I recently interviewed Ning’s Chief Operating Officer Jason Rosenthal  for an article that will appear in the January issue of EContent Magazine. (It will also be on their website and I will be sure to share the link.) Only portions of the interview will be used in the article, so I’ve decided to share the complete interview with you.

1.      How many Ning sites are there currently?

More than 1.6 million Ning Networks have been created on the Ning Platform and we currently have more than 36 million registered users.

2.      How would you characterize your growth since launch?

The Ning Platform has increased in size by more than 300 percent in the number of Ning Networks created, registered users and active Ning Networks in the past year.  We see approximately 5,000 new Ning Networks being created every day and we are adding about one million registered users every 12 days.

3.      Does Ning have any plans to offer more analytics as companies look more towards specific measurements to gauge the effectiveness of their communities?

We are committed to arming our Network Creators with the tools to make their Ning Network as successful as possible. We currently offer Ning Network Creators a variety of management features to optimize the effectiveness of their Ning Network. This includes the ability to edit the layout of their Ning Network, bring in features unique to their needs, and manage the invitation flow. We also give our Network Creators the ability to easily integrate Google Analytics into their Ning Network.

In addition, for those running Virtual Gifts on their Ning Network, we offer a rich set of analytics tools to measure and quantify gift transactions and frequency.

4.      What are some of the most successful communities using the NING platform?

Success on Ning comes in all forms depending on the goals of the Network Creator and the interests of their members. Some examples include:

The Twilight Saga – A Ning Network for fans of the Twilight book series with over 200,000 members

- Brooklyn Art Project – A Ning Network for fans of Brooklyn artists  with over 6,500 members

- GovLoop – a Ning Network for over 20,000 government employees and contractors at the federal, state, and local level

- IPL Nation – a Ning Network for over 700,000 fans of the Indian Premier Cricket League

-The Pickens Plan – a 200,000+ person strong Ning Network for grassroots organizing of T. Boone Pickens’ “wind energy army.”

5.      What are your short and long-term plans for the future of NING?

Ning’s vision is to enable everyone to live the most interesting and vibrant life possible by giving people a platform where they can join and create Ning Networks around interests and passions. We also want Ning to be a service that provides people with a way to become more and more unique through membership in a wide array of Ning Networks and express that uniqueness to the world. With this in mind, we want the Ning Platform to grow with people as their interests, passions and friendships evolve in ways that we can’t even imagine today.
We focus every day on adding more value for our Ning Network Creators and their members. We recently launched two new products, Ning Apps and Ning Virtual Gifts, which we will continue to expand upon. We will also have more to announce in the coming months – stay tuned!

6.      Do you find that many communities become dormant shortly after launch? If so, why?

We see a lot of experimenting on Ning, as well as Ning Networks created for timely topics, which leads to some Ning Networks becoming inactive, or having activity spikes at certain times of the year. This experimentation is natural in the area of social creation and technologies. However, many of our Ning Networks only increase in growth due to the way that we’ve built the invitation flow and other features inherent in the Ning Platform.

7.      What are your thoughts on what it takes to run a successful Ning community and how are you working to spread that knowledge to your users?

The Ning Help Center and the Ning Blog are great resources for Network Creators looking for ideas on how to maximize all the options and features Ning has to offer.

(Author’s note: I’ve also interviewed a slew of community managers currently using Ning and will publish their thoughts on it’s beneifits and shortcomings in the next few weeks.)

I asked a question of the Social Media: Engage panel at Internet Summit ‘09 about 30 minutes ago and since that moment I’ve been thinking about online anonymity. People seem to hate it.

When I blogged about the upside and relevance of anonymous comments as they relate to news stories, some people balked. Jason Falls said at Social Media Business Forum last month that he wishes newspaper sites would stop allowing anonymous comments altogether. I get that. I know the drama that ensues when people hide behind the cloak of anonymity. Heck, I live it as part of my job and I don’t always like it.

But I still maintain that there is a place for it. You shouldn’t always have to be who you are just to communicate across the web, whether you’re on a social site or otherwise.And not everyone has awful intentions. So, I am going to take this to the extreme.

If anonymity is no longer needed in society, let’s just get rid of the Witness Protection Program.

Let the people who snitch on the mafia boss and turn in the mass murderer come forward publicly and deal with the consequences that may come their way because they decided to speak up. It’s all about transparency and openness right? That’s what everyone is saying. Be who you are. Show your face. Is this a fair comparison? Maybe not, but I think you can better see what I mean by bringing it to that level.

