Communities occasionally go through tough times, and it’s important as the community manager to be there and support your community as much as possible. For example, last Friday there was an announcement scheduled at 2am my time with a webcast that promised to have at least some impact on the community that I manage. Rather than sleeping until my normal wake up time of 6am, I pulled my butt out of bed to watch the webcast with the rest of the community and sit on IRC to support people and answer questions where possible. I thought it was important to be there for people in this case.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• None of us can be awake 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but we should be there during tough times.
• Don’t be afraid to shift your work day to accommodate key community activities.
• Pay attention to your community and anticipate times when they might need you more than other times.
• Answer questions and be honest when you just don’t know the answers yet.

Recommended Reading

• Support Your Community and Increase Your Whuffie
• What Does it Take to Manage a Community?

Part of a series of community manager tips blog posts.

Illustration by elkokoparrilla used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.