What’s your word for 2016? It’s becoming an annual tradition to ask myself this question at the start of each year. Last year’s word was vulnerability. And the year before were change and resiliency. Looking back, I feel like 2015 was finally the year that I gave myself permission to start living life on my own terms instead of blindly following the scripts that everyone else...
75+ Useful Tools For Community Managers and Content Marketers Under $100
There’s no shortage of tools out there for community managers and content marketers. With new tools being added everyday and even more existing ones being updated, it can be hard to keep track (let alone know) which one to use. I created a list by category of some of my favorite tools. All of these tools are priced under $100 per month. Many are even free or have a freemium version. Social...
Best Career Advice For Community Managers
I’m lucky enough to have a few mentors in my career that have taken me under their wings and shared some awesome pieces of advice with me. I received this best piece of advice a few years ago. I’m only just now realizing how powerful and helpful it really is. Ready for it. Your ultimate career goal should be to find a way to remove yourself from all the current tasks you are working...
New To Community Management? 15 Community Pros Share Their Best Tips For Brand New Community Managers
I stumbled into community management purely by accident about 6 years ago. I didn’t go to college for community management or marketing or even public relations. (I was a journalism major if you were curious). In fact, when I was 21, I still thought I wanted to be a newspaper editor. Thankfully, I had enough foresight to realize that working 80 hours a week writing mainly obits and stories...
Why Community Managers Should Leverage The 80:20 Principle
A fellow community manager and friend, Carrie, wrote a great post not too long about community manager self care. In this post, she includes a bunch of tips for how to fend off burnout. This list is excellent and includes several suggestions including regular exercising, taking at least 30 minutes of “me-time” every day, taking a break when you are feeling stuck, and journaling. I...
12 Lessons Learned From My First Three Months as a Remote Community Manager
I started working remotely about 3 months ago. While I absolutely love the freedom and flexibility this lifestyle provides, there’s no denying that going from a traditional office worker to productive, remotive employee was a big adjustment. I used to get blank stares just by telling people I work in community management. Now, when I tell people I’m a community manager who happens...
11 Reasons Why Community Managers Shouldn’t Ignore Meerkat, Periscope and Blab
Live video streaming isn’t a new phenomenon. Sites like Ustream and Livestream have been around for years. However, the newest craze with apps like Meerkat, Periscope and the newest shiny object, Blab, are making it so much easier and more compelling for the average person to use. Anybody with a smartphone – which is upwards of 64% of all U.S. adults– essentially have a mini...
11 Books That All Community Professionals Should Read
Note: While I share great blog posts from fellow community pros and bloggers on a fairly routine basis, it’s been awhile since I’ve shared a book list of many of the books that I have been reading. So, I thought I would share some of my faves in this post. To spice things up, I’m also doing my first giveaway on this blog. I’m going to give one lucky reader the full book...
Why Your Company’s Instagram Account Is Not A Community (And Why That’s Okay!)
Many companies – and social media managers- are quick to call their social media accounts their community. In 99% of cases, this simply isn’t the case. Social media sites – like Instagram- are networks not communities. That’s perfectly okay. Both networks and communities serve super useful purposes. It’s when you confuse one for the other that’s where you can...
5 Tips For Building Strong, Branded Communities
All the right vibes. // Photo via @sarawassphoto at @cielonyc. A photo posted by DAYBREAKER (@dybrkr) on Mar 26, 2015 at 7:43am PDT Community isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s been around for centuries, well even since the caveman days. Our ancestors relied on community building to hunt, eat, and survive. I think sometimes as community managers we get so bogged down on the day to day...