The statement I made during my question of the panelists was that people are trying very hard to separate their personal lives from their professional lives in the social space, and even though that is probably impossible, they shouldn’t have to share their identity with everyone who visits your site just to interact with your content. That is how I feel about it. Alex Withers, head of Digital Media at the US Golf Association Association agreed. He discussed other options for registration on their site that do not reuire revealing your true self, as did Jennifer Sargent, CEO and Co-Founder of Hitfix. Withers had stated earlier that you should not create your own database of anonymous people, particularly when you can use Facebook Connect, something they didn’t do when placing a live chat window next to a live video stream of the U.S. Open. He went on to say that the content in that chat was not something they wanted on the site so they killed it. That was what they had to do. I’m sure it was ugly. But maybe it would have been better if it were moderated.  I know, I know you need resources to do that and not everyone wants to hire people to do that….

I also know this is a topic that many people disagree with me on, but we can’t agree on everything.

Forcing people to share themselves with your audience may keep them away. So let’s keep that in mind. Perhaps the strategy to focus on if you take this route is engaging lurkers, because I think you’ll have many of them. May as well figure out how to keep them.

I’m attending Internet Summit ‘09 tomorrow and plan to live-tweet and live blog, sharing what I find most interesting. At this point, these are the sessions I will attend, unless I change my mind at the last minute. If you’re interested in these sessions, follow me on twitter. I’m @communitygirl. You can also check my blog for updates and I may post over on SiliconAngle.

Blogging: New Media and Personal Branding

Panelists: Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim; Brad Hill, Director of Weblogs; Rick Klau, Business Product Manager, Blogger/Google and  Tim Schigel of ShareThis.

Meebo: Social Graph Optimiztion Analytics

Panelists: Seth Sternberg of Meebo; Doug Miller of Expedia; Ricci Wolman of The Body Shop;  Matt Van Horn of Digg; Jermaine McPeek of the Phoenix Suns; Eric bBsco, formerly of AOL and Wayne Sutton of OurHashtag.

Social Media: Engage

Panelists: Robyn Cobb of Cliqset; Alex Withers of the US Golf Association; Jennifer Sargent of HitFix and Bob Butler of Best Thinking, Inc. and Matt Van Horn (mentioned above)

Others I will likely attend include:

Online Advertising Strategies

Online Video Discussion OR Digg: Social Media Integration for Content Producers

Twitter/RealTime

Panelists: Robbie Allen of StatSheet Network; Don Brown of Twitpay; David Eckoff of Revolutionary Ventures; and Jermain McPeek (mentioned above)

Keynote: Joe Kennedy, CEO of Pandora

Should be interesting.

(The pic above is one I took from last year’s inaugural Internet Summit, in Chapel Hill, NC)

I heard a bit of disturbing news today about a community manager at a local competitor.

She has been reassigned, and it was not voluntary.

It turns out that the media company feels as though she has created such a robust community that it is now self-sustainable and no longer requires her services.

That’s really a shame. I wonder what their plan of attack will be when people stop contributing or the quality of content begins to spiral, which it will.

You would think I’d revel in this this news, as this is a competitor, but I can’t do it. It’s a hit to the craft and the importance of our work. Nothing about that brings me joy.

What are your thoughts on this? We all know that building it isn’t enough. They built it and people did come. But they only stayed because someone made it worth their while.  I wonder what will happen next. Whatever it is…chances are it won’t be pretty.

I’ll keep you posted.

Community Manager positions like most jobs in the social media space are evolving.
There is no real consensus on what the job should pay and it seemingly varies from one company to the next.
On a recent conference call for community managers, one of my peers from the Online Community Research Network who is looking for work gave interesting details about the conversations she’s had with potential employers. After gleaning a great deal of insight from her about community management during the initial interview, many have revised their job descriptions to incorporate some of what they learned from her, yet never called her back for a second interview.

It seems that they are benefiting from her experience with a highly respected leader in online video, to craft their own positions, once she has told them what they should be looking for.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds more like a consulting role rather than that of interviewee.  But that’s not the reason for this post. I found it in poor taste and simply wanted to share.

This post is about online community and social media compensation, which is the topic of the latest research released by Forum One Communications. The 46 page document is filled with interesting information and insight into what is really happening in the space from more than 350 professionals and is worth a close look.

One finding that supports the story I just shared is this:
Several respondents mentioned feeling like they were being inadequately compensated because of lack of data available regarding community and social media salaries, as well as lack of understanding of community and social media ROI relative to their organization’s activities.

