulk mail or trash folders, and won’t bother to tell you what you did wrong.  Your customers will simply delete your messages or unsubscribe from your list… and they won’t tell you what you did wrong either.

3.  Focus on list quality over list size:   Growing your mailing list is important, but don’t do it at the expense of quality.  While it may look impressive to have a large list, quality names should be your highest priority.  Make sure your company has defined its target audience and focus your efforts on adding names that fit this target.

4.  Design for the Inbox:   Poor design and improper formatting frustrate users.  If they can’t easily navigate your email or find the information they want at a glance, your messages will fall flat.  Your email has to stand out in a crowded Inbox.  Some tips for designing for the Inbox and optimizing deliverability are:

• Be sure to test sample messages to see what performs.
• Put your company name in the “from” line for fast recognition.
• Add a “grabber” subject line… 50 characters or less.
• Use teaser text and HTML colors and layout rather than an image so readers can get an immediate “preview” of your email even if images are disabled.
• Put the important content- the offer, call to action, newsletter contents, etc.- at the top of the email for the immediate viewing.  You only have seconds to make your case, so make the most of them.

5.  Test something every time:   Testing is a classic way for direct marketers to refine their efforts to get the best results.  If each of your email campaigns doesn’t include a testing component, you’re missing out on an opportunity to improve your ROI.  Some elements you may want to test include:

• Subject lines
• Offers
• Deployment date or time
• A new list, or segment your existing list to compare one segment against another

Your testing results will provide new ideas for more effective campaigns and help you get rid of offers, lists or creative that aren’t working.

Social Media in Cause Marketing

According to the 2008 Cone Cause Evolution Study, fifty-five percent of Americans say they are turning to the Internet and new forms of media to learn about and support social and environmental causes:

	Average	18—24	24-35
Search for information about causes or issues	33%	37%	42%
Forward a message, such as emails or text  messages, to family and friends about causes or issues	29%	30%	37%
Engage in grassroots activism, such as write legislators, sign petitions or email companies	17%	12%	22%
Donate money online	15%	14%	22%
Join or visit social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, or Idealist, that focus on causes or issues	14%	26%	27%
Blog (as a reader or active participant)	10%	24%	13%
Identify volunteer opportunities online	10%	15%	14%
Use a mobile device to support or access information about a cause	4%	11%	9%

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