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Buzzing Communities: How to Build Bigger, Better, and More Active Online Communities
Buzzing Communities cuts through the fluff to offer a clear process for creating thriving online communities. This book combines a century of proven science, dozens of real-life examples, practical tips, and trusted community-building methods.
This step-by-step guide includes a lifecycle for tracking your progress and a framework for managing your organization's community efforts. This Book Will Help You to
Understand what the members of your community really want.
Dramatically increase the number of newcomers that become regulars.
Avoid the mistakes most organizations make when they try to build online communities.
Develop a fantastic, user-friendly website for your members.
Grow your online community to critical mass and beyond
Keep members engaged and active in your community.
Measure the community's return on investment and explain the benefits to your organization.
This step-by-step guide includes a lifecycle for tracking your progress and a framework for managing your organization's community efforts. This Book Will Help You to
Understand what the members of your community really want.
Dramatically increase the number of newcomers that become regulars.
Avoid the mistakes most organizations make when they try to build online communities.
Develop a fantastic, user-friendly website for your members.
Grow your online community to critical mass and beyond
Keep members engaged and active in your community.
Measure the community's return on investment and explain the benefits to your organization.
291 pages, Paperback
First published October 18, 2012
80 people are currently reading
318 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 1, 2014
While I thought that there was a lot of good information for what to look out for, or what to think about moving forward into the life of your community, I thought that this was a very repetitive and pretty dull book, all things considered.
December 27, 2020
Early on in this book, there's a lot you can learn about the anatomy of what a community is, stages of growth (not just for the community, but also the Community Manager(s)), and concepts around measuring the success of a Community Manager's job in an organization. Lots of what was shared in these first few chapters on Strategy, Growth, Content, and Influence and Relationships all feel like they have concepts that I can keep learning and picking new ideas from for years to come.
However, several chapters in, some of the examples and case studies feel very dated with references to a time of forums, bulletin boards, and other web portals. This book was written and released at a time when internet communities had much larger shift to more social and always connected forms of communication. While forums and other web portals for communities are still relevant to a degree in 2020, the repeated and dated references make this book go from what felt like a very interesting and engaging read to a bit of a drag, even if I ultimately feel that I enjoyed the book.
As someone who has worked professionally for several years in the Community Management space for digital products and local meetup groups, there are still lots of interesting bits you can pull from this book, but it's more / less on you to find out how it relates to you.
I love working with data, and while I felt the repetitive data exercises wouldn't 1:1 correlate to my current or former community management jobs, I did find some interesting nuggets and examples out of these that I also would like to go back and reference from time to time.
All of that said, book is insightful on what the role of a Community Manager could be. It emphasizes that a Community Manager isn't the person spending their day reactively putting out fires but instead working hard to strategize on how to grow and engage a community with a return on investment.
If you're interested in learning more about this role you should consider giving this a read. If you're in this job currently looking to expand your knowledge on the role, you may find some new concepts or ideas to pull from it, but you'll have to do some reading between the lines, especially 8 years after this book came out.
However, several chapters in, some of the examples and case studies feel very dated with references to a time of forums, bulletin boards, and other web portals. This book was written and released at a time when internet communities had much larger shift to more social and always connected forms of communication. While forums and other web portals for communities are still relevant to a degree in 2020, the repeated and dated references make this book go from what felt like a very interesting and engaging read to a bit of a drag, even if I ultimately feel that I enjoyed the book.
As someone who has worked professionally for several years in the Community Management space for digital products and local meetup groups, there are still lots of interesting bits you can pull from this book, but it's more / less on you to find out how it relates to you.
I love working with data, and while I felt the repetitive data exercises wouldn't 1:1 correlate to my current or former community management jobs, I did find some interesting nuggets and examples out of these that I also would like to go back and reference from time to time.
All of that said, book is insightful on what the role of a Community Manager could be. It emphasizes that a Community Manager isn't the person spending their day reactively putting out fires but instead working hard to strategize on how to grow and engage a community with a return on investment.
If you're interested in learning more about this role you should consider giving this a read. If you're in this job currently looking to expand your knowledge on the role, you may find some new concepts or ideas to pull from it, but you'll have to do some reading between the lines, especially 8 years after this book came out.
December 31, 2021
О ЧЕМ КНИГА:
Автор делится своим опытом построения тематических и внутрикорпоративных сообществ. Много примеров из личной практики, цифр и инструментов.
ГЛАВНАЯ МЫСЛЬ КНИГИ:
Уже существуют проверенные механики и подходы для управления профессиональным сообществом. Комбинация увлеченного лидера сообщества и инструментов управления на основе статистики точно должны дать результаты.
ЗАЧЕМ ЧИТАТЬ ЭТУ КНИГУ?
Если вы хотите создать свое личное сообщество(клуб) по интересам или сделать что-то внутри вашей компании, то в этой книге вы получите подходы и инструменты.
