Jeremiah Owyang

As a community manager, your personal reputation is also tied to the company you represent, and if the company falters, your reputation can get taken down with it. The same holds true if the community is successful, so there are some benefits, but the risk is always there.

Assuming I can use the term “community manager” loosely, to include the community that I’ve built around blog readers and some other social environments, and NOT just a Yahoo Group, or something like that, I’ll share the one hazard that affects me the most:

Getting deflated.

When I get too much negativity, harshness, etc., it’s hard to do the rest of the work I have to do. Sometimes people react too quickly (after a few emails they fall over themselves apologizing for being too brash, or judgemental, etc.), but just the initial reaction is enough negativity to impact how I perform in my work for the next few minutes or few hours.

Boundaries are more porous all the time, which is the gist of the problem for many community wranglers. Boundaries, as Cory notes, between a company that may be less engaged or successful in this arena and your own self as an engaged participant–just one example. I remain positive, however, that over time the wear and tear on boundaries will result in greater tolerance and flexibility. Got my rose colored glasses on today.

While I’m not a community manager, I do a fair amount of social-media engagement on behalf of my clients, and I also do a lot of education and training within my firm around those topics, counseling account teams and AE-level folks about how to do this in a respectful, thoughtful manner.

What I find, not just in performing the engagement functions myself, but with other account-team folks I’ve trained to do this kind of outreach, is that often, the blurry lines are a little bit arresting. For instance, on a recent campaign, I had a rather positive, friendly interaction with a blogger; he was very enthusiastic and very, very nice. Then, I got a notification that he had added me on LinkedIn. Recently, one of the account team members I’ve been working with on another account program got added on Facebook by an “outreach target” (I use that term while hating it; they’re not targets, they’re people, for God’s sake). Point being, those of us executing in the social-media space face a lot of the same issues and moments of “whoa!” when the professional collides with the personal.

For the record, I went ahead and accepted the LinkedIn invitation. I advised the AE who was added on FB that they did not have to accept it if they did not feel it was appropriate. LinkedIn is more of a professional networking space, so I felt that that was okay; but Facebook’s a little more personal.

(I won’t get into what happened the day that a client added me on Facebook. ACK.)

So far, neither I nor anyone that I have counseled has been the victim of an attack, snarky email, or other assorted public backhanding (knock on wood). I try to approach all the people I reach out to with respect, and hope that that comes across, and I definitely try to get that across to anyone I counsel. I know that the day will come where somebody will end up on the Internet Snark-A-Tron, maybe even me, so I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

I have the added luxury (ha!) of being female. This isn’t said to be sexist, not at all, but I do think women generally have a little more to fear in this universe just by nature of the unknowns we face when interacting online. I realize bringing up the ghost of Kathy Sierra is, to some, tantamount to invoking Godwin’s Law, but as someone who’s been stalked online by someone who came out of the monitor and up to her front door (not in relation to my job, and it was over six years ago), I totally understood how she felt. Someone coming completely unglued for reasons unbeknownst to us is a very real worry and fear for a lot of us, and I know several women that it’s happened to; no men, however. I’m not denying that it happens, but overall, I think behaviour like that skews in one direction. When I’m working with female account team members, I always add cautionary tales and tell them that if anything like that starts to brew, they need to CALL ME for help.

As usual, YMMV.

Cory O’Brien, I agree with Cory on this. As the public face of my group I take gouging by the community for things that are out of my control. It can be difficult but you have to be EMPATHETIC. Empathy is probably the BEST attribute a community manager can have. It will always lead you to be the best advocate for your members to business owners.

I recently wrote someone an email explaining some of my thoughts on the positives/negatives of being a community manager…

Off the top of my head, I like the fact that you can quite possibly know more about a community and learn valuable insights about it more than the people who built it – in that you’re the one on the front lines talking to everyone about their experiences, so you get the full-force blow of what’s out there, while a developer or founder may only get a brief summary. I find that to be extremely valuable. I like that you’re able to truly help people sometimes and shatter their low expectations of having a response from someone who doesn’t care or doesn’t reply to them at all.

