Morgan is a Community and Social Media producer with Channel 4 who also works on community and social media strategies at Mondo Management  who represent talents like Orbital, David Gray, Lisa Hannigan, Ruarri Joseph and Pixie Carnation. Previously he was Assistant Communities Editor at Associated Northcliffe Digital. You can follow Morgan on Twitter and Linkedin. 

G: How did you build your experience as community manager?

M: It was a lot of trial and error. I was put in a job where all of a sudden I was dealing with quite a vocal community which needed calming down, diplomacy and tact. I ultimately dealt with the community as I would any face-face situation. I wouldn’t say there is a magic key to gaining experience other than just getting in amongst the people within your site, treat them fairly and they will treat you and your organisation with respect. Like a lot of community managers I fell into this position, it wasn’t a big job at the time but it is now.

G: What are you top resources for community management?

M: E-mint, linkedin, colleagues, ex-colleagues.

G: Where is the best place to build the community?

M: Facebook is great to grow numbers, but to have value I believe it is back on your own website. Facebook is the bar where you meet people and can decide if you like them/not like them and if they are worthy of your product (vice-versa), your site is your house where you invite the good people back to your place where you treat them like real friends.

G: What do you have to provide the community to make it work?

M: A reason for being there, value, importance and comfort.

G: How do you attract new community members?

M: Offer something that no other site is doing. Don’t be patronising, be real and invite advocacy. Make your community work for you.

G: What are the best ways to spark a discussion among your community members?

M: Topical, relevance and importance. Don’t ask your community a simple question like how is the weather where you are? What did you have for breakfast? Boring, irrelevant and no direction of conversation.

G: What kinds of content do you share and post most often on the community platform?

M: Mostly clips, updates, breaking news, an offer of free content only available to fans like a song, etc

G: How do you reward your community stars?

M: Something nobody else can get their hands on. If it’s a preview ticket that is not for sale, an old record that was never released, give it to your fans and people who promote your content not in the hope of one day being reward but because they have been an ambassador to your product for some time.

G: Does the size matter?

M: Not at all. Everyone goes on about having the most numbers for a Facebook page, but unless that Facebook page is active it means jack. I would rather have a community that is small and active where the community is active and likes to get involved rather than a massive community that doesn’t do anything and there are no innovators within. Sadly though that doesn’t translate so much to Directors of some organisations, it’s a numbers game where it should be value.

G: What are the most common mistakes in community management?

M: Be a person, not a brand. Don’t let the intern do the communication. Value the people in your communities. They invest in you, invest in them. Keep your cool with difficult contributors. Speak to people as people, be irreverent and don’t scream from the hilltops how great you think your brand is.

G: How do you recommend to manage social media crisis?

M: Deal with it immediately, don’t let time get ahead of you before it reaches the Daily Mail. Be open and honest about your mistake and mostly be transparent.

G: How do you measure the ROI of your community?

M: Advocacy, interaction, repeat visitors, and yes – numbers (positive growth).