As 2014 comes to a close, it’s a great time to reflect on everything that has happened. In the community management field, there was certainly no shortage of great posts, resources, podcasts and speaker keynotes. I’ve rounded up 11 of the best of the best in this annual recap post. 1. Creating customers for life: 50 resources on loyalty, churn and customer retention If you run a...
#ProductBuild Series: Battling My Inner Demons And Overcoming The Dreaded Comparison Trap
In the first post of this series, I talked about turning this crazy idea I have had swimming around in my head into an actual, executable plan. Since then, I have been working on fleshing out my course outline and starting the task of writing all the content. [box border=”rounded” icon=”none”]Sign up to follow my journey here. [/box] To be brutally honest, it’s been...
Introducing #ProductBuild: Why I’m Creating My First Digital Product And Documenting The Process From Start To Finish
I have been using this blog as a testing board for my ideas- both good and bad- since I started it back in early 2010. My ideas and writing style have evolved since. I have come to realize that ideas are cheap and action is the only thing that matters. Anywhoo, I had an idea swimming around in my head for a digital product for quite some time. I started to talk more publicly about this idea with...
4 Community-Building Lessons From A Couple On A Cross-Country Quest
There’s a certain amount of community management that can’t be taught. It can only be learned through different experiences. Both directly managing a community and by all the encounters you have in just your day to day life. Some of the best things I have learned or just through the random encounters with people I meet. This brings me to a couple, The Padgetts, I met over the summer...
Feverbee SPRINT Recap: 6 Key Takeaways For Community Managers
Four days later, my brain is still on the brink of exploding after attending Feverbee’s first SPRINT conference. This event excelled in every way possible from the caliber of speakers, to a ridiculously large amount of actionable tips and the quality of other attendees. I’ve never learned so much in a two-day time period or gotten so many actionable nuggets and tips to apply. It...
The Number 1 Mistake You Are Probably Making When Growing Your Online Community (And How To Fix It)
Every community has lurkers. They usually average between 60-80% of all members. That’s a significant chunk no matter how you slice it. No matter how great of a community manager you are, you will never get even half of these lurkers to be regular, active contributors. So, why does just about every community manager (including myself) obsess at some point in time over the next tactic or...
Is Ello Just Another Bright, New, Shiny Social Media Object? (A Community Manager’s Perspective)
Community managers, marketers, PR pros and yes even journalists all have a collective obsession with new and shiny things. Over the last couple of weeks, a new social network started to create some buzz. The social media site is called Ello, and it’s claiming to be the “anti-Facebook.” Ello says it is “free-to-use,” “ad-free” and they even have their manifesto right on...
Why We Should Embrace Honesty and Vulnerability On Social Media
It’s rare when you come across a post that echoes the sentiments that you been thinking for awhile, but haven’t been able to articulate into words. That’s exactly what I felt after reading this post from C.C. Chapman. Only he articulated it 3 billion times better than I ever could. C.C. talks about the power of portraying vulnerability and “being real” online. I think this...
15 Tweets You May Have Seen If Twitter Was Around In The 1990s
For those who don’t know, I have a bit of a 90s nostalgia theme going on in this blog, with posts like this and this. I also may be slightly addicted to Twitter. I wanted to have a little fun with a new 90s inspired post. This time, it’s about 15 tweets you may have seen if Twitter was around in the 1990s. 1. Oh man! I just forded the river. Both of my friends died of dysentery...
What Does It Really Mean To “Surprise And Delight” A Client?
There’s a good chance you have seen this video from TD Bank floating around the Interwebz over the last week. They essentially rigged an “ATM” for a short period time to say, “Thanks!” and dispense meaningful gifts to some of their loyal customers. On the surface, this seems really awesome. A big brand- a bank nonetheless- going out of their way to give back and show...