IOCMA - Call For Participants // Sascha A. Carlin
This call is intended to gather professional community managers and community builders working in the field of online communities.
We are working in a field that has many different aspects. Community professionals have varying backgrounds, work in different industries and aim to fulfill different business goals. We work with all kinds of communities, all sizes of them and different topics and missions.
Since the take-off of Web 2.0 and with it user generated content the term community was enlarged to nearly all ventures on the web. Publishers, producers, service providers, more or less everyone who sells something, strive into creating communities.
Online Community Management is a challenging profession. It involves facilitation and moderation, selling the community idea within the company as well as to its customers. We depend on our superiors to grant us resources. We need to convince other departments to work with us. We need to evangelize where the community idea is new and to join efforts where it already is.
In fact, we are a product managers. But of a special kind. There is not a boxed product called community which you put on the shelves. We have a potential audience of millions. We have to know how to reach these people, what services to offer to them, how to get them involved in our companies’ business goals. It is about business and brand. Brands carry emotions, and what is a community other than people having emotions.
Until now, we were scattered. We sought help in the little literature that exists about online communities. We searched the web and found single pieces of information. We ventured into psychology and communication sciences, play theory, marketing and advertising.
But we missed something essentially. A place to go to when all else has failed. A place where we can find people who are in the same position as we are, who we can ask for guidance, best practices and ideas, who understand us.
There are more reasons yet to be addressed: education guidelines, lobbying and many more.
These are the reasons why we need something like IOCMA - International Online Community Management Association.
IOCMA seeks to become that one place. It’s time to engage.
If you are working as an online community manager, this call is aimed at you. Spread the word, comment below or drop us an e-mail or send a Skype message if you are interested in helping set up IOCMA, or just want to know when we take off.
November 10th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Sounds cool. Email me details so I can help however I can. Good to know you are thinking about this in Germany.
November 10th, 2007 at 12:46 am
Thank you and a very warm welcome Mukund! You’ve got mail
November 10th, 2007 at 1:43 am
Interesting…guess I’ll need to know more.
sean
November 10th, 2007 at 1:49 am
Sean, welcome and thank you! There should be an e-mail waiting for you.
November 10th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Hi Sascha, thank you for this great initiative. It goes without saying that I’m on board
November 10th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Great to have you on board Tom! Sending you an e-mail right now.
November 11th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Great idea. Looking forward, what’s coming up.
November 12th, 2007 at 7:33 am
Hi Ruth and welcome and thank you for your interest. You should have an e-mail by now, too.
And by the way, I guess I will stop telling that everyone here and just send the e-mail
November 13th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
I would be especially interested in your group. I am actually giving a presentation in Boston about companies hiring social media managers. Would love to use your group as an example of what is coming.
November 13th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Love it. I would love to know more.
November 13th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Hi there Craig and Jim!
@Craig: The elevator is standing by for you to jump on
November 14th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
I would be more than happy to participate and contribute!
November 15th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Great idea - I would be more than happy to get aboard!
November 19th, 2007 at 1:06 am
Sounds like an excellent idea! We definitely could use this!
Connie
November 19th, 2007 at 1:50 am
Please put me on the list. I would also like to know more about the conference format. Will this be an unconference? Will you be accepting applications for speakers? Will the community vote on the panel topics? Who is governing this program? I run an online community managers meetup in SF, and I would be interested in getting involved, if there is room for that.
November 19th, 2007 at 1:52 am
I just assumed that there would be a conference associated with this association, so I also may be wrong about that, too. But if I am wrong and no conference is involved, what will participation look like for members?
November 19th, 2007 at 5:58 am
Congratulations on your endeavor. I’ve been an online community manager for almost 20 years, and it’s still an exciting field. Count me in. — Steve
November 19th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Good idea,
I can volunteer the WebCrossing white-labeled social networking platform, Neighbors, as the communications mechanism where everyone can have a personal space as well as a terrific environment for collaboration, photo sharing, blogging, etc.
Jim Bert
November 19th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
I am interested in learning more.
November 21st, 2007 at 11:50 am
Great to see such an organisation. We at Tempero are one of the world’s largest moderation companies and moderate for clients such as BBC, Channel 4, Sky, NSPCC, Orange, ITV, Sainsburys, Fiat and many more.
If we can help please shout
Dom Sparkes
November 22nd, 2007 at 11:46 am
Sounds great, please count me in.
Morgan
November 25th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
[…] Sascha’s call embodies the spirit of the role of Community Manager: This call is intended to gather professional community managers and community builders working in the field of online communities. […]
November 25th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
please include me in this organization, thanks!
November 25th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
[…] Also see this association of community managers (IOCMA) that are now calling for members (link via […]
November 26th, 2007 at 4:09 am
This is great, I’ve been working effectively as a community manager on technical support forums for over a year but have not managed to find others doing this to be able to learn from their experiences.
