There\u2019s no manual for community management<\/strong>\u00a0(and this is just a start). We\u2019re sort of figuring it out for ourselves as we go, and it can be daunting coming to the realization that this is a 24\/7 role. Especially if you\u2019re laying the groundwork and building a community from scratch.<\/p>\n So to follow up on our recent\u00a0Field Guide to Content Marketing<\/a>, we asked a few of our favorite community managers if they had any tools\/tips\/tricks or insights \u2014\u00a0things they wish they knew when they first got started.<\/strong><\/p>\n Here\u2019s what they had to say:<\/em><\/p>\n Senior Manager, Community Development<\/p>\n Text expanders are key!<\/strong>\u00a0You don\u2019t want to be overly repetitive, but as a Community Manager there are certain phrases that you\u2019ll find yourself using over and over. You can save yourself a lot of time and effort by having those snippets saved, even if it\u2019s just your email sign off (I use \u201cThanks for using Vimeo!\u201d about 50 times a day).<\/p>\n I also don\u2019t know what I\u2019d do without TweetDeck. It\u2019s the best Twitter tool I\u2019ve found for managing multiple Twitter accounts.<\/p>\n Advocating for our community every day is so gratifying.\u00a0Community Managers have unique insight into what their users need and want.<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s great to know that we have a voice in our company\u2019s decisions and that other departments want to hear from our users.<\/p>\n Hands down the best thing about working on Vimeo\u2019s Community team is being surrounded by so much creativity. Our members are ridiculously talented and a big perk of the job is that we get to watch the most\u00a0inspiring<\/a>,touching<\/a>,\u00a0funny<\/a>, and\u00a0weird<\/a>\u00a0videos every day. Beyond that, I\u2019m in constant awe of my coworkers, who are incredible artists, filmmakers, photographers, writers, and musicians.<\/p>\n So don\u2019t be afraid to ask for help.<\/strong>\u00a0Whether it\u2019s asking your users for feedback or reaching out to people you look up to for advice, people are overwhelmingly willing to help. Just be clear about how they can help and make it as easy as possible for them to do it. Be personal, and be specific.<\/p>\n Co-Founder & CEO<\/p>\n Know why you\u2019re there. The hardest challenge for many first time CM\u2019s is they get pulled in a lot of directions, take on a wide range of roles, and end up getting overwhelmed. Make sure you know why you\u2019re there, what the company\u2019s goals are, what the community goals are, and prioritize.Don\u2019t be afraid to say no to something if it\u2019s not in line with the priorities that you\u2019ve set with your team.<\/strong><\/p>\n The biggest mistakes I\u2019ve made have been more on the personal side than the community strategy side. I\u2019ve taken on way too much workload, I\u2019ve been unorganized, I\u2019ve failed to stay healthy. It\u2019s happened multiple times. The recovery sometimes was just stepping back, finding some headspace, and reflecting on my priorities. Other times, it was messier, getting fired or having to quit in order to reset myself.<\/p>\n On the community strategy side, mistakes are okay.<\/strong>\u00a0I make little mistakes everyday, by posting something that doesn\u2019t resonate with the community, by miscommunicating with community members after I remove a post, by hosting an event that no one shows up for. These are good mistakes though, because it means we\u2019re trying new things and learning from what works and what doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Building community is all about making people feel special.<\/strong>\u00a0If you can make them feel important, needed, like they belong and like they have influence, they\u2019ll be highly engaged in your community. The meaningful connections made at each\u00a0CMX Summit<\/a>\u00a0have been an amazing win for our community. We got there by taking a big risk, going all-in on what was originally just an idea, and focusing all our energy on curating the highest quality content on stage possible.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not the first ones to try to build a community of community professionals. But the level of conversation and activity, and the quality of the members of the CMX community is something I\u2019m really proud of.\u00a0It\u2019s also different because we\u2019re not just building a community, we\u2019re building an industry, a movement.<\/strong>\u00a0There\u2019s a huge sense of purpose behind what we\u2019re doing, and it gets me amped every morning I wake up and get to work.<\/p>\n As for my favorite CM tool\u2026dinners. Seriously. A small dinner is the best method I\u2019ve found to create strong bonds amongst a group of likeminded people.<\/p>\n Social Media Manager<\/p>\n I love that our campaigners in the Indiegogo community support each other. I see a lot of campaigners tweet about other campaigns and share the love with their own communities.<\/p>\n Always check why a hashtag is trending before just jumping into the conversation! Also pause conversations if something major\/newsworthy is happening.\u00a0Irrelevant scheduled tweets look really bad if everyone is talking about something else that\u2019s tragic, sensitive, timely and taking over all the news.<\/strong><\/p>\n A couple times I thought I was tweeting on my personal account but it published to a work account. Luckily it wasn\u2019t anything bad, just came off strange. I think it was something about standing in line for a bagel. Got a couple interesting responses and RTs.<\/p>\n Founder, Head of Community Design + BD<\/p>\n Many CMs starting out tend to get stuck in the day-to-day execution. It\u2019s always wise to take a strategic step back and understand why a community exists and its unique value-add for its members. From there, every tactic should be mapped to a strategy which should, in hand, be mapped towards a measurable business goal (not just a general community goal).<\/p>\n We took at face-value what one of our clients told us about their community once; it turned out that they didn\u2019t understand the culture of their community at all and our efforts were flat out rejected by the community.\u00a0Lesson learned: Never skip stakeholder interviews.