Nurturing Online Communities since…

So I’m now on the market and officially looking for work.  It’s a daunting prospect but I’m having fun and learning a lot.

Moving into the gaming industry should be easy right?  I mean, community management is community management isn’t it?

Apparently it’s not.  To my chagrin the fact that I’ve never worked in the gaming industry comes up often during the interview process.  If anything I would think that building communities around printers and print related products would be considered very difficult and earn me some bonus points when being considered for a CM position.  I’ve also successfully managed other sites and those experiences, in many cases, were hard-earned.  My resume is chock full of CM goodness but no professional gaming industry experience.

So far it’s been an uphill battle but I’m keeping my head high and refusing to give up.

A big reason I’m considering moving to the gaming industry is because they seem to have learned the hard lessons of “community” over the past 20 years.  Early on companies were (and still can be) made or broken by a single title launch, so getting it right is imperative.  Those learned lessons are centered around focusing on the end user’s experience and supporting them before, during and after title launch.  No one needs to buy a game, so those who choose to drop $50+ bucks on your product should be coveted, supported, and nurtured.  To me it’s evident that the gaming industry has figured that out.

In my experience it’s often the case that businesses outside of gaming don’t include “community” in the development process, which is a big mistake.  Successful gaming companies incorporate communities from the start because they understand that those end-users are consumers and those consumers have a huge impact on the success or failure of a launch.

A community will form around your product, regardless of whether you’ve planned for it or not.  It’s infinitely easier to support that community in your own space rather than in web space that you don’t control. Plan for it!

History has shown us that community is the lifeblood of consumerism, but it requires commitment, patience, communication, planning, transparency, vision and bravery.  It’s this ethos of “community” that has fueled my professional life.  Those aforementioned traits are not often found together in many corporate boardrooms but they are traits that community managers usually have in spades.

So, as a CM I “get it.”  As a gamer for the last 32 years I’ve experienced it.

If you’re an HR person for a gaming company looking for an experienced community manager please consider me.  I’m a CM who truly cares about delivering the best experience possible to your end users.

Game on!

Check out my stuff at my About.Me page.  There you’ll be able to access my LinkedIn page as well as my blogs and other social media streams.

Cheers!

-Eric

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I’ve been pretty inactive lately and wanted to explain why.

I’ve recently been laid off and it’s been a trying time for me getting all the loose ends tied up.  There is absolutely no ill-will harbored by this layoff and truth be told, it doesn’t disappoint me from an employment standpoint.  These things happen and I’m not taking it personally, but it doesn’t bode well for the communities I managed.

The most important of those communities to me is Tabblo.

It’s important to note that Tabblo hasn’t received one iota of company resources in 3+ years except for the electricity powering the small portion of the server Tabblo resides on.  I’ve been working on projects other than Tabblo for years, spending minutes a day making sure the site is free of junk and answering the occasional email.

Now that I’m gone the site is basically unmanned, which in my opinion is completely irresponsible.  It will more than likely be overrun with spammers, porn, and wholly inappropriate content which will infest the community resulting in a slow, lingering, spam and booby-ridden death.  There will be no support, no moderation, and there will be no responses for incoming email.  If that is going to happen then shouldn’t it be shut down in a gracious, responsible way?

Granted, Tabblo is a smaller, legacy community that was gutted, like a fish, of it’s ability to generate revenue. The reality was that Tabblo was purchased not for the .com value but for the value in the engineers that created it.  That is still no excuse to abandon the community, the members and their content.  These actions and this mentality are contrary to everything I stand for as a community manager, and it bothers me not only because I manage Tabblo, but because I’m also a member.

I’ve trying to reassure the community because they are aware of the situation.  However, being unable to truthfully answer questions like “What happens to Tabblo after you leave?” and “What will happen to all of the content we’ve created?” is sickening.

Member uploaded content is a big issue when considering closing a site like Tabblo.  Some members have uploaded thousands of photos to the site and currently photos can only be retrieved one photo at a time!  All community members should have the ability to batch download their images.  That functionality doesn’t currently exist on Tabblo which means to implement such functionality resources MUST be spent.

The onus is on the company to find those resources and create the ability to batch downloads, but I’ve been unsuccessful in convincing anyone of that.

