When we talk about bad community management, we usually point to examples of a staff member who said something stupid.
I don’t consider it bad, I consider it stupid. It probably wont happen again. Aside from the short-term negative PR, it usually wont have a long-term impact upon the community.
Bad community management isn’t what the community manager did wrong, but what the community manager didn’t do at all. In the long term bad community management will do far more harm.
Bad community management is when the community manager is a reactive moderator and doesn’t encompass his/her full role.
Bad community management is when the community manager doesn’t have a defensible plan for growing the community, increasing participation or putting scalable processes in place.
Bad community management is when the community manager doesn’t develop a true sense of community.
Bad community management isn’t characterized by one big visible mistake, but by a series of unseen errors.
I’m far more worried about bad community managers than stupid ones. You can spot the stupid ones easily, but can you spot a bad one?
Click here to enroll in the Pillar Summit’s Professional Community Management master-class. Enrollment closes Oct 29.
