Managing Online Communities: A mindmap of #BTVSMB presentations by Sara Steele-Rogers and Anthony Quintano

Another month, another #BTVSMB. This month’s topic was managing online communities.

If you want to know more about social media breakfasts, look at my past post. It briefly explains what they are.

Two community mangers presented their thoughts and strategies on how they manage the communities built around the businesses that employ them. Sara Steele-Rogers, from Boloco, and Anthony Quintano, from NBC News, presented about what lead them to their current positions, but also how they have defined their positions as community managers.

During their presentations I made a mindmap of the points I felt were the most important. Both Sara and Anthony offered advice about running an online community. Whether it was the community around the smaller, Boloco burrito shops or the large TV station, NBC news, there are aspects that apply to all online communities, regardless of size.

Click for the larger, readable, image.

• Anthony Quintano – NBC News
  • Passion
  • Why do social?
    • Be where our audience is
    • Listening to feedback
    • Interact with viewers
  • Know the community inside & out
    • Don’t feed the trolls!
  • Use online to give a little something extra
    • Give the community a reason to follow/friend you
  • Take advantage of your other skills
    • Incorporate them in to your community management
  • Every community is different
    • There is no right way to manage all communities
    • Use common sense
• Sara Steele-Rogers – Boloco
  • Take the relationship offline
  • Everyone deserves a response
  • Social Media
    • Twitter
      • Quick
      • Listen
      • Engage
      • Helps put a face to a name
    • Facebook
      • Deeper interaction
    • Yelp
      • Free market research
  • Making things better
    • Tweet-ups
    • Turn negative feedback into positive feedback
    • Listeneing to ALL of the feedback
    • Timeliness is key
  • Getting involved in other communities
    • Non-profit
    • Cycling
    • Vendor
    • “No one ever got poor from being generous.”
    • Student communities
  • Being effective
    • Listen and respond
    • Make fans feel valued and involved

You can find a blog post by Zack Luby, which gives his details and opinions on the event, here.

For a look at a cbernier’s thoughts on his first social media breakfast, you can look at his post on his blog.

Overall, the two presentation and the Q&A that followed were great. Both Sara and Anthony manage two pretty large communities, and they know what works and what doesn’t for their respective communities.