I was recently talking with Lionel Scaramal, the long-time manager of Forum-Auto.com for Caradisiac. Specifically, I asked him for perspective on the community management profession in France and the good things he sees, as well as the bad.

He mentioned that he regularly sees community managers bashing other community managers. I thought this was interesting and I asked him to tell me more. He was kind enough to write a guest post.

You know what really grinds my gears? It’s what I will call “CM bashing.” Community managers who often make a public show of pointing out and trumpeting mistakes made by other community managers.

In managing online communities, we all have users who think they can do our job better than we can. And many people think that because they are on Facebook, Twitter or your forums, they are entitled to provide poor, unsolicited pieces of advice. OK, I can understand that, to a certain extent.

Gregory Ng is an acquaintance of mine. He’s the Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Marketing Officer (which is kind of amazing) at Brooks Bell, a firm focused on A/B split testing, targeting and optimization. That’s his job. He’s also married with three kids. But online he’s known as The Frozen Food Master, the host of Freezerburns, a web show dedicated to the frozen food aisle.

If you want to look at what a web show is, Greg is a great example to look to. If you want to start a show, you should look at what he does and how he does it. I know I did, when I decided to start Soda Tasting.

I was watching his most recent episode (embedded below) and I saw a comment made by BBridget511. “How did you get this awesome job?” BBridget511 is referring to the web show he hosts. As I explained, it isn’t his job, but it is a cool thing he does.

photo credit:
country_boy_shane

Over the last few years, I’ve talked with a handful of companies about taking on some community or social media leadership role with them. Some of these names, you’d definitely know. Some of them you wouldn’t. But, I am always really appreciative when someone thinks of me and willing to listen because I am definitely open to the right opportunity.

The majority of opportunities aren’t right for me, but a few of them, I have considered more closely and spoke more with the people behind them. However, for various reasons, they didn’t end up being the right move (for me, for them or both). In these cases, there is at least one issue that comes up that prevents it from happening.

My South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive 2010 recap has finally been published! It’s over on my personal blog and includes everything that I experienced in gritty detail.

From my presentation to the presentations I attended, the people I met and even a movie I saw. It’s all there. Some of it is community related, but most of it is to do with personal stuff or networking.

If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, please head over to my personal blog and give it a read.

Just a few days after getting home from Blog World & New Media Expo in Las Vegas, it was time to hit the road for Durham, North Carolina, in order to attend the first ever Social Media Business Forum, organized by OurHashtag and held on October 23. Specifically, the men behind the event were Jeff Cohen, Kipp Bodnar, Ryan Boyles and Wayne Sutton.

Wayne is a good friend, so I really wanted to do the event, if I could, to support it. I’d met Kipp before and spent some time with him, as well. I hadn’t met Jeff or Ryan, but by the end of the event, I’d spent some quality time with all four and they’re a great group of guys.

My prayers and thoughts are with the people of Haiti and everyone affected by this terrible disaster.

What is apparent in times like this is that everything counts, no matter how small. Can you afford to donate $5? $3? $1? If so, that’s great. It may be a small amount to you, all on it’s own, but coupled with other small amounts, it becomes a big, powerful amount. You can find a list of charities on WhatGives!?

Can’t afford to donate? You can still spread the word. The power of online community and social media has afforded everyone a voice if they choose to have one. If you’re on Twitter, Facebook, etc.; you have a community of people and connections. Share worthwhile initiatives with them and help bring awareness. It only takes a few moments to send a link or retweet something on Twitter, but it does help.

Generally speaking, one of the bare bones expenses when it comes to running your own online community is web hosting. Having your own web hosting where you have access to all of your website’s files, your databases and everything that goes into running your site allows you to have complete control over what you have online, to have the flexibility to do what you need and the ability to fully back it up.

Realizing this, more than seven and a half years ago I partnered with an establish web host to create iFroggy Hosting. Our goal wasn’t to be the cheapest, but to offer a good value for what you get with a high quality of service and excellent support.

I don’t just recommend these services, but also use them myself. The very same servers play host to my two most active communities in phpBBHacks.com and KarateForums.com. If I have an issue or a question, I talk to the very same support desk that all iFroggy Hosting clients do.

photo credit: Thomas Myhre

The holiday season is here and I wanted to take a moment to wish you Happy Holidays!

Thank you to everyone who has read, commented on and linked to my posts or otherwise supported me or ManagingCommunities.com in 2009. I really appreciate it.

I wish you a happy, healthy and successful 2010!

Thank you for visiting ManagingCommunities.com.

A few days ago, I mentioned that I would be attending Blog World Expo 2009 in Las Vegas from October 15-17. I’m happy to say that I’ve got a coupon code to share that will save you 20% off of the current rate. When purchasing through their site, use the coupon code IFROGGYVIP. Their rates increase on July 1 (though the coupon will still be good after that), so if you are thinking of coming, now would be the best time to buy the ticket for the least amount of money. I hope to see you there!

During the second week of March, I headed to Austin, Texas for South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) 2009. The conference itself ran from March 13 through March 17 and I arrived on March 12 and left on March 18. Since it is still fresh in my mind, as I did last year, I wanted to provide a recap of the experience. This is my epic and unnecessarily detailed and long (even boring by some standards) recap of the conference. This is the “WHY DID YOU WRITE ALL THAT? NOBODY CARES.” recap. It’s for me personally, to remember the event, as much as anything else, but if you want to read it, you are definitely welcome! Good luck.

March 12

Let’s start with this: I’m sitting in the Charlotte airport on wifi, waiting for my flight to Austin, and a guy walks by. He looks like a much older version of Kevin McCallister’s mean brother Buzz, from the movie “Home Alone,” which I loved as a kid. I tweeted this out at the time. The next day, after I’ve arrived in Austin, a girl at the convention center hands me a promo for a movie called “The 2 Bobs.”

I look at it and notice that this was the guy on my flight. And then the girl who hands it to me says that he was in “Home Alone.” So, it was the guy. His name is Devin Ratray and he was in town doing promo for the film.

On the flight from Charlotte to Austin, I sat next to Scott Brewster, the Director of Online Learning for The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and we got to know each other a bit, for the duration of the flight.

I got in town at around 5 PM and it took me an hour and a half or so to get to the hotel and get checked in and settled. After considering various dinner options, I saw a tweet by Paul Boag of Boagworld. I had hoped to meet up with him at some point, but he said he was having an informal dinner and I made my way over to his hotel lobby to meet up.

But, first, I went to the Austin Convention Center to pick up my badge for the conference. The line for the general attendee pickup was very, very long. About three quarters of the first floor – four people deep. But, the panelist registration had all of two people in line when I got there. Yes! So, I was able to pick my badge up very quickly, but not before chatting with Grant Robertson of Download Squad and meeting Victor Agreda of Weblogs, Inc.

When I made it to Paul’s hotel, I realized that I had only a hazy idea of what he looked like (basically, my best memory of his Twitter avatar, with him looking in a downward direction). But, I spotted him rather easily and joined him and a group that included Niqui Merret, Marcus Lillington, Phill Tran and John Morton. I actually ended out hanging out with Phill at various points of the conference, as well. All cool people. After dinner, they headed to Buffalo Billiards… I headed to bed.