Connie Bensen

This is part of a series focused on the hiring process for community managers. My goal is to provide information for both companies looking to hire & those interested in the role. Community management is going to be a key role & it’s easier to start with a good fit than have extract oneself from a bad situation. Bottom line: recruitment & training takes resources (time & money).

In the last post on the Interview Process I offered tips for both the Interviewer & the candidate. That started some interesting conversations. I predict that recruiting highly qualified community managers is going to be challenging.

In regard to that post, Richard Millington pointed out that the questions aren’t very helpful unless the Interviewer is really familiar with the role. He asked if a Community Manager really needs an interview?

Martin Reed added:

I think it is important to take their previous experience and achievements into account but you should still take the time to interview them or at least engage in a conversation to see if they are a right ‘fit’ – after all, would you still recruit the perfect community manager if you couldn’t stand speaking to them?

I do agree that there should be a formal interview process. That is important for both the employer & potential candidate. Both sides need to be open & explore the following:

• work habits
• company culture
• expectations for the position
• knowledge of social media tools & participation in social networks
• product knowledge & familiarity with customer segments
• communication skills
• ability to mediate & tactfully deal with people
• leadership skills – this can be a powerful position if utilized correctly
• creativity – brainstorming & execution
• open to experimentation & ability to learn from mistakes
• familiarity with analytics
• aspirations

Jeremiah Owyang has many posts on the role. Here are a couple that are helpful:

• Understanding the Role
• Should Startups have a Community Manager

If you would like assistance with any of the following, email me at mailto:conniebensen@gmail.com

• How a Community Manager can contribute to your business goals.
• Assistance with creating a job description that suits your organization’s needs.
• Reviewing & interviewing potential candidates
• Training based on organizational needs
• Exploring alternative options:
  • utilizing someone on staff
  • job sharing the position

What other factors should be considered in the recruitment process?

Here is a link to the interview that Jeff Chandler did with me. It’s 53 min’s long. We talked about building community, networking & personal branding. He did a great job & had some good questions.

One of the listeners sent me an email asking a couple of questions:

I’ve never understood clearly the workings of trackbacks, etc. ( I do realize the value, just not how to use them), I was hoping you could explain to me just what you meant by that statement – "put backlinks in comments".

Trackbacks are created on my post when someone links to the article from their post. A portion of the quote from their post is shown. They are helpful because they show who has referenced your blog post & continued writing about what you’ve written on. And they contribute towards SEO because they show that your wrote something worth linking to.

Backlinks in comments are something else. When I comment on someone’s blog post, I will sometimes leave a link to an article that I’ve written that offers more information on the topic.

The difference is timing:

If I were to respond to the post & write an article linking to the post then that would create a trackback on that person’s post. When I put a link to my blog post in the comment section it’s because my post was written first. If you do this you want to make sure that your link is relevant & adds value to the post. I will also add links to other resources from around the web (not just mine).

The backlinks then create legacy links. Imagine the links that you’ve sprinkled around the web in your topic area (don’t do it all the time). I call them ‘legacy links’ & they provide paths for future readers to find your blog.

In Feedburner I can see where my traffic is coming from. Two came over from a comment I made on Chris Brogan’s post on Skills of a Community Manager. And one came over from RWW’s post on Hiring a Community Manager.

Both of these posts had over 60 comments, but people continue to read the posts. Imagine the effect over a period of time? So I refer to them as legacy links because they help new people find my work on that subject. Usually they are learning & mining blogs. Some people say that this isn’t acceptable, but I’ve never been criticized for it (or told to not do it).

Tips:

• Identify who the influencers are in your niche with lots of traffic. Although everyone likes comments.
• Comment early on (although I don’t think that matters). Sometimes I enjoy leaving a comment after many people have (that’s especially the case on Chris Brogan’s blog).

Does this make sense? What are your tips?

My most popular posts cover the basics of job description, job posting & salary for the community manager role. So I thought I would round out the job search information with some tips on the interview process. The challenges of the economy are starting to be felt & people are looking for resources. I hope that you find these helpful.

For almost a decade I reviewed applications, interviewed & recommended to hire candidates. Then I followed up with orientation & training of the successful candidate. Because my Director was 80 miles away I had a lot of independence but that also meant a lot of responsibility to make sure that the hiring decision was the best possible for my team.

