Online Community Brand Tarnished?
Boston.com - How many times have you Googled a hotel name and found a TripAdvisor review show up? How many times have you clicked on that link to read the review? How many of those reviews were fake?
Seems the last question is causing quite a stir in the travel industry. TripAdvisor is now under investigation by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over concerns that reviews from “travelers” aren’t really from travelers, and aren’t legitimate reviews.
According to the UK’s Daily Mirror, “As many as five million of the most current reviews on the website could be fake,” according to Chris Emmins, co-founder of online reputation management company KwikChex.com.
It’s a rather ironic and unfortunate situation. Online communities, like TripAdvisor mentioned above, rely on its members for trusted reviews, in this case, within the hospitality industry. As these online communities build up a cache of reviews, they themselves become a trusted destination for peer reviews. Now, their reputation is in the balance.
For TripAdvisor’s sake, I hope they can rebound from this PR hiccup. I actually think they have a real opportunity here. If they can work towards a solution of curbing the activity of fake reviewing that goes beyond their terms & conditions and community guidelines, other branded online communities could leverage this best practice to ensure the integrity of their own [products, services] reviews.
Gamification of Online Communities – Head to Head
I’m sure you’re all use to hosting contests and giveaways in your respective online communities as a way to boost activity and member morale, keep members engage and create compelling content. You pit each member against each other to see who can come up with the best “x” or the most “y.” I’m still all for that and community managers should still lean on this competitiveness as integral component to their community strategy.
This is the third installment for the Gamification of Online Communities series. See also:
- Gamification of Online Communities for Beginners
- Gamification of Online Communities – Advanced Edition
A great way to rally your community together is to hold competitions against other online communities. Nothing embodies the meaning of community when every member is charging after the same goal.
Find a competitor community or one that closely aligns with your product, function or service, contact their community manager (This is a great networking opportunity too) and work out the rules, guidelines, winning criteria and prizes the same way you would with any competition. As you can tell, this tactic is mutually beneficial for both communities.
An Online Community That Turns Work Into A Game
Paint your bedroom. Hit the grocery store. Assemble a new desk. Do laundry. Pick up prescriptions. Drop off dry cleaning. Vacuum the apartment. Walk the dog [and curb it]. These are small tasks we all do in life. Don’t you ever think to yourself, “Can’t I just pay someone else to do it?” Now you can with the help of TaskRabbit.
That’s right, TaskRabbit is an online community made up of “senders” and “runners.” Senders post a task and name the price they’re willing to pay for the task at hand. Runners then bid on the task. Sounds easy enough, but it gets interesting. Senders are free to choose which bid to accept. Wait, why would anyone accept anything than the lowest bid? It all comes down to reputation each runner has built up within the community. After tasks are completed, senders can rate and review runners. Therefore, highly rated runners who have proven their promptness and reliability can command premiums.
Another thing TaskRabbit is doing well, and that I’m an extreme advocate for, is gamification. They employ most of the gaming mechanics I’ve published in previous posts; leaderboard, points, level rank, average customer rating and progress bar.
What’s particularly impressive to me is the size of the community. TaskRabbit operates in 5 major cities; Boston, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orange County and accounts for 1,600+ members. You’re probably thinking, well that’s not that large for an online community. You have to remember, a successful online community isn’t about registrations numbers, it’s about how socially engaged your members are with each other and the activity they spur as a result. And with an average of 3,000 tasks being fulfilled each month [an average of 2 tasks per member], it’s clear, at least to me, TaskRabbit is on point to be the auction house for local reliable labor.
See a demo: How TaskRabbit Works!
Community Management from Afar
I follow quite a few community managers and social media strategists from Europe, most notably in the U.K. In fact, Europeans account for over 30% of the traffic to this blog.
Over the last couple months, I’ve noticed that my Twitter feed has been slowly [yet steadily] taken over by job postings for community manager roles in Europe. I don’t have the growth rates for community management roles in Europe compared to that of the United States, but it seems the demand for community managers in European countries is high, very high. It’s great to see actually. It means the community manager role is growing on a global scale and will be here for the long-term. Aaaahhh job security!
I have no plans to uproot, but it got me thinking; can you manage an online community from another country, or continent for that matter, and be successful? We work in a telecommuting world these days. Not sitting in corporate headquarters or in a satellite office is not unheard of. But separated by a body of water like the Atlantic Ocean, several time zones, a stranger to local customs, and very little [if at all] face time with customers and internal stakeholders seems like a near impossible feat.
