Understanding the Community/Evangelist Role, and profiles of a few of my Favorite Folks

Categories: Community Manager, Community Marketing, Social Media, Web Industry, Web StrategyPosted on March 26th, 2007

Social Media, and the web in general gives way to individuals to connect, in which they share their real human face, thoughts, and opinions.

One way for companies to adopt to this is to hire or create a role called a “Customer/Community” + “Evangelist/Advocate/Manager/Guy/Girl” or some variation of. I know many of those that are the leaders, and at my previous company, I had that role. They often use the tools that the people in the community use, today, this toolset primarily involves blogs, and is now spreading to video, twitter, and who knows what.

The rules of a Community Manager are simple, here’s my ideology around it, feel free to share your own:

This “Customer/Community” + “Evangelist/Advocate/Manager/Guy/Girl” role typically has the following traits:

1) Community First
Puts the community or the customers as a priority over the company. This person is an advocate for the customers, and will often go ‘join’ the community, rather than try to build it. (I learned this from Tara)

2) An Educator, two-ways
Teaches the community about the company and it’s products, often in a non-invasive manner.

3) Uses the tools and communication style of the community
In 2007, this is primarily blogs, online pictures. I see this moving to Video, Twitter, and a vast array of emerging tools.

4) Puts a Human Face on the company
This person actually shows their real face, both online and at events. Forget those stock images of the pretty Asian woman at the computer, and use a real person, who can relate to the community.

5) Not just a Marketing Role
This is not just a PR or marketing role, this role actually extends to:
Customer Support
Product Marketing and Engineering

6) Knows when to get out of the way
Sometimes this role is to connect the right people in the company (who know more about the product details) with the right customers. Also this role will connect prospects with customers, in a new form of “customer references”.

7) Pushes the “Membrane”
Scoble told me about this in 2005, he pushed the corporate membrane at Microsoft, which is a pliable movable invisible wall. Once he felt he pushed it, and was just about to poke through, he would back off. If Corporate Comms and Management gets uncomfortable with the community manager, then you’re doing the job right.

Additional Resources:

What a Community Manager does

Can a Community Manager really sit back and shutup?

Project Manager, Product Managers, and Product Marketing Manager

Social Media changes Product Managers and Product Marketing

Update: Inspiring upcoming potential Christopher Salazar has added some additional thoughts, a must read.

Some of the profiles of the Evangelists or Community Advocates in the Technology Industry:

Guy Kawasaki - Former Apple Evangelist and current VC
Most well known for being one of Apple’s most vibrant Evangelists, in addition to his many endeavors of his own. Guy is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. Guy has some of the most infectious evangelism, people are drawn to him, and this was very apparent when he started his blog and it instantly became a hit. Check out his wikipedia profile.

Damon Billian - PayPal, SimplyHired
I’ve actually known Damon longer than most folks on this list, I knew him from some mutual friends before I started my career. Damon was one of the early evangelists in the web industry, while at PayPal, he compassionately reached out to customers to help answer their questions. Damon is now involved with SimplyHired and is the Community Manager, I myself have interacted with Damon in the SimplyForums where Damon was facilitating some great discussions. Damon can be found either in Silicon Valley or Thailand visiting his sweetheart or on his blog.

Scott Beale - Laughing Squid
Scott is the founder of Laughing Squid Web Hosting for over 10 years, as a well-respected photographer, he takes pictures of community events and personalities and spreads his stickers that end up on all kinds of interesting places. He’s also know for throwing some amazing community parties, all this without pitching his product.

Tara Hunt - Pinko Marketer, Citizen Agency
As one of the most visible web company evangelists, Tara’s credited by giving to the community that she serves by becoming one of them, as a result of her generous nature, her former employer Riya yielded incredible early signups for it’s initial launch. She founded the Pinko Marketing religion which spurs an emerging generation of marketers that listen rather than talk. Last summer Tara left Riya to start her own consultancy appropriately named Citizen Agency with sweetheart Chris Messina. Today, Tara’s seen on the speaking circuit, stirring up traditional marketing memes, being a mom, or working hard in her swanky SF office loft near SOMA’s South Park Tech corridor. I’m constantly amazed at her energy, I doubt you’ll be able to keep up, so to learn more check out CenterNetworks has a great interview or check out her blog Horse Pig Cow (or as I affectionately refer to it, Neigh, Snort, Moo) .

