This is a brilliant summary of the vital aspects of managing an online community (like this one):
Many of the things they state resonate with me, and are things that I’ve learned through trial and error over the past few years doing this gig. There are many lessons that I need to refresh, and several more to consider and maybe try out. @moderators and @cop-leads - this is for us.
The most important piece of advice is this:
“The one essential role for every community is the ‘in the trenches’ community manager. This is the person who spends nearly all their time directly engaging with members…. {Without a community manager} members won’t get the quality and quantity of responses they deserve. There won’t be someone they can trust and build a good relationship with.”
This is doubly applicable to our Communities of Practice (see CiLN and CoPs); when this role is fulfilled, they flourish and amazing things happen. In contrast, if nobody steps up - they wither and the community dies.