Super Bowl 46 is nearing, and the ads are already appearing: Seinfeld and Ferris Bueller return in ad form.

On Sunday, February 5 the New York Giants will face off against the New England Patriots for Super Bowl 46, and various Super Bowl ad teasers have been slowly released to the Web. What started with a new nondescript YouTube account was an initial teaser showing Mathew Broderick portraying his role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Some thought it was a potential ad to a sequel to the first film, but it became quite clear that it was going to be a teaser for something that would released on February 5, which of course is the Super Bowl. Day later a full or extended version of the ad was published on Honda’s YouTube account showing what the teaser was about.

An ad featuring the Honda CRV, with a 2:30 second modern day version of Ferris Bueller’s day off. Honestly they did in under three minutes what could have been a terrible hour and a half film that may have even incorporated 3D, which would truly ruin our childhood memories associated with this film

No Car For You!

Honda wasn’t the only one brewing up a pot of nostalgia. Acura also released a video showing Jerry Seinfeld portraying himself and a few parts from his show from the 90s, and yes the Soup Nazi is back.

When it comes to managing one of the worlds largest online communities you must act more like a band manager than a micromanager.

Last week our online communities 101 class took a brief break to allow our students to get some direct insight from Erik Martin (@hueypriest), the General Manager for reddit. After a brief introduction Erik started to discuss that based on reddit’s unique community structure he played the community management role similar to that of a band manager.

“Reddit is like this really cool band, and my job is to: one protect them and make sure evil doers and spammers and whatever are kept at bay. Also like their cheerleader and their fan to help everyone know that it is awesome, and also make sure they don’t kill each other or attack posts,” said Erik.

[Please note that the audio is not superb, and the jingling sounds are from cats]

Previously Erik was working in the film and music industry, so for him reddit was his first gig after being a long time user of the online community (Another thing to note from this is that when it comes to looking for your online community gigs, it pays to be already part of it and know how the members interact with one another).

While he initially looked at community management to being similar to that of a band manager, he was also provided some advice from reddit’s co-founder and tech entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian (@kn0thing) on how to balance your work:

1. Don’t waste your time on people that suck
2. Don’t be callous

Social Norms of reddit and the Start of SOPA Blackouts

If you are a member of reddit you know memes, inside jokes, and activism are all common parts of the conversation. Taking a brief break from picking Erik’s mind, we took a few minutes to highlight a few memes that were particularly popular on reddit, and how the SOPA blackout started on the community and spread to other sites like Wikipedia.

Q & A With Erik Martin

Also I would just like to say thank you again to Erik for joining us for our first Community Manager interview. Stay tuned for more insight from online community managers in the future, and you can always shoot me a message (@thejournalizer) if you would be interested in doing one as well.

[You can find Erik on reddit as hueypriest and on Twitter @hueypriest]

Online Community policies and guidelines may not be among the most interesting topics, but they are important and required.

Creating a global portal for communication is no easy feat. Some accidentally stumble upon the secret formula, while others place to much time, effort, and money into something that was poorly planned. Before you can go about trying to find members, motivating them to engage with others, and complete your goals you need to identify what the purpose of your community is and lay down the law.

Creating Your Online Community Policy

Why yes this is a boring topic, but luckily for you most Community Manager jobs are hired on after the initial architecture has been raised, documentation is created, and then dissected by a legal team. If you were brought in also to act as a Community Architect this will be more important to learn; however, even if all of this is in place as your community grows and implements new tools so will your documentation.

When building your policy there are a few things you want to keep in mind: It should be designed to protect both your company and your members, set a foundation for how you expect communication to occur, and provide a reinsurance that your members’ privacy will be protected.

