Keeping Your Community In Check

 

Earlier this week I attended a Meetup in New York that was the first of its kind in the US, the Community Managers Meetup. The companies that the attendees managed communities for ranged from online and print publications to social networks and various brands. One thing that each attendee shared was the need to manage communities across platform types and sites. A typical day for a community manager involves a lot of bouncing between the company website, Twitter, Facebook, forums and countless other networking platforms. Each platform has its own culture, language, etiquette and terms of service.

It is important when creating a community across platforms to be as clear as possible with community members regarding how they are expected to conduct themselves. You can do this by creating a set of community guidelines, which can be as simple or complicated as you, your community managers and legal team see fit. You may not think this is necessary for a small business, but it allows you to establish a clear set of rules for how posts and comments will be moderated across platforms for both your community members and community managers. Keep in mind that not everyone who signs up for a site actually reads through the terms of service. You may want to reiterate some key points of the TOS in your community guidelines.

Some outstanding examples of community guidelines being utilized on Facebook Pages include “The Rulebook” on ESPN and Dove’s “Guidelines.”

Have you seen other examples of community guidelines? Have you established guidelines for your Page? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Post written by Biana Bakman aka @bianalog. To learn more from fbadz.com, connect with us on Facebook!

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