The Ties That Bind

This is a note from Nicola Jones, Bright One’s new Community Manager. You can follow her on Twitter at @navigatornic.

I’ve been watching Bright One from the periphery since its very early days. I’ve seen it grow and become and exciting and creative player in third sector communications, a real alternative to the traditional forces at work, so when I heard Bright One were looking for a Community Manager the chance to combine my own skills with volunteering for an organisation I’ve admired greatly was too good to be true!

By day I am the Community and Communications Manager of UnLtdWorld.com – an online community that connects social entrepreneurs to the people, tools and information they need to change the world. I’ve been lucky enough to be at UnLtdWorld pretty much since its conception. It’s been a crazy ride, taking it from a simple idea to a community of over 13,000 members worldwide.

I think I’ve ended up as a Community Manager mostly because I’ve always liked teams. I like the idea of feeling a part of something. I strongly believe in the power of a united and strong community and how that will always succeed more than people striking out alone.

What will having a Community Manager mean to Bright One? Hopefully it will further strengthen the ties Bright One has to all its stakeholders, make everyone feel part of a movement, make people feel connected to Bright One before, during and after any interaction they have with us.

Community Managers are a fairly new breed, an important development in a marketplace where there are so many distractions and so many competitors. It is important to make people feel like they belong to something to ensure their loyalty and engagement. So whilst I could try and tell you what the best practice is for community engagement, I’m not sure there should be any. There are things that all communities need, qualities that Community Managers should have, but each community is so different that the only really key things are being versatile, relevant and listen to your community. What they say goes.

So that’s what I’ll try and bring as Bright One’s Community Manager. In practice I’ll be running Bright One’s social media presence, but more than that I’ll be working with internal and external communications to really look at how we all relate to each other. In theory, I’ll listen to how you all want to communicate and I’ll not be afraid to chop and change as you do, and as Bright One grows…

Oh and I’ll try not to talk about my Oasis obsession too much!