Five Simple Steps To Creating Policies and Guidelines

1. Start with a simple introductory message. Explain what the community is for and your expectation of the users.
2. Use plain language throughout. If you have to add legal information place it on a different page/document.
3. List how you are protecting your members privacy, and that you are not responsible for their actions. Online communities are usually public, and if they post something with their name attached to it there could be possible ramifications.
4. Don’t dictate social norms. Tell users what they can and can’t do within your community, but don’t tell them how they can do that. You don’t want to reduce their creativity, which in return will reduce their motivation to engage with others.
5. Make yourself available. If your members have issues with your community, other members, or there are content owners who find their work on your community you can reduce a snowball effect of negativity by making yourself easy to approach.

Prezi Presentation

When it comes to your community make sure you have the good to protect your members, yourself, and the tools to further your goals.

When it comes to building an online community there are several factors that play into what system that will act as the foundation, and what rules and guidelines that should be documented to protect those involved (both members and those building it). During our second session for the online communities 101 course through the University of Reddit we discussed several different options that people commonly use as a base structure for your online community, tools that will allow you to increase your communities efforts, and wrapped things up with arguing to your superiors on adding new tools to it.

Blueprints to a Successful Foundation

To build a successful community there are several attributes that need to be found throughout. You need a unique theme that has a demand for discussion, an audience who is willing to communicate online, tools that are sufficient for your audiences demographics and tech savviness, and the people to plant seeds of interest. The first step to building the actual online community is to set a foundation that your audience will understand, more specifically having an easy to understand user interface (UI).

Community Architecture and Your Audience

Online communities are sustainable because of the tools that are utilized. Depending upon the technological structure that the community uses, a member can leave at any point and return at their leisure.

Based on Tharon Howard’s book Design to Thrive: Creating Social Networks and Online Communities that Last.

Whether you are using WordPress, Drupal, Ning, or something like Jive there are ways to customize it to improve both the user interface and ease of use for your members. If you are building from scratch make sure you pick the right tool from the start. In most cases if you are being hired on as a community manager it is because the Community Architect already feels that the engagement in the community requires someone to mange and maintain it.

Unfortunately this does mean that if the community has already been built, but you do not see a sufficient amount of engagement on there as a result of difficult navigation, poor design, or even lengthy log in processes restricting the ease of use that your job will be climbing up a mountain rather than a winding road. However, depending upon what community based tool you are working with there are plugins and addons that may make your life easier, and will improve the ease of use for members to communicate.

When it comes to adding tools or selecting the foundation of your online community you must keep in mind who your audience is. While I would consider myself to be tech savvy, a person who has grown up along side the evolution of the Web, people in older demographics may not feel the same way about the same tools. You must put them before yourself, ensure it is as easy as possible to use the communication tools available, and provide the content that will fulfill their needs.

One way to find out what members like to use and the content they enjoy is to see where your referring traffic comes from. While analyzing members for the community I manage it was easy to see that people were coming from LinkedIn, and better integrating and reaching out to members on that platform would be more beneficial than Facebook. As a result this also means you can build a better and more targeted campaign when doing an initial push for more active users.

Community Tools and Motivating Your Members

While there are plenty of tools to use that will allow you to create anything from a simple forum to complex online communities there are a few that are more commonly used than others. Drupal is an open source tool that has a library of tools and quite a few that cost money; WordPress has an even greater library of plugins and tools such as BuddyPress make it easy to host an online community, Ning is specifically designed to house a robust online community and embrace engagement, and Jive is another tool that seems to appear frequently on community management job postings.

When it comes to selecting a tool, if you have that choice, make sure it will be suitable to how much time you have for development, and how easy it is to learn for your members. Also keep in mind that when it comes to breaking that initial hurdle for your members to engage on your community they must have a certain level of motivation based on their needs. If you are able to provide that by offering seeded discussions, robust articles or blogs, and perhaps even a connection to an expert you may be off to the right path for finding long-term members.

Successful Community Tool Use and Plugin Examples

One online community that I go to on a regular basis is GovLoop, a network for government employees to discuss anything and everything that affects them. After speaking with the online communities founder he told me that they choice Ning as their base tool as it was a reliable product:

• Service as a Solution (SaaS) product right out of the box that required almost no code to get going and could quickly get set up.
• It was affordable compared to other SaaS tools.
• It was built and managed by a team with a solid background with tech products.
• Was receiving a lot of good press at the time.