Here are some tips that apply to any position:

• Make sure that your resume is well done. Have friends review it & give feedback. It’s the only thing that represents you & your achievements.
• The web offers lots of opportunities to be creative, but be careful about silly videos & things that are too unconventional.
• Use positive action verbs – the BEST book is What Color is My Parachute for resume tips & interview suggestions.
• Make sure that your cover letter & resume provide the requested information

For the interview:

• Dress appropriately & take it seriously
• Be careful about making generalizations & ask questions if you truly don’t know
• The interview should be in both directions (more coming on that)
• Believe in yourself & have confidence

Jim Durbin, Social Media Headhunter, had a post listing interview questions. I think that they’re great & so I’m reprinting them here. He also has some excellent questions about communities.

1.  What communities have you run in the past?  How much control did you have?
2.  What was the purpose of those communities, and did you succeed in the original purpose?
3.  What help did you have? 
4.  Where do you hang out online now? 
5.  What would a search of your name and community turn up on different search engines and/or forum search engines?
6.  Is there a single software that monitors blogs, social networks, forums, and the general web (that answer is no)
7. What is the difference between those types of sites, and how do you monitor each?
8. What tools did you use for online monitoring, and what was their cost?
9.  What was your reporting structure like? How did you communicate with management what was happening, and how did you create relevant metrics?
10.  Flame wars:  How do you/should you stop them?
11. How do you deal with security risks (youth sites)
12.  How do you deal with crazy people? 
13.  Write some responses (forum/e-mail/blogposts) to deal with hostile commenters/users.
14.  Who matters online?  How do you know when something needs attention beyond your department?
15.  What hours does a community manager work?

What tips do you have for resumes & interviews? Does the community manager position require unique preparation for the interview?

Twitter is a great tool. It has allowed me to develop relationships with people on a personal level. The power is that it’s a conversation that is only as disruptive as you allow it to be. And rich relationships can be fostered because Twitter allows a window into other people’s lives.

Ogilvy PR has two good posts on corporate use of Twitter:

• Why Twitter should matter to you
• Twitter Best practices
• Why Twitter Should Matter To You: Twustomer Service Edition

There are many resources for getting started. Here are some of the best:

• Caroline Middlebrook has a great guide
• Twitter in Plain English (a clever and fun two-minute video)
• How to use Twitter (a blogger’s solid step-by-step)
• 10 Ways to use Twitter
• List of Twitter101 posts on Delicious thanks to Warren Sukernek

Have patience with Twitter. Until you have some follow people & they follow you it will seem meaningless. Who you follow depends on your interests. Make sure that you keep adding new people because that will give you the opportunity to expand your horizons. Some must follows in my opinion:

• Follow me & I will follow you back
• @chrisbrogan @jowyang @mackcollier @conniereece @kanter
• Community Managers & Social Media 
  • to add your twitter link – password is build
• List of Brands on Twitter
• Enterprise use of Twitter
  • @pistachio – Laura Fitton is creating a business
  • Dell has a hierarchy set up
• Subject Areas in Twitter
  • @fgossieaux – Marketing 2.0 & Community Expert
  • @LeeOdden – SEO expert
  • @AlbertMaruggi @PhilBaumann – health field

Ideas to find more interesting people:

If you see an interesting conversation click on the @person & see if they will add value to your Twitter stream. Follow them if they look interesting.

Twellow.com is a tool that allows you to search twitter bio’s. What is your area of interest? Mashable has an article on more uses for Twellow.

And Twitter may seem odd & disjointed. Here are two tools to see the messages in a threaded format:

• Quotably.com puts the conversations into perspective (it’s not perfect though).
• Tweeder.com thanks to my sister for that

Searching Twitter

• Search.Twitter.com. This is a great tool & you can subscribe to the RSS for the search & monitor it. It’s a great tool for building brand.
• Ways to Search Twitter thanks to @webword

How my use of Twitter has evolved as my number of followers increased

• And I have a number of articles on Twitter.

What are your favorite resources for getting started with Twitter? What advice would you give someone just dipping their toes in? Feel free to leave your Twitter must follows in the comments.

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