Community Management

4: Community management

JOM845 Online Journalism

Monday, 12 November 12


“Future employed a Community Editor to engage with the online craft audience and build a buzz in the months leading up to the launch of Mollie Makes” ...

http://www.inpublishing.co.uk/kb/articles/media_pioneer_mollie_makes.aspx




“Future employed a Community Editor to engage with the online craft audience and build a buzz in the months leading up to the launch of Mollie Makes” ... “It was Future’s fastest growing title in the last decade”

http://www.inpublishing.co.uk/news/articles/future_to_launch_the_simple_things.aspx




The what.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobanblack/3762525969/




The POST process - recap

• People - networks• Objectives• Strategy - content• Technology - platforms

See http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2010/01/19/technology-is-not-a-strategy-its-a-tool/


http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2010/01/19/technology-is-not-a-strategy-its-a-tool/

http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2010/01/19/technology-is-not-a-strategy-its-a-tool/

Why are you publishing?





E.g. “Get to stories before our competitors”

• Monitor UGC on other sites• Monitor mentions of keywords such as

‘earthquake’, etc.• Become part of and contribute to online

UGC communities• Provide live feeds pulling content from

UGC sites*•Monday, 12 November 12

E.g. “Users spend longer on site”

• Give users something to do around content, e.g. comments, vote, etc.

• Find out what users want to do with UGC and allow them to do that on-site

• Acknowledge and respond to UGC• Showcase UGC on other platforms, e.g.

print, broadcast• Create a positive atmosphere around

UGC – prevent aggressive users scaring others away

•


e.g. Improve the editorial quality of our work

• Provide UGC space for users to highlight errors, contribute updates

• Ensure that we attract the right contributors in terms of skills, expertise, contacts, etc.

• Involve users from the earliest stages of production

•Monday, 12 November 12

Match with the community/ies

• Utility-driven? (Self-improvement)• Socially-driven? (Identity, support)• Change-driven? • Emotionally-driven? (Fun)

from Jono Bacon, The Art of Community


The how.





“81% of [financial and business journalist respondents] are engaging on a regular basis with their digital readers, thus fostering online communities”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/jul/21/digital-media-marketingandpr







“‘You have to activate your community. It is difficult, so you have to be really involved with it.’ That’s why the community managers are expected to spend half of their time reaching out to citizens (mostly through social media) and being out and about in their cities.”

http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/06/in-the-netherlands-a-patch-like-hyperlocal-network-is-making-money-and-nearing-profit/






link


http://onlinejournalismblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/a-model-for-the-21st-century-newsroom-pt2-distributed-journalism/

http://onlinejournalismblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/a-model-for-the-21st-century-newsroom-pt2-distributed-journalism/

17

Help Me Investigate: a case study


13





The 1%.

Focus on individuals, not audiences


Feedback.

Keep up momentum, small things mean a lot


Modularity.

Give specific tasks to people, but after you’ve started. Don’t dominate.


Diversity and capacity.

Seek a range of skills in the group, bring in new members


Visibility.

Publish across a range of platforms and places, regularly


The scaling problem - and the 4 T solutions


http://www.feverbee.com/2012/01/introducing-the-map-a-proven-process-for-developing-successful-online-communities.htmlMonday, 12 November 12

http://www.feverbee.com/2012/01/introducing-the-map-a-proven-process-for-developing-successful-online-communities.html

http://www.feverbee.com/2012/01/introducing-the-map-a-proven-process-for-developing-successful-online-communities.html

“We have a way to prevent gangs of humans from acting like savage packs of animals. In fact, we've developed entire disciplines based around this goal over thousands of years. We just ignore most of the lessons that have been learned when we create our communities online. But, by simply learning from disciplines like urban planning, zoning regulations, crowd control, effective and humane policing, and the simple practices it takes to stage an effective public event, we can come up with a set of principles to prevent the overwhelming majority of the worst behaviors on the Internet.” http://bit.ly/cityoj04


http://bit.ly/cityoj04

http://bit.ly/cityoj04

Tasks

Parkinson’s Law of Triviality


Teams

(with ability to communicate across those)


Tools

Clarity and functionality


http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/3/19/

T&Cs


Key points:

Community skills are in demand - build them.It takes time, persistence and focus - don’t lose heart; do be humble.


Delicious.com/paulb/cityOJ04Delicious.com/paulb/CMDelicious.com/paulb/UGCJono Bacon: The Art of CommunityRichard Millington: The Proven Path and Buzzing Communities

Further reading.


Education

Community Management