Dislikes. I dislike when people fashion responses as if they’re not talking to another human being (e.g. mean, rude, hyperventilating, etc.) – however, I will say 9 out of 10 times, when you respond to them nicely, they will apologize for coming off so brash. I dislike when a few users will decide to gang up on you personally due to their frustration with the service (my example is that I threw CupcakeCamp on a Sunday, and since Pownce performance was slow, a group decided to get together and make mean remarks like “maybe if you weren’t stuffing your face with cupcakes and actually working, the site wouldn’t suck!”). It hurts because they’re taking part of your personal life and trying to get you in trouble for it. This is just where you have to smile and say that despite your love of cupcakes, it doesn’t interfere with development.

Best part… just being part of something that thousands of users feel so strongly about. Being able to learn a lot and have conversations. Sometimes being the one to stand up for the community in company meetings.

‘Being apart of something that thousands of users feel so strongly about’ is definitely one my favorite aspects. I also thoroughly enjoying solving people’s problems, every email is a new challenge and a new chance to earn that persons trust.

That in and of itself is worth dealing with the occasional prick.

In regards to Facebook, I’m a user who really is friends with my friends (it’s funny to have to explain that, it would have made no sense 10 years ago) and therefore I keep my privacy pretty tight; not too worried about people targeting me and I’m not worried about who follows me on twitter or pownce, I do however lockdown my photo sets on Flickr.

Finally, the fact that I’m a community manager for a site that deals with Investing, draws a fine line between what I can legally say to our members. Furthermore because I have my own website about finance/investing, I have to remember where I am and who I’m talking for; this is difficult.

@ethanbloch – you and I have much in common (I also manage community in the financial services sphere and have regulations to consider) and I do as you do – I’m actually friends with my friends on social networking sites and after 12 years in community management I’ve learned fully not to mix “business” with “pleasure” in this industry. All my social networking community profiles are either locked to people I know and trust, or not easily identifiable to members of communities I manage.

I hate feeling as if I have to close off like that. However, that is how I find I can be the most effective, passionate advocate for both the community and the company – create a clear separation between my personal online life and my work online life.

Great post Jeremiah!

There seem to be at least three major categories of risk for community manager folks, several of which Jeremiah already alluded to:

* Management overhead of maintaining multiple identity roles online. Or, conversely, not having set up such a structure dealing with “worlds colliding. (Of course, even in the first case, there will be occasional overlap.)

* The stress of being very much on the front line and not necessarily have the control to just solve the problems. Almost by definition, (mine anyway), anyone doing such a job likely has some empathy for others and wants to try to get the right thing done. This won’t always work out.

* Real risk from the true whack jobs out there.

In the real risk category, there’s at least these types I’ve come across.

* Legitimate Gripes. These folks may be rational or irrational, but either way, have legit issues. Handling these – since they’re legitimate problems – may entail conflicts between needing to offer information and transparency, but having legal obligations as well.

* Trolls and troublemakers. These folks are just loud and poke fun for fun. Eventually they get bored and go away.

* True disturbed individuals or those so very angry they will take real actions in the real world; whatever those may be.

I think the most crap I ever personally took was many years ago when working at Prodigy Services Company. (Remember them?? : ) I’d been product manager for USENET Newsgroups, (Remember them?? : ) All of a sudden, one day we flipped a switch and started putting 50K per month new users on what had formerly been an open system, but nonetheless insular community in terms of attitude. Yeah, those were some fun emails and phone calls. Not to mention dealing with threats from one member to another for topics ranging from online stalking to pornography to OFFline actions of some resulting in police involvement in some cases.

I’ve watched with great interest over the years as the few online services have morphed into what we’re starting to see now. Clay Shirky definitely has the best title for recent ‘net head must reads: Here Comes Everybody.

