Connie Bensen

When I spoke in San Francisco at the Social Media Strategies Conference a few people asked how I got started as a Community Manager? I generally start the story with my role as an online evangelist which transitioned into a full time role as a Community Manager.

But I’ve known for a long time that my background & skills were developed & honed while I was a librarian in the Lake Agassiz Regional Library System. I supervised 7 sites across 80 miles & 20 some people. The position translated perfectly into the Community Manager position:

• providing motivation & leading by example
• encouraging communication to bridge the miles in regard to technology
• providing staff & the public with instruction on use of technology
• leading the strategic planning for technology (we brought in wireless to all sites)
• public relations & marketing to get the word out about library services (we were competing with Google, Barnes & Noble & Amazon)
• providing innovative programs & growing them
• ensuring excellent customer service
• working remotely with the 6 other sites
• collaborating & partnerships were very important

All of these translate to the digital world & are applicable to the Community Manager role. Communication, collaboration & customer service are key components of the position.

In March of 2005 Michael Stephens presented around MInnesota. He introduced me to Web 2.0 & the Cluetrain Manifesto. He is the Jeremiah Owyang of the the library world & blogs at Tame the Web. His focus is on utilizing technology, breaking down barriers & hi-tech gadgets.

When I first left library world after almost 10 years I emailed Michael. You know how you reach out to someone who influenced you? He kindly replied. I had joined a software company, so I’m sure there wasn’t much relevance. A few months ago I saw him on Twitter & followed him. (Twitter connects everyone!)

This spring I met Meg Canada, a librarian from the Twin Cities who works with digital media. We had dinner & she was totally intrigued by my shift from library work to online. I will always be a librarian at heart! You really never leave it! I LOVE my present role with Techrigy SM2 helping people set up keyword searches for social media monitoring. And boolean just makes sense (ok,I have a math degree too..).

Meg blogged about how librarians are Community Managers. And Michael continued that conversation. I was thrilled to see him say:

I’ll be adding this to the list of emerging LIS jobs. How are we training new librarians to be Community Managers? Did you ever think that might be a role you’d play?

LIS is Library & Information Sciences. It’s exciting to see recognition of the position & the need for training. Thanks Meg & Michael for that! There are many of us that are working on best practices. It’s an exciting time as they evolve. I’m glad to give back to the library profession as it has given me so much. Let me know how I can help.

My plans for this week was to transition to working less hours and launch my new site. On Sunday I received great feedback on logos for my new site. You guys are the best!

Since then my blog has been quiet. I’ve been on Twitter a bit. As with anything, it’s been an experience. On Sunday evening my dad had emergency surgery. My sister & I drove up to visit. On Tuesday morning complications transferred us to the regional hospital 200 miles away in Fargo, ND.

The intensive care unit at MeritCare is impressive. My sister & I have seen an amazing amount of technology being used. The life flight helicopter lands on the roof above us about 3 times a day. The hospital has good wireless access & allows cell phones everywhere except in ICU; so they are very progressive! It’s a teaching hospital so we’ve seen lots of people & learned a lot.

Today Dad is moving out of ICU so it will be easier to be online more. So if you’re waiting on things from me send me a quick reminder.

My blog is a year old & I’m tired of the red. Many of you have seen the new blue on Twitter. This week I’m launching a CMS (content management system) site for my blog, resources, & Community Manager Training courses. My sister has been busy building it. She does freelance work at SolutionsByHeidi.com 

Today the web designer from Techrigy humored me by putting together some ideas. Bob’s a great guy! And he was excited to hear that I was going to ask your opinion. So here’s a sneak peak at the site www.CommunityStrategist.net

Here are some choices for the header. And feel free to add additional ideas!

1. 

2. 

3. 

4.   

5.   

6. 

I look forward to your ideas!

Communities have various ways of encouraging participation. At the DeFrag conference there was much discussion about leader boards for internal communities. Personally I prefer featuring those that are adding value to the community rather than just those that are the most vocal. This allows you to highlight contributors for a variety of reasons rather than limiting your own incentivization program. (is that a word? It looks good though). I met someone who leads a community that does this very well. And the best thing is that it’s a community for those of us that specialize in social media!

It was a total pleasure to meet Robin Fray Carey, CEO & Co-Founder of SocialMediaToday at the Social Media Strategies Conference in San Francisco last week. It’s always inspiring to meet women who are making a difference in the social media world.

SocialMediaToday.com is a unique community that offers bloggers a great springboard to share our thoughts & ideas. Here is why I love it: It aggregates them all in one place allowing us to read each others work, vote on it & comment. I have met new friends there & keep up with old ones. The value that it brings me is that my blog is syndicated there where it is exposed to new readers. They can click thru & explore my blog more fully because permalinks are offered. And they’re doing it in such a way that search engines don’t see it as a duplication & frown on it for SEO purposes.

I have been evangelizing SocialMediaToday for quite some time. I included it in my guest post on Problogger as a great way to take your blog to a new community. It really does give your blog legs! And if your focus is small business then you can syndicate your blog in their sister site, MyVenturePad.com. They have recently launched a new site for marketing specialists called TheCustomerCollective And I see that they have TheEnergyCollective too.

How can you add your blog & join the community? (I highly recommend it)

• Register for a profile
• Follow the instructions
• Your blog’s RSS is fed in & their fabulous Community Manager/Editor Jerry Bowles reviews the posts & chooses which to display.
• Sign up for their weekly newsletter – it rocks! by highlighting news & popular posts

Here’s my post from last week on using Twitter for Business that has been on SocialMediaToday. To date it’s had 524 views! And they kindly highlighted a link in the newsletter.

A huge thank you to Robin & Jerry for providing us with a place to aggregate our collective knowledge. It’s a rich source of information for those aspiring to learn & share our knowledge.