Here are a few other highlights I’d like to share from the overall summary:

• The highest average median salary is 89K
• The gap between the average male and female salaries widened, with male respondents averaging $86,644 (up from $85,423 in ’08) and Females averaging $75,624 (down from $77,319 in ’08).
• The majority of respondents reported a salary increase in 2009, but the percentage compared to last year was down, as was a significant increase in the number of respondents who took a salary decrease in 2009 compared to 2008.

This is not a free report, however I would encourage you to consider purchasing if it fits your organization’s budget. For more information on the report, visit forumone.com. If you’re interested in OCRN membership, you can find details here.

Before you balk at the title of this post, hear me out. I have written in the past about the cloak of anonymity worn by trolls and how it allows them to run rampant on the internet with no real accountability or repercussions for their actions. I know firsthand the issues that can and often do arise as a result. Believe me.

I’ve  been dealing with this for some time working for traditional news organizations and being directly involved with user comments. User comments on news stories can be vicious and vile.  We happen to have moderators at my current company so our comments are a bit more tame. I oversee the team of moderators charged with approving and disapproving comments in real time and they do a great job.

There is some benefit to allowing screen names. Actually there is a need for anonymity in journalism. We need people to provide tips and leak information so corruption can be exposed.

We want the person who knows the bank robber or who saw the hit and run to step forward. Anonymity has often led to justice. It has brought down corporations, resulted in putting criminals behind bars and would-be serial rapists where they belong. Whistle blowers are very important in our society and anonymity allows a certain safety needed for many people to come forward.

The university or state employee  that can post an internal document on a news  site anonymously can make a big difference and be a great service to a community.

So as much as I hate what anonymity can produce online , let’s not forget about why it is still important. You can’t always put your face behind your message and that’s okay.

Transparency is the buzzword of the moment, but not everything belongs out in the open.

Remember, Deep Throat?

If you follow me on Twitter you know that I spent most of the day at the Social Media Business Forum. Actually I am still here. I am sitting in the second to last row at the Blogger Relations panel with Lucretia Pruitt, Ilina Ewen and Kelby Carr. It has been a really good conference so far.

I attended a session earlier today on Building and Managing an Online Community with panelists Patrick OKeefe, author of Managing Online Forums Laurie Smithwick of Kirtsy and Ryan Boyles.

During that session I commented during a question I asked that you are not a community manager until you have dealt with trolls who threaten to bomb your car. That was re-tweeted quite a bit and even called the tweet of the day, by Gregory Ng.

But the thing is, I am dead serious. My issue is the casual use of the title “community manager” that now somehow encompasses  customer service reps and anyone who monitors a brand on twitter or creates and manages a facebook fan page. Yes, you are reaching out and even communicating with the community but that is not enough.

Until you have been in the depths of this craft by nurturing and growing the community, reaching out to influencers, contributing massive amounts of content, dealing with relentless trolls and working hard to be an advocate of the community to bosses who may not necessarily understand what your work entails, I am not going to acknowledge you as a community manager.

There are many of us who take this work seriously and are put to task on a daily basis dealing with all that comes our way. And it is not pretty.

Laurie Smithwick answered my question saying that people like us need to hunker down and just do what we do and it will all  be clear in the end.

We are still in the very early days of social media and this is going to happen so I really need to just get over it. But right now, I find it annoying. I will hunker down next month.

For complete coverage of the Social Media Business Forum, search the hashtag #smbf. I also have a few photos on Flickr.

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You may recall the first time I experienced the death of community member.  It was a lot tougher than I’d ever imagined. Actually, I’d never given it much thought, and when it happened it was pretty tough. This member was young, vibrant and very well-liked in the community and believe me…the mourning was real.

Not too long after we had another member die as well. He was on vacation at the time and the news came as a shock. He’d recently blogged about his back surgery but there were no indications that he’d been sick.

When his partner announced in a blog post that he’d died, the community was mourning once again.

But what I want to share with you is his obituary. The online community was so important to him that his loved ones felt the need to mention it in his obituary. That last piece of information characterizing his life for all to remember including his involvement in an online community.

Here are the two excerpts that mention the community specifically:

John (GoPanthers) could frequently be found in the WRAL Community Forum GOLO until sidelined by his back surgery in March 2008. John loved animals both in nature and house pets. He was the proud father of Madison, a miniature Schnauzer and two Persian cats Sophie and Zoey.

…Brenda and Wayne Griffin, Vickie Abate, Peggy Holder and the many friends of John’s (GoPanthers) at WRAL’s GOLO Community Forum, including Juli, Lolly, and Mary.