I’ve been thinking about this for awhile & am going to play devil’s advocate.

Transparency: In regard to creating an alias – what about transparency? How will your personal brand help your company & vice versa? In my most recent position, my brand is important to my employer. They wouldn’t want me working under an alias name. I wouldn’t want to work under one either.

Inherent dangers: I’ve thought of this & am a woman. My husband has expressed his concerns. Again I couldn’t have built my brand without being me. I did read about Kathy Sierra’s challenges & pray that doesn’t happen to myself or anyone else.

Separating work/personal life: what?!! I’m not supposed to work 24/7. I am working on that one. But that’s my own fault/choice. I do recommend that comm mgrs step back & let peer interaction happen on a more regular basis. I think it makes for a healthier community AND comm mgr.

Finally I’m surprised about the suggestion of keeping friending on Facebook & Twitter separated in terms of work/family. Jeremiah, I’ve followed your philosophy of befriending all everywhere & have never regretted that. Granted no one from my ‘work’ lives locally. The only problem I’ve had with FB is the FB chat – some ppl from a certain part of the world try to chat & I unfriend them. Their purpose has nothing to do with my work or presence online & that is apparent. I don’t feel threatened, but I terminate the connection.

But I do have comm mgrs that connect with me express emotions (ranging from joy to venting). Communicating with peers is important. It is a challenging role & I hope that companies realize the value & compensate accordingly.

I’ve been interested in organizing a recurring meetup with community managers near NYC. If anyone is interested, please let me know. I think sharing our experiences and insights would be invaluable to our jobs.

Seamus
Community Manager
mediabistro.com
http://www.twitter.com/mediabistro

I am a little late in commenting, but wanted to post something from a slightly different perspective. I Have been responsible for a community based around a prize competition with millions of dollars in cash prizes on the line, and I have had similar experiences. It is a much smaller number of people than a mainstream social network but they are much more intensely engaged. Almost all of the interactions are done online. When the community members lobby you for something, it is the prize they are after and some don’t hesitate from using negative commentary in public (online) about you personally as a tactic to gain your agreement. Being attacked like this isn’t fun, especially when your primary reason for doing something is to bring about technical developments that can benefit the whole world. It can also reflect negatively on the other community members.

While a good set of community guidelines and contractual requirements can help to mitigate negative behavior, there is always the possibility that a participant severs all connection with the community and complains in public and to the media. Even when a participant shoots themselves in the foot they still tend to blame the scenario on you as the organizer, possibly naming you individually.

Ultimately, you just have to maximize the positive interactions to the point where the comparatively small number of negative ones are essentially below the noise floor. This is a case where openness works in the favor of the community manager and in some ways can be your only real defense.

All that being said, when you get past the tantrums and good things happen by way of participatory engagement of the public in a community based around innovation, it is really a satisfying thing because everybody benefits from it.

+1 on everything – the pros and cons. community management is a lifestyle and one that requires a lot of energy and a LOT of passion for the business you’re in, the work you are doing, the communities you are serving.

it’s a bi-polar kind of position – super high highs, and super low lows.

i like melanie’s comment:
“not being a community manager all the time makes me a better community manager in general.”

if you’re doing it right you’ll earn your place with both internal and external audiences, based on the hard work, not necessarily the hours logged.

I would agree with Connie on some of her points. Since these networks are opt-in, we always have the ability to regulate our personal space; we can easily de-friend and block those that violate this space. Transparency is the key here, especially as the space becomes more and more crowded.

As community managers, we are the filter for our company; we simultaneously hear and speak, translating crucial messages back and forth through the fire wall in a manner we know our community will understand and trust. Since this is our function, an interesting question arises: How can we speak as ourselves, but also represent the “voice of the brand?” How can we stay true to the values of the company that were there before we arrived, but also ensure honesty and transparency?

For me, this is not an issue….but it does bring up an interesting paradox…anyone having this issue?