How community managers can leverage what they've built: free report for #CMAD

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Posted 28 January 2013 16:53pm by Cielo Lutino with 3 comments

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By now you've probably heard that it's Community Manager Appreciation Day, but did you forget to get them something? We understand. You're probably still in the sugar trough from Chocolate Cake Day on January 27.

So now that you're thinking about it, doesn't it make sense to reward that patient colleague who responds to the company's Twitter devotees, comes up with sweetly snarky posts that attract thousand of "Likes," and gently mollifies cranky YouTube commenters...and does the hard work of analytics around social?

We honor the social media mavens among us by offering Leveraging the Community, the last in a four-part series we call Online Communities. It's free, it's short, and it's good — the perfect gift for your favorite social media expert.

Authored by social media specialist and blogger DJ Waldow, Leveraging the Community focuses on participants in the online commercial space and how they can offer feedback, support, and sales results to the savvy community manager and others in digital. Filled with examples from real companies, the report provides practical advice that you can test-drive immediately.

In one example, the report looks how CruiseDeals.com deals with a formidable sales challenge: Most of us are only going to go on a cruise once a year, if at all. How might social media prompt the purchase of a cruise ticket?

In CruiseDeals.com's case, the community manager used his knowledge of Facebook's Edgerank to consistently remain at the top of members' newsfeed. Knowing that affinity and weight factor significantly in the Edgerank algorithm, he mimics the kind of content people like to share and Like on Facebook, which doesn't tend to be crassly promotional announcements like, "BUY NOW WHILE OFFER STILL LASTS!" 

Instead, posts like the recent one below (which attracted 5,340 likes, 150 comments, and 128 shares) regularly engage the Cruise Deals community.

Such insights and case studies are integral to Leveraging the Community and the Social Community series. There's something for community managers at all stages of their career or function.

The first report, Starting a Community, provides a basic introduction to online communities — what they are, how they work, and the best practices for building one at the earliest stages. The second, Engaging Your Community Across Multiple Platforms, talks about how to generate leads across various platforms, as well as how to boost your reputation through social media. The third report, Growing the Community, suggests ways you can use email marketing to add more members to your groups. With Leveraging the Community, you'll learn how to maximize your community to improve your business and its bottom line.

Download this free series or settle in with the one report but don't forget to share it with your community manager before Community Manager Day ends. Keeping everyone happy on social media isn't an easy job, and we tip our hats to those who tackle it day in and day out.

Happy Community Manager Day, everyone! And don't miss our interview with the man who came up with CMAD (Community Manager Appreciation Day), Jeremiah Owyang, posted earlier today.