Community Management for TV Programme Support

Nick Lockey is a Multi-Platform Development Producer for Maverick Television.

He develops the New Media potential of programmes such as Embarrassing Bodies, 10 Years Younger, How To Look Good Naked, Bizarre ER and The Model Agency. They’re pioneering online and multi-platform ideas that are built-in to the programme, not just a bolt-on afterwards. Nick creates things like

• Mobile apps
• Web communities
• Online tools
• Extra video clips

Who is Nick and what programmes do Maverick Television make?

We’ve heard from lots of Community Managers like Rich Milington, but Nick is perhaps closer to an accidental community manager. I asked him how he engages with communities

Digg is a free for all where people share resources, but Reddit was set up to be more positive – so they have two very different distinct personalities. Flickr started as a photosharing game that grew into a site. When they first started, they did a ‘meet and greet’, setting up a community of ambassadors that set the tone for everyone else that follows.

Community management is integral to Maverick’s television programme support

Nick explains that there are two ways of approaching communities

Nick’s Top tips:

• Use cached and similar buttons on google search – cached highlights the search term on the page. The similar button will bring up websites similar to the one you’re looking at.
• Ning.com – it’s a simple to use social network of social networks – great place to set up a community
• Twitter search and hash tags – might lead you to an interesting place
• Google Blog Search and Technorati
• Check the blog roll – it’ll help you find that first link in the chain!

There are more pearls of wisdom in the full interview here

Have you tried any of the tools Nick mentions? Where would you like to see Community Management in television programme support going in the future? We’d love to hear your views in the comments box below!

Greg Callus on the Process of Community Managing

Greg Callus, deputy editor at politicalbetting.com and community moderator talks about the dawn of community managers, who they are and what skills they need, the two sides of community management (moderation & policing vs. welcoming & encouragement to contribute) and his involvement in his own personal online communities.

Quote of the interview – “Community managers are almost the online version of priests!”

Whatsonstage.com: a community case study – Part 2

Continued from Part One. We’re looking at the community behind theatre website Whatsonstage.com.

Setting the tone

With most of the sites users contributing anonymously, there surely need to be rules to keep everyone happy.

 Andrew Girvan – Rulesby JoePike

Circumventing the PRs

Because of the large budgets at stake in commercial theatre productions, PR companies often do their best to keep a stranglehold on newsworthy developments such as casting. But by adding newsmakers to your community via Twitter, there can be significant advantages.

 Andrew Girvan – Newsmakers by JoePike\

Bargain promotion

And if you’re staging a show or musical, a free online community can be the perfect place for a bit of free publicity.

 Andrew Girvan – Self-Promotion by JoePike

Whatsonstage.com: a community case study – Part 1

When studying online journalism it’s easy to solely focus on sites providing mainstream news and comment.

But don’t forget the specialist press, often home to the most dedicated users who relish the opportunity to indulge in a community constructed around their interests, hobbies or even obsessions.

In the heady world of greasepaint and spotlight, one theatre website dominates. Whatsonstage.com boasts nearly 5 million hits per month.

Key to their online community is a busy discussion forum: full of opinions on shows and backstage gossip.

I met Deputy Editor Andrew Girvan in the company’s offices at the Palace Theatre at the heart of the West End.

Engaging your users
So why do thousands of users log on every day? What’s in it for them?

Andrew Girvan – Engagement by JoePike

User generated content

With informed users contributing gossip and tip-offs, can this affect the editorial agenda of the site? And why are these users anonymous?
Andrew Girvan – Editorial Input + Anonymity by JoePike

Continued in Part Two.

How to Get Your Blog Noticed

For people to find you, they need to know who you are, which means you have to get out there and network. Here’s how to find good blogs in order to become a good blog others search for.

Follow Links – If you’re reading a blog, check out what they’re linking to. This can create an echo effect, where everyone is reading the same thing, but it’s a good place to start. See if they have a blog roll sidebar with their top favourite blogs.

Links to you – If someone links to you, they’re probably interested in the same thing as you, so check out their blog. Subscribe if you like what you see.

Comments – if someone leaves a comment, you could follow back to view their blog. This works both ways – so get commenting!

Reader Tools – Google Reader, Delicious, Digg, Technorati…the list goes on but while this is the most obvious way of finding blogs, it’s also the least used. How many times do you actually sit down to find a blog? If you do, http://www.blogsearchengine.com/ is a good place to begin.

Here’s how some people I asked find blogs:

So…

Link: Get linked to and link out often and well. How you link is your first impression, so link as part of the conversation.

Comment: regularly and intelligently as if you’re introducing yourself at a party.

Tags: use them. They make your post easier to find from Technorati and Delicious.

How do you find blogs? Leave your comments in the box below!

Do you have a process to manage your online community?

When you wake up in the morning – what is your online process?

Do you check your emails, your facebook then twitter? Or your favourite news site, your blog and then your followers?

Regardless of who you are, consciously or unconsciously, we generally check in on our online lives in a repeated process. It allows us to gather structure in this infinite void of information and organise the stream of data flowing into our networks.

So – do you have a process and do you find it helpful? Here’s a few people  telling us theirs….