Comments on: Community Managers - Room for them in Ireland? http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/ Invisible people have invisible rights Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:35:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Are offline thoughts not as interesting as online thoughts? at Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-788330 Are offline thoughts not as interesting as online thoughts? at Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland Tue, 20 May 2008 07:48:14 +0000 http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-788330 [...] whose responsibility is it to engage with an organisation’s audiences online? It is something that Damien Mulley has been pondering also, he believes that the role belongs to a community manager: My definition of a community manager is [...] [...] whose responsibility is it to engage with an organisation’s audiences online? It is something that Damien Mulley has been pondering also, he believes that the role belongs to a community manager: My definition of a community manager is [...]

]]> By: Being inspired by UnLtdWorld - Nicola at Social Reporting at Shine http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-768535 Being inspired by UnLtdWorld - Nicola at Social Reporting at Shine Fri, 09 May 2008 16:16:37 +0000 http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-768535 [...] empathetic and inspiring person. She is an ideal representative for the site and a committed Community Manager whose expertise and appeal lies in her personal, professional approach to members and her openess [...] [...] empathetic and inspiring person. She is an ideal representative for the site and a committed Community Manager whose expertise and appeal lies in her personal, professional approach to members and her openess [...]

]]> By: Neal McQuaid http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-738909 Neal McQuaid Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:32:47 +0000 http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-738909 @Alexia You'll have to share some ideas also :) The more I think about it, the more I realise people are open to suggestion for newer systems, I think they all appreciate the idea of better comms (especially it'll help sales!). Is it some method filtering through the multitude of options that is required? People are busy so don't have the time to read up on what blogs, wikis, twitter can do for them. How to you filter the options though? all ideas are welcome here.... @Alexia You’ll have to share some ideas also :)
The more I think about it, the more I realise people are open to suggestion for newer systems, I think they all appreciate the idea of better comms (especially it’ll help sales!).
Is it some method filtering through the multitude of options that is required? People are busy so don’t have the time to read up on what blogs, wikis, twitter can do for them. How to you filter the options though? all ideas are welcome here….

]]> By: Alexia Golez http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-724416 Alexia Golez Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:25:14 +0000 http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-724416 @Neal: So we've agreed on the focus. I'm interested in hearing your ideas on how to push this to established orgs.. I have a few myself, but what are yours? @Neal: So we’ve agreed on the focus. I’m interested in hearing your ideas on how to push this to established orgs.. I have a few myself, but what are yours?

]]> By: Neal McQuaid http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-724160 Neal McQuaid Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:12:54 +0000 http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-724160 Alexia: don't worry, I'm more than aware that I'm emailing the converted here - but was hoping for responses like yours: interesting ones. Great point though, it's getting the people using the tools, it's not about the (various) technologies... Alexia: don’t worry, I’m more than aware that I’m emailing the converted here - but was hoping for responses like yours: interesting ones.

Great point though, it’s getting the people using the tools, it’s not about the (various) technologies…

]]> By: Alexia Golez http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-724107 Alexia Golez Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:18:57 +0000 http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-724107 Neal, you are really making a pitch for that Community Manager job with your rambly comment. While it's good, but your advice seems pretty self-explanatory too.. I think you are preaching to the converted. It's not tools, silly, it's mindset. The real job is getting web presence into the DNA of an organisation. So that the organisation becomes web savvy and takes this into account when brainstorming new ideas or deciding on where to leverage customer support or build relations with partner companies. The real question here is how to encourage organisations that are outside the tech marketing fold, who would very likely benefit from having a Community Manager, make that leap. For many orgs, there is still a disconnect with the way they engage with their customers online. Web is often seen as an add-on to their offline presence. This short-term vision often leaves those orgs blind to opportunities to raise brand awareness online. Missing links and connections they could make. And talking about web presence, I love the way Threadless engage with their customers online. Customers can submit photos, design shirts, rate shirts, join a street team.. etc. Threadless have a Facebook app too. The Threadless community is young, active one. Ready, willing and ravenous for the next cliquey shirt. More companies need to be switched onto the potential of community management, so it becomes a reflex in their thinking and not a whole bunch of tools that does something. Community in community management means people. Neal, you are really making a pitch for that Community Manager job with your rambly comment. While it’s good, but your advice seems pretty self-explanatory too.. I think you are preaching to the converted. It’s not tools, silly, it’s mindset. The real job is getting web presence into the DNA of an organisation. So that the organisation becomes web savvy and takes this into account when brainstorming new ideas or deciding on where to leverage customer support or build relations with partner companies.

The real question here is how to encourage organisations that are outside the tech marketing fold, who would very likely benefit from having a Community Manager, make that leap.

For many orgs, there is still a disconnect with the way they engage with their customers online. Web is often seen as an add-on to their offline presence. This short-term vision often leaves those orgs blind to opportunities to raise brand awareness online. Missing links and connections they could make.

And talking about web presence, I love the way Threadless engage with their customers online. Customers can submit photos, design shirts, rate shirts, join a street team.. etc. Threadless have a Facebook app too. The Threadless community is young, active one. Ready, willing and ravenous for the next cliquey shirt.

More companies need to be switched onto the potential of community management, so it becomes a reflex in their thinking and not a whole bunch of tools that does something. Community in community management means people.