Will Pate, Community Ambassador, Flock/Rockstar
Out of all the evangelists out there, I’m likely to be the most jealous of Will Pate. Not because of his dashing good looks, (or so my wife tells me) or that he’s constantly surrounded by the ladies, or stylish garb, it’s because he makes it look so easy. I recently caught up with Will at the Community Next conference in Palo Alto and he described his role at Flock to be part community advocate, and part company evangelists. He helped to bring the requirements together, connect them, and build a better product. Today, Will can be found in Toronto, and he’s switched to a part time role at Flock, what’s next for Will? Greatness I’m sure.

Robert Scoble Geek Blogger - Former Microsoft Blogger, now at PodTech
The Scoblizer brought a human face to the evil empire. Although an employee, Robert was the biggest critic of Microsoft. He would point to the ‘evil’ faster than anyone else could, centralizing the conversation and opening up a transparent conversation. As a blogging evangelist, Robert changed how many felt about Microsoft. We now work together at PodTech. He’s most often seen in one of our meeting rooms interviewing a CEO for his show ScobleShow.

Thomas Hawk - Photographer, Zooomr Evangelist
In my opinion, Thomas has the most unique style, hired a few months ago as Zooomr (a Photo sharing site) as their Marketing Evangelist, rather than pitching the product, he uses his camera. Thomas takes pictures of just about everything and anything, and they all turn out interesting. By being an example of the photographer community, he brings the experience of photo sharing (and that means zooomr) closer to his community. He also never ‘hard-pitches’ his company, buy by just demonstrating his mastery of photography he draws the community in closer.

Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist
To me, Craig is a very fatherly character in the drama I call the internet. His website is about giving, sharing, and helping others. He’s a serious community guy, who gives his time, effort to those who also need help. If you’ve ever seen him speak, he’s very humble and generous to others.

Micki Krimmel - Revver
Micki is the video Starlet of our time. As the Director of Community at Video Sharing site Revver, she walks and talks the business. Her highly captivating videos express her unique style, signature tattoo, and impecable fashion forward LA fashions. If anyone should get her own dedicated video show it should be Micki. I’ve met up with Micki a few times, and her online persona is exactly like her real life one: engaging, interesting, captivating and very babelicious. It’s no doubt that Revver has so wisley chose her to be the front face of the company, like Thomas Hawk, she lives the product without pitching it. But more than anything even Galacticast thinks The Micki is sexy.

Martin McKeay - StillSecure Blogger, Podcaster, Videoblogger
Martin is a personal friend of mine, and has recently started as the Security Evangelist for StillSecure a security solutions company. While still too early to sing any praises, we’ll keep an eye on him. Martin is a Security Blogger “A-lister” Podcaster, VideoBlogger (with PodTech), and Speaker.

Mario Sundar - LinkedIn
Mario announced his succession as the Community Evangelist at Linkedin a few hours ago.

Others?
I realize there are other people that could make this list, (such as the wikipedia entry on Technology Evangelist I pulled from those that I’ve met or followed, feel free to add a comment to add your own!

Who am I? Master Blogger Shel Israel has documented my experience as the Online Community Manager at Hitachi Data Systems. I now work as a social media consultant at PodTech, helping our clients with their own Community.

Update: I’m no longer at Podtech, but instead am an Analyst at Forrester Research covering Social Computing, in fact, I’ve published a report on this passion topic of mine, how to staff for social computing.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2007 at 10:03 am and is filed under Community Manager, Community Marketing, Social Media, Web Industry, Web Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Is true… Micki is the sexy… so sexy.

Posted by Number Three Sexy on March 26th, 2007 at 10:35 am

[...] Jeremiah posted some interesting thoughts on the rules of a Community Manager, but here’s my additions (without looking or paraphrasing his thoughts)… [...]

Posted by Who can be a Community Evangelist? « e-Bizz by Christopher Salazar on March 26th, 2007 at 10:42 am

Thanks for the mention:-)

Posted by Damon Billian on March 26th, 2007 at 11:14 am

Jeremiah is bucking for a promotion or a raise! Who is that Scoble guy anyway? Great list JO, but there is a distinct and unique person missing from the list.

Posted by Jim Turner on March 26th, 2007 at 11:19 am

Note to self: cut the hot Asian girls from next conference.

The real trick to having this person is that it is tough to track progress other than with the big wins.

Job Description: Go out there and make people talk about us.

I’ve got to think that the best candidate for this type of role is someone who is already in the community, opinionated, and active. Sort of like hiring a technology reporter to be a PR person or a political commentator to be a campaign spokesperson.

How else would you recommend adopting someone like this?

