Listening Is Great, But So Is Asking

We’re all familiar with the expression of ‘listening’ in community management, but are you asking? I’m not talking about asking questions to increase engagement on your social channels, but asking to get feedback, to make things better.

Often companies make changes, and add new features without asking, or even consulting their communities. It’s not always necessary, and if you’re a company like Facebook, you kinda just expect your users to adapt to any changes you make. Asking your community the right questions can be beneficial in many ways.

 Ask:

• For any feedback on what users like or don’t like about the product or service
• If there are any features your members would like to see in your product
• If there’s any type of content they would like to see more/less of
• Your influencers and advocates to beta test new products/changes before launching them to the public

Your community will appreciate being a part of the picture, and it will help you create a better experience and product for them. After all, the product isn’t really about you, it’s for the people your serving. 

Looking To Land That Sweet CM Gig? – Don’t Forget to Show Some Enthusiasm

You can find plenty of articles out there listing all the qualities and traits of a good community manager. You’ve gotta be a people person, knowledgable, a good writer, empathetic, a quick thinker, constantly learning. One thing I think that’s often forgotten is enthusiasm. We can list off our experiences, accomplishments, what we can do for the company, but if you aren’t showing enthusiasm for the position, then it most likely isn’t going to work out.

This is something I dealt with recently, first hand, and it’s not a great feeling. I saw the startup I wanted to work. for I was able to do my homework (as much as possible for a company that hadn’t launched, and didn’t have a functional website up yet.) I wrote up my cover letter as soon as I saw the posting. Later that day, I received an email inviting me to a phone call with the company. That following Friday I took the phone call. I was well prepared, had my notes and questions ready to go. I thought the call went well; they mentioned how prepared I was for the call, and they appreciated it. I sent my follow up email later that day.

Two weeks later, I get an email saying they wanted me to meet me in person. Apparently my call was good enough to get me a follow up. So, I began to prepare for my in-person meeting with the company. I was both anxious, and nervous. – It was a company I was really excited to be a part of, and they were still a team smaller than ten.  I sat down with the woman I had spoken to on the phone. We chatted a bit about the company, my experience, what they were looking for, what I was looking for. About 30 minutes later, she said it was time to meet with the CEO. (Note, I should’ve asked before hand how the interview process was set up, to help better prepare me) The CEO came over, and my nervousness level hit a new high. I had already emptied my brain with everything I had planned to say, I now felt like an idiot. The first question was the usual: “Tell me about yourself.” After that, I was again asked about my experience, and what led to my applying. I went on about why I applied, and she then asked if I had any questions. I tried to come up with some new ones, in which I mumbled a few things that came to mind. That about wrapped up my interview. She said thanks for coming in, we shook hands, and each went our merry way.

Later that evening, I began to work on my follow up email. I threw in some new ideas I had for the role, and touched on everything we talked about. That Sat evening, I get an email saying I wasn’t being considered for the role, and thanks for coming in. I was upset at first, I had invested so much time, effort, and thought into applying, and interviewing for the role. I quickly deleted the email. A few hours later, I decided to to write back to see If I could get some input about the interview. I said thanks for having me, and mentioned how much I really wanted to work for the company. I then asked for any feedback on my interview.

A couple days later, I got my answer. My initial email had shown my enthusiasm and that’s what grabbed their attention in the first place. My phone call was more about my homework and research. They weren’t too sure if they were going to call me into the office, but they decided to give me a chance. It was then in person, that I let my nervousness get the best of me, and didn’t show the enthusiasm the company was looking for.

When interviewing for a company as such (smaller than 10 people), a big part of the hire is going to be enthusiasm. Company culture is very important. While I really was enthusiastic about the job, had the experience, and did my homework, it was nerves that got the best of me.  It’s quite a disappointing feeling to miss out on a job opportunity because of nerves over experience. A lack of experience would be more understandable.

