Brandon Wick on Community Management

OurBlook interview with Brandon Wick, Communications Counsel at McClenahan Bruer Communications

What does a community manager do?

A community manager wears many different hats. In general, the job description often involves establishing, growing, maintaining, and optimizing a variety of web-based and social media channels for a company or organization. In the high-tech industry, the traditional definition of a community or user group is one that involves pre-screened members who access information on a password-protected forum about a particular technology. These communities have been widely used by software developers for years and often involve annual off-line conferences. With the advent of social media, the role of community manager has naturally evolved to encompass other popular communication channels, mainly public blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, SlideShare, Flickr, etc. A community manager should be platform agnostic, finding out where the organization's stakeholders are, then developing a proper strategy to create and maintain the necessary channels and content to communicate with them.

Tells us about your community.

I work for a technology B2B marketing agency and am the community manager for multiple clients.

For the Itanium Solutions Alliance (a global consortium of enterprise server and software vendors), we largely started from scratch. We revamped an outdated and ineffective blog with an interactive and authentic blog with multiple contributors based on an industry standard platform (Wordpress). We then established a LinkedIn group with gated access to control the flow of information to this group in a way not commonly shared on the open web. Accounts on Twitter, SlideShare, YouTube, and other partner websites were soon to follow. We then linked these communities to each other, expanding visibility and allowing community members to consume content in their preferred format. We also began syndicating each new piece of content across all the appropriate channels.

Another important client is Isilon Systems, a leading scale-out storage provider for organizations with massive amounts of data. Isilon had a blog and Twitter account but they were underutilized. We recharged their program by rebranding their blog and Twitter presence, started new channels to syndicate content on LinkedIn, SlideShare, YouTube, and developed a Social Media Editorial Calendar to ensure regular updates and fresh content in the areas most important to their audience. We ensured authenticity by recruiting a dedicated blogging team from within the company, and we divided the responsibility of authoring blog posts between them.

What are the biggest obstacles community managers face?

The most common obstacles revolve around growing community membership and participation. Community managers also need to be empowered by the organization they work for. This involves getting prompt access to news, announcements, and fresh content; as well as access to the various departments affected by the community; often marketing, PR, sales, and customer service.

Are there any personality types that are common in online communities?

Yes. Just like in other communities, there tend to be early adopters, vocal enthusiasts, silent observers, vocal curmudgeons, and trolls. But the majority of people fall into the category of semi-engaged and semi-active participant.

Sometimes a small group tends to dominate conversations in online communities. Have you ever had that experience? How do you try to bring the group back to a balance?

Yes, based on the personality types mentioned above, this is bound to happen. The most vocal types will always make themselves heard. In general, this is very welcome as participation is the lifeblood of all communities. But when I feel a conversation is too one-sided or is taking up to much "mindshare" on what should be a broader topic, I'll jump in and ask for other opinions -- or contrary opinions -- from the group. Often this is enough to encourage others to participate who had been hesitant, or at least give a hint to the conversation dominators to shut it for a while.

What are some good tactics to encourage collaboration and avoid miscommunication?

When creating the various community channels, initial messaging should clearly encourage participation and collaboration between community members. Sometimes community members will collaborate 1:1 offline so I only have visibility to that if they mention it in their public comments or messages to me. I highlight successful outcomes coming from collaboration as a way to encourage others to think along those lines. A good way to avoid miscommunication is by crafting a clear set of community guidelines before the launch of the community that encourage people to stay on topic, respect other peoples' opinions, avoid profanity and blatant self-promotion, etc.

How do you deal with trolls? Are there any safety measures you have implemented?

Most community platforms allow you to approve/disapprove new group members. In LinkedIn, for example, I check the profile of people before I let them join. If in doubt, I ask them about their interests in the group. Usually, trolls will not respond this request. People who do respond know that I'm closely watching and don't tend to cause trouble. But if they do, I'll either warn them or kick them out of the group. Even more common than trolls, I've found, are people blatantly selling a somewhat related product or service and I manage these folks in the same way. Blog platforms also allow one to review comments before they become publicly available. Open channels should be regularly watched and objectionable material removed promptly. Other group members can help flag objectionable material as well. Inevitably, undesirable elements will leak through from time to time but this should not deter managers from starting or maintaining a community.

Is there a memorable story about being a CM you would like to share?

The most memorable thing is probably the success we've had building out new communities. In the past, companies measured their engagement across only a few channels, like website visits and newsletter opens. Now there are a plethora of online channels to communicate with stakeholders. We've seen dramatic increases in engagement by measuring the sum of all these engagement metrics. New channels also allow more chances for contribution, measured in comments, contributed content, likes, tweets, etc. We've also had quite a bit of success on LinkedIn soliciting participation in our marketing programs. For example, we promoted a global innovation awards program that lead to a substantial increase in award submissions, content, event attendance, and new community members.

Any tips or advice you would like to share with other CMs?

Before starting or revamping a community, do some research on which channels would be most appropriate for your audience. When launching, apply branding elements that visually tie the channels together. Be sure to link them together allowing users of one channel exposure to other channels. Examples of this are adding a twitter feed to a blog or embedding a video in a blog post. If growing membership is the goal, recruit members using widespread channels like Facebook and Twitter. Encourage community members to use these channels and add "share" and "like" buttons around your open content. For closed communities, treat members like VIPs. When possible, supply them with new content before the general public, and allow access to other limited resources, e.g. occasional access to a key executive. Spotlight exemplary posts, collaborations, and other contributions as an example to other members. Periodically poll the community and allow them help shape the community's growth and direction over time.

(Brandon Wick has a psychology degree from the University of Oregon and a master's degree in International Management from the University of California, San Diego. Wick has several years of communications experience as a consultant and communications manager.)