Community managers mediate between community members! - Igor The Troll
Well don't community managers manage communities? - Wayne Schulz
My favorite part of the role is sifting through all the great feature requests and recommendations, getting free user feedback on how to make your product better. - Adam Darowski
Smartly ride herd on the cattle, the cowboys, the ponies and the coyotes--y(ou can tell I've been in Colorado too long from this answer, can't you?) - susan mernit
Shel, we agree the term isn't a good one. In my case, HR needed to have the term manager in the books for the title. We all know the real rules of engagement. - Jeremiah Owyang
community manager is the new spin artist, a pr guy in sheep's clothing - Gregory Lent
Ask HR. Are they Human Managers? (well in a sense they are). By parallel the title could be Manager, Community Relations - Michael Markman
Found enough good stuff in links & commentary here & twitter to do a (gasp) blog post on this. You remember those, right? - Brian Oberkirch
Most companies I've studied are horrible at bootstrapping community. They don't know how to get one going. But they are fairly good at managing things that are already built. So, a community manager is someone who keeps an already-existing community happy. Who listens to the community and takes care of problems. Who finds new content and other things for that community, IE, who feeds that community. Here on FF we're ALL community managers due to the distributed nature of how FF works. - Robert Scoble
@Robert I couldn't agree more. Been on both ends. Was moderator for a huge board for a couple of rock stars and did exactly as you say. That community thrived because they wanted to be there. Nothing I did generated that. I only maintained it. I sure learned the difference when I tried to start communities for several other orgs! - Melanie Reed
Way back in the day I "managed" several mailing lists (I still miss majordomo, btw), most of which were very focused. It's really more like herding cats than cattle. A largely thankless job that you do because you have a passion for the topic at hand. Community managers, if up to the task, can keep the channel clear of enough noise for the community leaders' signal to get through. - Chris Kim A
They hang out in the community and rep the company and its products. Apologizes if the company screws up. Encourages people to choose the company's products over the others. Helps people find the right person in the company to work with. Retains their humanity, and generally takes the customer's side whenever possible. Quits if the company acts in an unprincipled way, so they act as a guarantor of the honesty of the company. A canary in the coalmine. Best if it's the CEO of the company. - Dave "Actual" Winer
We call the roll Community Gardener since they need to plant the right seeds, ensure water & sunlight and a healthy environment. That includes tending to weeds, ensuring that things that will pollute the healthy growth of the community do not take hold. - Austin Hill
The Real Community Manager is Proselytes Maker - Lora Lufark
good CM projects his passion for the subject into the primordial soup, infects people with ideas and said passion, and catalyzes community formation per se. That's the fun part. Then it's onwards to herding cats. - Michael Bravo
This is important stuff - great work, Chris! - Todd Mundt
Hey Chris. Great blog post. i think personal brands and company brands (like Forrester) mutually benefit by mixing the brands together. - Rodney Rumford
My business partner (at the time) stopped renting offices in 1997. Since then I have worked from a home office, participating in various enterprises, building personal brand and generating income. So for me this is a reality -- but I am in an knowledge based industry that lends itself to this style of business (and it suits my personel style). Many businesses and people though couldn't work this way. - Brian Sullivan
Long one but well worth the read and some dialog! - Charlie Anzman
NICE TO MEET YOU
my name is Amara.i will like to know you the more,and i want you to send an email to my email
address so. i can send you my picture please as u can see the way i address my contact plz help me by puting it well and send me mail plz Here is my email address (amaraoromo(at)ya/h/o/o/./com) I am
waiting for your mail to my email address above.(Remeber the distance or colour does not matter but
love matters alot in life ).
Amara - amara
HaHaHa...surprisingly Amara, i got the same message you wrote in here to one of my social accounts. Is it a new phishing technique? - Nir Ben Yona
via twhirl