sxsw

Want to See Me Speak at SXSW?

August 17, 2009 Dawn 1 Comment

SXSWi is my favorite large tech event held every March in Austin, TX. If you don’t already plan to attend SXSW, you should consider it, especially since the conference fee is only $395 for a five-day event. SXSW is also referred to as spring break for geeks, not that I expect the parties to sway your decision to attend (*cough*).

Here’s how it works. People who want to speak at SXSW submit proposals and other people vote on them. The popular vote makes up 30% of the decision for whether or not your session is selected.

I currently have 2 presentations that are in the running.

Techniques for Monitoring Online Conversations with Free Tools: Learn about the latest free tools and advanced techniques for monitoring online conversations across the social web. People are talking about the topics that interest you, and people are talking about you, your company and your competitors. How quickly and efficiently can you find this information now?
Companies and Communities: Participating without being sleazy: Some companies participate in online communities and the social web with finesse, while others engage in sleazy practices that send potential customers running away. Learn some best practices and tips for engaging with communities of people online, and learn how to avoid some of the most common sleazy mistakes.

While you are there, vote for some other cool presentations. I think Rick is putting together a list of other Portland proposals for the Silicon Florist blog if you want to hear some other local people speak at SXSW.

elsewhere

Blogging Elsewhere

August 15, 2009 Dawn

Here is this week’s summary of links to my posts appearing on other blogs:

GigaOM’s WebWorkerDaily*

Do You Need to Keep Up With Social Media?

Intel Software Network*

Legion of Tech*

If you want a feed of all of my blog posts across multiple sites, you can also subscribe to my über feed.

*Disclaimers:

I am a paid blogger for the GigaOM network.
I provide consulting services to Intel, and these blog posts are one part of my consulting engagement.
I am a co-founder and board member of Legion of Tech. This is an unpaid, volunteer activity.

shared links

Community Managers: How much money should they make?

August 12, 2009 Dawn 4 Comments

About a year ago, the Online Community Research Network took an in-depth look at compensation for community managers finding that online community manager salaries are all over the board. A lot can happen in a year, so they are repeating the study again this year. If you are an online community manager, I strongly recommend taking the survey.

To recap last year’s results, you can read my take on why the data looks nothing like a typical salary bell curve.

Kommein released the results from a more recent survey of community managers, and their survey had very different compensation results.

The Kommein results don’t have the big hockey stick on either side of the chart. I suspect that the demographics were very different between the Kommein survey and the OCRN survey, and I can almost account for the difference by looking at some of the salary influences (technical vs. non-technical, people in junior or mid-level positions vs. executives, etc.), but this is highly speculative. It could also be a factor of the economy, maturation of the community manager as a job, etc.

This is why I am very eager to get the results from the new OCRN survey to see if community manager compensation really has changed significantly over the past year or whether there were enough differences in demographics and methodology to explain the differences in the results.

What should community managers make?

In general, community managers for technical communities (developers, etc.) tend to make more than end user, social communities. Salary also changes significantly depending on whether the role is really more low-end, tactical moderation or something more strategic, like building a new community or revitalizing a troubled community site. Job experience, scope, management responsibilities, location and how well known the person is can also make a big difference in the salary range as mentioned above.

My advice to people about community manager salaries is that community managers should make $50,000 to $150,000 per year depending on the situation. The low end is mostly for people managing smaller online social communities where relatively little subject matter expertise is required and for people doing tactical work (moderation, etc.) The top range tends to include people in higher level strategic positions in corporate environments who head a large organization responsible for the growth and management of multiple communities, or community managers with name recognition or internet celebrity status working in high profile positions as community evangelists.

What do you think online community managers should make?

community

Online Communities and Organizational Change Management

August 10, 2009 Dawn 7 Comments

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently thinking about organizational change management. As I work in organizations with traditional and less web savvy audiences, using an online community is a huge change for some of these people. This is especially true for communities used inside of a company or organization where people are being asked to change the way that they work. It can be even more difficult for employees in companies with very conservative cultures where people are afraid that they will jeopardize their career by saying something that isn’t quite correct or will appear less knowledgeable as a result of asking questions.

Organizational change takes time and effort with a large amount of education and training. People building online communities often underestimate the amount of resistance and fear that can come from many people within the organization. I’ve included a model from one of my favorite change management experts, John P. Kotter, not because I think you should use any particular model, but because I think it has some interesting nuggets of information for how community managers can help people through the change to a more community-oriented organization.

Stakeholders and Strategy

If you are working within an organization to create an online community that people will be expected to use as part of their daily job, you need to have support from the top. Key leaders within your organization should agree with your strategy and vision for the community and support the effort. If your leadership is resistant, hold off on building or implementing anything until you can get them on board. Sabotage from the top is not going to make for a successful community.

Communication and Training

The communication and training for change of this size is not a single email announcing the new online community or a single training class showing people how to participate. Because some people will resist any kind of change, you will need to constantly communicate and train people taking as much time as you need to bring people around. It can also help to share success stories (wins) when you hear about someone using the online community to do something great.

Ongoing Management and Evolution

Ongoing management of the community should include continued communication and reinforcement of successful usage while also keeping an eye toward next steps. No community or other organizational effort will be implemented without ever changing. As situations change and the community or organization evolves, you will need to make new changes to the online community. These new changes can also require some organizational change.

What are your thoughts on using organizational change management principles for new online communities within organizations?

elsewhere

Blogging Elsewhere

August 8, 2009 Dawn

Here is this week’s summary of links to my posts appearing on other blogs:

GigaOM’s WebWorkerDaily*

To Join, or Not to Join: That Is the Question

Intel Software Network*

If you want a feed of all of my blog posts across multiple sites, you can also subscribe to my über feed.

*Disclaimers:

I am a paid blogger for the GigaOM network.
I provide consulting services to Intel, and these blog posts are one part of my consulting engagement.

shared links

Blogging Elsewhere

August 3, 2009 Dawn

Here is this week’s summary of links to my posts appearing on other blogs:

GigaOM’s WebWorkerDaily*

The Impact of Corporate Policies on Web Working Employees

Intel Software Network*

If you want a feed of all of my blog posts across multiple sites, you can also subscribe to my über feed.

*Disclaimers:

I am a paid blogger for the GigaOM network.
I provide consulting services to Intel, and these blog posts are one part of my consulting engagement.

shared links

Blogging Elsewhere

July 28, 2009 Dawn

Here is this week’s summary of links to my posts appearing on other blogs (actually, I neglected to post one last week, so this is a special double episode):

GigaOM’s WebWorkerDaily*

Intel Software Network*

I just began blogging on the Intel Software Network as part of my work on the new Open Source at Intel site that launched today.

Portland Data Plumbing User Group (pdpug)

Learn About YQL: July 28th Meeting

If you want a feed of all of my blog posts across multiple sites, you can also subscribe to my über feed.

*Disclaimers:

I am a paid blogger for the GigaOM network.
I provide consulting services to Intel, and these blog posts are one part of my consulting engagement.

Open source, research, and other stuff I'm interested in posting.