If a potential closure is imminent, or even on the horizon, every single registered community member should be emailed, notifying them of this potential, and giving them easy access to their content…but again we run into issues with  a “lack of available resources” to get that done.

Not only does this lack of action send a clear message to the members of the Tabblo community, but also to the members of the Internet community at large.

I would not be surprised to find that one day very soon we’ll see a “Tabblo has closed” page in place the login page.  It defies common sense that the largest technology company the world has ever known can’t allocate enough resources to do the right thing by these loyal community members.

So please forgive my lack of social media zeal…I’ve been terribly preoccupied by this issue and my time to act on behalf of Tabblo is fading quickly!

How have you dealt with a lack of resources?

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

I’d dig some insight.

Cheers!

-Eric

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I’m always looking for games that can be played cooperatively because I play with a couple of grade school friends.

My friend Rich is a bit particular on what he plays.  He’s big into sims and could stare at blue sky in Flight Simulator X for hours…no joke.  Jim and I tend to prefer MMO’s which, by definition, are cooperative on a grand scale.  I’m a FPS lover as well and the Infinity Ward’s MW2 is, in my opinion, the gold standard.

In the past we’ve found common ground in a few games such as Tribes and Rise of Nations, both great games but a bit dated.  RoN is a sandbox game, Tribes is a futuristic FPS, MMO’s, sims…we’re gaming all over the map!

“Rich can stare at blue sky in Flight Simulator X for hours…no joke.”

So Valve was selling “Arma II” at 80% off yesterday.  Figuring  that, at $7.99, I couldn’t go wrong and even if I did it wasn’t a huge loss.  It was Steam so it was easy to buy and send to my gaming buddies so I went for it.  It’s also worth noting that Steam offers the expansion at 40% off, but as every good gamer should, I wanted to play this one before worrying about the expansion.  I’ve spent $50 on games I instantly hated, so this game was going to get a few mulligans before I stopped playing.

“It’s quite daunting looking at 7 scrolled pages of assignable functions.”

Later that night Jim and I were going through the tutorials and setting up the controls, which leads to my first complaint.  I’ve got a G13, which has a 24 buttons on it and they’re all assigned.  In fact, there are more commands here that are necessary and it’s quite daunting looking at 7 scrolled pages of assignable functions.  Assigning separate controls land, sea, and air vehicles is mind-numbingly painstaking and beyond my patience level.  Picking out the pertinent ones and assigning them no easy task, but I was finally able to get in and play!

This complexity of the control options is also apparent in the overall game play.  You can apparently drive, fly, fire, kill, everything…and I mean that literally.  The “Shoot tanks” tutorial wasn’t very clear and soon I was driving jeeps into the water and blowing up buildings.

Jim and I had the most fun running around in the woods shooting cows with anti-tank weapons.  (Note to the producers: Please patch in exploding cows!  Falling over when struck by a missile is UNACCEPTABLE!)

“Jim and I had the most fun running around in the woods shooting cows with anti-tank weapons.”

That open world concept can also be distracting, as my last statement can attest to.  With our propensity towards MMO’s Jim and I were never really able to stay on mission.  This isn’t a polished game like MW2 or Black Ops…this is very much a simulation despite the addition of a somewhat boring storyline.

So, these mulligans are adding up eh?

My last issue revolves around the graphics.  The disparity between  the “High” and “Very High” video quality is astounding.  My GeForce 9800m prefers the former setting and everything looks like it’s from a Dire Straits video. I don’t mind this so much but every single Arma 2 trailer contains footage that looks photo realistic but that’s not what I’m seeing.

“Everything looks like it’s from a Dire Straits video.”

On “Very High” the game is unplayable for me so maybe it’s time to get a new machine.  Other titles, more current than this 2009 release, run great on my machine so it’s either got awesome graphics or needs better coding.

So…all that and I’ve only played it for a couple of days.  I probably should have played the game a bit more but these are obstacles I’m running into already, so they’re worth noting.  If I’m able to get through the campaign mode I’ll make sure to update!

Do you play any cooperative games?  Which ones?

Are you looking forward to co-op in the future, if so, which games?

