Content Curator Verses the The Community Manager

Finding balance of content and happy audience members within your community is an exceptional feat to achieve. Unique to every online situation and determined by a variety of existing factors the need for fresh information can be overwhelming and at an extensive end of the spectrum actually abrasive to the communities visitors.

The evolving issue is simple. As we build online and the amount of information that accumulates it tends to accumulate at a much faster pace then in the past. This concept addresses a problem humans have never confronted before: too much information in a short amount of time. In the process, it’s creating some compelling new ways to derive value from content and mediate the pulse of the content you put on your site.
 

An Ideal Dynamic

Quite frequently the content curator takes the role superior to the online community manager, but there is a bigger picture in mind. The curator has to consider more than accurate content, the proper placement of such content and fitting it to an editorial calendar. The curator has to consider the business model and the messaging and the bigger picture. How will the audience view your brand in 1 year - 5 years? Content curators have to construct the best communities for longevity, collect the best content and publish what fits the the value of the community. In addition, he or she needs to poise the content in a polished presentable fashion that pushes site traffic to conversions. Finally, publishing new content in a reasonable time frame without being abrasive to the community audience.

The problem with curation is that it’s labor-intensive. Someone has to sift through all that source information to decide what to keep. This task has never been easy to automate.
The curator has to be able to evaluate the community and the brand from aerial view, with the additional talent to be strategic at a moment’s notice to compensate adverse changes.

Community Manager and Content Creator are two complimentary positions. They are to some extent a symbiotic in nature. Content creators can create within guidelines across many different mediums to match an editorial calendar.

Community Manager’s do exist with some to emphasize on enhancing the User Experience, commenting system, administrative duties, managing new technologies, reporting metrics and implement engagement strategies.

Three positions all cut from a very different cloth all with vital roles to a communities success. Automation is always helpful but not a complete solution to meet the needs of an online community. Several humans are required for success.

Community Managers: What Is Better A Positive Endorsement Or A Detailed Complaint?

I have this debate going with a client of Blue Blazing Media. So you have your community and it is rocking and rolling and the feedback and interaction is grand. But the question that comes into debate is how does this exposure translate in to a value for the company, business or individual? Where are the hints of trouble that act as bread crumbs to build your business in a positive fashion?

Which is a more valuable response: A positive endorsement OR a negative complaint?

As a marketer I enjoy the sweetness of a compliment as much as the next company. But it gives me nothing constructive to work with. 

From a business process, I want to always make my systems and processes easier for the user. I feel a negative complaint or user generated suggestion is far more worthy. Yes, address the issue; you have to put out the associated fires but you have to keep the issue in mind for consideration when building your company larger. User generated feedback is a priceless commodity.

If no one tells you what part of your business sucks how will you know that it is a broken process part in your system?

In general, we live in an environment and society where it seems wrong to complain and express open honesty about a process that is difficult to complete. As a community manager I want the feedback and love the negative stuff. How can I make my online community or company better if I don't have an honest opinion of it's deficits?

Questions:

Do you prefer the rose colored glasses or a complaint with a little more bit?

Is there one situation where you have been in that one sort of feedback was better than another?

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About US Page : Don't Go In Naked, Just K.I.S.S.

Have you ever thought about what makes you memorable to others? Face to face meeting is the easy part but what about when you are found online first? Whether you are a corporate entity or a personal brand online representation can become lost in a sea of anonymity. It is always the relationship and trust that builds the friendship and makes the sale.

K.I.S.S rules apply here. On your site you want to guide your site traffic with ease to the trusting part of equation and an About US page that is engaging is an easy solution to missing link in the online. conversation.

Elements Of A Great About US page:

-Keep in mind these info blocks should never be more that a paragraph in length. Brevity is key. Remember, you can embed links to other pages in your site that may contain more information for the reader.

Attention Grabbing Headline
Visual: Image of yourself, you can add a prop to be more memorable. If you are corporate of an "actual" employee not a stock image. Preferably and ambassador or someone I would actually meet at a conference.

You can also embed a basic nice-to-meet-you video as well. I particularity love these! Body language is key here.

About YOU
Your bio, essentially your elevator pitch. How do you help others through your knowledge and expertise. You can even roll out a couple memorable bullet points.You could add some upcoming events that you will be at where I can meet you.

Be Proud Of Your Accomplishments
For example, last year my strategy raise sales X% in X months. Be creative and accurate.

Be Human
For example, share something that is not common knowledge but shows you have a passion for something beyond work.

"This is not common knowledge but I started my first company at 14. I owned a local landscaping company mowing lawns in exciting shapes and designs like baseball fields. The money I saved I used to buy riding time at the local horse barn."

Connect - Call To Action
Give the site visitor a place to connect to you in a soft fashion. This would be a handful of social icons or a newsletter sign up. Recent blog posts, etc. If if it important to you you can emphasize your location. I am always in a major city so emphasize the local element is unnecessary as I go see my clients where they are most times.

All of this is encourage your site visitor to take the next step and take an action. An action could be qualified as follow you one Twitter, FB or joining your newsletter or more.

In the end, as a site visitor I want my site experience to be pleasant and build a sense of recognition and trust. I need to leave your site wanting to know more about you and your company. The easiest way to screw up this experience is to never update your page, get me lost in your site, try to bum rush be to the buy page and so on. If it feels like sandpaper on my friendly feeling towards you I am off your site and on your competitors site.

Samples of About US Pages

Questions:

• What else do you like to see on an About US page?
• Have we connected yet? Click on a social link on the right side.

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