Bonus – The Archivist

If you are looking for a great tool to help you analyze information on Twitter I would highly suggest using this free tool developed by Microsoft. It’s not very well known, but it has some great information, and easy to understand visuals.

[Prezi Presentation from session 2]

VW is going on the offensive by giving viewers a sneak peak at their upcoming Super Bowl ad. It features Star Wars and dogs.

Ads and the Super Bowl go together like beer and wings. It’s the one time of year when most people can not only tolerate TV commercials, but at times even enjoy them. Last year was not particullarly great when it came to ads, 2010 had some interesting ones, but it looks like the auto company VW is going on the offensive and giving people a treat as to what viewers can expect from their upcoming Super Bowl Ad.

Building on the trend of what people enjoy in viral videos and viral content they clearly pulled this teaser out of the Internets playbook: Dogs barking and howling the Star Wars theme. Also as a bit of trivia each 30 second spot generally costs more than $3 million, and that’s not including the production costs.

Do you remember when you first watch “Scary Movie,” and it was generally entertaining? Tucker and Dale vs Evil is like that, but without the suck.

Once in a blue moon there are films that are released that more or less go straight to DVD, but are truthfully among some of the better movies. Tucker and Dale vs Evil is one of those films. Here are five reasons on why this will be a cult classic in no time.

1. Alan Tudyk is Tucker, he is also part of another cult classic called Serenity, and is a bad ass.
2. It’s actually funny.
3. That girl from 30 Rock is in it, Katrina Bowden.
4. It wasn’t made by Tyler Perry.
5. Even my wife liked it, and she only watches Lifetime movies.

Perhaps these reasons are not appealing to you, and you would rather rely on what critics have to say. The infamous reviews at Rotten Tomatoes also gave the flick an 85% on the Tomatometer, which is awesome considering The Hangover 2 is marked as the top rental right now and only had a 35% rating.

Perhaps it was the budget they had, but Tucker and Dale vs Evil only opened in 30 theaters (in the US) and made a measly $52,843 during the opening weekend. That said it’s likely you’ve missed this gem, but it is definitely worth renting. Also if you don’t feel like forking over the few bucks to rent it and you have a PS3 or Xbox 360 you can still use the VUDU app to get a free rental (that’s what we did).

Are you looking to build a social media strategy and have no idea where to start? Try the US Government.

The US Government is not usually the first thing you think of when it comes to social media, but between extensive legislation and privacy policies those who speak on behalf of agencies and the military have to create strategies down to the most minuscule detail. It also just so happens that a majority of agencies and military social media teams post their strategies freely on the Web.

If you are looking for a start in building your policy try a best practices approach and utilize these documents and presentations: 

US Department of Health and Human Services on using [Twitter] [Facebook][PodCasts][YouTube][Blogging][General][Engagement]

HowTo.Gov on Web Content and New Media [Link]

Top 10 Best Practices for Government Websites [Link]

Search Engine Optimization or SEO [Link]

Outline for Web Polices [Link]

Department of Defense on Social Media [Link]

Social Media, Web-Based Interactive Technologies, and the Paperwork Reduction Act [Memo]

U.S. Department of Commerce – Social Media and Web 2.0 [Guidelines]

US Department of the Interior [Policy]

EPA Social Media Policy and Procedures [Procedures]

US Navy [Presentations]

Air Force and Social Media [Video and Guidelines]

US Army on Social Media [Presentations]

For the first session in the online communities 101 course we defined what what a community is, what community managers are, and how members contribute to the ecosystem… using memes.

For those interested in session two it will be live on Thursday, Jan. 12 on Navigating communities and Identifying tools, and thanks again for those who joined in on this session. Also I have been fighting off a bad cold so I sound a bit more like a frog than I usually would. I also say um a lot because I hate public speaking. The slides can be found on Scribd.