]]> By: Neal McQuaid http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-724030 Neal McQuaid Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:11:41 +0000 http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-724030 Right so - back to this. A bit late but it'll make a change to the usual blog issues (discussion lasts a day or so and then forgotten about). Also, this will ramble so feel free to ignore - I'm using this to clarify my own thoughts :) One issue people have - it's actually referenced on RWW today <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/real_people_dont_have_time_for_social_media.php" rel="nofollow">here</a> - there's just too many types out there. Gtalk, Skype, MSN, AIM: and that's just IM versions! Then you've got this new fangled Twitter and it's multitude of variations - Thwirl, Thwhateveryoulike, Thphew, etc. :) Most people just don't have the time to keep up with these. I was out of the IT world for about 5 months last year and it was so evident when I returned how easily it is to lose track these days. Then there's the mashups (see Twitter as an example above...). But this is off-topic - the question was how to show corporates the benefits of the web? I take the slow burn option (which is contradictary to the speed of the web these days). What's worked for me to get people thinking about the news they can get from the web? weekly or bi-weekly updates of the latest news I've bookmarked through del.icio.us (I subscribe to a multitude of Google News alerts in relation to the company, RSS feeds, etc. and just filter these down). See <a href="http://del.icio.us/ienemc1" rel="nofollow">here</a> for current example. From experience before of this, people will ask for access to the delicious account to add their own bookmarks after a while. Other ideas to get people collaborating and using the web? Take all those processes that loads of tech companies have for logging into, modifying servers; document it all and post it on a wiki or something similar that's easy to edit. What worked for a bunch of ex-telecom-eireann-union-types before was two-frame website. all the html links on the right just pointed to text files which anyone can edit once they know where the folder is - map that folder to your groups drive. For more public relations type issues, that's a tough one. Get involved yourself? Subtly start asking questions and getting answers from respected sources like LinkedIn, etc. Even non-techies know this site these days so will get the potential benefit of it after a few examples. Basically, you have to filter all the variations on the web and show them what's useful to them. And go slow, most people don't chase the tech news everyday like all of us/me ;) Getting businesses to really open up though and be more open/public is going to be an issue for us all though - it's completely different to the old-school mindset of keeping to themselves. One of the big telcos (including their innovation people) couldn't see the benefit of having the status symbol beside users using Jaiku's client! Feel free to knock this, improve on this, or share advice - I'm always open to suggestion! Right so - back to this. A bit late but it’ll make a change to the usual blog issues (discussion lasts a day or so and then forgotten about). Also, this will ramble so feel free to ignore - I’m using this to clarify my own thoughts :)

One issue people have - it’s actually referenced on RWW today here - there’s just too many types out there. Gtalk, Skype, MSN, AIM: and that’s just IM versions! Then you’ve got this new fangled Twitter and it’s multitude of variations - Thwirl, Thwhateveryoulike, Thphew, etc. :) Most people just don’t have the time to keep up with these. I was out of the IT world for about 5 months last year and it was so evident when I returned how easily it is to lose track these days. Then there’s the mashups (see Twitter as an example above…).

But this is off-topic - the question was how to show corporates the benefits of the web? I take the slow burn option (which is contradictary to the speed of the web these days).
What’s worked for me to get people thinking about the news they can get from the web? weekly or bi-weekly updates of the latest news I’ve bookmarked through del.icio.us (I subscribe to a multitude of Google News alerts in relation to the company, RSS feeds, etc. and just filter these down). See here for current example. From experience before of this, people will ask for access to the delicious account to add their own bookmarks after a while.

Other ideas to get people collaborating and using the web? Take all those processes that loads of tech companies have for logging into, modifying servers; document it all and post it on a wiki or something similar that’s easy to edit. What worked for a bunch of ex-telecom-eireann-union-types before was two-frame website. all the html links on the right just pointed to text files which anyone can edit once they know where the folder is - map that folder to your groups drive.
For more public relations type issues, that’s a tough one. Get involved yourself? Subtly start asking questions and getting answers from respected sources like LinkedIn, etc. Even non-techies know this site these days so will get the potential benefit of it after a few examples.

Basically, you have to filter all the variations on the web and show them what’s useful to them. And go slow, most people don’t chase the tech news everyday like all of us/me ;)

Getting businesses to really open up though and be more open/public is going to be an issue for us all though - it’s completely different to the old-school mindset of keeping to themselves. One of the big telcos (including their innovation people) couldn’t see the benefit of having the status symbol beside users using Jaiku’s client!

Feel free to knock this, improve on this, or share advice - I’m always open to suggestion!

]]> By: Paul http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-722330 Paul Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:27:52 +0000 http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-722330 hi, I can see this happening. Do anybody know companies doing it in Ireland? I suspect most companies are not structured in this way yet. hi, I can see this happening. Do anybody know companies doing it in Ireland? I suspect most companies are not structured in this way yet.

]]> By: conor http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-722322 conor Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:19:25 +0000 http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-722322 Its interesting to me to read this post and more so the comments. As I read it I wondered how it could be and should be applied to the non profit sector. I'd be interested in hearing peoples thoughts on that? Its interesting to me to read this post and more so the comments. As I read it I wondered how it could be and should be applied to the non profit sector. I’d be interested in hearing peoples thoughts on that?

]]> By: Neal McQuaid http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-721946 Neal McQuaid Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:23:40 +0000 http://www.mulley.net/2008/04/15/community-managers-room-for-them-in-ireland/#comment-721946 @Damien: Shite, I was hoping you wouldn't ask that ;) Good question though, anyone else want to chip in? I'll give it some thought (to answer properly other than off the top of my head), and get back to you in a few mins once I've finished some paid-for-work.... @Damien: Shite, I was hoping you wouldn’t ask that ;)
Good question though, anyone else want to chip in? I’ll give it some thought (to answer properly other than off the top of my head), and get back to you in a few mins once I’ve finished some paid-for-work….

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