I believe that, although there are many commonalities between Social Media Marketing and building online communities, they are very different.  First, a few of the commonalities: execution of either is almost bound to fail if there isn’t transparency and employees aren’t empowered to communicate to each other and with other stakeholders, not to mention that if there’s no strategy behind either, they’re destined to fail.  The difference can seem subtle at first, but really, it takes a different skillset to manage each and generally, the purpose and goals are different.  More on differences in another post.

I read a lot of blogs and a few books on both Social Media Marketing as well as Online Communities.  I also follow folks on twitter so that I can learn from others and find out what the latest buzz is about.  I’ve found that there are lots and lots of people writing blogs and books and tweeting about Social Media Marketing but not nearly enough on building and managing communities.  Simply put, Marketers (Social Media Marketers) have a lot more to gain from blogging about their industry than do community managers.  Therefore, it should come as no surprise that getting a list of community management resources together was difficult.  That is one of the main reasons Dawn started this blog and why I am happy to contribute.  Aside from this blog, I recommend the following resources to teach you and keep you updated on Online Communities:

Blogs:
The Community Roundtable blog
Bill Johnston’s Online Community Strategy
Martin Reed’s Community Spark
Richard Millington’s Fever Bee
Rachel Happe’s The Social Organization

I also read a couple that cover both online community and Social Media Marketing:
Social Media Musings by Tom Humbarger (Talks more about Social Media lately but knows about community)
Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang (Talks a lot about industry trends and posts Case Studies and stats)

Twitter follows:
Take a look at the folks The Community Roundtable has listed on their Social Media list

Books:
Groundswell
The Cluetrain Manifesto
The Wisdom of Crowds

Organization:
The Community Roundtable is a private peer network for community managers and social media practitioners.

Events:
Forum One brings great Community Managers together

I am sure I’ve missed a few great reads/follows. If you have recommendations, I’d love to hear them.

** disclaimer** this is not a fool proof list and needs to be customized by a legal professional before any program is started.  The following are some guidelines to start with.

Legal considerations are one of the commonly cited reasons to not undertake a community adventure… so I thought I would start off directly.  Depending on the program you decide to implement… there are specific considerations for each tool below.  Overall there are several key components needed for an overall community.  The first and most basic is a terms of service/terms of use for the site.  This document should outline the following key items:

Who can use the site and to what extent.  Can anyone view the site, but only some people can participate?  What do you have to do to participate?  What limitations are there on who can participate (ie do they have to be a customer?).

1. What is the purpose of the site and the acceptable uses.
2. What are not acceptable activities and uses and how you will enforce them
3. Who owns the content created (Intellectual Property considerations).
4. Limiting the liability for policing all of the content on the site (use at your own risk)

In addition, you can add additional restrictions as people enhance their participation that ensures you keep the bases covered.  For example, you might want to ask for specific agreements before allowing a community member to participate in a closed beta test of new products.

Of course… your legal person will add a ton of mostly incomprehensible legal language to it… but you get the idea!

You can see examples of these documents on most any community.  Two I am familiar with are eBay and thwack documents.

This is part one in a series on hiring a social media person or company.

One of the most challenging parts of this field I love is finding experts.  I have seen people that look great on paper, but when you talk with them, their knowledge is only paper deep.  I am going to tell you a story about John.  John was absolutely fascinated with social media and worked at a company that did some in the space.  He managed to get to work on a project!  He listened and absorbed.  In his next career move, he elaborated on his resume.  Perhaps he was not just a participant on that single project.  Perhaps he was the mastermind.  Sure he knows all he needs to, he lands a position as a strategist for a medium sized company.  Now that he is in the position, he is struggling because he is not the social media professional the claimed to be.  There are plenty of “Johns” out there.  Beware.

Ok, so at this point, you are like, ok Dawn. So how the heck do I know?  Well let’s start with what kind of social media professional you are looking to hire.

Part 1:  Strategist

Part 2:  Faceman

Part 3:  Moderator

Part 4:  Technologist

Part 5:  Vendor/Company

Community Strategist

This is a professional position that will manage the strategies, implementation and projects for your community.  This person needs to be a seasoned professional with demonstrable successful projects to share with their resume.  Ask for examples.  When I say samples of their work, I am not meaning a personal blog where they explore their expertise area, but actual projects on behalf of a company.  While a personal blog in the area of expertise might be a way to demonstrate their knowledge, it doesn’t show success.  I could do enough research to have a medical advice blog, but that doesn’t mean I am capable of actually practicing medicine.  Some of the people in this industry that I admire most are almost completely behind the scenes.  The high participation members of their communities will know them, but from a passing glance, you would not necessarily.  This person does not need to, necessarily, be an expert in your business area.  You will have experts within the business.  This person needs to be an expert in communities.