Dan

Posted by Daniel R. Sweet on March 26th, 2007 at 11:36 am

Hi Jeremiah,

Jake McKee (communityguy.com) should also be added to the list.

Posted by Damon Billian on March 26th, 2007 at 12:41 pm

Jim who am I missing? The comments section is intended to include reccomendations

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on March 26th, 2007 at 2:23 pm

Hahah Scoble has nothing to do with my salary, I could tell him to “f off” and it wouldn’t change anything.

With that said, he’s one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on March 26th, 2007 at 2:24 pm

Hi Jeremiah,
this is great stuff - I’ve been managing travel publisher Lonely Planet’s online community on and off for a while now, and I reckon you’ve really hit the nail on the head.

Posted by Jane Rawson on March 26th, 2007 at 4:03 pm

Damon, I’ve interviewed Jake on video recently, yup, he’s done some amazing and wonderful things, I’ll be featuring him later.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on March 26th, 2007 at 5:45 pm

Jane

Thanks so much for this, this post has been in my head for a while, and I am happy to finally share it.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on March 26th, 2007 at 5:46 pm

Thanks, buddy, for the mention. Yep, I do intend to follow the example set by the marketers you’d mentioned.

BTW, you forgot to mention that our friend, Damon too, throws some awesome “community” parties LOL

Posted by Mario Sundar on March 27th, 2007 at 12:00 am

Mario

I plead the fifth.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on March 27th, 2007 at 1:51 am

Some additional gets it right best practices of community managers:

1. Understands and communicates back to the company (that sponsored the community) the value of the community.

2. Facilitates discussions among community members / participants so they can feel free to discuss issues outside of the community.
Mukund

Posted by Mukund Mohan on March 27th, 2007 at 9:43 am

Thanks for the mention, Jer! Great list and awesome list of qualifications.

Posted by Tara Hunt on March 27th, 2007 at 5:45 pm

[...] I’d like to “Thank You” all for your kind words and best wishes. And, of course, to Jeremiah for the video intro. Speaking of Jeremiah, he had a great post on community marketing yesterday. [...]

Posted by The 3 sides of the Community Coin! « Marketing Nirvana on March 28th, 2007 at 1:26 am

[...] Web strategist extrodinaire Jeremiah Owyang put me in a list of his top community advocates in the technology industry, right beside other people I have tremendous respect and love for. What an honor! Will Pate, Community Ambassador, Flock/Rockstar Out of all the evangelists out there, I’m likely to be the most jealous of Will Pate. Not because of his dashing good looks, (or so my wife tells me) or that he’s constantly surrounded by the ladies, or stylish garb, it’s because he makes it look so easy. I recently caught up with Will at the Community Next conference in Palo Alto and he described his role at Flock to be part community advocate, and part company evangelists. He helped to bring the requirements together, connect them, and build a better product. Today, Will can be found in Toronto, and he’s switched to a part time role at Flock, what’s next for Will? Greatness I’m sure. [...]

Posted by Jeremiah Owyang says I’m a top Community Advocate at Will Pate on April 1st, 2007 at 12:55 pm

I realized I missed Ted Rheingold on this list too.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on April 1st, 2007 at 7:46 pm

[...] Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Understanding the Community/Evangelist Role, and profiles of a few of my Favorite Folks Community guru Jeremiah Owyang has a great post that explains the right way to be a “community evangelist.” I especially love number 7, which is credited to Scoble. AND JO put me on the list with Guy Kawasaki. Sweet. (tags: community) [...]

Posted by Mickipedia » Blog Archive » links for 2007-04-02 on April 2nd, 2007 at 11:49 am

[...] It’s one thing to have a customer-base, but it’s even better to have a group of dedicated customers who actually participate in your marketing. Web stategist Jeremiah Owyang argues that a person running a social-media marketing campaign creates those kinds of dedicated participants. In his discussion of “Customer/Community Manager” (could mean the editor of a blog in my context), he says that such a marketer “teaches the community about the company and it’s products, often in a non-invasive manner” and does so using “the tools and communication style of the community,” which he agues are blogs and other online collaborative environments. That means that a blog preaches to potential clients in a format they want to engage, and that facilitates their reception of the message. [...]

Posted by The Church of Web 2.0: fertile grounds for marketing evangelists - 10,000 Marshmallows - Marketing Accountability: How to eat 10,000 Marshmallows on April 2nd, 2007 at 12:01 pm

[...] LinkedIn hired a new community evangelist — Mario Sundar. If you are a web 2.0 company looking to do the same thing, take a look at the 7 traits Jeremiah Owyang thinks are essential (I agree with all of them). « New Media Event - April 12th in Pioneer Square | [...]

