Connie Bensen

Jan/12

You’re Invited to Celebrate Community Manager Appreciation Day with us! #CMAD

When I say that it’s the third annual Community Manager Appreciation Day … they look at me like Really? REALLY?!!!

Yes, really! And the question is, who started that? My answer, Jeremiah Owyang did. (with a straight face). And I believe that we should have a day! It’s not a Hallmark recognized day yet, but organizations should appreciate these committed people who tirelessly work to make things better externally and internally. It’s not easy job!

So, I pondered what could I do for everyone? Last week I was in a meeting listening to Susan Beebe brief us on the Google+ Hangout that Dell streamed from CES. That got the wheels turning and I asked Susan to help me with the logistics.

So I put together some panels of amazing people to provide an educational, fun, networking event with no regard to geography.

Here’s the details & see you there!

Community Management 3.0 #CMAD

Monday, January 23 12 pm cst (10 am pst)

Do you have plans for Community Manager Appreciation Day?

Come join our conversation on a Google+ Hangout and spend an hour

with some of the most amazing Community thought leaders!

Chief Company Pinata & Cat Herder

Beyond a Day in the Life of a Community Manager

Panelists:

Amy Muller Chief Community Officer & Co-Founder, Get Satisfaction

Mark Harrison Community Manager Google Earth & SketchUp

Patrick O’Keefe Author of Managing Online Forums, iFroggy Networks

No Matter B2B or B2C; It’s P2P!

Whether Business to Business or to Customer; it’s always People to People

Panelists

Jim Storer Principal/Founder at The Community Roundtable

Vanessa DiMauro CEO Leader Networks

Lionel Menchaca Chief Blogger, Dell

Evolving a Social Business

The Future of the Community Manager Role

Panelists:

Jeremiah Owyang Industry Analyst & Partner, Altimeter Group

Bill Johnston Director of Global Online Community

Circle Leader: Connie Bensen, Sr Mgr Community Strategy, Dell

Want to join us?

Put this in your calendar:

Community 3.0 Google+ Hangout ~ Jan 23, 12 pm cst
Send questions for the panelists to @cbensen on Twitter or Google+
New to Hangouts? Check out Getting started with Hangouts
For the event, go to Dell’s Google+ page +Dell
Chat will be available in the sidebar. #CMAD12 on Twitter

Can’t make it? The Hangout will be recorded and available for playback later.

**A huge thanks to Susan Beebe, Dell’s Google+ Guru!

Here’s the event info on Facebook (Join the Community Manager Facebook group)

What questions do you have for the panels?

#CMAD 3 Comments more...

Dec/11

Community Manager Training Course

by Connie under Training

It’s been exciting to see the evolution of the Community Manager role and how it is becoming mainstream across organizations ranging from start-ups to the Fortune 50 and with no matter as to profit or non-profit.

People have been avidly interested in pursuing this type of role and want to know how they can gain the necessary skills. Back in June of 2008 I offered 2 training programs to meet that need. It went great until I got sucked into the tech startup world and social media monitoring. Since then I have continued to mentor and scale the reach here through my blog.

Periodically people would request my courses when they came across the old posts referencing training. I always felt bad when I had to explain that my day job was busier than busy. So, I’m really pleased to see that WOMMA and the The Community Roundtable are offering training courses that are specific to Community Management (in contrast to Social Media in general) and they are created by credible people in the industry. Earlier this week Jeremiah Owyang covered the pro’s and con’s of the certification aspect of the Community Manager Training courses.

These courses will:

fast track your knowledge base on the expectations of community management
open your eyes to aspects that you didn’t realize existed and cause you to have even more questions
be excellent for those of you that have been assigned or are spending a portion of your time in this new role

They probably won’t:

make it easier to get a job (employers are getting 100’s of app’s per position) or more pay
ramp a company’s adoption of social media (ie: embrace the value of community & related culture shift)
replace the value of volunteering and showing leadership in an online community and the related experience.

If you’re interested in exploring community management and strategy these courses are a good place to gain the skills and an overview.

I would highly recommend connecting with like-minded people in one of the following communities:

Facebook group Community Manager, Advocate, and Evangelist

An active group that has new people joining everyday. There is a doc with social media jobs there.

