Every morning you face the same temptation.
You want to check your e-mail, visit the community, and
respond to what’s happened/happening.
The problem is this doesn’t improve the community. It
maintains the community. It keeps the community exactly how it is. You can
spend your entire day firefighting. This doesn’t help you, the community, or
your company much.
The sad truth is most community professionals spend most of
their time which do nothing to improve their communities.
Every morning work on the proactive tasks that develop the community. Always do these
tasks first. This typically includes tasks that increase the community’s size, levels
of activity, or sense of community.
- Interviewing (or writing questions for
interviews) experts / VIPs in your field. - Organizing upcoming events and activities
- Creating content about members in the community
(or scheduling future content). - Reaching out to potential members and inviting
them to join the community. - Building relationships with key members in the
community (regular e-mail contact) - Identify popular topics and themes for future
activities in the community. - Reaching out to current members to invite them
to write regular guest columns, expert advice posts, or become an admin in the
community.
If you spend the first four to five hours every day working
on these tasks, you should immediate improvement in the community. For many
community professionals, simply changing their average day is the biggest,
immediate, win they can have within their community.
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We’re now accepting applications for our Professional
Community Management course (Sept 30 – Nov 8). This is an online course that will teach you
how to apply proven, reliable, science to build bigger, better, and more active
communities. If you want to learn more, click here.