Discovering the possibility in community and the work that it requires is a two fold approach not often taken. No wonder online communities fail. Angela Connor takes a look at both in her new book “18 Rules of Community Engagement: A Guide for Building Relationships and Connecting With Customers Online.” Instead of providing us a watered down pipe dream of community online, Angela takes you step by step through some of the work necessary to work towards growth and strength in your own community. It is both a humbling and exciting read; Angela expresses clearly the learning curve she is still on while managing a local online news community GOLO.com of over 11,000 members. There is no ifs, ands, or buts about it, this work is new, unfinished, and never ending. “You can’t force community. You can build it, foster it, cultivate it, and shape it. You can nurture it, believe in it, and support the members who make it what it is on a daily basis. But you can’t force it” (pg. 7).
Reading though the book, I got a tangible sense of what I could do to manage an online community. I am reminded of the reality that this is real work that takes real time and without that - you have nothing. I appreciated Angela’s advocacy for both alignment with an organizations goals for having a community and some emphasis on advisory from the members themselves. Although I’d appreciate more on the latter. The most influential section was that on recognizing and respecting the culture of the community you manage. Culture, as she mentions, is something that is in some ways out of your hands. You have to take the time to learn and study the community creating itself in front of you and let that inform your work. Many lessons transfer offline, but not many examples in the book emphasize the opportunity that exists offline for further connection and development.
The structure of the book into short sections make it an easy read. Occasionally the stories skip around, like on page 76, “I recently found myself torn about whether or not to ban a longtime member who had been pushing the envelope and testing the limits for months…Once he began publicly mocking the rules and posting blogs challenging my authority, I had no choice. He later came back using one of several profiles he’d created which were apparently for the sole purpose of creating chaos.” We don’t hear how the situation was managed after that. Online communities, unlike physical ones, create a strong opportunity for anonymity and new identities. This stands as an issue unresolved.
This was a good read that left me with a new level of intuition afterward. This speaks to the approachable nature of the book. I didn’t feel an urge to take down notes like most books of this type but just read and absorb. As a offline community practitioner, its lessons serve well here too with a little bit of translation.
I’d recommend this book to anyone actively engaged in any online community setting either as a manager, designing, or as a top member looking to understand what they are working with. It’s where we will all find ourselves someday anyways, right? We all need a better understanding that for the first time in a long time, you have to deal with individual people. Angela helps us do that.
Great excerpt on the 90-9-1 principle (pg. 11):
1. If you want to increase quantity of activity in your community, it’s more effective to increase the total population who visit your site than to get current members to participate more (not that you shouldn’t do both, but the former will typically be more effective than the latter).
2. If you want to increase the quality of activity in your community, focus your efforts on that 1% who contribute the most.
3. If you want to find out what the total reach is of your community, be sure to count the 90% or so who are spectators as well as the 10% who are posting.
I love how the structure of an online environment helps bubble down some of the essentials of any community. I will carry these three in my back pocket as solutions: (1) Add people (2) Cultivate your best (3) Keep track of those impacted by or are on the sidelines of the community.
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Justin: Thank you so much for taking the time to read and review my book. Your insight and feedback is great. I appreciate your honesty and your recommendation. You raise a good point about not coming back full circle on that particular issue and sharing how it was handled. I honestly don’t know if I’ve handled it 100% and those are certainly some of the major struggles. I will keep that in mind and maybe blog about some of that in the future, even consider a book solely on handling some of the issues. Again, thank you for your blog post and sharing my book with your readers.
Angela Connor
Great review of a great book. I worked with Angela at GOLO.com during the developmental phases, and must say that she’s a whiz to be around. Great intuition and foresight developed from years in print, broadcast and online media. It’s been delightful to see GOLO grow, to see Angela flourish, and to learn from her experience. I, too, highly recomment this book for anyone to use as a blueprint …
I had never participated in any sort of online community before GOLO, and I only checked that out because it’s tied to my favorite news site. But now I am hooked, and enjoy the camaraderie of the community. There are times when I don’t envy Angela her job because of the clashing personalities, or the nonstop nature of news….but I can definitely say that her online community has enhanced my REAL community. She’s really engaging.
Appreciate your review of Angela’s book! I’m very interested in getting this book now. I’m looking to understand how all these blog sites garner public interest. Growing a community to over 11,000 members is a great accomplishment for Ms. Connor. Thanks for the insight.
[...] Book Review: Angela Connor’s “18 Rules of Community Engagement” by Justin Fenwick [...]