Comments by Maggie McGary Subscribe

On A Day in the Life of a Small Online Community

Terry--I'm a member of the Community Roundtable, a peer network of community managers, and it's an interesting mix of both a small online community and a quasi-association. As someone who works in the association world, I'm used to associations that exist primarly in "real" life, with online community being a very distant after-thought, if it's a component of membership at all. With the Community Roundtable, the online community IS the association, for the most part--there is no annual meeting or other face-to-face component. As such, it's much like you describe--specific discussions with a big networking component.

The thing I like about it is that the community managers ensure that questions posted get seen by people who likely have an answer or have expertise in that area. In a huge online community, there's no way that level of personal attention and care could scale; in a small community, it's possible for a community manager to see a question that's gone un-answered and reach out individually or through a weekly email to make sure the question gets answered. 

While large numbers seem to be a metric of success for a lot of marketers and community managers, I agree with you that there's a lot of value to be had from small, intimate online communities.

On Klout as a Tool for Community Managers: Why I Don't Buy It

Hey--thanks for weighing in/clarifying. I'm the first to admit I'm not a fan of Klout so I'm obviously biased against it. Also, as a community manager in the association world--not the brand world--my experience is a bit (or maybe a lot) different than someone who manages a brand community. In association community management, your members ARE your community and online community platforms exist as a member benefit, rather than to drive brand awareness or sales or stuff like that. In my case, that community is made up of medical practitioners who belong to the association and participate in the online community to exchange professional knowledge and bounce ideas off each other. Some use Twitter, but it doesn't have much bearing on the association's community. The people who are active on Twitter tend to be active on Twitter, and the people who are active on our platforms tend to be active there and not Twitter. And of those who are active on Twitter, even the most active and engaged don't have particularly high Klout scores because their network is relatively small. So in my case--and the case of other association community managers (sadly there aren't many of them, but that's starting to change) Klout truly doesn't have much relevance in the context of community management.

On How to Mutilate a Social Media Contest

Lol--this is exactly what I thought when I saw that contest! And I love Dunkin' Donuts and go there frequently. I saw this just AFTER I had left the store and was mad that I'd already been to the store but couldn't enter because I didn't take the photo while I was there. WAYYYY too much effort for a contest!

On Why Facebook's Community Pages Could Give Brands a Headache

I am totally baffled by this move on Facebook's part. While they clearly are going to great lengths to become essential to brands marketing themselves--social plugins, even window decals!--they are at the same time making their own platform LESS useful for the very brands they're trying to woo into setting up "official" Facebook presences. They need to pick a side already and stick to it--and it's blatantly obvious that the side they're picking is business and not individuals--so enough with the "we want to give you guys control" stuff like Community Pages. They don't want individuals to have control over their own information--why are they doing this convoluted thing where individuals have control over brands?

Like I said--I totally don't get it.

On Facebook Changes Relationship Marketing, Again

Thanks Adam--I think because I'm using Blogger and just had to improvise it isn't working. I installed it the day it came out; maybe Blogger has created something that works better---I'll check it out.

On Facebook Changes Relationship Marketing, Again

So how do you find the ghost page to track who "likes" your page if you install the "like" button onto your website or blog? As a blogger who has installed the button, all I can see is the number of people who have liked it on the blog, but can't find anywhere on Facebook where I can see who the people are, times my blog url has been placed in people's activity streams, etc.

On Facebook blocks Social Media Today, but We Have to Guess Why

Yet another reason businesses should think twice before investing too much time or resources in Facebook. Don't get me wrong--I think it's a great tool for businesses--in fact, it's the most successful of my company's social media outposts. But I hate how Facebook has all the control and no accountability to anyone. It's well past time for Facebook to develop a paid business account which comes with actual support and accountability. They'd make a fortune and businesses wouldn't have to be at their mercy.

On Why Businesses Should Think Twice Before Investing Money or Time in a Facebook Page

Thanks for the continuing stream of great comments. Huge hat-tip, again, to Carri Bugbee for being the one to originally post about this, because if anything will help solve this problem for everyone it's raising awareness of it and hopefully getting on Facebook's radar that this is an issue that they need to address.

On Why Businesses Should Think Twice Before Investing Money or Time in a Facebook Page

Here's another example of what I'm talking about:

On List of Nonprofit Social Media and Community Managers- Is LinkedIn The Right Place For It?

@Jessica--I hadn't thought about it but sure, why not? Thanks! I'm keeping the list on my blog but will add both you and Ashley.  Thanks!

On Memo to Twitterworld...The World Won't End Without Your Tweets

Great post. I have one thing to say about a person who would consider paying an agency to tweet on his/her behalf because he/she was going to be "too busy" to tweet: delusions of grandeur. Would I unfollow someone because he/she posted that he/she'd be a little scarce on Twitter for a while because of travel or a conference or something? No. Would I if they posted that they were going to be tied up so they were paying someone else to tweet on their behalf? Definitely.

On If anonymity is no longer needed, let's ditch the witness protection program

Initially I wanted to disagree with you but I have to say, by the end of your post you convinced me. ;)

I used to be a guest blogger for the Washington Post back before they required people to login to comment and it was a total free-for-all. People in DC can be nasty anyway and it was like some readers of that blog read it and commented on it for the sole purpose of getting their frustrations out by hiding behind their computer screens and bashing total strangers. There was a loyal cadre of readers and commenters, some of whom were just scathingly negative and nasty every single day. When the Post changed their policy and stopped allowing anonymous commenting, boy were they mad!

But you make a good point about people having to worry about their professional lives and that discouraging them from conversing online. Now that everything, even comments, is searchable, people might not want to go "on the record" commenting on a blog post if they think it might come back to haunt them professionally or something. As a blogger, I wouldn't really mind if people commented anonymously--it's better than no comments.