Need a Community Manager? Hire a Good Bartender!
Posted in Business, community | By Jesse Kliza | Tags: community
I participated in a webinar earlier today focused on building B-to-B communities. There was a question about how to manage a community, and Jeff Sandquist of Microsoft gave an answer that I really liked. He said that managing a community is like bartending. If you’re a good bartender, you should be a good community manager.
Here are some thoughts on why:
- - Both need to know how to engage people that are lonely
- - Both need to know when to step back and just listen
- - Both need to know when to send someone home/away that is disruptive and harmful to the experience of others
- - Both need to know when and how to restore order and calm disputes
- - Both need to be approachable and welcoming
- - Both need to work at making people want to come back again and again
- - Both need to clean up after others
- - Both need to know what “the regulars” want/like the most
Can you think of any other competencies that good bartenders share with good community managers?
Tags: community
August 15th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
thanks for calling this out. i wrote about this in a bit more detail sometime ago at http://www.jeffsandquist.com/everything-i-know-about-community-i-learnt-tending-bar/
thanks for joining in on the webcast.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
My pleasure Jeff, thanks for pointing out your post! I enjoyed the webcast as well.
August 21st, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I would have loved to have listened to that answer… It’s completely dead on!
A good community manager, like a great bartender, is not only a great host but he/she knows when to interject and when not to.
August 21st, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Hey Ricardo,
Yeah, I thought it was an excellent analogy.
Great point as well - It’s very important to know when to interject in a conversation and when not to.
I think one other characteristic that good community managers and bartenders share is this:
They work not just for the reward they get from their employer, but also for the rewards they get from serving. (Satisfaction, appreciation and recognition in both cases, and tips in the case of bartenders)
Can anyone think of any others?
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:08 pm
How you think when the economic crisis will end? I wish to make statistics of independent opinions!