-Eric

I don’t believe there was a bigger hit at E3 than Battlefield 3, but the “Physical Warfare pack“ has caused quite a stir due of the addition of premium content available in limited editions of the game.  Many people have cried “foul” but I don’t think there is any proof to support these claims of gross inequity and here is why…

During the PAXEast convention I attended the Turbine keynote given by the great Fernando Paiz.  He discussed the premium content model used in LoTRo, Dungeons and Dragons Online, and other popular games.

Watch this snippet from the keynote where he discusses his findings regarding purchasable premium content and why he feels that it’s really not a factor in the long run.

Lotro Store

Some titles like EA’s Battlefield Heroes and Paiz’s own Lord of the Rings Online allow for the purchase of in-game items that provide specific, tangible advantages (premium content) over the stock experience.  Better weapons, faster leveling, added faction, all above normal baseline abilities.

These models have been around for a while and are the perfect examples to study.  Granted BF3 isn’t a “free-to-play” game, but I feel the commentary still applies because the “Limited Edition” costs more and provides extras not available at normal retail cost.

I give little credence to forum posts proclaiming the unfair nature of a few minor additions to a limited editions of Battlefield 3 because all I’m reading is “It’s unfair,” which doesn’t hold up in the long run vs. the data collected so far.

These claims are based on the premise that everyone should be on equal footing at all times but is that EVER the case in a multiplayer PVP setting?  I don’t think so.

Riot Points Store

In fact, it’s probably done the opposite and Riot’s success was demonstrated when it was recently acquired by Tencent and valued at $472 million.

I found this incredibly fascinating and I think it applies to the Battlefield 3 discussion. Ultimately FPS’ers such as Battlefield 3 still rely on skill, strategy and teamwork…so much that these little “bought” advantages don’t end up meaning much in the long run.

In fact, it may open the door for some people who aren’t normally FPS’ers and isn’t that a good thing for everyone?

Have you ever purchased a limited edition specifically for the “extras”?

Have you ever paid cash for in-game items?

Cheers!

Eric

Credit to StrollToMordor for the Video.  That’s actually ME coughing!

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I’m often reminded of the veritable fact that I don’t “own the company.”

While it’s true that I don’t own the company I certainly feel a responsibility to ensure the user experience (UX) is the best that it can be.

Most CMs are typically community members which puts them in a unique position to understand the needs of the end user.  As CM’s we’re expected to represent those needs to our employer and work with various groups within the company towards improving the overall UX.

While there are many people who want input and control over the UX, the CM is probably the closest employee to that user experience.  It’s critical that whoever is responsible for the UX be an actual member of the community!

We’re often put in between a rock and hard place (id est - company and end user), but that’s part of the job and something most CMs are accustomed to.  Of course, employers are most concerned about the company, which is as it should be.  That’s why they hire a CM to be concerned about the community.  But, what happens when your goals and your employer’s goals for the UX are vastly different?  This raises questions such as:

• Should a CM have input into (or own) the UX?
• Can someone who’s not a participating member of the community effectively plot a course for the UX?
• Who (or what) in your company drives the UX?  Short-term profit?  Long-term profit?  Feedback?  End users? Usability? Design? 3rd party vendors?
• How much does your company care about the UX if the community isn’t counted on for a sizable amount of direct revenue?

For me, those answers are easy, and they may seem like no-brainers to everyone reading this…but do you know how your employer would answer those questions?

If those answers aren’t consistent with your ideals then you’ve got a decision to make.  You’ll need to decide whether you’re going to question, challenge, correct, comply, capitulate or quit.

After tweeting some of my thoughts on the subject I received a lot of feedback that gave me pause for thought:

Perhaps it wasn’t healthy to adopt a mentality of ownership so I needed to shift my perspective.  Upon reflection, and feedback (which I appreciate!) I decided to amend my stance by substituting the word “owner” with “guardian.”

“Guardian” is more appropriate, fits much better into the concepts I want to promote and it’s closer to how I really feel.  It’s important for the community (and to me personally) that the end users trust a CM is doing his or her best to represent member needs, which isn’t easy if you are at odds with someone over the UX.