Community BackChannel

Membership is free, but there is a process for requesting it.

CommunityAdmins.com

These active forums are a part of Patrick O’Keefe’s iFroggy network. Patrick is the author of Managing Online Forums.

Community RoundTable

Jim Storer & Rachel Happe are the founders of this peer network. They have built a very active community that is based on resources, research and regular activities.

Seeking a job? Check out this Facebook group of Social Media Jobs

If you’re a practicing Community Manager, what resources have you found the most helpful?

certification, community manager training, social media training 8 Comments more...

Sep/11

Put Some Bling in Your Blog for Improved SEO

by Connie under Blogging, Social Media Tools

Whenever I get a request to speak, I’m always humbled and honored by the invitation. But when I found out that the audience was crafters, I was thrilled because this is the very group that I was part of when I started on the path to my present career.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating a niche community at DigiScrapInfo.com for digital scrapbookers to assist them in organizing their supplies & photos. For three years I translated digital marketing techniques for this very passionate group of entrepreneurs that are also busy moms and grandmas.

Jess from BlogHer had requested a class on intermediate SEO and technology. In the spirit of crafting I realized that optimizing a blog is like adding bling to it. What is bling? My definition is anything that makes it sparkle and attracts attention. And who doesn’t want the attention of Search Engines?

A personal frustration that I have had with many of the SEO sessions I’ve attended is that they talk in general terms, and I came away only with concepts rather than actionable items. So I have put in specific steps for using the various tools mentioned.

Here are some additions that were a result of the questions during and after the session:

If you are blogging for fun, family & friends then using a platform such as Typepad, Blogger, WordPress.com, etc is fine. Some of the tools may be helpful if you’re looking for things to write about. (They aren’t the best for building top rank in SEO. If you want that then it’s best to get a URL and host your own blog. WordPress is a recommended choice.)
I had assumed that everyone knew about Feedburner and so didn’t include it. (My apologies as I consider Feedburner as a basic part of blogging.) http://feedburner.google.com
Learn more about using Feedburner here

We had so many questions that I didn’t have time to give the most important piece of advice and that is that blogging should be fun. It’s about sharing ideas. Yes, keywords are important, but if you’re consistent in sharing your passion for a topic then you’ll build that coveted organic SEO over time. These tools can help spur new ideas for content and help you focus on a niche that isn’t as competitive.

Tools and Techniques to Increase a Blog's SEO

View more presentations from Connie Bensen

A huge thanks to BlogHer for inviting me to join the event yesterday! Crafting is a perfect cottage industry for the internet and I’m glad that we could have a day to focus on digital marketing.

BlogHer, keywords, organic SEO, SEO Leave a Comment more...

Aug/11

Next Stop – Community Strategist Role @Dell

by Connie under Reflections

Last week I tweeted this photo of my car being loaded on a truck destined for my next social engagement.

On Monday, August 29th, I will start the next chapter in my career. I will be joining forces with Bill Johnston and the global community team at Dell in a new role as Sr. Manager, Community Strategy and Execution. Needless to say, I am very excited to be joining a team and company that is committed to becoming a social business.

In looking back, this appears to be a natural next step. Long ago (around 2008) I had a conversation with Sean McDonald and we pondered how to evolve the benefits of the community manager role in terms of a social business. Essentially, how does an organization scale it. Since then I kept tabs on their progress. I also participated in their Customer Advisory Panel (#DellCAP) for the past two years and attended the launch of Dell’s Social Media Command Center last December. It’s incredible that Dell’s internal University has trained over 5000 people and certified over 2000 and they have established an unprecedented listening center that plugs the company into the social sphere. I have watched their progress and look forward to joining the innovative efforts at Dell!

My journey to this point has been guided by amazing people and great experiences. I have thoroughly enjoyed working in the social media monitoring world with Techrigy and post-acquisition with Alterian. As a result I am blessed with friends around the world. I have loved working with such dedicated people.

This evolution of my career includes a huge change and everyone is asking … Are you moving to Austin? Many know that I moved south to the Minneapolis area last year (to be near an international airport). I will be joining my car on Monday when I start at Dell’s corporate headquarters.

Stay tuned as the journey continues!

community strategy, Dell 10 Comments more...

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