We're members of different communities (online or offline) with diverse roles. The community management challenge is actively talked. What this new position requires ? What are the best practices ? Though, we're still learning and trying to see what works, we've already experienced the way some community managers lead. Here's a quick list of misconceptions :
1. "They need to see me as much as possible". It's still important for community managers to be visible, especially when starting the movement. Personal branding is also essential to gain credibility and attention. But at the end of the day, people only wants to see community managers when needed, not all the time. People wants to see and meet each other online and offline.
2. "They didn't get the news. I have to re-send every single information". Over-communicating could lead your efforts to failure by turning signal into noise. The matter is, everyone's already quite busy doing something or receiving loads of messages. Social media is mainly free and makes it very simple to communicate but it's easy to sound 'spammy'.
The Seth Godin's permission idea and opt-in strategies are far more efficient, because it's up to people to choose what content to get. Communities are usually made of few active participants and many lurkers. The goal is to turn as many lurkers as possible into active participants without pushing them.
3. "They love my product/service". It might be the case. What they trully love is the story they tell to themselves.
4. "I absolutely want my followers to retweet my messages". Having 'followers' doesn't mean you own them. Respect is earned and there's a long way to go. It's up to your community members to spread your messages. Community management isn't having a super-power and thinking like a king. It's about listening and learning from others. It's about serving people and building a long-lasting relationship. It's not about 'you', it's about 'them'.
5. "More followers and more friends means more popularity". Popularity doesn't always equal influence. Cory Doctorow invented
the 'whuffie' concept where he describes a post-scarcity society where only contributions are valued. The right question to ask is : "How could I help ?"