Video: Connie Benson on how Community Managers win over detractors (2:30)

Categories: Community Manager, Interview, VideoPosted on December 30th, 2007

Connie Benson is a community advocate, and is the community manager at ACDsee photo management software that I’ve used when I was a UI designer. Aside from that, she helps me co-moderate the Community Manager group in Facebook, and has been a big contributor in my research, defining the four tenets of community managers, and is becoming a great friend.

I asked Connie what to do when detractors criticize your company, brand, or products, we also talk about dealing with an overwhelming negative community or forum.

I also recommend setting up a process in advanced that helps to identify what type of detractor you’re dealing with, as some should be responded to quickly, and some should never be responded to (ongoing trolls). Develop a plan on what to do, as you’re going to have to deal with different personalities throughout your community program.

Update: Nicholas Butler says in twitter that Connie’s direct actions helped him give the ACDsee products another try, talk about understanding the value of having a community advocate like Connie.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, December 30th, 2007 at 1:33 am and is filed under Community Manager, Interview, Video. 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.

Hi Jeremiah,
Sean O’Driscoll has an excellent post on Trolls: http://communitygrouptherapy.com/2007/06/07/the-trouble-with-trolls/

When choosing forum moderators, it’s important that they have the tenacity to engage quickly. I prefer that peers ask people to express themselves kindly. The advantage is to have a number of us all expressing a consistent message. (It’s interesting to note that I first learned this in my library admin work when I needed to train my staff to all respond consistently to challenging customers). The dynamics of human interaction are the same online.

Thank you Jeremiah for focusing on building community! People are welcome to connect with me on Twitter http://twitter.com/cbensen and Facebook. Join us at the Community Manager group on Facebook for discussions & resources… more is coming!

Posted by Connie Bensen on December 30th, 2007 at 10:01 am

Connie

Thanks for this, and being on video!

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on December 30th, 2007 at 5:34 pm

[...] How To Win Over Detractors In Online Forums Expert community manager Connie Benson explains how to win over detractors in online forums and message boards in a video interview with Jeremiah Owyang. (tags: community forums messages messaging detractors negativity) [...]

Posted by The Straight Pitch » Blog Archive » links for 2008-01-01 on December 31st, 2007 at 6:21 pm

danah boyd wrote some great musings on the causes behind negative behavior in online communities, which I’ve incorporated into a set of suggestions on how to remove the ‘benefits’(responses, disruption, reputation) trolls and other problem users receive or cause:

http://socialstrategist.com/2007/12/04/turn-bad-members-into-good-members-in-online-communities

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Posted by FreshNetworks Blog » Blog Archive » How not to run an online community on June 3rd, 2008 at 11:41 am

[...] can also find interesting considerations for dealing with the negative folks from Valeria Maltoni, Connie Benson (via Jeremiah Owyang) and Jeremy Schoemaker (a/k/a ShoeMoney). All these pointers are strong but [...]

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