By Ted McEnroe, The Community Roundtable
Back when I worked in radio – which is now long enough ago that new songs I played are now featured on oldies stations – I was introduced to the concept of recurrents. Recurrent songs sort of fall between “new” and “old”. They are the hits just past – and they are songs that most of your audience still wants to hear. DJs generally hate them because they have heard them all a million times.
As an experienced community manager, guess what – you’re the DJ.
You already live community. But not everyone else does, or can. They’re just getting started on community, or learning about community for the first time. What is old news for you is leading edge for them.
The end result of all this is that you don’t get to just implement the newest of the new. The good news is that these newbies who often make you feel like they are holding you back are the eager students you need to move your community efforts forward.
I was just reminded of this when I looked at some of the most-viewed posts on TheCR blog this year. Mixed among the new hits are a lot of recurrents. They’re not the newest posts, but they are ones that have proven to be hits among the general audience. They’re sharable standards that we hope provide some good teaching material for new community managers, and good reminders for everyone.
Turn ’em up.
Differentiating Between Social Media Management and Community Management: This post actually dates from 2010. But in 2014, it was the second most-viewed post on the entire Community Roundtable site. Go figure.
What Defines a Community Manager: Another older post – 2009 this time – it still reads well but may be a topic worth revisiting five years later.
How Do You Build a Thriving Community?: This post plays nicely alongside our Community Management Fundamentals deck. Fourteen tips for getting into the community mix.
Community Lessons from Martin Luther King, Jr.: A quick post about some of the skills that made MLK a great leader, and would have made him a great community manager.
The Iceberg Effect of Community Management: Rachel and Jim talked about this five years ago, and its reminders that community management is about what you don’t see in the community resonate just as well today.
Best Practices in Member Engagement: Tips for getting new members engaged and understanding the value of lurkers.
Defining Community: The basics on what defines a community, and how to think of the various types of communities that might address the behavior change you want to get at.
The Fallacy of the Organic Community: “If you build it…”, well, you’re just getting started.
Many of these posts are from the first years of TheCR. But they still speak to community management today – but they address recurring themes in every community’s journey. So maybe they’re worth another listen over the holidays, and sharing with friends.
