I just got back from my summer vacation. I was in Tunisia in a hotel called "El Mouradi Club Kantaoui". Why am I telling you this? Because during those 7 days I spent there I had a great pleasure of watching people called "Animators" who did what we do online - offline. They were animating the "community of hotel guests". And what's more important, they did it very well so I had to watch them very closely to learn from them.. yeah I know, I was on vacation, but what can you do when such a great opportunity comes up?

So things I've noticed about them that I found interesting

• They can communicate with anyone knowing only a few words in their language. For example they had a really great conversation with people coming from Russia just using words "harasho" and "spasiba" which means "good" "thank you"Â
• They can make people do things they wouldn't do because they are lazy... which means they can motivate almost everyone to do the things they want him to do.. now that's a brilliant animation...
• They are patient
• They know what they want
• Sometimes they pretend that they don't understand what you want just to give you something else.. and that works too!
• They're trying to understand what you want no matter how silly your needs are
• They like what you like and they make you try what they think you'll like
• They have +10 to abuse immune skills ;]
• They smile all the time
• As it's impossible for them to remember names of hundreds of guests they call them "my friend" and believe me or not, calling someone this makes him getting "softer"...

And some things that I wasn't so excited about..

• A guest doesn't know who they really are as they are changing to make him like them, they're wearing masks

And what's important from that? Animation in Online Communities CAN NOT be provided by a community manager himself if the subject that this specific animation is about is not in the range of his interests or passions... because Community Manager must be honest and transparent... he can help with managing the animation of specific board/forum/group but he can't be the animator as it would make him do and say things he doesn't really think... and we don't want that... I know, "flexibility" you might say... but flexibility can't require from me being a different person right? I mean how can I require from people to be real if I'm not?Â

So if one day you'll decide that you need to animate some forums or make some buzz you can ask your Community Manager to help but don't expect him to do the whole animating thing himself if he's not "into your subject of animation"...

Right now I'm working on a first animation related campaign in which I recruited 2 community members who I'll help in animation for about 2 months. I'll give you some info about how it all went after that.