When I joined The Phuse in July, I wasn’t sure what to expect. My background was in writing, digital content and social media management for publishers and health service providers — very different stuff than what we do at The Phuse! While I’d certainly spent a lot of time thinking about technology and managing website redesigns and migrations from the client side, I had no idea what it’d be like to work on the creative side.
I’m happy to report that it’s a lot of fun! And while I take care of any copywriting or content strategy work we do, most of my time is split between community management, operations and culture. These are the top three things I’ve learned that I’d like to share with anyone considering this kind of work.
Culture matters. Really.
It might sound odd, but I’ve learned that especially in smaller businesses, being a great community manager goes beyond presenting a company to clients and the world. It also includes figuring out how we interact with each other and contribute to a positive, super-friendly internal culture in a potent mix of HR, branding and marketing.
I think this way partially because we lack a HR department and someone has to spearhead this stuff, but it also just makes sense. If internal culture works well, it’s easy to engage with and present ourselves to everyone else.
“Culture” might be the ultimate buzzword right now, but it is really important. Aside from work and processes, it’s what sets agencies apart. In the words Adil Dhalla, who I saw speak at the September Creative Mornings Toronto: “Culture is a competitive advantage.” Adil is the Director of Culture at the Center for Social Innovation (CSI), where Toronto Phusers sometimes co-work, and they’ve created a very open, collaborative atmosphere.
Think about it: Clients and employees might be wooed by rates and salaries, but it’s often the overall group dynamic that can make or break a contract signing. So I’ve been spending a lot of time wondering how I can help continue facilitating a fun, good-vibe aura for The Phuse: How can I word this so it reflects our values? What can we do to keep things positive and friendly? At CSI, their community animators focus on facilitation and being social conveners — hosting a weekly event called Salad Club, for example, where everyone brings an ingredient to share.
We’re a distributed team, so culture is a little tougher to cultivate. While we spend a lot of time chatting and sharing gifs, that isn’t really enough. So we’ve started talking about organizing more workshops, attending more events, and doing more fun stuff internally. For example, we’re currently working on a Secret Satan to celebrate Halloween, during which we will be paired up and will send each other spooky goods.
Organizing silly things like this goes beyond basic bonding and team-building — it also gives us something to share with our community.
Having fun > everything else
One of the things client say they like about us the most (aside from our work, of course!) is that we’re real people they feel they could have a beer with, and we try to bring that tone to our social networks.
Don’t get me wrong — numbers are a big deal and I am totally results-oriented. (SproutSocial is my measurement tool of choice, if anyone’s wondering.) I also acknowledge that I’m lucky to work with very down-to-Earth, no-fluff people. But I think no matter how big your business is, staring at engagement numbers, scheduling updates in advance, and thinking about straight marketing can sap all the joy out of social media. It can also make the line between brands and people a lot more definitive than they really are.
My policy? Posting a combination of varied, relevant content (only some of which is ours) and dashes of pure humour/behind-the-scenes activity. I also do my best to update in real time, only scheduling when I really need to. Here’s an example of what our Twitter feed generally looks like, minus some retweets:
We also supported 37signals, creators of our favourite project management tool, in their fun community management when they shared a link to a parody Basecamp project about Breaking Bad.
If you don’t think it’s possible to be fun as a huge brand, take a look at what Old Spice is up to. Or Taco Bell. These accounts are both pretty far on the silliness scale, but you get an idea of how fun approaches can be successful.
Above all, be a people person
Most people are on social media to read news, surf Weird Twitter, make jokes — to be social. No one logs on and says, “Well! I wonder how I’ll be marketed to today!” (Except for marketers, they definitely do that.) The stuff that gets the most traction, at least in my experience, the stuff that isn’t begging or overly corporate. And yet people operating brand accounts continue to royally mess up by continuously putting marketing over interacting.
During his Creative Mornings talk, Adil mentioned that the key to a good community is “sharing your shit.” And that’s the other rule of thumb (aside from fun) that I apply to my community management. We share everything — content from competitors, work we’ve done, photos of events, things we’ve learned, and so on — because what’s the point in being on social media if we can’t have fun and learn from each other?
And it seems to work. Since we’ve increased our activity and the variety of things we post, most of our audiences have been steadily growing.
Building a good following means acknowledging that your audiences — clients, potential clients, friends, family, industry folks, other businesses — are people. If we want them to relate to us and find us worthwhile, we have to treat them the same way.
