So this might be a bit of a confessional, but one of my guilty pleasures is ABC's "The Bachelor". I really didn't watch the show until the last few seasons, when my cousin Kelly got me hooked on the hilarious recap blog iHateGreenBeans written by the very funny Lincee Ray. Watching this week's episode made me realize The Bachelor can teach you everything you need to know (the good, the bad and the ugly) about managing an online community. Just a few lessons from the episode that triggered this blog post:
Every Community Needs a Great Host
The Bachelor's community manager is host Chris Harrison. He serves as a matchmaker of sorts. Just like a community manager, Chris gracefully hosts each episode of the show by encouraging the bachelor and facilitating the development of relationships. Great community managers do the same thing. It's a myth that communities host and regulate themselves without support. The truth is a handful of generous contributors will help manage the community, but generating new activity and regulating the rules of engagement require community managers. They too serve as matchmakers - welcoming new members, encouraging content generation and facilitating connections.
You Can Hurry Love
You can hurry love, if you nurture it right. The producers of The Bachelor are nurturing geniuses. They carefully construct scenarios to build a sense trust and comfort so show participants readily and openly engage. Building communities can be heavy lifting, but if you build the right environment engagement will happen. While relationships are not built overnight, even on The Bachelor, you can create a strong community by ensuring the community topics are focused and by actively supporting members participation. Construct online scenarios that nurture and reward activity and build policies that make members feel secure. Produce those scenarios properly and you have a formula for engagement.
Online communities can ramp faster if you encourage members to share information and build relationships with each other. The Bachelor producers construct scenarios to fast track this step, creating situations that enable the conversation to happen. Get people talking to each other by seeding questions, commenting on posts and thanking members for their contribution. You don't have to give them a rose, but a virtual high five will work.
Befriend Your Competitors
This is the cardinal rule of any reality show, but it always freaks me out when it happens on The Bachelor. Imagine yourself falling for someone and then congratulating your roommate for developing a relationship with them. Um, no thanks. It is the. most. unnatural. thing. ever. However, your target members are already participating somewhere and you need to engage in that space if you want to convert them to your community. Sitting it out and waiting for them to come to you doesn't work. Social media wallflowers do not make good community managers. Join these communities and get involved in the discussion, figure out what works and what doesn't and see how members are rewarded for activity. Diversify your online relationships and use the opportunity to link your comments back to your community. Just like the bachelor, most active social media users are diversifying their interaction until they find the right fit.
Harness the Heat
If you have ever watched The Bachelor you know there are times when things get heated, either through confrontation or chemistry. Both of these heat seeking missiles are evident in communities and they present a challenge for the community manager. On The Bachelor they spur ratings, in your community they will spike activity. Excellent right? Maybe not, you have to harness that heat.
Confrontation almost never ends well and can become abusive or negative and will alienate some members, even some not involved. Be careful in managing confrontation, it will generate activity but may result in a loss of members. Make sure you have guidelines for engagement, and enforce them consistently. Members will notice and thank you. On the other hand, you can also harness great chemistry. Great dialogue and engagement between members is testimony to a well functioning community. Promote positive examples of community interaction, networking and relationship building so members can see the value of participation in action.
Moderate the Crazy
Are some of The Bachelor contestants crazy? Oh yes. The show brings out the crazy in participants and sometimes so will your community. You have to quickly scrub spammers from your community. The Bachelor does it by not handing out a rose to the crazy. If only it were that easy for community managers. How great would it be for Chris Harrison to jump out from behind you and say, "I'm sorry spammer (or flame thrower), you will not be receiving a rose tonight. Please take a moment to say your goodbyes"? Every community has some crazy and spam. You will deal with more spam than you ever thought possible. I've personally received marriage proposals, had my profile hijacked and of course several requests for my banking information. If you have a community you will face this challenge at some point. Think of it as a sign of success, you have something worth messing with. Be diligent about managing crazy. If members see you don't demonstrate a commitment to removing spam they will assume you don't care about your community and you don't care about putting them at risk. Spam can put you out of business - so moderate the crazies. Like The Bachelor, one day you will need to remove someone from your community. Not everyone gets a rose...