You should research this person.  Look carefully at their implemented sites and see if they are actually successful.  Are people participating?  Is the site itself nicely done?  Is the company participating?  Use this research to drive questions for the interview.  Ask to see the scorecard from there existing community. (there will be a future post on scorecards and metrics)

Other skills attributes and abilities: (in addition to the Social Media/Communiy skills above)

1. Organized with Project Management skills
2. Passion for Social Media/Community
3. Process oriented
4. Manages up well- comfort talking with, selling concepts to, etc.
5. Can lead a team from various departments that may or may not actually report to you.
6. Diplomatic
7. Creative thinker.

Interviewing questions:

Use the interview to do a deep dive into the sites they have done before.  Ask the hard questions.  If no one is participating… ask why,.  Ask why they chose the tool that they did.  Ask about corporate support for the effort.  Ask what the budget was.  Ask about the technology vendor.  If you ask specific enough questions, even “John” should stumble and show his true colors.

Give a real life scenario that is currently happening at your company.  Like say you are trying to engage a new audience and are not sure where to start.  Ask how they would begin and the first several actions.  It will give you a window into their skills.

Ask a scenario question (you make up) about an exec that doesn’t buy into the social media effort and the candidate has to convince them to join the movement.  See if their ideas are close to your corporate culture and if the candidate has the right thought processes to sell and idea.

If there is no current social media program, ask them where they would start to create one.  If they answer with a tool (before they even found out the corporate goals) this should be a big red flag.

Ask how they keep up with social media.  If they don’t list several of the industry blogs and books, be concerned.

Finally and critically important… check the references carefully.  I have found that while many companies don’t want their managers to recommend people, they will still verify the role and scope.  I had a conversation recently about a candidate with a manager that readily told me he couldn’t talk about performance of the person.  I asked if he would just verify the magnitude of the role.  It turned out that when I read the role description from the resume, it was grossly over stated.  The manager was HAPPY to tell me that.

There is a lot to be said for having your users register for the site, however, this can decrease participation.  By registering, you have some way to know who is doing what and to directly deal with the challenging people.  Without that you might not know that the three actions all came from one troublesome person.  Legally there is some merit to having someone physically check a box that agrees to play by the rules.  Registration can be as simple as a name and email address or as complicated as a long questionnaire.  Studies have shown that if you go too long, then the dropout rate climbs rapidly.

Building a well designed registration can ensure that the maximum number of people make it through the process to contribute to the community.  There are several theories of when and how to position registration.  Generally you would prefer to position the registration or joining after you have the chance to show the value proposition of the community.  This helps the user balance the value they get for giving you the information.  If you can show some content and then ask for registration for more detailed content, that works as well.  Having a distinct additional value for the act of registering is critical in the “sell” of joining a community.

In the process of registration… take the time to let them know why you want the information and what you will and will not use it for.  For example, in a registration someone ask for your address.  If there is no context people will assume the worst.  But let’s say that you send members that get to 100 posts a t-shirt.  If you share the why, then they will be much more likely to give you the information.

You should also consider the concept of graduated registration.  Start by asking for only the basic information like say email; username; password.  This makes it simple to get someone in the door and closer to that first all critical interaction.  After you have engaged them further, perhaps you go back and ask them for more of the detailed information you need?  (be sure to tell them why)

There are very few instances where I recommend open participation.  One example recently was when I was working with a brand where the audience was an elderly crowd who would not be comfortable within the internet space.  I felt like the potential loss of participation within the registration process would be enough to consider open participation for this particular community.  When I do recommend it, I always pair it with pre-moderation of the content.  This allows you to catch bots and people that are just being ugly before the content goes live.  In addition, this pre-moderation, should be considered as an additional time commitment for the moderators.

Do we really need another Social Media / Community Blog?  My answer is yes.  This blog is not about why you should do Social Media… there are MANY that already repeat the same “join the conversation” mantra.  This blog is intended to share the details of the implementation of Community.  From time to time we will discuss the art of Community / Social Media strategy as well because we all believe that you can not be successful without a strong strategy.  If you have a topic that you would like us to cover… please let me know.