Community managers tend to be busy people, especially when you have an active community with many contributors, and it’s easy to forget to thank people for being really helpful in the community. I am as guilty of forgetting to thank people as anyone else, maybe more guilty of it. We need to remember that these people are contributing their valuable time to do something nice for us, and they deserve to be recognized for it in some way.

Here are a few ways to recognize your contributors:

• Contact them and say “Thank You” for a specific contribution.
• Make recognition a big part of your monthly metrics reports.
• Hold special events, like Yelp does for their elite members.
• Seek input on tough problems from your frequent contributors.
• Do something nice for them.

Recommended Reading

• Rewarding Community Members
• Your Members Really Want Fruit Baskets
• How are you rewarding members of your online community?

Part of a series of community manager tips blog posts.

Photo by William Arthur Fine Stationery used under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.