Comments on: Are You Managing Your Community Or Is It Managing You?

By: Jack

Jack — Thu, 13 May 2010 08:42:41 +0000

LinkedIn continues to be among the most popular social networking sites for business professionals, offering a variety of features for its users. One such feature, Groups, allows members the opportunity to create and manage groups focused on a wide range of business-related subjects, and some of the largest groups have hundreds of thousands of members and rival many niche social networks outside of LinkedIn (LinkedIn) in terms of size and activity.

Groups offer valuable networking opportunities for their participants, who gain access to resources and information that can be beneficial for their careers.

By: Joshua Black | The Underdog Millionaire

Joshua Black | The Underdog Millionaire — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:46:04 +0000

I try to set hours for commenting and answering blog posts and emails. If it’s after normal working hours I usually put it off until the next day. One trick that I use to get my blog commenting down to a science is that I copy and paste each of 50 blogs that I want to visit, in a giant list in Word. Then I just click on each link and go down the line until all of my visits and comments are made for the day.

…still trying to get away from checking my email 50 times a day though. It’s a hard habit to break.

-Joshua Black
The Underdog Millionaire

By: Sally Neill

Sally Neill — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:41:41 +0000

Hey Lisa,

What a great post, I once had all my eggs in one basket and my online business collapsed when the main part “went away” as you say, really enjoyed reading this, thanks for sharing, Sally :)

By: Susan Esparza

Susan Esparza — Tue, 11 May 2010 23:42:00 +0000

I’m really just here to back up your statement about sleeping with your laptop. And the hours you put into replies. It’s all true, folks.

By: Suzanne Vara

Suzanne Vara — Tue, 11 May 2010 23:40:58 +0000

I am working on the move back east,that is for sure. Although it is nice to be able to play catch up at 10pm when some east coasters are sleeping.

I think that there are more of us crazy folks but they are just not ready to admit it yet. I think that most advertising & marketing folks are used to the hours and as advertising and marketing just never sleep.

By: Harry Scanlan

Harry Scanlan — Tue, 11 May 2010 19:37:15 +0000

The problem I have is that on occasion if someone has an actual problem and I *DON’T* respond fast enough, the user will feel ignored and potentially write something that could hurt my software sales within hours of sending the request. That is a problem today with a lot of app developers that are making $2.99 or $5.99 app’s for mobile – one user is not happy or writes a bad review and your sales will cut in half almost immediately and it’s near impossible to have that bad review removed.

You just can’t afford to support people 24/7 with those kinds of prices though. It’s a wonder how Microsoft / Apple can even afford to sell Windows at $130 – $150 a shot with all the people calling in for help.

And yes.. serious comments :P sometimes.

By: Lisa Barone

Lisa Barone — Tue, 11 May 2010 19:27:43 +0000

I’m attached to my BlackBerry and if it goes off in the middle of the night, I will wake up an answer it almost immediately.

Yeah, that’s a serious problem for a lot people. Just because you have the TOOLS to be online all the time, doesn’t mean that you should. If you’re answering support requests at 3am, you have a problem and you need to set your hours.

Also, wow…you totally offered up a serious comment. I didn’t see that coming. :p

By: Lisa Barone

Lisa Barone — Tue, 11 May 2010 19:26:26 +0000

Ha, that’s a really good point. If you’re asleep at your laptop, are you really contributing something worthwhile to your community anyway?

I think we all fight the need to be present 24/7. I used to live on the West Coast so I feel your pain. I used to wake up feeling like I was already behind and needing to catch up. Its hard to break yourself of that. For me, I just moved back East. :p

Thanks for chiming in. It’s good to know there’s a solid community of us crazy folks. :)

By: Lisa Barone

Lisa Barone — Tue, 11 May 2010 19:24:04 +0000

I’m still guilty of approving comments before I go to bed, but I’m less likely to spend an hour RESPONDING to them…which I consider a small win. I let that part wait til the morning. :)

By: Harry Scanlan

Harry Scanlan — Tue, 11 May 2010 18:54:06 +0000

I can completely relate to your last point, not only with blogging / twitter / forums, but also as an independent software developer. With people all over the world using my software (or in this case, reading your blog), they can’t expect you to answer every question 2 seconds after it is sent. I’m attached to my BlackBerry and if it goes off in the middle of the night, I will wake up an answer it almost immediately. I need to adjust my hours, and tell the users of my software when I’m “open”.

Thanks for the post.