Community Manager Appreciation Day 2020 Contest

[JamilaR]

Community Manager Appreciation Day (CMAD) is right around the corner on January 27th. This month, we'll be publishing content in Atlas to celebrate CMAD and educate others on the vital role Community Managers play in the customer's journey. We're thrilled to start things off with an exciting contest!

The CMAD 2020 Contest is in honor of Community Manager Appreciation Day and is open to Atlas members. The two winners of the CMAD 2020 Contest will each receive one ticket to Khoros Engage 2020, held in Austin, TX on October 12 - 14, 2020. 

Contestants must reply to this blog and answer the question, “What advice would you give to a new Community Manager?” in 500 words or less or a 1-2 minute video. This contest is open to Atlas members of all roles and backgrounds, not just Community Managers. 

We encourage you to be creative and original in your submission. Feel free to use props, tell jokes, or share tell a heartfelt story of a lesson you would like to pass on to Community Managers. 

Best of luck to everyone and happy Community Manager Appreciation Day! 

Eligibility:

• Open to residents of Canada (excluding Quebec) and the United States (excluding Rhode Island and Arizona) who are members of the Atlas community irrespective of role (you don’t have to be a community manager!); entrants must be 21 years of age and older as of January 21, 2020.

How to submit to the contest:

• Reply to this blog and answer the question, “What advice would you give to a new Community Manager?” 
• Submissions can be in the form of a 1-2 minute video or a written submission of 500 words or less. 
• The submission deadline is on January 31, 2020, at 5:00 pm PT.
• Contestants are allowed to edit their submission as much as needed up until the submission deadline.
• If you have any issues please contact communityhelp@khoros.com.

How the winners are determined: 

• The 2 winners will be chosen by a panel of Khoros industry experts. 
• Submissions will be judged on creativity, originality, and quality of advice. 
• The 2 winners will be announced on Atlas by February 17, 2020. 

Terms and Conditions:

• See the attached PDF for the official rules. 
• Only English language submissions will be accepted.
• The contest is only open to registered Atlas members. 
• Submissions must be posted in Atlas by replying to this blog.
• Contestants can only post one submission for the contest. If a contestant posts multiple submissions, only the first submission will be considered for the contest. 
• The contest will run from Monday, January 21, 2020, at 6:00 am PT to Friday, January 31, 2020, at 5:00 pm PT.
• The winners will be announced on Atlas in the Atlas Insights Blog by February 17, 2020.
• Winners will be contacted via the email used in their Atlas profile. 
• Submitting to this contest gives Khoros the permission and approval to leverage your username, avatar, and submission, for Marketing and Public Relations purposes in presentations, on social media and the Khoros website. 
• Khoros reserves the right to change the rules and terms at any time. Khoros makes no representations or warranties regarding the contest or its rules and disclaims all implied warranties. Khoros undertakes no obligations of its performance or processing of submissions other than as specifically stated herein and contestants must comply with all the stated conditions.
• Your participation in this 2020 CMAD Contest shall be deemed as consent to use your username, avatar, and submission as described above, notwithstanding any related terms in any agreements that you have with Khoros.

[Finney0225]

The advice I would give to a new Community Manager is to follow your gut. You're in this position for a reason and that reason is normally to be the voice of your customer. I'm sure you have spent many months talking to your customers, listening to their struggles, etc. You know exactly what they are looking for out of a Community. Many people may try and change it to something that you know won't be successful, so listen to your gut and have a backbone. Never second guess yourself as you wouldn't be in this demanding position if you didn't deserve/know what you were talking about! 

[traci]

My advice to a new community manager is to not forget that the heart of your community is the community. That means people. Yes, you have business objectives to meet, and you will, as long as you don't forget that your community is who you are serving, too. Keeping them in mind will help you to not only be more successful in achieving your goals (especially since you won't have to keep revisiting ideas if you nail it the first or second time around), but you will also deliver people-oriented programs that will FEEL good. 

[JasonHill]

Eligibility:

• Open to residents of Canada (excluding Quebec) and the United States (excluding Rhode Island and Arizona) 

[Fellsteruk]

Good luck to all the EMEA and APEC community managers... Oh wait... that's right we're not able to join in... 

below reference may be lost on anyone not from the UK and below a certain age....

[Wendy_S]

My advice to community managers is to care about people and realize that the small gestures make a big difference. People thrive when you give them good feelings so spread around with authenticity.

on the other hand, the business side, make sure you know how to showcase the value of community either through verbatims, user stories,  benchmarks and whatever aligns with your brand.

You, as a CM, can make a huge difference 

[JennyW]

My advice is to spend as much time reviewing your strategic goals and objectives as you spend planning and establishing them. All too often I see clients spend a TON of time planning for the community's next fiscal year, but not nearly the same amount of time goes into reviewing the year once it's over. And that's critical to determine what worked, what didn't, and what needs to be considered when planning for the next year. 

*Khoros employees are not eligible for the contest.*

[JacobBo]

Hey Folks! I love the advice posted so far!

Sorry about the US and Canada eligibility only! We wanted to get this contest up fast (aka without extensive legal review) and we figured travel might a big barrier to EMEA/APAC folks given the Engage prize is in Austin anyways.  We love our baby Yoda EMEA/APAC customers, and that's why we host events for you too! Like our Connect Event in London next week!

We definitely appreciate your inputs and will make sure to get you included somehow in the future. We also have our Announcing the Khoros Kudos Awards  where you can participate as well!

Let's keep the positivity flowing!

[BrianOblinger]

Successful community management, like anything worth doing, is about balance:

• How you balance the needs of your customers with the realities of the business
• How you balance scaling your community with maintaining the culture that made it great when it was smaller
• How you balance the need for enhancements to technology and programs with your budget and resources
• How you balance the desire to respond to every post personally and immediately with the desire to create space for the community members to support each other
• How you balance the usage of tried-and-true best practices with experimentation and innovation
• How you balance time spent educating internal teams with servicing your customers
• How you balance strategy with tactics
• How you balance being the community expert in your organization with your desire to progress in your career
• How you balance your sense of duty with your desire to have a personal life
• How you balance saying “yes” with “no”

The answers to these questions are up to you. Do what you feel is right and the dots will connect in one way or another.

[Fellsteruk]

Hey @JacobBo  I get that and I don’t want to sound like an old fart however Lithium was always an inclusive company who included all customers, I mean it’s not that difficult to offer a compo to win a ticket for free  entrance with no travel included “make your own way” you have done it before. 

[Sandy_Moreland]

Being a Community Manager of a large membership organization with a diverse audience and aggressive business needs, the best advice I would give to a new community manager is root yourself in the metrics of your community.  This will help you get a birdseye view of the issues and opportunities. 

At times it’s going to feel like you’re drinking from a firehose and that’s okay.  Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. 

Work to establish your reputation in the community first so you can become their number one advocate.  What pleases one will not please another.  Recognize priceless feedback, which might not always be easy to here.  Trust that members are donating their time when they give the gift of feedback.  Don’t get me wrong, there will be trolls at times but that’s when you enforce the rules creating a safe and welcome space.

Be as transparent as possible so when you’re giving a difficult answer members will understand where you’re coming from.  Tailor your responses to the audience.  After all, we’re human and not robots behind these usernames.