While things might look good on paper (or on a screen), remember it’s your enthusiasm that will help you land that next job. There are plenty of resources out there that give you suggestions on getting over nervousness, but you need to show the company with your body language and tone, that you really want the job.  Make sure to know who you’re meeting with, and how. If it’s a round table interview, or one on one. The more prepared you are, the more you can focus on your enthusiasm, instead of your nerves, and coming up with things on the spot.

The Three Pillars of Community Building and What It Means To Me

Here are three things I like to look at when building community. Other people may have more or different ideas when it comes to building community.

Initiative – As a community builder, you have to take initiative.  Yes, some communities build themselves, but that’s not always the case. You need to take steps and put in the effort. Don’t go into something if you aren’t willing to put in the time and effort. Like tending a garden, sometimes it takes nurturing and watering. You have to prune and even clean up weeds every now and then.  You need to know what to say yes and when to say no more.

Purpose or Cause – A community needs to come together around a certain purpose or cause. It could be an interest in a brand or company, a not-for-profit or general awareness, as well as many other topics. This is the foundation of the community. With a defined purpose, the community has something to talk about, relate to, and care about. If things get off topic, you need to help get things back on track. I’m not saying it’s completely out there to go off topic at times. Talking about current events or something else may help a stagnant community get motivated again, but don’t forget what the community is about.

True Community – I believe that in building community, you should have something along the lines of what I call “true community.” That means the community is actually engaging and helping each other without the assistance of the community creator or community manager. If someone has a question, others are happy to jump in and answer, or even defend on the cause or brand’s behalf; they should become self-sustaining in a way. If the community manager steps away for a short-while, hopefully the community will be fine on it’s own. In that time away, it’s the perfect opportunity to listen and observe.

Community building does take a lot of patience, effort, and dedication. It can also be very rewarding. On the other hand, you need to have a thick skin and know not take things personally.  Empathy is one of your strongest suits; remember to play it well.

A Twitter Party? What’s that?

If you’re familiar with Twitter, you’re most likely familiar with #hashtags. There’s a lot that can done with the hashtag. When it comes to engagement and community, there’s something called the Twitter Party which can be quite beneficial for many reasons. It’s unlike the traditional definition of a party. A Twitter party consists of a moderated chat based around a series of questions. Unlike a traditional Twitter chats, which are generally reoccurring, a Twitter Party is a one time deal (or series) that’s hosted by a brand or company around a certain topic in which prizes are given out throughout the duration of the party.

Twitter parties can have many benefits for many reasons. The idea of the conversation isn’t to necessarily talk about the product or service itself, but more-so around the lifestyle based around it. For example, a Twitter party hosted by a mattress company wont talk about their beds, instead they talk about tips and tricks around sleeping and finding the perfect mattress. After all, that’s what it should be about in today’s world. The hard sell is out and relating to one’s personal lifestyle is in. It also provides some personality to the brand hosting the chat. The party usually has the moderator asking the questions and a couple of other people to help in engagement and choosing winners of the prizes.

The goals of the Twitter party may vary host to host, but the main ideas are to generate conversation, engagement, and maybe even a call to action. Some steps to preparing for a Twitter Party are as follows:

1. Choose your topic and create a hashtag. You want something not being used already, but that’s also relevant to the topic of the party. A unique hashtag will help with tracking later on. (Check out hashtracking to help with measuring tweets)
2. Create the questions. Five questions are generally the perfect number. It all depends on how much time you want to spend on the questions and how many people you think will be participating. Remember to stick to questions around the lifestyle and not about the actual product.
3. Choose your prizes. A prize for a rsvp, to the best answers and the best participants are usually the best way to award prizes. Gift cards or branded products are usually the best options for prizes.
4. Choose your date and time. Middle of week, 8pm EST is usually the best time. You need to think about the audience,  time zones and when people might be out of work and already had dinner.
5. Announce the party. If you want time to grow hype around the party, I suggest up-to a month before hand. It’s gives people time to spread the word and add it to their calendar. Share it on your social networks and on your blog. Make it known that someone who RSVPs will win a prize. Make people excited and interested to join.
6. Prepare the day of. Make sure all your eggs are in one basket. Have a timeline set for all your questions, the time spent on them, and when prize announcements are being made. Depending on the topic, be prepared for any negative questions that may arise and how you want to handle them. It’s best to handle those apart from the chat and offer different means of support. Stick to the topic as much as possible.
7. Host the party. Have fun! After all, it is a party.
8. Analyze your results, look at your goals and expectations, see what went wrong and what went right.

