Staff members are an important part of any fan community. They help spark discussion, enforce the rules and come up with ideas. They are an extension of a fansite’s ethos and as community leaders they are vital to the long-term survival of any serious fansite.
But even community managers, moderators, contributors and other team members need a sense of direction and, at times, motivation to feel ‘in the loop’.
During my years managing fansites, blogs and forums, I’ve seen staff members struggle in community leadership positions. There are various reasons for this, including; feeling out of their depth, only wanting the role for community status, being unprepared for the workload, and a lack of clear direction – to name a few. I’ll discuss some of these points in future articles, but for now I want to look at a few techniques I’ve developed to keep staff members in the loop and feeling motivated.
- Be Inclusive. It’s quite simple, but in my experience, a culture of openness is one of the most important things for the successful management of a fansite. Communicate with team members – ask team members for their input, hold regular meetings (via a private staff area, chat system, email or any number of social tools), share ideas and create a sense of collaboration. People are more likely to become invested in something when they feel a part of it. In my experience, I find it helpful to ask my staff members for their point of view, and often they come up with great ideas that I hadn’t thought of.
- Staff privileges. Everyone loves extra features and freebies. As a way of ‘thanking’ my members of staff I give them extra community enhancements, such as, larger personal message space, bigger album storage and various custom features and any ‘freebies’ that I receive from media companies. It’s just a small way of showing appreciation for their hard work.
- Remove Inactive Staff. This is a tough one, but sometimes it has to be done. It doesn’t help anyone when a member of staff doesn’t contribute, fulfil their staff duties or communicate their reasons for being inactive. Sometimes there is a valid reason, but running a community website takes a lot of time and energy and you can’t afford to have people who are happy to assume a leadership position, but not be involved in the hard work that goes with it.
The above points are definitely only the tip of the iceberg. I hope to follow up with more insights and personal experience on managing a staff team in future articles, but if you have any views or opinions feel free to share them in the comments below.
Photo Credit: anhtuan.
