![How Community Managers Can Lift Up Champions And Starve the Troll [infographic]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u1jNwdtG1XA/UmgW4uhpcLI/AAAAAAAAK8M/Jlkg2Lju3N0/s920-rw/How-Community-Managers-Can-Lift-Up-Champions-And-Starve-the-Troll-infographic.png "How Community Managers Can Lift Up Champions And Starve the Troll [infographic]")
The community manager's job isn't easy, but it keeps order in a potentially hectic environment. Keeping on their toes, with a watchful eye on users, community managers must proactively provide customers with the experience they want, while maintaining the discourse a healthy online community needs.
Take look at below infographic (by getsatisfaction) titled "The good, the bad and the ugly: Community managers play a vital role in lifting up champions and properly addressing trolls within the brand community".
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How to Coax the Champion & Starve the Troll in Every Community - infographic |
Top reasons customers participate in Branded customer communities:
32.1% get information quickly. 21.3% engage with consumers like them. 18% find the most accurate information.Like all good, law-abiding citizens, community managers thrive best when following the rules.
Care, care, care
Publicly display an interest in what your customers say, no matter what. If you care about your customers, they'll care about you.Respond in real time
In business, response time is direct indicator of how you value customer feedback. Don't let one negative experience turn into hundreds of lost customers after failing to respond to customer issues or feedback in a timely fashion.Offer to amend, even when innocent
Going above and beyond can touch more potential customers and improve your brand perception.Follow up
Check back in with customers after amending any services. Ensure that you've rectified any issues in both their minds and yours. Let them know how much you'd appreciate their future business.Champions in the making
Even shy community members have the opportunity to become champions... with a little help from the community manager. Incentives can drive customers to become Champions.Give them:
Recognition - Such as custom Champion badge and priority listings on the community's champs or announcement page.
Exclusive access - to your team via email, along with advanced access to new features and releases.
Moderator status - Allowing them to use moderation tools. It also looks good on resumes or LinkedIn profile (and frees up the community manager to do heavier lifting).
Free swag - From your company to wear, share, and show off.
Once you've assembled your brand of Champions, engage them through
Online groups - Create exclusive online communities for your Champions to interact with one another and build relationships with each other and your brand.
Regular Communication - Set up calls, Google Hangouts, or send newsletters to your Champions, so they're always up-to-date on what's happening with your company.
Offline Meetups - Organize events for your Champions to meet face-to-face with employees if that's possible.
Champions help keep trolls at bay by
- Providing accurate information.
- Helping moderate community interaction.
- Sticking up for the company when negativity occurs.
How to conquer a troll:
Access the complaint
Determine if a complaint is legitimate; if so, don't ignore it. refusing to acknowledge customer frustration only makes them angrier.Identify the troll
Trolls often taunt or make personal attacks toward other users and aren't interested in a productive outcome. Be on the lookout for these traits.Squash negativity
One you spot trolls, measure their time within the community. Suspend trolling users accordingly, if they don't heed your warnings.Prevent future attacks
Remove content that violates your community guidelines, and try not to give them the attention they crave. Often, the troll will get bored without any reaction.Don't feed the trolls
If trolling activity keeps up, don't try to reason with each individually. Insist that members must e-sign agreements against trolling, and act swiftly if the problem persists.Just plain negative
Trolling and constructive criticism are different. Sometimes followers provide strong negative feedback to brands, indicating high emotions. It might take additional management guidance to change a negative reaction to a positive one. Negative comments can help your brand, depending on how they're handled. Set best practices in place to handle these instances.
- Wait to delete negative comments, and don't react right away.
- Don't encourage others to get involved.
- Keep the interaction professional; never get personal.
Customers pay attention to how their community managers encourage Champions and handle trolls. Its reflection of your brand, so put best practices in place and keep them in effect.