МЫСЛИ И ВЫВОДЫ ИЗ КНИГИ:
- The main reason for the rapid decline in a number of once-thriving community-based organizations is a lack of new blood replacing existing members.
- Data showed that if members befriended five individuals on the platform, they would likely become permanent members of the community. This is true of most online communities. You have to plan interventions that would encourage members to befriend five people on the platform.
- You can see that the number of members that leave after three months is relatively low compared to the first three months. You might plan a series of activities to keep a newcomer engaged for the first three months.
- Newcomer threads/forums. In addition to newcomer threads and forums, you might also initiate threads solely for newcomers to ask questions regulars might consider basic (or even dumb). You might also write content about newcomers.
- Most communities would benefit from an area within the community that would allow motivated members to get more involved.
- you need to break the community into distinct groups based upon strong common interests. You can use the demographics, habits, or psychographic data to identify clusters of members within the platform who might like a smaller group or forum category within the platform dedicated to that topic.
- The key rule of community behavior is - The biggest influence upon a member’s behavior is the behavior of other members.
- Всего есть 5 типов сообществ
1. Communities of interest. 2. Communities of place. 3. Communities of practice. 4. Communities of action. 5. Communities of circumstance.
- A community of interest usually discusses the most interesting things about the topic. This can be good or bad. People exchange their history, views, and passion on those interesting things.
ЧТО Я БУДУ ПРИМЕНЯТЬ:
- Попробую создать внутри своего Книжного Клуба группы по интересам.
ЕЩЕ НА ЭТУ ТЕМУ:
Richard Millington «Build Your Community»
Автор делится своим опытом построения тематических и внутрикорпоративных сообществ. Много примеров из личной практики, цифр и инструментов.
ГЛАВНАЯ МЫСЛЬ КНИГИ:
Уже существуют проверенные механики и подходы для управления профессиональным сообществом. Комбинация увлеченного лидера сообщества и инструментов управления на основе статистики точно должны дать результаты.
ЗАЧЕМ ЧИТАТЬ ЭТУ КНИГУ?
Если вы хотите создать свое личное сообщество(клуб) по интересам или сделать что-то внутри вашей компании, то в этой книге вы получите подходы и инструменты.
МЫСЛИ И ВЫВОДЫ ИЗ КНИГИ:
- The main reason for the rapid decline in a number of once-thriving community-based organizations is a lack of new blood replacing existing members.
- Data showed that if members befriended five individuals on the platform, they would likely become permanent members of the community. This is true of most online communities. You have to plan interventions that would encourage members to befriend five people on the platform.
- You can see that the number of members that leave after three months is relatively low compared to the first three months. You might plan a series of activities to keep a newcomer engaged for the first three months.
- Newcomer threads/forums. In addition to newcomer threads and forums, you might also initiate threads solely for newcomers to ask questions regulars might consider basic (or even dumb). You might also write content about newcomers.
- Most communities would benefit from an area within the community that would allow motivated members to get more involved.
- you need to break the community into distinct groups based upon strong common interests. You can use the demographics, habits, or psychographic data to identify clusters of members within the platform who might like a smaller group or forum category within the platform dedicated to that topic.
- The key rule of community behavior is - The biggest influence upon a member’s behavior is the behavior of other members.
- Всего есть 5 типов сообществ
1. Communities of interest. 2. Communities of place. 3. Communities of practice. 4. Communities of action. 5. Communities of circumstance.
- A community of interest usually discusses the most interesting things about the topic. This can be good or bad. People exchange their history, views, and passion on those interesting things.
ЧТО Я БУДУ ПРИМЕНЯТЬ:
- Попробую создать внутри своего Книжного Клуба группы по интересам.
ЕЩЕ НА ЭТУ ТЕМУ:
Richard Millington «Build Your Community»
January 10, 2019
Very well structured book, full of insights and practical examples which surprisingly can easily be extended beyond the role of a community manager.
From the very beginning the author emphasizes the need for being proactive and data-driven and the necessity to have a the goal (more broadly, the mission) to check against.
The book provides a good and detailed anatomy of communities, including typical structures, lifecycles, potential issues (including those which I couldn't think of, like losing the interest to the community due to information overload). Based on this picture, author outlines common task of a community manager, and provides a rough plan of what you are supposed to do, depending on which community you have, and what results you want to achieve. Again, with the emphasize on how you can measure the success or failure of your actions. The majority of the examples refer to online forums (the book issued in 2012), but nonetheless they're still relevant now.
Last chapters of the book related to business integration and return of investments, which was irrelevant to my interests (I'm reading from a position of an active member of a local software community), but even discarding these parts, it's still very helpful.
From the very beginning the author emphasizes the need for being proactive and data-driven and the necessity to have a the goal (more broadly, the mission) to check against.