Twitter parties a great way to build awareness and word of mouth on a cheap budget. They have the potential to generate a few thousand tweets with millions of impressions in just an hour’s time. If it’s successful, you might even be lucky enough to grab the trending hashtag on Twitter.

Why Every Community Manager Should Take Some Time to Travel

Any good community manager knows that a big part of their job is being empathetic. You need to be able to feel for and understand your community and potential community members. You don’t need to be a psych major to understand people. (A psychology class doesn’t hurt though.) It does takes a lot of being around people, listening, talking, and understanding. Being an introvert and keeping to yourself wont help. I previously wrote about about how working in food service was a huge help in my non-traditional CM education, now I want to talk about how traveling can help just as well.

First off, I want to say traveling can be a huge step up if you live somewhere remote and demographically segregated. If you live in a huge populated city like NYC, the world is all around you. I wasn’t always in NYC, so traveling was the first way I was really able to see the world we live in and the people that populate it. Unlike the U.S. where we’re pressured to graduate high school, go to college, and then start a life long career, there are places where it’s normal to finish grade school and then take some time off to see the world. Traveling can be a life-changing education of it’s own. There’s a world of people out there; different societies, cultures, religions, and communities. When you get a chance to travel, you really get to understand people in a new way, in a new light. When I talk about traveling, I don’t talk about staying in a nice hotel and luxury, I’m talking about backpacking and staying in hostels. Hostels have been a great way IMO to “really” meet people. I also did a lot tours and activities solo.

If you aren’t familiar with hostels, think of a college dorm. Instead of a room with one bunk, try 3-10 bunks, and it being unisex. You could have 10-20 people in a room of just beds, a shared bathroom and a shared kitchen. The best part, despite any cultural differences, most people are like-minded and very outgoing. A language barrier is usually the only thing in the way of good conversation. I’ve come to  meet people from all over the world while traveling overseas and staying in hostels. Even staying hostels in the U.S. I’ve come to meet people from around all walks. You can learn so much from these travelers about the world we live in. You can’t afford to be narrow-minded staying in a hostel. If you haven’t been everywhere, there’s most likely someone who has, and they’ll tell you their stories. There’s a lot you can learn about people, and you begin to understand them more than you ever thought before. If you can truly understand a person and where they’re coming from, it really helps in community building and outreach. People come from all walks and backgrounds, and not everyone is the same. What may work for one, may not work for some. That’s something you need to realize as a community manager.

Of course, not everyone has the luxury of traveling. But if an opportunity arises, I would suggest you go for it. If you do travel, and can manage by staying in a hostel for a night or two, do it. If you’re afraid of being in a cramped room on a rickety  bunk bed with a stranger, you can usually rent a private room for still less than a hotel room. Talk to people, talk to someone different than you. You never know what you can learn. Even if you can’t travel, talk to someone new. Go to networking events, talk to someone new at the bar, join a meetup group. If you want to understand people, you need to interact with them. Most likely your audience will be a good mix of people. If you have an idea of who they are, it will be easier to converse with them.

So go out there and meet someone new!

What Working for Paula Deen taught me about Community

If you’re familiar with the Food Network, chances are that you’re familiar with Paula Deen. Paula Deen is the the so-called “Queen” of southern cooking. In saying that, she’s known for her unhealthy choice of fried foods and a ton of butter in a good amount of her recipes. But she’s also well known for her “southern charm and hospitality.” “Hey Ya’ll” she says charmingly with her picture perfect smile.