So what exactly in an online community? Well frankly there is no single definition that has been widely accepted, but one that is suitable for our needs and comes from someone with a long history in online communities will do just fine. Howard Rheingold was part of one of the very first online communities known as The WELL that was established in 1985, even before I was born. He defines an online community as the following:

Virtual communities are cultural aggregations that emerge when enough people bump into each other often enough in cyberspace. A virtual community is a group of people who may or may not meet one another face-to-face, and who exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin boards and networks.

For some of Rheingold’s musings on The WELL, check out his book on his site or you can buy it.

Internal Vs External Communities

Not all online communities follow the same structure or system, and they also don’t have to be in a specific designated location. We are generally used to internal communities, and throughout the presentation I referenced subreddits quite frequently as the base. However, in some cases there is not a need to create a new community, and that is when you build an external community. You can find a more in depth description either on the presentation or on my article from SMT.

External facing communities are better suited when there are already established communities. For example there is a fan made community called PriusChat that is independent of Toyota. If Toyota was interested in building a customer service portal on the Web that would be one thing, but if they were looking at building a social gathering point as a community it would be reinventing the wheel. In that situation as a community manager you would work with the community, and in some cases with with various fan sites or many online communities.

Another example is the latest Battlefield game and how they handle online communities outside of their direct power. Their community managers generate content, press portals, and updates for the game on their designated site; however, because there are so many fan sites and communities for the game there is not as much reason to re-create a purely social gathering point. Granted there probably are some sort of forums from EA, but they are used mostly for bugs, errors and account issues. You can see the Battlefield 3 community manager in action by looking at this post on reddit where a person asked about hackers and banning.

What is a Community Manager?

Both internal and external communities require a community manager, but there are a few differences. Similar to the lack of a standard definition of an online community manager, it is difficult to provide a single definition of what each of us does. However, there are some attributes that are associated with each of us. While I decided to take the less professional path to explaining this, I would suggest looking at Jeremiah Owyang’s “Four Tenets of the Community Manager.”

Also please note that online communities are not the same thing as social networks. That means Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, etc. are not online communities, but networks. Community managers can also be social media managers, but the two tasks have different reasons for being.

Who is Part of the Online Community Ecosystem?

The short answer is that everyone is part of the online community ecosystem, but each type of member plays a vital role. Passive Lurkers consume content, Active Lurkers share your content and help you grow, General Members produce and reply to content, Advanced members help shape the community, Power Users are among the influencers that form social norms and hold a great deal of power in internal based communities, and the Community Architect is the one who initially builds the community (your boss, but sometimes you). Full definitions below.

Volunteer Assignment/Project

For those interested in getting a bit of hands on experience I want to bribe you with an iTunes gift card. All you need to do is message me on reddit  (if you don’t have an account, sign up it takes two seconds) and let me know you want to become a moderator for /r/cmgr. I will be posting random links that say they are spam. Just mark it as spam and the person who gets the most points by the end of the last session will get the gift card.  Assignments will change for each session as well.

Community Member Definitions

Passive Lurker: These are members who continue return to a community to consume the content, discussions, and advice but do not contribute or share any of it.

Active Lurker: Of the members in an online community active lurkers will make up a vast portion of them. Based on Ben McConnell’s 90-9-1 principle for every one post a power user makes in a community, 90 lurkers will have consumed the content and not contribute anything in the community. However, active lurkers consume community content and also share the content to their own personal networks and external communities. When Active lurkers share content externally they become detrimental to a community and its growth.

General Member: These members appear to do a majority of the grunt work for online communities, but that is only partially correct now that social media is being used throughout the world. Prior to the adoption of social media most communities were self-contained or vaguely spread through word-of-mouth and chat rooms. These members actively comment on articles, discussions, and external communities, but not as frequently as a power user.