So, my question to you is, do you think a community manager can live in another country and still deliver a successful experience to members? Who is doing this well today? Would you do it yourself?
Photo Credit: Joelk75
The Demand for Community Managers in Gaming Conferences
The PAX East 2011 festival kicks off in Boston, MA this Friday March 11 and runs through Sunday March, 13th. Normally held at the Hynes Convention Center, it now has a new venue, The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
PAX East is a three-day game festival for tabletop, videogame, and PC gamers. It’s called a festival because in addition to dedicated tournaments and free-play areas, there are concerts, panel discussions, and an exhibitor hall filled with booths displaying the latest from top game publishers and developers.
You’re probably thinking, “That’s all well and good Dan, but why should I f#^@*+g care?” Good question. And I’ll explain as long as you refrain from further use of such profanity.
As I illustrated before in my Community Managers of the Gaming Industry post, there are quite a few parallels and overlap between enterprise community managers like me and my gaming counterparts. The festival schedule further confirms just how similar we are.
Just take a look at these track sessions and their respective abstracts:
Online Gaming Communities and “Real Life” Relationships – Are you are a member of one or more online gaming website communities? Perhaps the friendships and relationships you formed online have made their way into your everyday “real life”. You are certainly not alone. We will discuss the communities we have created and support, and how they impact real life relationships for gamers of all types.
What the Heck is a Community Manager? – What the heck is a community manager? What does he or she do? Why are there a growing number of community management positions at publishers and development studios? We’ll talk to the industry’s leading group of community managers about their jobs, how they got where they are, how they actually “manage” the “community,” and how they influence the games their studios make and the people who play them.
How Your Favorite Game Companies Use Facebook – Like this. Like that. Facebook has taken the world by storm and has become a crucial platform for community managers and companies to help keep in touch with and grow their online communities. With the constant evolution of social media and Facebook in particular, you may not know some of the cool things happening on your favorite game studio’s Facebook page. Join Collin Moore (Community Management Vet) as he moderates a discussion with community managers from across the game industry (Insomniac Games, Playfish/EA, Harmonix, and Robot Entertainment), about the importance of Facebook to game companies, and how pressing the “LIKE” button is just the beginning.
A Reverse Q&A with the Harmonix Community Team – The Harmonix Community Team spends a good part of their day answering questions about Rock Band and Dance Central on forums, in emails and on camera… but what happens when the tables are turned and they’re given free reign to question a captive audience in a PAX panel? Part focus group and part interrogation, this panel turns the traditional notion of a Q&A on its head, giving community members the opportunity to answer questions submitted by developers. You may be wonder: “What kind of questions will be asked?” and “Do attendees answer individually or as a collective?” and “Will this be a disaster?” Continue to wonder, because the Harmonix folks aren’t dishing out any answers, only questions.
Community: Some Assembly Required and Batteries Definitely Not Included – Building a community around games takes work and may be a little rough around the edges — just like this session! But stick with it and you’ll find yourself in the middle of one of the most fun and most vocal communities around. Come discuss how to build a following, how to find your own voice, success stories, what Xbox LIVE is doing to build community, and how you can try to work with the “big guys”, with Xbox LIVE Community Manager Eric “DMZilla” Doty. There is no instruction booklet for Community, but there are plenty of ways to start your journey. Possibility of PowerPoint and FREE stuff.
The Road to Becoming a Community Manager – Based on the great feedback we received after this panel at PAX Prime, we’ve decided to do it again! East-Coast Style. You hear us on podcasts, see us in videos, read our blogs on websites, retweet us, argue with us on forums, and give us high fives at PAX. But have you ever wondered how we became community managers? From games journalism to forum moderation to public policy and QA, every road is different. Find out the random history of some of your favorite game studio community managers, and hear their advice on what skills and knowledge you’ll need to become one of gaming’s next-generation of community managers.
Game Marketing & Community Management Roundtable – Role-specific roundtables will consist of top game artists, designers, community managers, and marketing professionals. Each roundtable will be structured into four sections focusing on roles/responsibilities, personal history, career paths, and hot topics/issues.
I will be in attendance and will be sitting in on as many of these sessions as I can. Are you attending PAX East this year? Connect with me for a meetup. If not, is there anything you want me to check out for you? I plan on following up with a post-festival blog post and can share everything my brain was able to absorb.
