Credit: Pioneer Outfitters, Alaska
When you nurture social media community, there’s a lot to think about. Communities and moderators collide on social media channels, it’s one person’s style against the other with no hard or fast rules. Nurturing social media community takes gentle enforcement with just enough engagement to attract the lurkers and a welcoming gesture every now and again to keep those a bit shy engaging.
Google+ Communities spawned a fire storm last week when everyone flocked (yes we did, albeit there were a handful of naysayers and bah-humbuggers) to either launch or join a community. (This is your own very special invite to join my Bloggers Unite! Google+ Community.)
When groups, chats, or communities have one moderator, it’s simple. No one steps on one another’s toes; no one has to ask permission or forgiveness…it’s just one style and no one else. When there are two or three or more moderators, what are the rules? There are none; you go by instinct, yet it may be valuable to have a conversation about:
- Daily question of the day—should you take turns or the one in the earliest time zone engages in the morning?
- How fast should a moderator remark on a comment by a community member?
- What should be the tone of the comments – formal, friendly or a combo of both?
- Should both moderators read and remark on all the posts or can the team divide and conquer?
- How long and engaged should comments be from moderators?
I have a suspicion that no moderating team on Google+ has had any such discussion, and that’s OK. Everyone is testing and feeling their way because as said up top – there are no hard or fast rules.
Nurturing Social Media Community
Let instinct guide you, and this is what you may get for the first rule book:
- In the morning, do ask a question of the day to try and engage the community. Hopefully, someone will share experiences to kick start comments.
- When a new commenter posts an article, link or content, give it a bit of time before immediately commenting. No need to pounce on someone right away.
- Everyone should try to read new posts by folks and make a quick comment about content.
- When time is of the essence, go ahead and use the +1 as acknowledgment. At least the person posting knows someone is paying attention.
- There is no need to put forth the expectation that every single item posted will get a response; if it’s poor quality or goes against the grain of the community, then a moderator shouldn’t necessarily promote that.
- If a post feels like spam, it probably is…moderators need to take action, especially if it’s blatant.
- Banter is perfect, but there is a time, place and frequency for it. It’s up to the moderators to elevate a post to LOL status, or keep it on the down low and move on to the next comment.
- When new folks comment, and someone strongly disagrees, it’s up to the moderator to bring balance to the discussion. One thing to avoid is blatant disrespect of community members.
- One thing about Google+ Communities (and Google+), anyone can join a community; groups are not locked unless moderators designate it as a gated community. There is likely to be spam and a bit of heckling; moderators need to be on guard for that and protect the integrity of the community as best as possible.
- Every now and again, moderators should welcome new members and share the rules and tonality of the group. Each Google+ Community has a different tone, and it’s easily apparent in comments and posts throughout the stream.
- If moderators see the stream taking a nose dive, they ought to jump in and balance with neutral language to ensure everyone remains positive.
This is my instinctual nurturing of a social media group…who has more experience and can lend some actuals?
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Oh, so you want us to carry the conversation here. 😉
@Joshua Wilner/A Writer Writes What do you mean? But thanks for the comment!
Jayme KNOWS there are no posts I like better than the ones that actually explain the whats, hows, whos and whys of anything I am trying to do.
We all know that when we step forward, we may trip… we may even knock someone else off their perch, completely by accident as a result of impetuous stepping.
(You did, however ask a whole bunch more than you specified!)
I tend to jump in hard, as I feel waking up, like I do in Alaska’s winter dark, that most of the people I am interacting with are already half way through their day. I have a lot to do before everyone goes home and starts dinner or meets friends for a mid-week cocktail.
By the way…that’s a real cutie up there riding on that gorgeous horse behind that human!
p.s. Thank you for this!
@AlaskaChickBlog Like I said, there are no hard or fast rules…no one really knows how it works, so if I can shed some light on MY version, well, that’s likely what you get! Thanks, too, Amber-Lee, for your always high-spirited engagement. We need that every day, as the Interwebz have changed so drastically.
I think I would also add that it takes an immense commitment. Communities take time to nurture and you have to really be in it for the long haul. My favourite community has got to the stage where it’s monitored by the group themselves; however, I think the fact that it’s a subscription-based community makes it easier to get this kind of response. Although it’s not expensive, that initial barrier to joining seems to ensure that the right folks stick around.
@jonbuscall That makes total sense, Jon…a subscribed or closed community has more to invest in making it work. Not sure how the G+ community will grow or how we get others to engage; I “see” many lurkers based on subscribers to commenters. Great to have you here, and I need to come visit soon. Happy Holidays in Sweden, dear Friend!
Good tips. I got here via Triberr today. Are we abandoning that platform (Globe Spotting)?
I think the tips are great but I do want to ask your opinion on whether the G+ community is going to change the engagement on the actual blogs. I love the banter on G+ and visibility of the material but what I do like about Triberr it is easier to share the content. Maybe just different.
Likely the way i need to look at this is that if the entire community engages and we have to go to the blog to share then that is also a good thing or even better considering Google indexes shares via its own platforms more than any other (or so I hear from Chris Brogan).
I am liking the G+ thing and now I have to decide how many communities I am participating in. I now have 5 Triberr and 2 G+ While that may seem minimal to some it’s a lot for a guy like me. I really do like the G+ thing right now so I am all in to see it grow. Cheers!
@rdopping Hey, Ralph…good morning…Nope, nothing of the sort. The channels that already exist are here/there to stay. Globe Spotting is the same; a Triberr tribe on which you share and share alike easily with a different variety of peeps.
The way you engage on social channels is slightly different from many in my community at large. We’re not counting where we’re at, we’re having a presence on each albeit maybe slightly less active.
G+ is amazing for your organic search; and, it should already have introduced you to a variety of different peeps — Amber-Lee for one. I’m promoting my community, Bloggers Unite!, everywhere I can so I am certain to bring in newbies I’ve not had the privilege of meeting.
As @jonbuscall said, it takes full on commitment; indeed.
I appreciate your straight forward commentary. I am beginning to build my community and am making lots of mistakes. It is good to link up with folks who have lead the way already. Lead on!