Power User: These are the people who push for new discussions, shout on roof tops about how much they enjoy the community, provide feedback to Community Managers, and often act as mini Community Managers themselves. Power users make up one percent of the community.
[Image via Hyperbole and a Half]

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or message me @thejournalizer

Happy New Years Everyone!

Let’s end this year the proper way with a viral cat video. Also I propose 2012 be the year of viral dog videos. Let’s make it happen.

We see it every day, a brand is trying to leave their mark on the social world and more often than not do they create a one way street.

A tweet here, a press release there, and the same message thrown across several social networking accounts at the same time. Does this sound familiar? Many brands still don’t quite understand why social media has become such a popular and regular part of our lives. It’s not that you can share content, but that you can discuss it, connect with people around it, and find new interests (so that’s not the full reason, but for the purpose of the article it is).

So why are companies, brand, and businesses still trying to just share their content, press releases, and one way messages on a platform that was designed to increase communication and feedback? The first issue is education. Social media  education is every where, and I’ve been to more than my fair share of events from self-labeled gurus who claim to hold the secrets, but it’s always the same high-level generic speech.

The second issue comes from effort. It’s really easy to connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts together, and maybe even throw and RSS feed into your Facebook page and LinkedIn groups, but what is that going to accomplish? Are the fans the same as your followers? Are people in your LinkedIn group going to be interested or willing to talk about things the same way as your Facebook page? Probably not because both platforms were designed to be social, but LinkedIn is considered to be professional, and Facebook is considerably more social.

One Way Street Experiment

So this is not going to be filled with methods, communication theory, or the like (be prepared, that series is coming); however, I will simply open two different Facebook chat windows and see how each of my brothers interact with me as I talk to them with two different styles. Generally when you use a chat program in real-time people expect the conversation to flow both ways, but in these instances I will just talk to him as if he was a wall.

As you can see the conversation ended quite quickly and this is even a conversation with my own brother. When brands send out messages that have vague action items such as taking a random poll, downloading a report, or liking/friending them on a similar network it not only acts as a one way street of communication, but is an extension of spam. Moreover, if you have people responding directly to these vague posts and you fail to respond you are increasing your chances of damaging the relationship between you and the customer.

Rather than talking at a person like I did in this example it would behoove you to humanize your brand. If you are going to take the time to create a presence online make sure you share stuff outside of your own content, be willing to talk to followers and fans, and listen (monitor for complaints, suggestions, changes, etc.) to your customers and members.

Two Way Street Communication

Two Way Communication while using social media as a means to convey the messages is a beautiful thing. It can happen in real time, or  on a delay similar to a text message; however, messages are often directed at specific audiences (followers or fans), or directly at a single person. Consider the Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication for a moment (ok I lied, Comm theory ahoy!)

What was initially intended to explain how information is transmitted over a phone can just as well explain how people, companies, and brands should be utilizing social media.

The initial tweet/Facebook update/blog post/etc. is posted in that persons own words (encoded), it then travels through the social media platform and is affected by noise (other updates in your timelines and news feeds, other blogs on an RSS feed, and a plethora of other items that can alter even the context of a message, this is then received by the intended person/follower/fan/etc., but as perceived by how they decode it. Each person will decode a message differently based on their phenomenology (how we view the world based on our experiences and education).

However, one thing we are  all familiar with is how to differentiate messages that appeal to us and clear advertisements or spam. That said at this point a user may just ignore your message as it was ineffective, impersonal, and they feel it does not require physical feedback. Further, for those who directly reach out to another individual or group of people while applying their social norms and peaking their interest you could in fact receive physical feedback.  If you ignore these people though you are not only damaging your relationship with them, but potentially losing sales, memberships, or whatever source of revenue that supports the time you are wasting on the various social media platforms.

Two Way Communication Example (Sort of)

So clearly this wasn’t a completely natural conversation with my other brother as I wanted to be clear he was the “control”, but you get the point. There is feedback, direct responses, and I’m not trying to sell him my kidney. Social media is for communication, not spam.

[Shannon-Weaver Model image via URI.edu]