Second Annual Community Manager Appreciation Day: Jan 24th, 2011 (#CMAD)

Last year was the first time we’ve recognized the folks on the front lines connecting with customers in a human way using online tools. It’s that time again this year, that on the fourth Monday of every January we recognize community managers. You can read about the first time we did this in 2010, thanking all those who are trying to make customer experiences online more human.

Interestingly, one CEO of a social media vendor teased me for starting this off last year, gently ribbing me “wow I have so many community managers, do I have to all give them raises?”, I replied, “It’s about appreciation, as we know they internally have to harbor a lot of emotional customers, endless work schedule, and are contacted from all types of accounts to help customers”.

It’s simple to do: On Community Manager Appreciation Day (Jan 24th, 2011), just send a genuine thank you to those (at your company, or someone who has helped you as a customer) that are working to make a difference in how companies build relationships with their customers.

Update: Citi’s Frank Eliason is behind this idea, Dell’s Bill Johnston, Heather Strout at the Farland Group, Alison a Community lead at Cisco, as well as Telligent, with interesting commentary actual community managers in this  Social Media Club interview.

Physical Events Around the World:

North America

Europe

Middle East

Africa

Asia

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Note: this started off with Boston kicking it off, where there are many community related companies, which quickly spread around the tech hot spots in NY, Austin, SF and then beyond.

61 Replies to “Second Annual Community Manager Appreciation Day: Jan 24th, 2011 (#CMAD)”

  1. I love this! I never knew about this day, but I sure do now. It's marked on my calendar! Thanks so much!

  2. Jeremiah, congrats on keeping the #CMAD acknowledgements going! It wasn't that long ago that you (and I mean you) could list all the community managers in a reasonably short post 😉

    Do you know if anyone has considered establishing an awards program for community managers?

  3. This is a great idea Jeremiah and we will not only give appreciation to our community managers but will reach out to our clients to do the same! Keep us posted.
    Jane

  4. Do you think this will ever be as big as Secretary’s day?….. (Ahem its Adminstrative Professionals day now)

    Kudos to you Jeremiah for again being a leader.

  5. This rocks, Jeremiah! Thank you for promoting this idea; I will be promoting it online as well! Need a way to have a virtual Thank You party… all of us Community Managers get together online and the same time and have a toast?

  6. We (The Community Roundtable) have thought about doing an award but… think it recognizes one at the expense of others. We’d be interested in your opinion on this though. We also found it challenging to compare community managers – they work in so many different contexts. Challenging.

  7. Community Manager Appreciation Day?????? Do they all get trophies too? #WeUsedToMakeSteelInThisCountry

  8. I don’t want to be the one to tell my boss that there’s a day to appreciate me (well, more than most days). Can someone make sure he knows about this? 🙂 (kidding)

    Cheers,
    Sheldon, community manager for Sysomos

  9. Jeremiah,

    Thanks so much for supporting community managers. Your support can only help us to connect with and help teach other community managers. Having been in this business for over four years, I can tell you that meeting other community managers/community strategists and learning from them is the only way I have learned and taught others to be good at what we do. It is such a challenging and rewarding field and I love the fellow community managers I have met along this journey. I™ll be at the #CMAD in Austin, celebrating with and meeting others in my field.

    Thanks again,
    Heather | @heatherjstrout

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