What's
Inside:
Greetings Online Community Aficionados,
I hope you have had a wonderful summer and are gearing up for a productive (and fun) fall full of online community goodness.
As usual, we have an issue full of the most important highlights for busy online community managers and strategists, including highlights from our Social Media Ecosystems report, a preview of our Online Community & Social Media Compensation study, and coverage of Facebook, FriendFeed and listening strategies, and the real time web.
One thing I would like to highlight: we have announced initial speakers and sessions for the Online Community Summit (October 8-9 in Sonoma) if you would like an invitation to the Summit, and have not received one, please feel free to email me.
On to the report!
Bill Johnston, Editor
bjohnston@forumone.com
(follow @billjohnston & @ocreport on Twitter)
A Message From Our Sponsors:
Online Community Research Network
The OCRN is a professional network of online community and social media practitioners. In addition to receiving six research studies throughout the year on timely social media and online community topics, our members have access to our growing library of research reports (currently 12 reports are available to members). Members may also connect with each other in monthly Roundtable calls, quarterly webinars and through the robust online community.
If you're a community manager or social media strategist, join now and pay $595 for a one-year membership - that's a savings of $200 off the regular price of $795.
Go here to sign up and enter discount code: ocreport
Please note: We restrict access to the OCRN to those directly responsible for online community management and/or social media strategy for their organization. Membership is not available to platform providers and third party service providers.
The Moderator Community
The Moderator Community is one of the key places to go to find advice and relevant information for community moderation. The majority of support and content around community management and group moderation exists within existing community platforms tailored around the needs and features of that platform. With a dedicated team of people and active members, access to experts is possible and information is found and posted to our community.
http://www.themoderatorcommunity.com
Online Community Highlights
Online Community & Social Media Compensation Survey 2009
Last year, Forum One recognized that one of the key issues community and social media professionals face is that we – as an industry – are suffering from a lack of solid benchmarks, including compensation of online community and social media professionals. In July of 2008, we conducted the first comprehensive study and gained valuable insight about online community and social media professionals' compensation, team structure, and current job satisfaction.
We are now conducting the second annual Online Community & Social Media Compensation Survey. We have just under 300 responses to date. If you work in social media or community groups, please take a few minutes to participate.
Note: All data will be processed and compiled in aggregate. Data will not be reviewed or presented in a personally (or company) identifiable way. Also, all participants will receive a copy of the report upon completion.
Go here to take the survey.
Below are some posts to the 2008 Online Community Compensation Study:
Online Community: Compensation Study - Online Community Report
Community Manager Compensation Study - Fast Wonder Blog
Online Community Compensation Study - b-spirit
So, What Do Community Managers Make? - Tom Humbarger
Community Manager Salary Report - Connie Bensen
Facebook Acquires FriendFeed
Last week proved to be a very exciting week in social media when Facebook announced that it acquired FriendFeed. Many people feel that the acquisition was an expensive recruiting move to bring the FriendFeed founders and formal Googlers into the Facebook team. Facebook's been known to "borrow" from Friendfeed's features - most notably the news feed feature. Now that the FriendFeed innovators are part of the FB team, Facebook will surely be working hard to develop new features and services in the real-time space.
Facebook buys FriendFeed: Is this a big deal? - cnet
Facebook Acquires FriendFeed (Updated) - TechCrunch
3 Key Reasons Facebook Bought FriendFeed - Mashable
Social Media Ecosystems
The Social Media Ecosystems research study was conducted by the Online Community Research Network in April of 2009. The study was created to provide insight about how organizations leverage external online community and social media sites to support their organizational goals.
We received approximately 60 completed surveys. Participants represent many sectors and markets including: large software companies, large community and social media destination sites, niche community sites, manufacturers, government and non-profits.
Social Media Ecosystems - Online Community Report
More Highlights:
Mobile Advertising More Personal In 2020 - MediaPost
A new report from OgilvyOne and messaging company Acision predicts mobile advertising in 11 years will be far more personalized as users exercise control over the types of messages they see, and when, on their handheld devices.
In Social Media, Come Bearing Gifts - SearchEngineWatch.com
It's imperative that marketers understand the community they're dealing with so that when they come uninvited into the community, they're well prepared to add value to it.
Celebs beating media to punch by Twitter and tweets - East Valley Tribune
Celebrities use Twitter as a fourm to get more attention, negotiate contracts, and fight with their signifigant others.
Twitter tweets are 40% 'babble' - BBC News
A short-term study of Twitter has found that 40% of the messages sent via it are "pointless babble."
U.S. Behind On The Mobile Web - MediaPost
Europeans continue to drive innvoa tion in mobile while the US is slow to join in and capture the market.
Do You Need to Keep Up With Social Media? - WebWorkerDaily
Tips for managing your social media programs without loosing your sanity.