Count me in!
Thanks
November 26th, 2007 at 9:39 am
great initiative, count me in!
November 26th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Working on a new community for young people to be live next February 2008. Have been working on communities for several years now. Hope to share experiences and learn!
November 26th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I’m interested. Thanks for pulling this together.
November 26th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Would definitely like to hear more about this. Thanks.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
I would love to be part of this association! Well done Connie on launched a much needed initiative.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Maria, I take the freedom to directly add you to the list
November 29th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
it sounds realy interesting! could you send me some more information?
thanks!
December 1st, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Hi from spain
please send me more information as this start running and count on me to help from spainsh and hispanic space!!!
December 3rd, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Wonderful to see this initiative; my colleague and I who look after our growing community interaction at our company will be interested in details and association. Sounds exciting! I’m very interested in discussing best practices and ways we can be supportive and inclusive of fellow professionals in our industry. Though we’re new at this at social/community building at our company, we approach it with a service-minded attitude and high integrity; hope to be able to contribute value and experiences to this meta-community!
December 5th, 2007 at 8:59 am
[…] hat im CM-Forum bei XING gerade eine sehr interessante Sache veröffentlicht: Er hat heute die IOCMA gestartet, die “International Online Community Manager Association“. Hinter diesem […]
December 6th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
This is a great idea, and I very excited to see where it goes. Let me know if there is any additional information and/or I can be of any help.
December 17th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
I’m interested in seeing where this goes. Keep me updated and/or let me know if there is anything you need help with.
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
We are creating a new website to aggregate all online community and groups - based in Barcelona Spain. We are an international team of people (many Germans anyway ;-)) - so count us in to help you spread the word! Will be looking for a community manager shortly! Keep me updated!
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Great idea! Thanks
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R56ma87de
January 16th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Great idea! Thanks
January 17th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
A little late to the party, but I’d like to know more as well. In addition to moderating communities for companies ranging from AARP to Cisco, we’re also the host of an online community roundtable and would like to help this effort as well. (Seems like the CMMC died quickly, hopefully this does not.)
Please send me information.
Thanks!
Mike
January 21st, 2008 at 5:12 pm
[…] IOCMA - International Online Community Managers Association […]
January 21st, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Hi Sascha! I too am late to the party, just found out about the group over at Community Guy. I’m the Community Content Coordinator for Bakersfield.com, the website of The Bakersfield Californian newspaper. Newspaper.coms are incorporating the tools of social media and user interaction into their web presences in ever increasing numbers, and TBC’s been an early adopter, developing its own software platform for profiles and blogging and deploying it on niche hyperlocal sites and on the paper’s flagship site, where I work. It’s exciting to be in this field at this time, and I’m glad to find you all. (Just joined the email list too.)
January 24th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Great Idea, but what can we do? This job is new and interesting. I like it, but a “red line” is missing.
I´am the community manager of www.derwesten.de
How kann it works? Let me know.
January 26th, 2008 at 5:59 am
[…] IOCMA - International Online Community Managers Association […]
January 30th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Count me in when it’s up…great idea…the vanguard of new marketing, media and customer centricity awaits!
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Count me in too!
February 6th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I’d love to participate. As a company desparately trying to make companies understand they can build community AND make an ROI, I value the input of others on the subject.
I’d love to help you set up IOCMA formal association. Let me know what I can do to help.
February 13th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
My team and I would be thrilled to be a part of this forum. CommunityLend is the first P2P loan marketplace in Canada. We have a very strong focus on Community both within our application and externally. I will try and be as regular as I can with my contributions and look forward to all the fantastic help and support.
Cheers and thank you for getting this group together
Dave Coleman
March 14th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Community Management requires a rare combination of new and a old skills that for a lot of companies are either overlooked, undervalued or misunderstood.
A good community manager has the rare gift of being able to help both the community and the company simultaneously….
Okay enough evangelising for now, sign me up.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I work for an professional trade / individual membership association and am leading a project to redesign and develop our online communities. I’d love to help/participate in any way I can.
March 20th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
very nice web site. My English is not so good, so I do not understandt it well, but it seems very good. Thanks
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Babelgum is a new, global, high-resolution, on demand TV platform for the Internet. We are currently recruiting for a Global Community Director based in London or Milan. If you or anyone you know has experience in building active online communities of customers (B2C) and are interested in this position, please send an email to jobs@babelgum.com to hear more about the role. (www.babelgum.com)
May 4th, 2008 at 7:16 am
A bit late to the party, but count me in =)
May 12th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
I would like to know more as well. thanks!
May 21st, 2008 at 11:03 am
Hello all,
I’m really looking forward to joining this group. Have only been Community Manager for a few weeks but already love it!