By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable
Last week, we shared with you a little added information from The Community Manager Handbook: 20 Lessons from Community Superheroes. In the back of the handbook, we list the people that the 20 community professionals we interviewed for the handbook would cite as their superheroes. It’s a diverse group, but what we left out of the Handbook were the reasons why our heroes named theirs!
Image from imgur.com via Reddit user resgestae
Last week – Superheroes Alex Blanton, Matt Brown, Charissa (Carnall) Cowart, Eileen Foran, Jerry Green and Patrick Hellen named Allison Michels, Erica Kuhl, Gary Vaynerchuk, Rachel Happe/Caty Kobe, Lauren Vargas and Hillary Boucher/William Gibson as their superheroes.
This week, we look at 6 more of our heroes’ heroes.
Superhero: Ted Hopton, McGraw-Hill Education
His Superhero: Claire Flanagan (Jive): “I have more of a pantheon of heroes, but one who comes to mind is Claire Flanagan – she has a quality for seeing how amazing other people are – and I think she is so organized. I only wish I could be as organized as she is.”
Superhero: Bill Johnston, Structure3C
His Superhero: Randy Farmer (communities.com): “Many people – but for me, the person who has meant the most and been a mentor is Randy Farmer.” (Bill also referred to Randy as “one of the smartest, most pragmatic, and most helpful voices in the online community industry” on his blog.)
Superhero: James LaCorte, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Carolina
His Superhero: Doug Patton (formerly koz.com, now Family Health Network): “He was a big advocate of communities before we called them communities – he had a passion for connecting with people online and for transparency.”
Superhero: Kirsten Laaspere, Fidelity
Her Superhero: The 2020 version of Kirsten Laaspere: “On a day-to-day basis, I always keep things in the context of ‘Where do I want to be in five years,’ and how the work I am doing now is reflecting that and how that’s going to get me (to where I want to be).”
Superhero: J.J. Lovett, CA Technologies
His Superhero: Sam Creek (CA Technologies): “He’s been the wind beneath my wings. He’s been the one who has been able to (boost the community understanding of) some of our executives. He has a different way of explaining things, and has a great ability to get executives to think differently.”
Superhero: Lesley Lykins, Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA)
Her Superheroes: “Kurt Vanderah (socialmedia.org) has an open personality and a great way of building relationships and making people feel valued. And Peter Shankman – the things he talks about and how he engages people are powerful models for community managers.”
All 20 of our Community Superheroes (and many of theirs) are current and former members of TheCR Network, our community for community professionals. Learn more about the network and how it can advance your community skills by clicking here.