Five Challenges Social Media Will Bring to Business - Harvard Business
Challenges nearly every organization will face as changes in people, process and technology fueled by social media begin to transform business.
Online Community Events
Online Community Summit
October 8-9, 2009
Sonoma, CA
The Online Community Summit is an industry-leading, invitation-only event bringing together leaders in online collaboration.
Held each October in Sonoma, California, the Summit draws senior participants from industry (Amazon, AOL, Apple, Cisco, Microsoft, others); leading online community groups (ezboard, MEETUP, Motley Fool); non-commercial organizations (World Bank, PBS, American Academy of Pediatrics); media (BBC, Univision); philanthropy (Packard Foundation, Skoll Foundation, Omidyar Network) and many others.
The goal of the Summit is to allow practitioners from many disciplines -- who would not ordinarily meet -- the opportunity to share current and best experiences regarding online collaboration.
Click here to request an invitation or email me directly at bjohnston@forumone.com.
Other Events:
Thank You, Come Again: Audience-Centric User Experience
November 5, 2009
Washington, DC
In this day and age, organizations can no longer rely on their mission or reputation to draw visitors to their site. People are busy, attention spans are short, and the web is becoming increasingly crowded. There are many competing destinations and messages vying for your target audience’s limited time and interest.
To guarantee that your first-time browsers become repeat visitors, your site must be sticky, engaging, persuasive, and easily navigable.
But what tools and techniques can be adopted to create a compelling user experience? How do you attract and keep your target audience? What are the keys to visitor loyalty? How make them come again?
In this Web Executive Seminar, NGOs experienced in user engagement and audience-centric design will share their lessons learned and provide tips on:
* Participatory tactics
* Social media strategy
* Interactive web features (from online games to user-produced visualizations to mobile alerts)
* How to increase the portability of your content and much, much more…
Go here to register
OC Expert Interview: Chia Hwu, 23andMe and Ron Casalotti, BusinessWeek
This month we are featuring two expert interviews.
Our first interview is with Chia Hwu. Chia, a former organic chemist who is happy to be out of the lab after a ten-year stint in front of a bench, is the Community Manager at 23andMe. She has worked in biotech and tech, been a volunteer coordinator and online community manager at various start-ups. Her twitter handle is @chiah and her new blog is at http://socialmediamarketing.typepad.com.
Q: Chia, you have a very unique community, in the sense that your community has the ability explore issues relating to a person's DNA. Can you talk about the strategy behind the 23andMe community?
23andMe has a very unique community that is based on having your genetic data. We currently only allow members who have been genotyped or have an Ancestry account post to the forums and the level of discourse is extremely high. We are very lucky to have such engaged, passionate and well-educated users who want to talk about their genetic results and share their data with each other. If you are interested in seeing what types of discussions are happening, create a free account and you can read through the threads.
Our community creates a place for people to engage with each other, it's pretty interesting to see how the interactions happen and how people connect, sometimes through their data and sometimes just in conversation.
Go here to read the full interview.
Our second Online Community Expert Interview is with Ron Casalotti. Ron is a Social Media guy who got his first PC in 1994. After 10 years at AOL, all in Community, where he was involved in everything from creating online content to setting up an offshore moderation team, he joined BusinessWeek as Director of User Participation where he is responsible for curating community centered around the Business Exchange social media information site including user outreach, content approval and community moderation.
Q: What are the 3 key lessons you have learned from the process of "activating" the BusinessWeek community via Business Exchange
1. You cannot “manage” community, you need to participate in the conversation and engage your community members on a personal level
2. You need to engage your users wherever they may be socializing on the Web – not just on your site – and so we are active on Twitter (@bwbx) as well as LinkedIn (more on that below)
3. That business oriented users of our site act just like others social media participants do, with clear Key Influencers, Active and Passive users
Go here to read the full interview.
Know an online community expert with an
interesting story to tell? Or are you one yourself? Email me, and
you may be the next expert interviewee.
Online
Community Jobs
Below is a current list of Online Community job opportunities. If
you would like
to include an open position in the next issue of the newsletter, please
email
me with the title and link to the job description.
AAA Mid-Atlantic
Social Media Community Specialist
Care2 Inc.
Product Manager for Community
CODEPINK
Online Community Organizer
Communispace
Community Manager
Forum One
Internet Research Analyst
Information Architect
Web Developer
Jagex
Multilingual Community Manager
Rare
Community and Product Manager
Spring Creek Group
Social Media Analytics and Measurement Lead
SuccessFactors
Community Marketing Manager
Virgin Media
Virgin Media Community Senior Producer
Walmart
Community Manager, Health and Wellness
Community Analyst
YourMembership.com
Web Designer/Production Designer
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