10 Easy Steps for a Small Business to Get Set Up for Community Management
Community Managers?
You may well be asking what the heck is a Community Manager? Well, with the power of the web, the rise of broadband for most people, and the fact that a companies’ product and brand (and people) are being talked about online 24/7, a Community Manager is someone who is going to look after this extremely vocal and viral communication channel.
Jeremiah Owyang has an excellent post on what a Community manager should be doing, and Chris Brogan has also written on the subject.
It is worth noting that Jeremiah’s post is back in March, 2007, so this is not a new concept by any means, and many switched on companies are already employing these people, especially in the tech sector and startups launching new webapps.
Other business sectors missing the boat?
I have a feeling though, a very strong hunch, that many other businesses in more traditional sectors have not a clue about the online channel, or at least, are disturbingly behind the times.
The Healthcare/Pharms sector is one that I have a great deal of experience with, and certainly the company I used to work for, was completely ignorant of anything to do with monitoring the online communication channel. I would hazard a guess they still are too (and that was even with me trying to get them to understand that they needed to take the web seriously).
Not just Healthcare/Pharms Companies
Even small businesses should be engaging with their customers and prospects online. They could give someone the task of managing the online communities relevant to them. I also think that UK small businesses are not as switched on with online marketing and communication as US businesses. From what I read and see, they are a couple of years ahead of us here in the UK.
So how could a small business set up a Community Manager / Management Programme?
- Identify where people are talking about their brand / company / product or service
- Engage with these people by joining forums or commenting on blogs
- Communicate on their emails, websites, blogs that they have a community manager
- Ensure that the nominated community manager understands just how important this is
- Utilise a variety of online tools to see what is being said, by whom, and where
- Makes sure that they always try and fix problems quickly and efficiently which crop up
- Be completely transparent and open when they are speaking with people online, so they know you are the community manager for x company / brand
- Have a dedicated page on their website showing a picture of their community manager and how to contact them
- Make sure that the internal people, the other employees and parts of the business know what is happening and let them know WHY this is happening – show the benefit
- Really important this one – get some value from having the community manager – as well as listening, you can also communicate with your online advocates – let them know about new products, get them spreading the word, encourage them to write about you, do some research with them.
It is essential that a Community Manager is assigned, especially when the business / product / brand has a vocal following online, or is being discussed on a regular basis. Don’t get left behind and miss this opportunity.
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