True story – when my brother was 14 he came into my room and said, “Shannon! Have you ever heard of the band Led Zepplin?!”
It was 1999.
With a completely straight face, I replied, “No! Are they any good?” He then went on to sing their praises (and rightly so, Fool in the Rain is in my top five songs of all time, but that’s another post for another blog…) and recommend highlights from their catalog.
My point is not to embarrass my brother (although that’s always a bonus), but to show that it’s so easy to feel like you’ve discovered the latest thing you love. While it seems like community management is just coming into its own, the reality is there have been passionate online community managers as long as there have been online communities – basically as long as there has been an “online.” (Want a great primer on the history of online communities? Check out Vanessa DiMauro‘s comprehensive deck Back to the Future of Online Community.)
It would be near impossible to mention every single person that has made a significant contribution to the world of community management, so I’m not even going to try that. Instead, let’s take a trip through highlights* from the first 30 years of amazing resources that have helped community professionals around the world. (*I am 100% confident that there are amazing resources that we failed to include on this infographic. Please, do not be offended – take action and submit the resources to our ever-growing list!)
Please feel free to share this infographic far and wide – the more community love the better!
Have a milestone resource we missed? Check out our History of Community Management Resources page and see if it’s there. If not – send it to us!
