Community Management

Protect Your Community

Are you following me on Twitter?  Have you added me as a Friend, or become a Fan on Facebook?   Yes?  Why?

Do I bring relevant content to the conversation between you or your community?  If not, perhaps you should consider removing my posts from your streams.  Whoa – did I just ask you to unfollow me?  Maybe.

Here’s what I like to call an UGLY TRUTH ALERT:  If you are responsible for managing a community that is focused on connecting, say, cheese makers and cheese lovers, then my posts aren’t adding anything of value for either you or your followers.  My posts, about marketing and social media,  are an irritant, just noise, to people who are interested in Cambozola, Havarti and Cheddar ripened in Oak leaves.  For the health and relevancy of your community, you should unfollow me.

Social media success is not achieved by following people indiscriminately.  It is achieved through forming relationships by following the right people for the community you are building.  I am building a professional networking community for myself and I am selective about the people I follow; most of them are related, in one way or another, to my industry, and some are there because I find them entertaining.  I don’t expect that any one of them will follow me back and there is no reason they should, unless they find my posts relevant to THEIR conversation and community.

In defense of your community, please review your content stream.  Is it full of mostly on-topic posts, with the occasional off-topic entry, or is it full of so much off-topic noise that a casual visitor might not be able to identify what you’ve gathered people together for?

How do you protect the integrity of your community?

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