“While moderation certainly improves the member’s experience within our client’s communities, much of this is done behind-the-scenes. With community management, we will become more visible within their community, and look at their community from top to bottom. Perhaps we start hosting their community areas – in other words, we start a conversation and keep it flowing, or we help guide members through the client’s community, and their website. We can also look at how the client is communicating with their members, and offer suggestions or create new community strategies. We actually already offer our current clients a lot of what we would consider community management services, as we already do some hosting within the communities, but this new service will expand and enhance what we currently offer to our clients.”
eModeration plans to offer a three-tier packages for clients to pick from:
“The first package is designed to help a client setting up a new community; to help them to find the right tone to communicate, the right tools to do the job, and to create a solid community strategy. We’ll be researching their competitors, recommending moderation tools and methods, working with their in-house teams to define the right editorial tone and community culture. We’ll help set realistic targets and set short and long-term goals for the community to achieve.
“Then for existing communities it’s a health check – well, OK, a full strategic analysis! We’ll make sure the client is using the best tools for their purposes, and check their current goals and community integration strategy. We’ll evaluate the community tone and culture, analyse the their member communication and advise on best practices for community change management. Basically, we find out what is working, what isn’t working, and then look at how we are going to address the areas that need improving. We’ll evaluate how we promote the community throughout the rest of the website if that’s appropriate, and offer recommendations about how to improve their overall community experience for their members.
“Finally, the third level is ongoing community management. While the other two packages may be for a set project period (i.e. forty hours, one month, or a few days), this third option offers help to the client for as long as they need it. We’ll do this in the form of daily contact with the members on the site, daily health checks of the community, regular reporting of member comments and trends, and even offering a buzz monitoring service (an analysis of how the client is being discussed both within their community, and on the Web). Our clients can create their own custom community management package that works best for their needs. “
Ashley has been involved in the Internet industry since 1996, working primarily in editorial and community management roles for companies such as Petsmart.com, Ticketmaster-CitySearch and AOL UK. Her first actual foray into online community was when she created a website for tween girls called Terrifichick in 1998. Since then, she has been working with online communities, often focusing on the youth market, and has been with eModeration since 2008.