The book provides a good and detailed anatomy of communities, including typical structures, lifecycles, potential issues (including those which I couldn't think of, like losing the interest to the community due to information overload). Based on this picture, author outlines common task of a community manager, and provides a rough plan of what you are supposed to do, depending on which community you have, and what results you want to achieve. Again, with the emphasize on how you can measure the success or failure of your actions. The majority of the examples refer to online forums (the book issued in 2012), but nonetheless they're still relevant now.
Last chapters of the book related to business integration and return of investments, which was irrelevant to my interests (I'm reading from a position of an active member of a local software community), but even discarding these parts, it's still very helpful.
February 23, 2020
This is well-structured, clear and actionable advice for community managers. However, the book is getting a bit dated and could use an updated new edition. It seems to stem from a time when online communities were pretty exclusively bulletin boards and forums, refers to tools and examples that no longer exist, and doesn't cover a whole range of community realities we contend with today. For instance, it describes "influencers" as celebrities and CEOs of top companies in the sector, when today, influencers are mainly "normal" people that built their own following on platforms such as YouTube.
Despite some passages appearing dated, this is still worth a read. It's a valuable reminder to always put data at the base of all you do, and not to lose yourself in the daily grind of moderation, when you should be focused on growth and the big picture.
Despite some passages appearing dated, this is still worth a read. It's a valuable reminder to always put data at the base of all you do, and not to lose yourself in the daily grind of moderation, when you should be focused on growth and the big picture.
January 21, 2019
Was given this book as a part of a role as community manager I was taking on with a partner, and coming from a place of never having run, moderated, or managed a community platform before this book was really insightful. Plenty of times I recognized ideas and strategies that I see in retrospect had worked (or not worked) on me as a customer, so having it all laid out by experts in the field was a great help.
It's not a breezy or particularly engaging read, but the information contained within is great, the examples are plenty, and it'll serve as a great resource for my role as a community manager moving forward and inspire ways to help engage and grow said community. If those are your goals, I don't know that there are better resources out there than this book.
It's not a breezy or particularly engaging read, but the information contained within is great, the examples are plenty, and it'll serve as a great resource for my role as a community manager moving forward and inspire ways to help engage and grow said community. If those are your goals, I don't know that there are better resources out there than this book.
March 11, 2018
I thought it was very good and I recommend it to anyone trying to build a community. I especially liked the 2nd half. My team is in the process of building an online community, so I learned a lot from this book on how to do that. There is a lot of work for me to do and unfortunately, it will take a while to see what plays out. Once we have been around for a little while, I will go back and reread this book to see what else we can change.
July 22, 2022
Golden nuggets on thriving communities
Richard Millington is one of the world’s leading experts in communities and community management. This book captures a lot of his experience and wisdom, and it’s a must read for anyone in the community management space or seriously considering developing a community. The one downside of the book is that it contains a number of references that have become dated after its publication.
Richard Millington is one of the world’s leading experts in communities and community management. This book captures a lot of his experience and wisdom, and it’s a must read for anyone in the community management space or seriously considering developing a community. The one downside of the book is that it contains a number of references that have become dated after its publication.
February 20, 2019
I'm probably not the target audience for this since I manage a community of sorts, which doesn't meet all the classic elements and needs Millington describes throughout. Still, I found some good nuggets and practices throughout.
December 10, 2017
Must read for anyone in the community management field!
March 10, 2018
Very practical and useful info for community professionals.
January 17, 2020
Learning how to build community forums (work book)
February 3, 2013
As an online community manager for a Fortune 100 company's internal social network and external social properties as well, and as a long-time fan of Rich Millington's feverbee.com blog, I was thrilled to read his recent book. He incorporates a plethora of practical ideas about growing communities and how to do so based on data and sound data analysis.
I wrote a complete review on my blog at http://jeffrossblog.com/2013/01/16/bo... if you'd like to check it out. After tagging Rich in a tweet about my review, he asked me to also post it to Amazon for his book, so you'll find it there as well.
For newbies as well as experienced community managers, there is much here that will help you rightly assess where you are in the online community growth cycle, and will be well worth the time invested reading this more than once.
I wrote a complete review on my blog at http://jeffrossblog.com/2013/01/16/bo... if you'd like to check it out. After tagging Rich in a tweet about my review, he asked me to also post it to Amazon for his book, so you'll find it there as well.
For newbies as well as experienced community managers, there is much here that will help you rightly assess where you are in the online community growth cycle, and will be well worth the time invested reading this more than once.
December 30, 2014
Good for advice on practical community building - you can feel that there is a lot of experience behind the advice. The theoretical background is thin and understanding of what makes us involve, engage etc from at more scientific point of view is lacking.
July 6, 2014
Brilliant read ... really practical and interesting. Now the ultimate test - to implement the theory ...
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews