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Why Didn't Your Bot Invite Me to A Secret Club?

I was asked last week if I wanted to join a brand's secret club. Was it the illuminati? Was it an invitation to join the robot takeover of the world? Sadly, it was none of those things.

I was asked last week if I wanted to join a brand’s secret club. Was it the illuminati? Was it a secret community of advanced community builders? Was it an invitation to join the robot takeover of the world? Sadly, it was none of those things. Also, sadly, it was not actually a club at all. Though that is what the brand called it. Exhibit A: The Invitation I had been searching the web for some…

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#ai #bots #marketing #mistakes

How to Thank Your Community and Team

Image Via Redcap Cards When I first started managing people and communities, I was hesitant about showing gratitude for people’s achievements. I didn’t want to say “Thank you” because I was worried that showing my gratitude would somehow make people complacent or make me seem weak. I learned the hard way that it has the opposite effect. Refusing to give other people credit makes your team and…

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#appreciation #career #community #community management #management #morale #motivation #team #team management #thank you #thanks #work

Are Your Personal Insecurities Crippling Your Community?

Last week, I had a two-hour conversation with the one and only Phil Klein, one of the founding members of TEDx Rainier Valley and an incredible conversationalist and community organizer. One of the topics that we stumbled upon that struck a chord deep with me was the idea that people often try to work out their personal problems through the communities they lead or join. I haven’t been able to…

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#confidence #growth #Leadership

What Happens When You Focus Too Much on the Competition?

I once had a manager who constantly had us keep tabs on our main competitor. She’d arrange special meetings where we would sleuth into who they were hiring and why; where we’d all gather around and gossip about their new team photos. We’d hire agencies to one-up them at every turn: SEO agencies, PR agencies, paid advertising agencies (sometimes these were one and the same), speaker booking…

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You Don't Have to Be a Community Organizer

You Don’t Have to Be a Community Organizer

We all have gifts to give to the world. This is more important to remember now than it ever has been in my lifetime. I’ve been reading a book called Becoming a Citizen Activist by Nick Licata because I’m trying to understand how change actually happens in American government today. It’s pretty opaque from the average citizen’s point of view. Today, no matter which side of the political spectrum…

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Set Your Intention for 2017, Set Yourself Up for Success

Earlier this week, I lead an online workshop for community builders to help them look back on 2016 and plan for 2017. If you missed it, you can still access the worksheets, my own planning worksheets, and the audio file. As I walked through the plans for the new year, the biggest ah-ha! moment that I noticed from the community builders on the call was in setting a clear intention for the first…

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#goal setting #growth #intentions

On Giving Away Credit in Your Community

I’m facing a bit of a dilemma. Among community professionals, I know that I am not alone in this one. I go back and forth on the scale of humility and self-promotion on a daily, even hourly, basis. I like to do the work. I don’t always like to talk about doing the work. It takes a lot out of me to promote what I’ve done. What’s Wrong with This? That’s actually a problem. Working heads down all…

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The Community Manager's Self-Care Checklist

In honor of #CMGRHangout, I created a framework for community manager self-care.

It’s no secret that community professionals burn out constantly. I’ve written about it a few times, most recently in last week’s post. Other community professionals, like Jessica Fish, write about it. There’s an awesome panel of community builders talking about it tomorrow morning in-depth. It’s also no secret that people like frameworks. We can talk about burnout forever, but we need a framework…

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#burnout #community manager burnout #self care

Why Recruiters Should Support Community in Their Organizations

Recruiters and founders often ask me: how do I go about hiring a community professional for the first time? How do you know who is the “real deal”? My first piece of advice is always: look inside your community. Who is taking on a leadership role already? Who is trying to get closer to you? Who is doing their best to pitch in? This piece of advice goes beyond hiring community managers, however.…

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#careers #community manager #HR #jobs #recruiting

Creating a Community Commitment Curve

I first heard about the term “Commitment Curve” in Ayelet Baron’s talk at the My Community Manager Unconference. She mentioned it briefly and spoke about its importance for community builders. She argued that we can apply the curve to all the work we do. The Commitment Curve is most often used by change management professionals, she explained, as they help companies walk through changes with…

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#advocacy #airbnb #community management #community organization

You're Using the Word Community Wrong, and You're Costing People Their Jobs

You're Using the Word Community Wrong, and You're Costing People Jobs, Respect, and Recognition

When was the last time you saw or heard the word community? The last time I saw it, I was in Fort Lauderdale airport staring at an advertisement for a hotel chain. The copy below the image of the hotel room said: “We don’t just think of our hotels as rooms. We think of them as a community.” I would have fully supported someone drawing obscene images on this advertisement. Here’s why. I bought a…

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#community #community professionals #definitions

30 Valuable Lessons from a Year of Building Community

Note: I originally posted this on Medium.

Last year, I wrote a post about all the things I learned as a community manager in 2013. I shared some fairly straightforward learnings that I carried with me throughout 2014.

But even if you learn from all your mistakes, you still make new ones. I was not equipped to deal with everything I lost and re-gained this year. So now I have some new lessons to…

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#community management #community strategy #psychology #startups #tech #vulnerability #writing

My cast came off today, so I'm celebrating with new @Converse and new travel plans. #vscocam #fromwhereistand

#fromwhereistand #vscocam

How to Build Community in Your Local Neighborhood

How (and Why) to Build Community in Your Local Neighborhood:

I spend most of my time in the working world building community online, but what about offline community building? Sure, I’ve built meetup groups (including sfcmgr.com and those for brands).

But there’s something truly refreshing about building purely recreational, deep communities in your neighborhood. Many of us are starving to build deep communities around our homes. We don’t know our…

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#neighborhood #offline

helenadagmar

Birthday roadtrip dinner. Somewhere, CA, August 2013.

creativemornings

Photographer Helena Price took the stage at our CreativeMornings/SanFrancisco chapter on revelations she discovered making the jump from techie to full-time photographer. Watch her talk. →

Some Thoughts After A Personal Writing Hiatus

I have taken a lot of time to reflect over the last month. I’m grateful for the opportunity. I have been working on building out fascinating stories and content and for CMX, and I continue to work with amazing clients for my freelance community business. I feel blessed. In terms of my career and my work communities, I can safely say that I can ask for nothing more in the present. I am just here…

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#balance #happiness #reflections #satisfaction #travel

bizbash

Checklist: 8 Steps to Avoid Weather Disasters at Events http://www.bizbash.com/checklist-8-steps-to-avoid-weather-disasters-at-events/new-york/story/28836

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