Posted by Traits of a Community Evangelist » Personal Insights on Web 2.0, Blogging, and Business on April 2nd, 2007 at 10:23 pm

great list jeremiah. lots of peeps i read and respect on there!

Posted by kk+ on April 3rd, 2007 at 12:01 pm

Thanks KK

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on April 3rd, 2007 at 4:11 pm

[...] Understanding the Community/Evangelist Role, and profiles of a few of my Favorite Folks [...]

Posted by Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Dell’s Blog Warrior Embraces Community on April 4th, 2007 at 4:51 am

Jeremiah,

I’ve been struggling with a good title for this role as well. It’s good to see others out there with the same dilemma. (If one really pays any attention to the title on their business cards.)

Encouraging creativity, ideation and collaborative brainstorming within key vertical sites doesn’t really fit into traditional PR, marketing, R&D, or customer service roles. It’s an exploration of methods for innovating new business models and playing with the concept of co-creation. [re: Open-sourcing innovation.]

It’s much simpler to just tell people, “I work in customer service.”

By recognizing publicly the value of your customer evangelists and brand advocates, you gain a wealth of feedback, innovative direction, and citizen marketers whose message is louder than anything a PR/Buzz agency could possibly manufacture.

What better way to learn where your company should be heading than by letting your most passionate customers build the brand with you.

Posted by Ryan Rasmussen on April 5th, 2007 at 3:53 pm

Ryan

Thanks, the titles vary, but the role and purpose doesn’t.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on April 6th, 2007 at 8:06 am

[...] Bonus reading: Jeremiah Owyang lists the seven traits a community evangelist should have along with profiles of others in this role. [...]

Posted by Hiring a community evangelist | Internet Marketing Blog on April 6th, 2007 at 1:48 pm

Posted by ChurchNiche » Hiring a community evangelist on April 7th, 2007 at 3:08 am

Good stuff, as always. Only thing I’d add is that the community manager is often the person who ends up educating the company, as well as the consumers, about its products.

It’s always amusing to me how often consumers/fans/customers end up knowing far more about the overall product line than someone responsible for (and thus highly focused on) a single product or product line.

Posted by Jake McKee on April 8th, 2007 at 9:33 pm

[...] Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Understanding the Community/Evangelist Role, and profiles of a few of my Favorite Folks I find this an interesting new role for Communicators/PR folks….Worth thinking through. Share and enjoy [...]

Posted by Ketcheson.net :: links for 2007-04-13 on April 13th, 2007 at 1:23 am

I agree with Jake’s comment that #2 is a 3 way Educator. It’s important to teach the company about the values of the community & how to better provide the specific service.

And for #7 - it is true that the community evangelist can provide feedback that sometimes does cause discomfort initially, but if analyzed & considered it probably has some validity.

In working in this role, I think that my insights are quite different because I’m not within the corporate structure. Which causes me to ask - do you suggest that this person be employed within the company - or from outside?

Posted by Connie Bensen on April 13th, 2007 at 10:36 pm

Connie

To me, it doesn’t matter if the person is employed inside our outside as long as they are community evanglists.

The evangelist who is an employee however will have closer access to the product team, announcements, and releases –but isn’t that role already being filled by marketing?

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on April 14th, 2007 at 3:30 am

[...] For many large corporations being able to manage the many additional voices due to social media in an industry is a daunting task. Many companies are just starting to appoint Community Managers or assign budget and resources for the marketing organizations. Listening to the blogosphere, podcasts, and now video requires time, figuring out how to respond to them is yet another challenge. Being somewhat internally coordinate as many employees communicate is an even larger task. [...]

Posted by Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Strategies for organizing your Corporate Social Media Program on April 23rd, 2007 at 10:25 am

[...] “Understanding the Community/Evangelist Role, and profiles of a few of my Favorite Folks”, March 26, 2007 http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/03/26/understanding-the-technology-evangelist-role-a-few-of-my-favorite-folks/ [...]

Posted by Marketing Changes: CMOs, Evangelist, Social Media Programs, Website Strategy Positioning at Emergence Media on April 29th, 2007 at 11:42 pm

[...] Jeremiah has an excellent list of some of his favorite community managers. Jeremiah himself was a community manager at Hitachi Data Systems before becoming a PodTech rock star. The list includes folks such as Guy Kawasaki (one of the first and most well known tech evangelists) and Tara Hunt. [...]

