They do all the work: the organizing, building, supporting, connecting, etc.

Then when the benefits appear all the…’you know whats’… come out of the woodwork to take credit for it.

How many people who talk about communities have really done the hard work of building one?

There is a lot of value in community management… and it is a fool who thinks otherwise, we are reaching a point in “Web 2.0″‘s growth cycle where I believe it has reached an equal or greater business importance than the technical management of a website.
Those that do not value Community management, or those that understand it will ultimately fail with the concept of “Web 2.0″.
That said, it is the responsibility of a good community manager to articulate to whom they need to (investors/technical people/managers etc.) the value of Community Management in a metric they understand (I find $$$ to be pretty universal ), it is not those individuals responsibility to understand the art of good Community Management, but if it is communicated correctly to them, they should be able to respect it.

* The environment must not be Fort Knox or Hotel California.
I use the concept of “Barriers to entry”.
Barriers to entry can be good, as they can provide a sense of investment within a community, BUT they need to be attainable, and an individual needs to “see value” in climbing that barrier.

* Have standards, processes and procedures but keep them flexible and open to change.

With the implementation of anything new… take a step back and pretend you are a user for a minute, how might this change affect you?
ALWAYS consult with your usergroup before doing any change (even if you know the change is something they will not appreciate, and will vocally exercise against it, it provides you an opportunity to explain the change in an open and honest fashion, and an opportunity to vent their anger against you)
NEVER EVER assume that users won’t care, or won’t notice.

* People will leave the community but you can still maintain the relationships.

Couldn’t have put that better myself. Always keep a door open.

* Maintain integrity through data.
I might add – make it as easy to get to as possible too.

* Build trust through communication
Always be open, honest and proactive with it too. People aren’t stupid, and will see through bull shit pretty easily.
Also encourage feedback on any communication you do – if for no other reason than it gives an indication that you care about their personal opinion.
Try as best you can to focus your attention to responding to any feedback too.

* Be a fire-starter
I think in a communities “life-cycle” this is important in its early development. Much less so (and I would even suggest, counterproductive) in its later development, as you want a community to become more self-sustaining, a community manager should not loose the “pulse” of the community, but more-so guide, nurture and empower those that can now be the fire-starters on your behalf.

* Keep the synapses firing.
Again, couldn’t have said better.

* Turn up the heat
With anything in community management, implementation of any new tools/features/members etc. is the key to its success. Only do it 95% right… expect to only get 5% of the participation. Encourage interaction, communicate in every fashion with your members in a manners that is conducive to them.

* Isolate or contain fires.
In my opinion, if community management is “done right”, this never occurs. If you have empowered the right individuals (and nurtured them correctly) when a potential spark occurs, is is quashed at the lowest level. That said – there may be an instance where you may need to be the “charismatic leader” (read the book called “The New SuperLeadership: Leading Others to Lead Themselves”), it has a time and a place, and you should not be adverse to jumping in and getting your feet burnt, but if I actively need to be involved in a “fire”, I see that my leadership within a community has failed.
Always monitor these very closely too… good community management will turn a fire into everyone sitting round on camping chairs with marshmallows out singing Qum ba YAH

* Consciously model and identify best practices behavior

And empower/reward those individuals that display it.

* Play and humor has it’s time and place.
And its on our site! People should enjoy the site, participate, and it is only whereby humor is utilized as a device to be unreasonable/violate guidelines-TOU-law should it be gently (or strongly) steered in the fashion of play and humor, not being unreasonable.

Adrian

Too many make the mistake of trying to push a community in one direction, while organically it wants to grow in another. We can build the skeleton, but community members add the meat and the muscle. Therefore “Keeping it Loose” is very important.

1. Keep it LOOSE
Community management is one of ambient interaction and perpetual change. You could start a community with no rules, but best practices will evolve with use. You can’t expect a situation to be the same year one as it is in year three.

2. Keep ‘em TIGHT
Keeping up with relationships when a person leaves a community is key. Once a person has left they can come at you with a different perspective and possibly a more frank voice than when inside the community. This “outbriefing” can be key for finding out what issues might be brewing under the covers.

Additionally, I couldn’t agree more with being transparent about the ups and the downs when dealing with application development inside a community. These tools the community use are the means to an end. when a tool fails, they will jump elsewhere. But if you let the community know when they can resume business, maybe they can get some “real work” done during the downtime.

3. Keep it HOT
A community manager can be an innovator, but it should not end there. A good community manager fosters the environment of their mentorees and community leaders to speak up and suggest new techniques and tools to get the mission of the community accomplished. Community Managers should have an open door policy to be broached for ideas to thrive.

4. Keep ‘em COOL
People will call you bad names and get under your skin a little if you let them when you are trying to maintain decorum, especially in a professional community setting. Levity is OK in some cases, but you have to remind your community from time to time what the mission is and not to steer away from that.

I recently had to deal with an unfortunate firing in my community in which the person was an outstanding contributor, but a line was crossed in a bad joke. This could have been prevented in many ways, but we can’t be there all the time to monitor the community. We have to put trust in the people we manage they know right from wrong.

When they don’t, those are the times we will be called a tyrant for enforcing the rules of the road for the community. But if you can handle that with a shrug of the shoulder after the first time, then you can make it through anything the community can throw at you.

They do all the work: the organizing, building, supporting, connecting, etc.

Then when the benefits appear all the…’you know whats’… come out of the woodwork to take credit for it.

How many people who talk about communities have really done the hard work of building one?

Do they talk from experience or is it just a consultant like pitch about what a theoretical one looks like?