Rich Millington’s Masterclasses on Community Management: No.6 – Who Uses Online Communities?

(Continued from Rich Millington’s Masterclasses on Community Management: No.5 – The future of online community management. )

We asked Rich Millington, the Guru, of Feverbee fame who uses online communities.

Rich says, originally it certainly used to be inclined towards younger, more technologically minded people.

But now there are so many random examples out there (like sites dedicated to chickens!) users of online communities cannot be so easily defined anymore and the demographic is forever growing.

I think this is a particularly interesting topic as I recently asked a online community manager whether they’d consider letting me interview them. Their reply went along the lines of, “But I’m not an online community manager”. I’m going to work on convincing them that they are and they should let me hold an interview – at that point I’ll actually reveal what the community is! But I can say it’s an active twitter fan page of a television programme which links onto other accounts, ranging from mega-fans to the actors themselves. The nature of the community’s activity – e.g. pushing for the programme to win awards, promo-ing spoilers, releasing news and interacting with related tweeters/pages – certainly qualifies as an online community to me.

A major step in the recognition of online communities will be ensuring that people better understand what they are and how they may already be a part, or even run, one!

More on this soon but, with that in mind, back to Rich Millington’s Masterclass Number 6 – Who Uses Online Communities?

Rich Millington’s Masterclasses on Community Management: No. 3 – Born, not Made

(Continued from Rich Millington’s Masterclasses on Community Management: No.2 – Finding your fellow Argentinian ukulele player.)

Rich Millington, the Guru, answers Barbara Steinberg‘s assertion that Community Managers are born, not made.

He says the best Community Managers will have a personality that fits with their audience.

They have to be productive and willing to tirelessly answer their community’s queries.

A level of experience might be needed but that’s something you can work on.

Attitude – i.e. enthusiasm and dedication – are amongst the most important things!

Rich Millington’s Masterclasses in Community Management: No. 2- Finding your Fellow Argentinian Ukulele Player

(Continued from Rich Millington’s Masterclasses in Community Management: No. 1 – Five Top Tips.)

We asked Rich Millington, Online Community Guru of FeverBee Ltd fame, about interesting online communities that are springing up…some intriguing answers.

Rich mentions WigglyWigglers – a company which sells earthworms to enhance your soil amongst other things!

Also MeetUp, a site which helps people with shared interests meet.

However, there’s no single online community for Rich that trumps all the others.

But he does say it’s great that people can now connect from all around the world, be you a nurturer of soil or a keen Ukulele player from a small Argentinean village.

He thinks we’re going to see more and more unique and diverse online communities. Personally, I can’t wait!