Content is king! Or so I have learned over time!
It has always been the case. Even back when websites couldn’t talk back, a vibrant website was an updated website. Lots of page views baby! With the emergence of the now passé term “Web2.0”, the same rings true today - content will always kick ass!
So who provides content for many of the social community's in business? That is the golden question that seems to get passed around the office. Who will drive this community? Who will take this infant community to adult hood? Who will cloth and nourish this entity? Many times companies will look at community as a “tool’, a cool add on. When in reality if you feed it, give it some TLC, it will grow into a powerful business tool if you surround it with hard business objectives and a person who is devout to the community's growth and success.
When thinking about Social Networking in relation to your business, don’t forget to think about resources in house. A content manager if you will, an individual that knows your company, is passionate and tech savvy enough to:
· Map community to the business objectives of the company
· Make it clear what the value is to all members of the community
· Create marketing campaigns to drive member engagement and sharing
· Supply relevant content as often as possible (articles, blogs, white papers)
· Reach out to industry thought leaders to blog and supply valuable expertise
· Create incredible recognition rewards programs for their members
· Create community sponsorship programs to drive membership (this is solely for open communities)
· Harvest business intelligence and analytics and share with the organization
· Become a thought leader themselves in their industry
These are just some of the tasks a committed content manager can carry out. This person does not have to be a full time employee of the community, but does have to be someone who can spend significant amount of time on the project and is completely driven to succeed in this realm of business. A great example of a community manager that speaks in layman’s terms to the member is Barbara Hannan from the CommonGround. She does a fantastic job of being selfless and always relating in a way that the community member feels empowered to engage the community. In the end it is not about the Community Manager, but about what the member has to say that really matters.
I would be interested in learning how some of you are utilizing a community manager, or how you see the community functioning within your organization.