Posted by Traces of Inspiration » Blog Archive » LinkedIn and Community Management on May 6th, 2007 at 5:25 am

[...] This is testament to the value of a Community Manager: Support, Marketing, Customer Advocate, and Product Requirements Documenter. Not sure about this role? I wrote about it, and listed out some good examples. [...]

Posted by Web Strategy by Jeremiah » LinkedIn’s Community Evangelist steps in and Prevents a PR Implosion (and keeps Rubel Relevant) on May 10th, 2007 at 9:20 pm

[...] Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Understanding the Community/Evangelist Role, and profiles of a few of my Favorite Folks (tags: jobs blogging marketing online socialsoftware socialnetworks web2.0 work TheGoodGuys) [...]

Posted by The Waving Cat » Blog Archive » links for 2007-05-29 on May 29th, 2007 at 4:38 pm

[...] We also know that the Community Manager role is appearing at almost every company, (learn more about this role) and every PR firm is starting to have a division to focus on this area as well. [...]

Posted by Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Questions you should ask before taking that “Social Media” or “Community” role on May 30th, 2007 at 7:03 pm

[...] It was suggested I provide feedback so here’s a few things that could help it grow: -Cool user interface, seems standard in navigating and getting around, I wasn’t confused. -I like how users can create their own neighborhood, neat. -Caution: I see this site as replicating content that exists elsewhere, read my thoughts on community. -I hope they take a look at Topix, which aggregates local content, I’m sure it will scrape the content found in Hometown. -Create a local aggregator, so content can be scraped off the web and shown on the site -Pull in and display images tagged with local locations, some modern photo applications have geo coordinates in them -Content doesn’t only have to have news from the neighborhood only -Check out Chowhound and Yelp to pull restaurant reviews from those sites -Check out Craigslist.org and pull in content from those sites -Look at voting type features in addition to reviews, and build ‘best of’ lists for the bay area -This is listening and intelligence tool for CBS, the community will start to tell you what’s important, and what CBS should be covering in it’s mainstream news. -Bonus: check out what Newstrust is doing with their multiple layers of content filtering [...]

Posted by Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Get Local with CBS 11 Hometown on June 5th, 2007 at 3:35 am

[...] Another favourite blogger of mine, Jeremiah Owyang, has also chipped in with some suggestions. [...]

Posted by nfp 2.0 » Buzz Director: help me write a job description on June 7th, 2007 at 12:48 pm

[...] You can understand more out the role of a Community Leader/Evangelist/Advocate/Manager HERE. [...]

Posted by The Ustream.Tv Blog » Blog Archive » Pirillo Interviews Ustream CEO Chris Yeh on “Community Leadership” on June 12th, 2007 at 2:09 pm

Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! lzflutbrjeqw

Posted by blwtnflzba on July 7th, 2007 at 1:31 pm

[...] I’ve been talking about this for a while, and what it means, so please check out my post I wrote a while ago called Understanding the Community/Evangelist Role, and profiles of a few of my Favorite Folks. [...]

Posted by Web Strategy by Jeremiah » The Community Organizer on July 20th, 2007 at 5:29 am

[...] Owyang wrote an interesting blog on the 7 traits of a community manager/corporate evangelist that compiles a pretty good start what you need to have to succeed. Here’s his take: 1) [...]

Posted by Community Manager | Corporate Evangelist at clintgc.com on August 6th, 2007 at 3:23 pm

[...] out of the PR budget. A new role started to appear more frequently, the digital marketing manager, the community manager, the social media [...]

Posted by The Questions Corporations ask about Social Media on September 6th, 2007 at 11:31 am

Nice list. Thanks for pointing me to it. It would be interesting to see a list for top community managers for or within Fortune 500s.

Posted by Douglas Pollei on September 11th, 2007 at 9:48 am

[...] a telecom giant like you could afford one. Unsure of what that role might be? You might want to see Jeremiah Owyang’s post on what that role entails, or maybe you can also check out Nathan Gilliat’s post on Defining Social Media Relations. You [...]

Posted by AT&T does NOT get blogging « Just Another Digerati Wannabe on September 13th, 2007 at 3:53 pm

Where does this fit in with the small business culture. As a company we strive to push personal, honest, informative conversations with all of our customers but how could I explain to my boss that this is a priority? How do I go about getting my boss to recognize that the biggest job of a marketer is talking to people, but not necessarily about any specific thing?