Before I started working at her restaurant I was pretty quiet and reserved. Little did I know that in looking for a job, working at her restaurant would change me as a person for the rest of my life. Unlike the busser that doesn’t interact with customers, I was hired as a S.A. I wasn’t quite sure what that was at the time. I quickly learned it was a server’s assistant. As the S.A., I was the first one to the customer’s table before the server even got there. Here I was, this shy kid, forced to go up to a table and say “Hey Ya’ll!, welcome to the Lady and Sons” and proceed with  passing out their bread. It was soon before long that I really began to enjoy that role. My job was just to say hi and pass out bread, but the customers always wanted to talk, and I wanted to oblige. It wasn’t before long that my enthusiasm in talking to customers turned into being moved up to a server way quicker than most employees who needed to have much more experience. Just to be a server, I had to memorize Paula’s entire rise to fame. I had to know that information, so I could answer customer questions.

Day in and day out I would meet these customers coming from all over the country, sometimes even internationally. They all had different stories, different opinions. Some were big fans of Paula, some wanted to see what all the hype was about. Other customers were recommended by someone else, while not having a clue who Paula Deen was at all. Some people loved the food and some people hated it. Sure, you go to a restaurant to eat, but overall, it was the experience that really mattered over all. That’s something I really began to understand. It was about doing your best to create the best overall situation from beginning to end, and if the situation started to turn, it was up to you to do your best to flip it back around. The same thing holds true with communities. While someone may have been upset about waiting in line for hours in the heat and humidity, or had a meal that was subpar, it was up to you weigh the outcome of the situation. Even if you can’t completely satisfy the person then and there, they’ll at least see you tried your hardest and they’ll respect that (hopefully). Maybe I had a customer who’s experience was horrible from the start. The line was too long, the host wasn’t friendly, the food took too long and then the food wasn’t that great. After all that, they probably don’t want to wait for something else to come out of the kitchen. So, you be sincere, understanding. Apathy is important and can go a long way. You offer them reservations for the next day, a free meal, free dessert, and if not that, suggest somewhere else that might make them happy. Maybe you have a friend at another restaurant and you call there and get the upset customer a reservation. Do what you can, when you can.

The thing is, you never know who that person may be or who they know. At the restaurant, we had food critics from all over come to eat at the restaurant, friends of the family, and even secret shoppers from corporate. You always have to be to be on top of things, treating every person equally, no matter where they come from. One wrong thing, and it can go viral, one right thing, and it could go viral just as well. In a digitally connected world, one person can have all the power to spread things within minutes, if not seconds. That saying “Any P.R. is good P.R.”, it doesn’t stand true for all situations, it can be your downfall if you choose to think that way. It’s best if it’s good P.R.

It’s simple as that. Put the customer first. A company can’t be successful without it’s patrons. If people see you bending over backwards to help, they’ll appreciate it. Not to mention, you’ll feel better about how you handled the situation.

 

Why Personality Matters as a Community Manager

By now, I think most of us have an idea of what the role of the Community Manager entails.

Of course, as the role is still constantly evolving and changing it requires us to be on our toes 24/7.  As a community manager you have to take a good look at the company you’re working for and assess your true needs for the position. Depending on whether you’re at an agency or a start-up, the needs of the roles may include many different tasks and duties.

Communities will always differ wherever you find yourself working. That’s why personality makes up a huge part of the Community Manager role for each brand.

Do you have the right personality?

Take a look at the community you’re going to be working with before you take a position. The hiring manager should be well versed in understanding the needs of the open position because with whoever they hire, it needs to be a perfect fit.

Sometimes a person can adapt to many types of communities, but this doesn’t always hold true. The Community Manager for a liquor company is going to have a completely different personality than one for a healthcare company or a family oriented product. Then of course, you might be the face of a fictional cereal character, such as with my own experience, and it turned out it wasn’t the right role for me.

The mix of the CM’s personality and the brand’s persona is very important. If there isn’t a balance, it might not work out for either side.