<\/strong>\u00a0Make sure you understand what your community values and why.<\/p>\n Our community inspires us to keep up our external-facing efforts.\u00a0We had an oyster shucking party last year that was a huge hit.<\/strong>\u00a0Only a handful of people knew how to shuck oysters, so our guests had to learn from each other which lead to more conversations. Also, oyster shucking can be pretty messy, so we were all forced to be a little bit more human.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve yet to find a single tool that does what I want it to do, so I\u2019ve built a bunch of custom spreadsheet models in Excel for each client\u2019s community needs.<\/p>\n Editorial Director<\/p>\n Working with CloudPeeps has shown me the power in having really connected founders to building a community. People just love\u00a0Kate<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Shala<\/a>. They\u2019re so down to earth and care so much about the people they work with.\u00a0The founders must care about the community at an early-stage startup like this.<\/strong><\/p>\n My biggest learning experience has been to talk to the team you\u2019ll be joining about what problem they are actually building a community to solve before getting started creating a new community or organizing an existing community. Talk to them honestly and cut the BS. In the past, I was afraid to really cut to the chase in this regard, feeling like I was being impolite. That was ridiculous.<\/p>\n Ask honest questions:<\/strong>\u00a0Does the team understand what community is? Do they know what success looks like for their proposed community programs? Do they think community and the problems it will solve are big enough to matter to their business?<\/em><\/p>\n Don\u2019t be afraid to ask to talk to more people on the team: people in product, a few engineers, a few community members.<\/p>\n Here are just 3 of the community members that I worked with at Chegg, now highlighted on the Chegg Study homepage.<\/p>\n There is a certain level of faith in community building, always. To really do it right, you need to work with people who really believe and understand the power of what you do. It can be alluring when someone tells you that you\u2019ll be leading the charge in building community and teaching them what needs to be done. It feels good to feel needed. But I guarantee\u00a0you will regret taking on any role where you have to justify and educate others about your job all day.<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s not your job to educate your co-workers about what you do or play political games to get your voice heard. It\u2019s your job to gather people together online and off.<\/p>\n Lead Community Manager,\u00a0Co-Founder of\u00a0#CmgrChat<\/a><\/p>\n I accidentally fell into community management when it was basically the wild west of online community and social media tools a few years back. Having a background in event management, communications, and education has helped tremendously.<\/p>\n In the beginning I read every book I could get my hands on;\u00a0Trust Agents<\/a>\u00a0by Chris Brogan, anything by\u00a0Gary Vaynerchuck<\/a>, and\u00a0Unmarketing<\/a>\u00a0by Scott Stratten were the early favorites. Since then I\u2019ve read books like\u00a0The Referral Engine<\/a>\u00a0by John Jantsch,\u00a0Buzzing Communities<\/a>\u00a0by Rich Millington, and\u00a0The Art of Community<\/a>\u00a0by Jono Bacon.<\/p>\n I even use some of them as textbooks in my course on Community at Syracuse University (#CMGRclass<\/a>). This is in addition to what we put onTheCommunityManager.com<\/a>, and great industry sites like\u00a0The Community Roundtable<\/a>,\u00a0Managing Communities<\/a>, and\u00a0CMX<\/a>.\u00a0There are elements of sales, marketing, public relations, and customer service in all that community is and does, but it is not any one of those things specifically.<\/strong><\/p>\n The one piece of advice I\u2019d give a budding community manager?\u00a0Do your historical research.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0What I mean by that is seek out those who have been building communities online and offline for the past 15-20 years. They\u2019ll point you in the right direction every time. When Kelly Lux and I started the Community Manager chat (#cmgrchat<\/a>) five years ago, we did it so we could meet others and learn from those in similar positions. It\u2019s been a wild ride ever since as the industry continues to grow.<\/p>\n If you would like to see more of the books and resources that Jenn and other CMs suggest, check out\u00a0this growing list<\/a>\u00a0on The Community Manager. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Alex-circle-2\"](\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/06\/Alex-circle-2.png?resize=150%2C150\")
<\/a><\/h3>\nAlex Dao<\/a>\u00a0@\u00a0Vimeo<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"David-circle-2\"](\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/06\/David-circle-2.png?resize=150%2C150\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDavid Spinks<\/a>\u00a0@\u00a0CMX<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Ashley-circle-2\"](\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/06\/Ashley-circle-2.png?resize=150%2C150\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAshley McGregor Dey<\/a><\/b>\u00a0@\u00a0Indiegogo<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"sjw\"](\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/06\/b47eef68599b8077b7df2ea3d951db91.png?resize=150%2C150\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSarah Judd Welch<\/a>\u00a0@\u00a0Loyal<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"CarrieJones-circle-2\"](\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/06\/CarrieJones-circle-2.png?resize=150%2C150\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCarrie Jones<\/a>\u00a0@\u00a0CMX<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Chegg](\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/06\/image00.jpg?resize=700%2C257\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Jenn-circle-2\"](\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/06\/Jenn-circle-2.png?resize=150%2C150\")
<\/a><\/h3>\nJenn Pedde<\/b><\/a>\u00a0@\u00a0Emoderation<\/a><\/h2>\n