Improving the user experience on a daily basis is what fuels me, whether it’s thwarting spammers, passing along positive feedback, helping resolve a customer issue, or pushing a particular bug ticket through to the engineers.

That’s what drives me.  Is that what drives you?

Is that what drives your employer?

Are you ok with the answers if they aren’t in line with yours?

Who’s responsible for the user experience in your community?

Cheers!

-Eric

A special thanks to Rick, Collin, Brittany, Jenn, Shawn, Evan, and TheCR for all the feedback!

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I just read another article regarding “attributes of a good community manager.”  Unfortunately, it’s almost identical to the last article I read, with an almost identical title.

We all know about “passion,” and “listening,” and being a brand “evangelist” don’t we?  This rehashing of bulleted content makes me wonder who the intended audience is because most of it is simply preaching to choir.  It’s usually our bosses that don’t understand the basics of what we do.

Most of those posts are great but they should be in email form and sent directly to all major CEOs with the heading “Hire people like this.”

What I don’t see is the real stuff, or what I refer to as “the Dirty.”  The integral part of our jobs that isn’t flashy or full of catch phrases is the dirty, the stuff that most CMs should be good at.  This is the stuff that I think would be helpful to other CMs.

Bug Ticket pushing is a big one for me. I work for a very large tech company and some of my projects involve many groups responsible for lots of different stuff.   Navigating those disparate groups to get bug tickets pushed through requires a lot of patience, perseverance, tenacity and social engineering.  I work just as hard managing my communities internally as externally.  Knowing WHO to approach with WHAT is also a big challenge and be one of the first things a CM should get straight.

SQL queries and working with our databases is another big task of mine. CMs absolutely need to access and understand how to use the user/account database!  Every bit of data that your end users give you about themselves is located in the user database, whether it’s usernames, email addresses, account status…and it’s all useful in resolving everyday issues your customers face.  If you’re a CM and don’t know the basics of SQL query generation you should buy this book.

All CM’s should know how to use an image editor. I don’t care if it’s Photoshop, Paintshop, GIMP, whatever, as long as you don’t have to ask someone else to do it for you.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used GIMP to edit a last minute photo addition to my (and other people’s) copy.  Once other people know you’ve got those skills you’ll be surprised how often you’re approached for last minute help!

Own the posting of your content. How are articles and images posted on your website?  It could be FTP, so it’s helpful to have an understanding of the process and the ability to do it yourself.  There are plenty of free, quality FTP clients so you’ve got no excuse…besides it adds to your knowledge base!  The less a CM has to rely on others the better.

Good book!

HTML is another one of those little pesky things that many CMs choose not to delve into and that’s a mistake.  Become familiar with the basics of HTML and you’ll find you have much more control over your content than any editor will give you.  Don’t get me wrong, relying on HTML editors isn’t a bad thing, but knowing how to tweak your code is incredibly helpful.  There are so many HTML tags and you NEED a good book.  I’m not big on technical reading so I use this particular book as a reference tool and find it most useful.  Again, if it saves you from having to bug someone else then it’s worth doing and you’ll be a better CM because of it.

Community managers used to be referred to as “Jacks of All Trade” because CMs usually fill in “the cracks” in regards to work environment.  They did “the Dirty,” all the things that no one else wants or cares to get involved in.  In the last 5 years or so the growth in social media has redefined community managers as marketers, which big business can embrace because “marketing” has been in the corporate lexicon for decades.

Marketing is amazingly important but a distinct step away from the “Jack of All Trades” moniker…the original catchphrase that made CMs indispensable.

I urge all CMs to embrace all the roles of a CM, especially the Dirty.

What’s your Dirty?  Please share!

Cheers!

-Eric

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A while ago I posted a video made by Tabblo member (and AMAZING photographer) James Nicolay which, for me, displayed the power of community.

Now I’d like to introduce you to Eduardo Affonso.  

Just like Tabblo is more than a photo site, Eduardo is more than a photographer.

He’s a proud Brazilian, a poet, activist, brother, uncle, friend, soccer football fan, tourist, has a sense of humor, and shares his secrets.  He’s so invested in friendships made on Tabblo that he’s gone out of his way to look up fellow Tabbloers while traveling the world.

