After taking August off, I’m back with my picks for best online community management blog posts of the month. September was tough, there were lots of great posts to choose from. Kudos to The Community Manager, which is where three of these posts appeared.
1. Let’s Define Community Once and For All
I am one of those people that is getting a little ticked off by the widening use (and misuse) of the title “Community Manager.” It looks like David Spinks is ticked off, too. He only gets through two paragraphs of this post before dropping the F-bomb. And I’m OK with that. But this is much more than a rant. David does a great job defining what real community is, and passionately defends the title “community manager.”
2. Make The Community About Your Members
If you think your brand community ought to be all about your brand, think again. Richard Millington reminds us that it’s the community needs to be the focus. Before launching your community, identify the interests of your would-be members and build the conversation around their problems and interests, not yours.
3. How to Create a Customer Community Your Customers Can’t Live Without
The WELL was not the first early online community, but it was certainly the most important. That’s why so many of us in the online community management field have been talking about the news that The WELL has been purchased by its own members. Joshua Paul of Socious writes that the move is a testament to the importance of The WELL to those who participate in it, and gleans some four important lessons from this pioneering community.
4. Pageview Panic Attack – When There’s a Lull in Your Community
When activity in your online community decreases, is it always a bad thing? Not necessarily, writes Kristen Gastaldo. Lots of people will come by to check out your community when you send out invitations at launch time, but not all of those people will stick around. Those that do will provide the foundation for sustainable, long-term growth based on valuable interactions. This case study shows that slow and steady wins the race.
5. 3 Methods to A/B Test User Interaction in your Community
My top five list in July included Chris Dowsett‘s post “Introducing A/B Testing For Communities”. Chris is back with three ways you can use A/B testing to increase user engagement.