Also, what would you say about the creation of a community. As a company focused around emerging technologies, are there existing communities that I could become a part of? How would I go about creating a community for an emerging technology?

Thanks

Posted by Curtis Atkisson on September 22nd, 2007 at 8:10 am

Curtis, multiple people in a small company may fulfill this role, and it may not even be their official title.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on September 22nd, 2007 at 8:11 pm

Check out Stormhoek wine as a good example and English Cut

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on September 22nd, 2007 at 8:12 pm

[...] One of the best part of the experience is the truly human experience, it’s so common that large and small companies are so visibly unhuman in their website experience. If you’ve any questions about flock, or need quick answers Evan Williams the community ambassador (who stepped in after Will Pate moved on) is available. Next time I see him, I’ll get him on video to find out how he’s enjoying being a community manager. [...]

Posted by 2:30 Video: PC World’s Editor in Chief Harry McCracken loves Flock on October 28th, 2007 at 4:05 am

[...] Manager role (A role I had formally) but want to get some insight to what others are using. I have written on the topic, but also want to get feedback from the [...]

Posted by Seeking Formal Community Manager Job Descriptions on November 8th, 2007 at 4:54 am

[...] been quite the trend lately of Community Evangelists, in fact I even met a VP of Community Evangelism at the Web 2.0 Expo this [...]

Posted by MyBlogLog gets Community Manager: The fantastic Robyn Tippins on November 25th, 2007 at 6:37 am

Posted by The Four Tenets of the Community Manager on November 25th, 2007 at 6:46 am

[...] If you’re interested in this subject, read this post: Understanding the Community/Evangelist Role, and profiles of a few of my Favorite Folks. [...]

Posted by BrainFuel » Don’t forget the “social” when starting a web community on November 27th, 2007 at 2:05 pm

[...] Understanding the Community/Evangelist Role (Jeremiah Owyang) [...]

Posted by Mark Greenfield - Higher Education Web Consulting » Does Your College Have a CMO (Community Management Officer)? on February 25th, 2008 at 7:30 am

[...] ainda um consenso e tudo o que temos são nomes que hora são hypeados por uns e debochados por outros… hora o [...]

Posted by Você trabalha com o que? | Blog do Pedro Markun on April 3rd, 2008 at 12:06 am

[...] late April I found Jeremiah’s blog & realized Web Strategy was the term for my maximizing efforts & was intrigued by the concept of Community Manager [...]

Posted by » Milestones, Momentum & Social Media Connie Bensen: My Conversations on April 22nd, 2008 at 7:59 pm

[...] a community manager, you need to understand what the role of a community manager entails. Jeremiah posted the following in March of last year. It’s still very valid [...]

Posted by An Open Letter to Twitter on May 29th, 2008 at 10:33 pm

[...] Braniecki Community Evangelist Session: “The New Future of Collaboration - how a group of people can come together and [...]

Posted by Firefox 3 Release Event 2008 » Two talks topics confirmed on June 10th, 2008 at 8:33 am

[...] Owyang has an excellent post on what a Community manager should be doing, and Chris Brogan has also written on the [...]

Posted by 10 Easy Steps for a Small Business to Get Set Up for Community Management | theappleofmyi.com on July 25th, 2008 at 1:49 am

[...] pushing the “membrane�? [...]

Posted by Coworking Ireland » Other Resources on September 21st, 2008 at 12:14 am

[...] Understanding the Role [...]

Posted by Community Manager Recruitment | Connie Bensen on September 30th, 2008 at 5:54 am

The Four Tenets of the Community Manager…

Far too many people are scared to implement a moderation system for fear of losing membership or scaring off new members. Moderation is about leadership, and positive leadership leads to positive culture. And at the end of the day,……

Posted by Confluence: Dot Sun on November 11th, 2008 at 8:44 pm

Great so many companies are embracing their users/customers with communities, forums, blogs, etc. But you also need to get these companies to do something with the information and insights they get from engaging in social media. Turbo Tax has a nice community, but when their application freezes up on you just as you are to file for your return and you see that so many others have stated this in the community and Turbo Tax has no response. What good is the community tool????? Shame on Turbo Tax. Same with Dell. They have so many social tools they use, but you never hear back from them when users can’t find what they need or suggest improvements. I was looking for warranty info. and the only response I received was from their webmaster who said they only fix things broken and my question did not indicate the site was broken. See if you can’t encourage Dell to break down all those internal silos and gather all the feedback no matter what tool it comes from. I bet they would have some valuable information and it is free. Now do something with it.