I find it amazing that three of his best friends, who were important enough to mention in his obituary were found online, in the community I launched and continue to nurture.  That speaks volumes to what communities mean to the people in them.  The next time someone asks you why communities matter, tell them this story.

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I’ve heard that it’s lonely at the top. I know that it can also be very lonely as a community manager. We face a lot of obstacles. From serving as the lone advocate for the community, to feverishly fighting trolls in a battle that no one sees but us, this work can take you to task.

For some, the support system simply isn’t there. Managers may pay lip service to community initiatives and mention it’s importance from time-to-time, but the larger percentage don’t understand the work, what it entails and for that matter, HOW to support you.

If this is something you allow yourself to think about day in and day out, it can consume you. And depending on how well the community is delivering the results you need it to deliver, you could become apathetic, begin to hate what you do, or simply become so completely overworked that no one recognizes you. And these can all happen in the same day, in a matter of hours.

So if this is you, allow me to offer some encouragement.

Keep Caring. You have a job to do and you are passionate about the community.  The  level of care and concern you have for the community is what makes it great and will move it forward.

Spread the Word. Talk up the community to others in the company every chance you get. Share stories about what’s happening within the community. Forward comments and links to blog posts and photo galleries. Heck, go all out and create a daily round up of what’s going on and send it to key players in your organization.

Talk to other community managers. This, I can’t stress enough. We have to share these experiences and find people who understand and can relate to our issues.  Talk to me, I am always up for a quick email or chat.

Know when to walk away. When you are working around the clock 24/7, you have to check yourself.  I know this because I have been there and quite honestly, I’m not sure that I’m not still there.  You have to find a balance.  I know it’s hard when you’re doing everything on your own, but at some point you have to hang up the cape, and take that S off your chest.

I hope my words have been helpful to you. There’s definitely more where that came from. If you have any words of encouragement you’d like to share, please post them in the comments. We could all use a little help from time-to-time.

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I am noticing a pattern among those who consider themselves “social media savvy,” “early-adopters” and “jedi ninjas” or whatever the new term of the week may happen to be.

On one hand, they say there are no rules with social media. They call it the wild, wild, west and offer advice that pretty much says “go out there, try some stuff and see if it sticks.” I like that, and I think it’s important to convey a message of experimentation.

But then they go off on a tangent about what people shouldn’t do, act as if their way for managing Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts and fan pages, blogs and a slew of other platforms is the only way and anyone doing it differently is breaking the code.

So, there are no rules, but there is a code? WTH?

I am the first person to silently grumble about those who use their Facebook accounts as an outlet for their twitter streams and not much else, but who am I to tell them that it isn’t effective? I can simply hide them from my feed or un-friend them, right?

No, I don’t want to join a Mafia family and I don’t choose to learn which car best describes me or which game from the 80’s I am still able to play. But that’s me.  Some people enjoy that and it’s their prerogative.  And they could be reaching thier goals with those tactics.

I do wholeheartedly believe that communities develop a culture somewhat inorganically and that newcomers who don’t understand the culture can have a hard time, but that is pretty much how it works in branded communities. You can’t expect 300 million users to subscribe to the same culture.

I was a panelist at Meet the New Media, at NC State last week when a member of the audience expressed concern over stalkers following her. One of the panelists gave her a very detailed method of determining whether or not someone is worth following.

It included a series of events and involved a formula of comparing the number of followers against the number of people the suspected stalker is following, dividing that by pi, and multiplying it by Avogadro’s Number.  The results would then determine whether or not this person would show up on her doorstep wielding a knife in the wee hours of the night.

Okay, I’m being facetious and I hope my fellow panelist sees the humor if he is indeed reading this post.

But, I felt compelled to grab the mic after him and my advice to her was to not worry about it or over-think it.  I told her to look at their profile and if there is something that seems suspect, block them, especially the porn-types. But if the point is to grow your community, broaden your reach and learn from the masses, you can’t sweat the stalkers, and you certainly can’t worry about every new follower.

Because we all know that if a stalker wants you, they’ll find you. They can just head on over to LinkedIn, find out where you work, and get you in the parking lot. With all the information we are readily providing across social media, stalkers no longer need mad investigative skills to be effective.

So, if you’ve told anyone that they are failing at social media, find a new message. Failure is subjective and it really has no place in the Wild, Wild West. Enlighten them, don’t put them down. Offer new suggestions. And remember: Failing to see the point is not an indication of failure. Perhaps they’ve never been told about the benefits. So tell them.

After all, you are a jedi-ninja, so do your thing and welcome them to the wild, wild west.

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