DISQUS

Miles Sims · 1 year ago

Great post Jake.

As part of the great communication skills needed I'd also add some level of business acumen for translating the value of the community and community management back to any and all stakeholders.

Obviously this is a bigger focus in the for-profit world but being able to answer internal questions about 'community ROI' and setting the right expectation is something I think we'll see community managers more involved in as the role develops.

Mack Collier · 1 year ago

Great post Jake and I'm honored that The Viral Garden is included as a potential reference, especially for college students.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned from blogging and participating in social media is that your success in these endeavors is dependent on how they benefit the larger community. If your efforts can provide a DIRECT benefit to others, your efforts will benefit indirectly.

If you view social media as an avenue to directly promote yourself and benefit directly, your efforts are almost doomed to fail. But if you approach your efforts as a way to bring value to others, the rewards will quickly come flowing back to you.

Great stuff and a great service you're doing to others, which is also a perfect example of my point about giving value to others.

Jim Hathaway · 1 year ago

Timely and useful Jake. A client was interested in pursuing the idea of student ambassadors and evangelists. They were simplistically assuming that if someone had a MySpace profile they must "get it". I've told them that they should consider raising the bar a bit. Your post helps articulate some of the skills they might want to be looking for.

Izzy Neis · 1 year ago

FYI any & all individuals wishing to work in youth online media:

Having dual backgrounds in elementary education & creative writing, plus working as a camp counselor for some many years, has been UBER VALUABLE to my experience working online & managing youth.