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Who Needs It? Dealing with Unwanted Content and Conversations in Your Online Community
April 8, 2010
Posted in Best Practices, Community Moderation, Social Media Trends
Most of the content in your community – and throughout the social Web, too – is stuff you want. These are the questions and answers your community members share with each other and with you. They’re their problems and solutions, their interesting and relevant comments (even their uninteresting and relevant comments), their ideas, wish lists, and perspectives.
But there will also be things that you really don’t want, the content and conversations that you and the community could surely do without. These things should make up a small percentage of the overall content, but it’s all but impossible to avoid them completely.
Will Employee Communities and Customer Communities Converge? (Part 4)
April 5, 2010
Posted in Social Media Industry, Social Media Trends
Social media practitioners are the knowledge management strategists who think about ways of getting colleagues to collaborate more openly; they’re the HR professionals who want to retain top talent by ensuring all voices are not only heard, but also help shape what’s important within the organization; they’re the community managers and moderators who work to get customers to support and learn from each other; they’re the marketers monitoring brand value and customer sentiment across the social Web; and they’re the marketers, developers and researchers who look to engage with customers (and prospective customers) and glean insights in order to innovate and improve.
Will Employee Communities and Customer Communities Converge? (Part 3)
March 30, 2010
Posted in Social Media Industry, Social Media Trends
The vendors that provide solutions for internal and external communities have a foot in both camps. That gives them a larger potential customer base, but it also hampers their ability to excel in one area. So, while I am still “sanguine on the trend that is moving away from the ‘us vs. them’ mentality,” I’m not convinced this is the best long-term approach. I see three main reasons as to why.
Will Employee Communities and Customer Communities Converge? (Part 2)
March 25, 2010
Posted in Best Practices, Social Media Industry, Social Media Trends
Part 1 of this topic framed the question of whether internal/employee communities and external/customer communities can potentially converge, and be managed via one group of people using one (pretty darn robust) technology platform.
My “Idealistic Answer” to this question was “Yes.” In the ideal customer-centric organization, the walls separating inside and outside would be more permeable than rigid, with customers being involved (as appropriate and as warranted) with a great many aspects of what the organization is doing across business units.
We live, however, in the real world…
Will Employee Communities and Customer Communities Converge? (Part 1)
March 22, 2010
Posted in Best Practices, Social Media Industry, Social Media Trends
Social technologies have had a big impact on the ways that companies do business, both inside and out. Organizations are using social tools – discussion forums, blogs, microblogs, social bookmarking, wikis, and more – to help employees be more productive and effective. They are also using the same types of tools to engage with those outside their organization, i.e., their customers (users, readers, members, etc.) and business partners.
If social software and social media are at the heart of the shift towards increased interaction, collaboration, and transparency, perhaps there is an eventual convergence that can be supported by a single social technology system. Why can’t there be one technology platform and one set of resources supports (1) internal communication, collaboration, and learning, as well as (2) external collaboration, customer engagement, and peer-to-peer support?
Migrating an Online Community is Like Completing Someone Else’s Sudoku
March 18, 2010
Posted in Best Practices, Social Media Trends
Sitting in seat 15D of my homebound flight yesterday, I opened up the airline magazine to work on the Sudoku puzzle in the down time between take off and beverage service. Unfortunately, to my near horror, someone had already started the “Gentle” Sudoku, entering around 20 numbers, or about a third of what still needed to be filled in.
Migrating a community is like solving a Sudoku that someone else already started.
“Calling a Tail a Leg Doesn’t Make it So” – A Lesson in Roles and Responsibilities from Abraham Lincoln
March 15, 2010
Posted in Best Practices, Social Media Industry
Several vendors on my watch list have employees with the job title “Client Success Manager.” It has a hipper ring to it than “Account Manager,” and probably makes clients feel all warm and fuzzy, knowing that someone on the vendor side is looking out for their interests.
One company I follow, though, recently created the title and bestowed it upon two community project managers, without any supplemental training, access to relevant materials, or substantive change to their schedules and other commitments.
Without some training or resources to help them help their clients, it’s going to be a rough road ahead, particularly in the crucial first six months after new communities launch.
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- Matthew Lees commented on Walking out the Door with the Twitter Password: A Few Words on Social Media Maturity "Crystal – You’re right that Twitter isn’t very sophisticated about account ownership. It comes down to access to the..."
- crystal haidl commented on Walking out the Door with the Twitter Password: A Few Words on Social Media Maturity "So, how does a company resolve the problem? Does Twitter have a policy on how a company or organization can either repossess or..."
- Betty commented on Social Business Summit 2010- Looking at the Big Picture "Congratulations on a successful presentation at Internet World! The use of online communities as another tool for companies to reach out to their customers and their..."