Online Community Management For Dummies

Description

Learn to manage, grow, and communicate with your online community

Online community management is a growing profession and companies are investing in online communities in order to gain consumer insights into products and to test new products. An effective and dedicated community manager is essential to engage and manage a successful online consumer community. This straightforward-but-fun guide shows you how to effectively manage, grow, and communicate with your online community. Clear coverage shares tips for dealing with customers and fans through Twitter, Facebook, forums, and blogs.

A practical approach shows you how to ensure that visitors to your site are satisfied, kept happy, and return. You'll explore the various types of online communities and benefit from learning an assortment of tips and tools that will help you stand out above the competition, attract more visitors and gain the attention of potential advertisers and investors.
* Aims at providing community managers the information they need to get a handle on their online communities and make them successful
* Addresses the role of the community manager, the core community management tasks, and how to create an online community
* Highlights ways to build relationships within your community, evaluate return on investment, and handle and respond to criticism
* Offers advice for establishing policies and transparency and encouraging community interaction

Online Community Management For Dummies is the ideal introductory guide for making sure that visitors to your site have a good experience and return for more.

CONTENTS:

Introduction 1

Part I: The Basics of Online Community Management 7

Chapter 1: Fostering an Online Community 9

Chapter 2: What You Have to Know about Online Communities 31

Part II: Embracing the Community Manager’s Role 47

Chapter 3: Becoming an Online Community Manager 49

Chapter 4: Establishing Community Policies and Guidelines 75

Part III: Building a Productive Online Community 111

Chapter 5: Getting Started with Your Online Community 113

Chapter 6: Communicating with Your Community 125

Chapter 7: Listening to Your Community 145

Chapter 8: Building Kids’ Communities 167

Part IV: Growing Your Community 177

Chapter 9: Welcoming New Members 179

Chapter 10: Encouraging Community Interaction and Involvement 193

Chapter 11: Attracting More People to Your Website 203

Part V: Assessing the Health of Your Community 217

Chapter 12: Evaluating Community Participation 219

Chapter 13: Paying Attention to the Numbers 231

Chapter 14: Making Decisions Based on Your Findings 243

Part VI: Taking Your Community Offline 249

Chapter 15: Fostering Community Growth with Offl ine Activity 251

Chapter 16: Hosting Meetups and Tweetups 261

Part VII: The Part of Tens 273

Chapter 17: Ten Essential Community Manager Tasks 275

Chapter 18: Ten Must-Have Skills for Community Managers 281

Chapter 19: Ten Best Practices of a Community Manager 289

Index 297