If you’re assessing a new job opportunity, and are tasked with creating a balanced personality for a new brand, you need to look at language, tone, attitude, and many other aspects. You don’t want to find yourself saying the wrong thing and offending community members or the company you represent. Like the saying goes: “Loose lips sink ships.” It’s a lot easier to sink a ship than to raise it from the muggy depths.

Especially if your personality as the CM is a bit different then that of the community you’re managing, you need to be careful about what you say. There have been perfect examples with those behind the accounts for The Red Cross and Entenmann’s. Slips do happen.  All you can do is be honest, apologize and hope for the best.

Remember, it’s the community that matters first and foremost and you want to be able to talk and engage with them in the best way as possible. If the community manager is speaking in a language the community doesn’t understand, it probably wont work out.

 

via: www.thecommunitymanger.com

This Is Personal

In my previous post I started getting into how the social platforms we use everyday are also being used by marketers, by advertisers to learn what they can about consumers. Tools such as Radian6, FB insights, Sysomos and many others record demographics, sentiment, interests, keywords. These tools are built to pick up on behaviors and patterns and make sense out of all of them. Think of the recommendation tool on Foursquare, and other tools like Bizzy that take the info you give them, and start giving you ideas of other places to go, things to do and things to eat.

It’s all about you, your preferences, things you like. Pretty soon, these apps we use will be sitting on your shoulder, whispering into your ear by name, telling you what your next move is. They’re there to make your life easier, right? Why not start thinking for you, be one move ahead of you. Social networks are great because we share with our closest friends, our circles, get input from them. Deep inside, you have the things that you like. A recommendation from a friend may be great, but it doesn’t mean you’ll love it.

Think about the future of check-ins. Right now, you physically take out your phone and check into a location on Foursquare. From the app, you can see nearby deals, once you meet the requirements of the deal, you can claim it. The thing is, the deals are too broad. Think more personal. What if these apps really learn from us. Instead of pulling out your phone and checking in, all you do is step into a restaurant and the establishment knows you’re there. Based on prior information from your apps, it knows if you’re a vegan or vegetarian. Maybe you eat fish a lot. Your phone vibrates, you pull it out, and you have a personalized deal on your phone for Mahi-Mahi. Maybe if you order it, you get a glass of wine. Based on previous behaviors, its more likely you will order that dish because it’s the most appealing.

Think about shopping. You walk into a mall, and all of a sudden your favorite store in the mall sends you a notification of a deal going on the store because it now knows you’re there, and based on previous shopping history, you find that deal attractive. Maybe you walk into H&M, and from their P.O.S. records, they know you purchase V-Necks the most often. So, you can a personalized deal on your phone, buy two, get one free. It’s about one on one deals. The same thing will hold true online, your computers, tablets, smart phones. They all have the potential to learn about the individual using them, and target ads specifically ad you, with your name front and center. Perhaps as TVs because tethered to same networks our internet devices are using, advertising there as well will be targeted just at the person using it. The XBox lets you log onto individual profiles. With cameras being attached to everything, it’s not to hard for other devices to easily do the same, just by using facial recognition.

While platforms are learning now, I believe the next thing is personalization. While some people thought certain advertising was invasive, do you think this type of advertising would be considered invasive? It’s logical and it makes more sense.  Why waste time, effort and money trying to sell something to someone if it doesn’t make a connection with them?

The “I Want It Now” Generation

Technological breakthroughs are happening around us every day. The way we communicate is constantly changing and evolving. The way we get our news, pass on information and research information happens in the blink of an eye. If we want something, we’ve got to have it now, we can’t wait for it. We don’t even have to leave our homes to go grocery shopping anymore, we can have those delivered to us simply by ordering online.

I remember back in high school while doing reports, we were still forced to use books, online resources weren’t allowed because their validity was questioned, digital encyclopedias were the only exception. With e-readers, books are heading six feet under. We have the capabilities to load  hundreds if not thousands of books, music and movies in our portable devices.  Everything has to be at our fingertips when we want it. What would happen if we woke up one day and the entire internet went down? We would be damned. That probably wont happen of course.