He’s also a the model for what every community manager would want in a member.  Not only has he contributed to Tabblo consistently over a long period of time, he’s become a pillar by welcoming and helping others, commenting, reporting spammers, and basically going out of his way to watch out for Tabblo and it’s community.

So what compels this kind of devotion?  I believe it’s the core community on Tabblo.

Eduardo and the rest of the core community have trusted in Tabblo enough to really invest in each other.

That investment is something a CM dreams about and corporate America should strive for.  Millions of dollars are spent on PR campaigns to humanize corporations and earn consumer trust which baffles me because telling people to trust isn’t as effective as being trustworthy.  Unfortunately most businesses aren’t patient (or brave) enough to risk trying something new…instead relying on PR and a shopping cart icon.

Don’t get me wrong…I understand why businesses think short term and feel the need to monetize quickly.  It’s unfortunate the term “Added Value” became synonymous with the Internet bust of the early 2000′s, because it’s a big part of what community delivers.

Member loyalty and good sentiment go beyond a dollar value if given enough time. Judging a community by direct revenue is like judging a Church based on the collection plate totals.

How has your community affected your members in a positive way?

Affected you?  Affected your business?

Do you recognize your community superstars?

Has your community connected in other Internet spaces?

What are YOUR thoughts on the power of community?

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Eduardo, Happy Birthday and thank you!

Cheers and have a great weekend!

-Eric

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Alex's work so far!

One of my sons, Alex, is finishing up his freshman year at college and he’s yet to decide what he wants to do professionally.  My message to him is what many fathers tell their son, “Do something you love!” I’m convinced that if you’re passionate about what you do then you’ll be driven from within to be the best.  His current fascination is with glass blowing, which isn’t something he’s studying at college.  Despite the fact that I’m paying a ton of cash for his education I’m encouraging his creativity.  I’m not sure how I would react if he decided to drop out of school to pursue glass work but if he’s meant to be an artisan I’m not going to get in his way.

I’m lucky. I’m working in my chosen profession and I’m rewarded nicely for it.  However, lately I’ve felt dispassionate about some of the non-community related facets of working in a super large organization.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take the bad with the good but my passion has always stemmed from interacting with and serving end users, which is only a small portion of what I do.  Working on fun projects takes some of the sting out the added responsibility, and I’ve been able to work on some really cool projects.  I’ve been thinking about the differences and similarities of working for a start-up and working for a corporate giant:

Working in a large organization on a large project means there are more voices to be heard, more checks, more approvals, more PowerPoint presentations, more of everything on the business side.  Less direct interaction with the end user. Less direct impact on the direction of community. BUT, it’s a larger community reaching more people.  It’s also probably more stable and more able to handle the leaner times.  It’s also nice to know you’ll get a regular paycheck.

Working in a small organization is equally tough. You’ve got to have SKILL!  If you’re the only one making community decisions it’ll be clear who to fire when the first social media/forum meltdown happens.  Forgoing a personal life is also required because you’ll be busy from dawn to post-dusk!  You’ll also likely have fewer resources, though fewer constraints.  BUT, having direct (or complete) authority over a community is a wonderful thing if you know what you’re doing.  At one time I found it very rewarding, but that was a time when it was easy to live on less, and living on less is what you’ll have to get used to.  This is where you can become a rock star if the stars align, but SO MUCH has to fall into place to get national recognition.  Of course it’s easy to get attention for the WRONG reasons, but that’s another blog post.

Remember when I mentioned that it was nice to work on cool projects?  Yeah, that’s the trump card in this discussion.  I’ve chosen to work on a few projects that I knew were doomed but they were so damned cool I had to participate.

I’m trying to find that passion again!

I’ve been a gamer for the last 30 something years and that’s an industry with some really cool projects as well as an incredibly passionate fan-base.  Most of the CM’s I’ve met in the gaming industry have the best of both worlds – a company and end users both passionate about community.  I’d eventually love to end up managing communities based around games or the game industry as it seems like a natural fit.

• Are you really passionate about your job?  About what you’re supporting?
• Is your company passionate about community?
• Are you making a difference for your end users?
• Does that matter to you?  Does it matter to your company?

SHARE!!!

Thanks for reading!
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