Confession, I’ve been on Facebook for almost a 1/3rd of my life. Yeah, let that sink in for a bit. I came to that somewhat awesome, yet also semi soul-crushing realization a few days ago. When I joined the social network in mid 2005, I was a naive 17-year-old, who thought they knew a lot more about everything than they really did. In the little over 8 years I have been on Facebook...
Reflections on Life 4+ Years Out Of College
To be honest, last week was one of the more challenging weeks I’ve experienced in quite awhile. Filled with some extreme highs (including my one year work-anniversary. 🙂 ), as well as a few stressful lows, spread out over the first, full work week of 2014. Some of the lows I experienced this past week would be enough to send my younger-naive self of even just 2 years ago to go curl up in...
The Art Of Developing A Loyal Community
Say what you want about the cable network, TLC, and their eccentric selection of shows. While there is no denying they need a rebrand, they are definitely not “The Learning Channel” anymore. I have become absolutely addicted to their semi-scripted reality show, Breaking the Faith. It follows a group of young adults as they break out of the FLDS cult and enter the “outside world...
The Best Social Customer Service Tip I Learned From A Rapper
“If you had one shot, one opportunity . . . one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip?” This line came from the great philosopher (errr rapper), Eminem. But, it may be some of the best advice for anyone working in the social customer service space. Traditional customer service – by itself- in person, on the phone, by email or you know with two tin cans can be...
Why We Need To Stop Obsessing Over Case Studies
I have a love-hate relationship with case studies. I have read hundreds of them. Written dozens of them myself. They can be a great way to learn about new and innovative ideas. However, I also think they can be a poison for creative thinking. Case studies are the fastest way to kill out of the box thinking and lead to mediocre work. Here’s why. A good chunk of case studies are formatted the...
3 Community Management Lessons From College Football
If you follow me on Twitter, you likely know my stream gets a little more active on Saturdays during the fall. I’m a big college football fan. It definitely doesn’t hurt that my alma mater (M-I-Z!) is in the top 10 of the BCS standings right now. What most people may not realize is that you can learn a lot of community management best practices from the teams you watch on ESPN every...
Why I’m Not Your “Copy Monkey”
As a community manager, I’m used to wearing a lot of hats. Be it, customer advocate, moderator, community builder, brand advocate and yes sometimes even referee. But, what I’m not is a “copy monkey.” The whole idea that community managers are just cheap copywriters that play on Facebook all day needs to get debunked. And soon. Articles, like this one in Marketing...
The Psychology Behind Online Community Building
I’m a self-professed psychology geek. It’s one of the reasons that I got into community management almost five years ago. The ability to see and understand what drives people to join and become active in an online community fuels my fire. One of the biggest things that has fascinated me recently is gamification in online communities. Admittedly, I’ve seen, participated and...
The Four Letter Word That Is Destroying Your Career And Life (And’s it’s not what you are thinking)
When you think of fun, four-letter words that need to be banned, you generally think of the colorful adjectives and nouns that would get you sent to the principal office back in your younger years. But, there’s another FOUR LETTER word that’s much more commonplace, yet equally detrimental. It’s a word I can guarantee every single one of us says on a near-daily basis...
Five Lessons Learned From Five Years On Twitter
As of this month, I’ve officially been on Twitter for five WHOLE years. As of writing this post, I have written more than 23,000 tweets. (Whoa, I know what you are probably thinking, that’s a lot of tweets.) To say, the last five years have been filled with ups and downs would be a major understatement. Little did I know when I signed up for Twitter, that this site would have such a...