Published by Angus on 15 Sep 2009 at 05:52 am
18 Rules of Community Engagement
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We are always on the lookout for good advice on how to build stronger online communities. Recently, we read ’18 Rules of Community Engagement’ by Angela Connor. In less than 90 pages she shares plenty of hard-won tips and advice. Angela is the Managing Editor of User Generated Content at WRAL.com. In the 18 months after launching their online community, GOLO, she grew it to over 11,000 members. It’s well worth the short read, especially if you manage a community – online or offline. |
If you are trying to grow and nurture your online community like us, you will appreciate her approach. Before Angela gets into ‘the Rules,’ she first presents three short framing chapters. The first, ‘If you build it, will they come?’ dispels an old myth. As Angela says: ‘Providing the tools is only the first step toward building and growing communities and it isn’t the most important one.” She goes further by sharing why communities fail and the importance of community managers. In the second chapter, called ‘User participation and the 90-9-1 principle’, she suggests that a community manager’s goal is to break the paradigm. In the third chapter, called ‘The road to engagement,’ she shares her bottom line: “Give people something to talk about, engage them, and provide useful information’. Sounds simple enough, but remember to follow ‘The Rules“:
- Stroke a few egos
- Don’t be pushy
- Provide useful information
- Ask Questions
- Use your influence
- Pour on the compliments
- Know and respect the culture
- Complain, Complain, Complain!
- Make it Personal
- Seek expert advice and opinions
- Ask for help
- Accept and respond to criticism
- Make small talk
- Tune out troublemakers
- Showcase and acknowledge good work
- Don’t try to please everyone
- Manage expectations
- Realize your work is never done
Book information
- Amazon: 18 Rules of Community Engagement
- Author: Angela Connor
- Publisher: Happy About
- ISBN-13: 978-1600051425
- ISBN-10: 1600051421
Related posts: Eight steps to community engagement. For a further review of the book, check out a post by Martin Reed over at Community Spark.
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11 Responses to “18 Rules of Community Engagement”
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Thank you so much for sharing my book with your readers. I continue to learn new ways to connect and engage online and one of the most important things to remember about community management is that it is hard work! Rewarding, but definitely not easy. We are all learning as we go.
Angela Connor | @communitygirl
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Angela Connor and kdsullivan. kdsullivan said: RT @WiserEarth 18 Rules of Community Engagement | WiserEarth Blog http://bit.ly/2Dzge8 [...]
@communitygirl: You are welcome. Thank you for your really useful book. Best, Angus
[...] FriendFeed Angela New review of my book, 18 Rules of Community Engagement – http://blog.wiserearth.org/18-rule… 5 hours ago – Comment – Like – [...]
Hi Angus,
Thanks for the info on what looks like a really interesting book. I am a little concerned about the idea of a ‘community MANAGER’…I always worry when I sense that we are attempting to manage people…particularly in a community context.
Management in this context always seems to have smell of ‘manipulation’ to me…you know what I mean…we manage our personalities by doing “The Rules” in order to manipulate community members to meet our needs (a bit like NLP thinking).
Angus, I may be a bit oversensitive about this and I am sure that there is no malaise in Angela’s work. AND, I know that ALL influencing strategies have their ‘dark’ side, but community manager seems close to the shady edge.
Can I suggest that when talking about community manager, we are really thinking about community LEADER or community FACILITATOR?
Just a thought?
Scott
@Scott: Interesting points. ‘Community Manager’ is a pretty accepted term these days. Certainly Community Managers shouldn’t lead – they are servants to the community, facilitating community goals and making the community more effective. To some degree they do manage but not in a traditional top down sense since they usually rely on voluntary contributions. If Community Managers are truly manipulative and lack transparency the community will quickly revolt and leave. Anyone else have a point of view, or alternative naming for Community Managers?
@Angus (love the @ bit)
Thanks for your thoughtful response!
Point taken on the acceptance of the term and the nature of the role!
I obviously need to read the book and learn more about what a community manager actually does and how they do it! Will get back to you after reading…
I like you, hope others involved community building offer their thoughts!
Scott
[...] of Social Media Explorer and wanted to share it here for my readers. It comes on the heels of this review on WiserEarth Blog, and this article and excerpt in EContent [...]
There is a nice interview of Angela over at the Online Community Report written by Bill Johnston. Read it here.
[...] Book Review | WiserEarth Blog [...]
Thank you for all the information