Auteur: Vanessa DiMauro

Just last week my colleagues at Social Media Today released the 3rd annual Social Customer Index Report which is chock full of data to fuel any organization’s efforts to leverage social media for customer service. This report is cause for celebration from those of us who know and understand the value of social customer care […]

One recent morning I saw a post in one of my LinkedIN groups asking “what is the difference between a social media manager and an online community manager?” Easy, I thought, and offered a quick response on my mobile … “Social media managers bring the guests (clients, prospects) to the table and community managers welcome […]

One of the most common questions people ask me is why do people participate in online communities.  For some, the act of logging onto a computer network and having a conversation with someone you have never met seems utterly foreign to some, but these are often the same people who will happily chat up a […]

I don’t know how many times I’ve had to shift a conversation into reverse when an initial business discussion about online communities begins with “We’re thinking about starting an online community. What’s your opinion of Platform X?” Too many companies decide they want to invest in an online community — be it internal or externally-facing […]

As more and more individuals become involved in professional online communities, understanding how to engage online becomes increasingly important. While most professionals develop good skills at in-person networking and idea-sharing, when they start looking to use an online group or forum to collaborate with peers the keyboard can sometimes get in the way of effective […]

The enterprise community manager position is sometimes termed a “jack of all trades” role. I know — I’ve said it myself. But I think we’re starting to take it a bit too far. Over the past few weeks I have participated in a suite of webinars and talks about online communities and their growing role […]

Just the other day, I said to my 10 year old daughter ‘trust is hard to win and easy to lose.’ She was having a tough time with a good friend who had done something jerky, and she wanted to know if she should trust her friend again just because she was being nice. Once […]

Your organization has decided to develop an online community to serve your customers. Congratulations! This is an important step towards building a social business. As the team gathers in the conference room with whiteboards, markers and lots of coffee, you start by talking about other online community examples the organization might want to emulate, or […]