I'm hiring! #Toronto #Jobs

Good news, everyone! Tribal DDB is going to be hiring a number of Community Moderator/Writers for a five-week contract starting in mid-September. These positions will be for a high-profile, national campaign. It won't be an easy job, but it'll definitely be interesting. The official job posting from the DDB website is as follows:

 Tribal DDB is looking for 4 English writers with a passion for social media for an intense, 5 week contract on a high profile national campaign, beginning in mid-September through to late October. This role involves constant and ongoing interaction with our client's target audience – from adorers to detractors – around a sensitive and polarizing topic. Common sense or street smarts are mandatory.

As a high-energy creative, you have a solid understanding of advertising, are an active participant in social networks and have a history in community management and moderation. Strong writing skills are a must and a writing sample is required along with your resume.

RESPONSIBILITIES: You will be responsible for responding to consumer questions with engaged, quality written responses on a social media website in Tribal DDB's Toronto office. Primarily, this will include assessment, triage, moderation and creative responses to consumer questions. Developing answers to these questions will require navigating detailed product information.

QUALIFICATIONS: - 1-2 years experience is required - Passion for social media and marketing/advertising - Strong written communication ability (grammar, formatting, creativity, spelling) - Ability to follow a process - General understanding of agency process and capabilities - Bilingualism a plus - Proof reading/copy-editing ability a plus

Interested candidates please send resume and cover letter to hr.toronto@ddbcanada.com.

We appreciate all expressed interest in this position, however, only the candidates selected for interview will be contacted.

What Reddit DOESN'T Do

A few days ago Reddit wrote a blog post to celebrate the fact that in December 2011, they had over 2 billion monthly page views and over 34 million unique visitors on their site (and 10% of that is Canadian!). The blog post also points out that in the past year, traffic to their site has doubled and users are spending an average of 16 minutes/visit on the site.

As my friend Fred Moesker pointed out, it's interesting how they achieved this based on the list of things they DON'T do:

• We don't get traffic through ads.
• We don’t participate in any traffic trading.
• We don’t email our users (unless they choose to enter an email and then forget their password).
• We don’t harass users to sign up.
• We don’t harass users to invite their friends.
• We don’t pester you to download our app.
• We don’t use slideshows and other pageview gimmicks.
• We don't know anything about SEO.
• We don't integrate with Facebook.
• We don't even link to our Facebook or twitter accounts.

In a time when sites are becoming increasingly connected and our online profiles are telling a deeper story of who we, its interesting to see Reddit take almost an opposite approach: focusing on the community of people together, rather than on individual identification.

-Parker

Fashion Friday: Hoi Bo and Mjolk

If you you live in Toronto and you're into awesome design collaborations, head over to Mjolk in the Junction tonight (October 21st) for the launch of a new bag by Hoi Bo. You might recognize that name because I've blogged about the company on BlogCampaigning before. Or because you read about them in the Globe and Mail recently. My roommate Annie works for the company, and to see what they are about you should really watch this video on the Toronto Standard about them.

Say hi to Hoi Bo on Twitter or check out their website for more at HoiBo.com

More Fashion Friday on BlogCampaigning

A Guide To Community Building

For the last few months my colleague, Ujwal Arkalgud, and I have been researching the communities of Digg and Reddit to determine the role that culture plays in online communities. We went into the research unsure of what we would learn, and came out with some pretty amazing and useful findings. First, we found that culture absolutely plays a role in the building and proliferation of online communities. More specifically, there are specific counter-cultural elements pertaining to design, social interaction and structure that are essential for every online community.  We have seen these elements manifest themselves in older communities like the WELL and Tribe.net as well as the leading communities today like Digg and Reddit.

Second, we found that the further an online community moves away from these core counter-cultural characteristics, the weaker the community becomes.  As communities approach the 'break point' they begin to take the form of groups, content distribution and syndication networks.

Based on these findings, we were able to pin-point 6 key counter-cultural elements necessary for an online community to be successful, and use them to develop specific recommendations for  building or activating an online community.

Check out our research report for the full lists, findings and full research.

A Guide to Successful Community Building: Lessons from Reddit and Digg  

GroupMe, GroupYou

Ever since its official launch at SXSW this year, there's been a ton of buzz about GroupMe. In case you're a bit late to the party, GroupMe is a social app that lets you create groups with your friends to share texts, photos, locations and conference call. It's also free and works with any phone that can text. I downloaded it for my iPhone recently to use at Coachella (woot!), and I've since started adding all of my friends who are going with me, so that we can easily stay in touch when we're all off  dancing to our own beats.  There's a ton of potential from a personal perspective, but there are strong business implications too.

GroupMe has the potential to play a big role in community development and communications. They recently released Featured Groups, which helps brands connect directly with members to share information, news and promotions. So far, there are only 5 brands with this feature.  As GroupMe users create groups around one of these brands, the brands can engage with the group by sending messages, photos, answering questions or posting special promotions directly to each group.  This is a pretty cool feature, and really allows companies to interact with people who they know are passionate about their brands, building stronger ties with their biggest fans and growing awareness through Word of Mouth. I'm sure it's only a matter of time until GroupMe resolves any kinks this first group may experience and opens Featured Groups to more brands.

Another potential use for GroupMe are small closed communities.  Brands who host closed advisory panels may decide to test GroupMe to send members updates and  and  host regular conference calls. Depending on the size and preferences of the group, members can also send messages to one another,  building relationships and solidifying the community itself.

Currently, GroupMe doesn't allow groups larger than 25 people and recommends smaller groups to prevent message overload. However, if the digital prophets are correct, and group messaging is the next 'big thing', then it is only a matter of time before platforms like GroupMe expand, offering more options for brands and branded communities.

Are you currently using GroupMe? What do you think?

What do you think of advertising on Reddit?

I've been increasingly interested in exploring advertising options on social media sites over the past year or so. Facebook ads whetted my appetite, I'm fascinated by the possibilities of StumbleUpon's Paid Discovery service and now I want to learn more about advertising on Reddit. If you're a Reddit user, how do you feel about Sponsored Links at the top of your favourite website?

If you're an advertiser, have you advertised on Reddit before? How did it work out for you?

Thanks to everyone who responds!

-Parker

Community: Communications and Cadence

There are many important elements that go into building a strong digital community. One of the most essential features is the timing and cadence of communications to new members.  Like any new relationship, friendly, romantic or otherwise, the beginning few months are usually the most intense, when people involved are learning about each other and starting to build a joint trust. The launch of an online community is no different and must be coupled with a high frequency of communications. These can include everything from emails, Facebook messages, direct Twitter messages, phone calls, etc.  Once the relationship has been established and members are engaging on their own, frequency of communications can begin to level out.

Strong, well-planned communications at the launch of a program achieves the following goals:

First, they directly impact the degree of success the program is able to deliver.  The initial cadence increases uptake and participation, delivering a lift that will last the length of a program.

Second, they begin to build a solid relationship with community members, setting the tone and expectation for the community. If you join a community and then don't hear from the organizers for weeks or even months, interest and trust will nosedive.

Third, they keep your community and its purpose  top of mind with your members. This is especially important when launching a community, to make sure that members keep coming back and are interacting instead of signing up and abandoning ship.

Fourth, it provides you an opportunity to add value to members immediately. Value can be added by sending links to resources on topics members are interested in, and provide updates on new community initiatives and planning.

Are you currently launching or managing a community? Do you have any communications tips to share?