Blaise Grimes-Viort

Following on from my blog post about defining Online Community and Social Media job descriptions, here is a generic Online Community Moderator job description template.

These job description templates are written with the assumption of a hierarchy of Manager, Head of Department, Director. If the role manages a team or includes strategic or budgetary control, responsibilities can be taken from each level job description to create a hybrid. I am also keen to split up Community Management and Social Media Management, which in my mind are two different types of roles. I have deliberately left out years of experience from the “Requirements” section as this is down to personal...

When things go wrong in an online community, they can go very wrong, very quickly. The first step of understanding how to deal with conflict in your community is to be able to identify the cause or source of the friction.

Generally, conflict will arise either out of conflicting personalities amongst your community’s membership, be related to common difficulties associated with the usage of online communication tools, how your membership go about achieving their goals, or the members’ perception of you as a community manager, your company or the online space you’ve provided them.

By digging into specific reasons for conflict and...

In the intense whirl of managing an online community, it’s easy to make grandiose plans but far harder to stick to them. Exciting events and milestones come and go, but it’s the steady forward thrust that really matters to ensure the continued growth of your community.

But of course we all have that day when we sit at our workstation and realise we don’t have anything planned for the next few days or weeks. A bit like writer’s block, anxiety sweeps over you and you can’t sweat out an initiative or content for your membership to engage with.

This is where the Editorial Calendar comes in

Forward planning, as always, is the key to solving this organisational problem. By using a...

Have you written a Mission Statement for the community you are responsible for as Community Manager? Imagine someone cruising past your website. Would they know what your community is about by glancing at it? If not, you need to provide your new visitors with an idea of the purpose of your social proposition.

What is a Mission Statement?

A mission statement is an organisation’s way to explain to the public the reason for its existence and what it hopes to achieve.

We’re not talking about the bottom line here; most people would realise making money and expanding influence is a primary motivator.

The mission statement is about providing a call...