The right community technology is critical. It provides the infrastructure to connect your members, share information and ideas, and collaborate on projects. We know that technology ≠ community. But an effective community technology strategy should include the combination of a primary platform … [Read more...]
Best Practices for Community Posting Guidelines
One of the hardest aspects of community management is the negative energy that can be directed your way when a member is unhappy. It's common to grow weary and frustrated with the unwelcome behavior of many users, and it can feel like there is nothing you can do about it. Luckily, there are … [Read more...]
Melissa Westervelt on Policies and Governance
Community Conversations is a long-running podcast highlighting community success stories from a wide variety of online community management professionals. Episode #89 of Community Conversations features Melissa Westervelt, Product Manager, Digital Engagement at Cambridge Associates. On this … [Read more...]
Interested in Growing Your Community? Become an Enabler!
Community managers are often connectors by default - it takes a certain type of person to excel at the role. People with high EQ tend to thrive. Our research has shown that community leaders with a network of communities are more likely to provide enabling resources to their organization than … [Read more...]
Help Community Programs Scale
The Policies & Governance competency of the Community Maturity Model™ details operational guidelines for successful online community programs. Policies refer to how a community interacts and can be divided into two areas: Terms of service - How a community is managed in legal … [Read more...]
3 Tips for Building Safe and Inclusive Community Spaces
Ashleigh Brookshaw has spent her career building community in the insurance, association, and now software spaces, so she knows her way around the foundations of community management. Still, some things surprise her. "You may think people would want to create a welcoming environment for all but … [Read more...]
Ensuring Consistent Brand Voice through Community Governance
When we talk about the eight competencies of the Community Maturity Model people tend to get really excited about the work they do for culture, or content and programming. There are even those among us (Jillian, I'm looking at you!) that get super fired up about metrics and measurement. Policies and … [Read more...]
Don’t be afraid to define community guidelines
By Ted McEnroe, Director of Research and Training Rules. My 6-year-old hates them - but really she doesn't. The same holds true for many communities. Communities - and 6-year-olds - tend to function best when there is some defined sense of appropriate behaviors. But there's a catch. Policies … [Read more...]
Friday Roundup: Governance, Community Engagement and Pie for Breakfast
By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable There is a pie about five feet away from me as I write this Friday Roundup. And I haven't eaten yet. It might be a fitting end to a week that started with a blog post about a conversation we had with Lauren Vargas of Aetna about engaging stakeholders … [Read more...]
Stakeholder engagement, governance and preschool
By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable “What do you want for breakfast?” you ask your 4-year-old. Answer A: “I don’t know. Answer B: “Pie.” (Not a great answer at 7 a.m. – also “Candy.” Or “Mac and cheese.”) Answer C: (Silence.) Do that once and you realize that in order to get results, you … [Read more...]