We’ve become the “I want it now” generation. It’s this mindset that’s allowing for businesses, brands, companies to take real advantage of consumers. For them, it’s become the “what can I learn about them?” generation. With a plethora of analytical  tools out there and recommendation engines, marketers and brands are finding out everything and anything about consumers. With Facebook and now Google+, your profile information is allowing for hyper-targeted ads to focus on you and you alone. While you are putting more and more information out there, there are others soaking in that information to use it later on. The more we want, the faster we want it, the more we adapt, we have to have the new shiny device, we have to be using the next cool platform. It’s in our nature.

While people teeter on the issues of privacy, it’s more likely the Y generation, or younger generation will be less prone to the ideas of privacy. Growing up into the technology, they’ll see it as helpful, fun and beneficial, and that’s the only thing that really matters to them. Does giving up so much information to these marketers, advertisers harm us in anyway?

In my next blog post, I’ll be talking about the future of marketing & advertising and how all this information collected about you will be used to target you, one on one. Remember, anything you say  can and will be used against you in a court of law. That or used for other purposes.

(Update: The follow-up piece: https://jamodi20.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/this-is-personal/)

The Future of Advertising, Community and All Things Social

Often we come across the question  in moderated chats, on panels, and in our networks about the future of digital & community. Sure, social media is still something new and exciting. I believe that the term “social media” will be absorbed into something bigger. It will become such a routine part of everyday life there will no more need for said terms. Whether its through interaction with each other, sharing stories, updates, recommendations, interacting with favorite brands, though advertising, it’s about being personable. That’s the biggest things brands are really trying to do, they want to be able to relate with every individual on a one to one basis.

In the past advertising agencies would create ads for the mass, sure they would have their target market, but still, it was a huge market they were reaching out to. Creativity could only go so far. Facebook comes along, and using personal profiles and a person’s individual interests, brings in personal ads they can pinpoint and target almost anything. Still, the ads are becoming routine, it’s a small picture and a block of text, nothing very exciting. As the web becomes more social, search engines are pulling from social profiles and really getting to “know” users. Interactive web banners will adapt to the individual  browsing the web. As algorithms are evolving, they’re beginning to pick up the smallest patterns and learn behavior and will be able to to make not only recommendations for, but maybe even start making decisions for you. You won’t see  recommended friends on FB or whatever network is in existence, they’ll be added automatically.

With Google+ rolling out, their network could really revolutionize the whole web experience. If and when people start updating profiles to Google, it’s then that everything will become even more one on one in one huge connected experience. People really are different, and if you want to make true, real connections, you need to be able to understand where they are coming from. In shopping malls per se we’ll begin to see interactive billboards. They will all be camera operated, scanning people passing by, and based on sex, age, maybe even clothing style, they’ll post what they believe is an ad that will suit you personally. Maybe they’ll send that information to a database that will send something back to the smart device in your pocket offering you a personalized deal at a store in the mall.

Brands need to be on top of technology 24/7 if they really want to be connecting with fans as personably as possible. As for the communities and fans that fuel brands, the same methods need to be adapted. I’d like to see networks that translate automatically between users. For example, my FB is set to English, and yours to Mandarin Chinese. We become friends, I can see your page in English, and you see mine in Mandarin, we then are able to communicate flawlessly through an application that does all the translation for us. It’s innovation like that, that could really help tear down language barrier between people. I can see that happening somewhere in the future.

Then we have augmented reality, thats a whole other story and innovation. Imagine online shopping from home when the camera on your computer scans you, then virtually places the clothes on a 3-D model of yourself you can spin around and check out. There’s already been a Kinect hack that does. There’s plenty of other uses in the real world where your phone or tablet places virtual objects on  screen in the real environment around you.

Only time can really tell what comes next, but never be afraid to adopt new technologies. It’s those who hesitate that will either be left behind, or caught behind the competition. That’s not really what anyone wants. You may not always be excited to jump on the bandwagon, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and get with the times.