The 5 Qualities of Highly Effective Community Managers

Less than three years ago, community managers were a rare group of employees most often found at technology startups. Today, the role of community manager is common at companies of all sizes — from startups to multinational corporations. Despite their ubiquity, there is still a lot of confusion around what a community manager actually does and what employers should look for when hiring one.

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Six Social Media Best Practices Made Easy

Social media might intimidate business owners. It is a relatively new technology wherein they do not have full control over what’s going to happen and where everything leads. Most businesses understand how a website works, and they appreciate that they can have an online store that can take customer orders, sell their products, and allow their customers to get in touch with them or get to know their products or services better. But with a website, where communication is one way, everything is under their control.

Moreover, hype around social media tends to discourage a lot of business owners. They set up a Facebook page, and then wait for new customers to pour in, just as what the hype promises. But when it does not happen, they immediately forget about their Like pages. But here are the best practices that we at hubze always implement in any social media effort.

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Social Media for Small Businesses: 6 Effective Strategies

Many small business owners are either too busy for social media, or they don’t truly understand Facebook, Foursquare, or Twitter. So they choose to delegate these tools to interns or specialists. This may not always be in the best interest of the company.

I’m not a social media expert. Far from it. I haven’t ousted any mayors yet, and probably won’t anytime soon. But I am a small business owner and entrepreneur who truly embraces the unique opportunity that social media offers. Nothing else gives me such a direct way to “talk” with my clients and community on a daily basis. And people are what brought me into business in the first place.

Over the past few years, I’ve made it a point to explore and understand the social web around me. And while I’ll be the first to admit there’s a lot left to learn, here are a few key lessons I’ve discovered so far.

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How the Real Estate Industry Is Using Social Media

The real estate industry has seen a number of social media innovations over the past few years. Real estate pros are using social media to provide online property tours, schedule showings and showcase local expertise.

Alexis Lamster, VP of customers at Postling and creator of the infographic below, told us that the company analyzed more than 500 Postling accounts specific to real estate and more than 7,000 small business accounts to extract information on how the real estate industry is using social media.

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Is Working From Home Becoming the Norm? [SURVEY]

Working from home is becoming more common, more accepted by managers and more sought-after by employees than ever before, according to a survey conducted by Skype, one of the bastions of telecommuting technology.

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HOW TO: Launch Any Product Using Social Media

By Greg Kawasaki: There are few processes that I enjoy more than a product introduction, and this one enabled me to try many social media techniques and online tools and services. After only a week, the book was on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. I have to conclude that at least some of that success was due to the promotional techniques I employed.

Here, I’d like to outline the 12 things that I did to launch my new book, including information about costs and vendors I used, as well as analytics. Though my “product” is a book, the methods I used can apply to product introductions in general. Hopefully this post will provide marketers with ideas for how to launch just about anything. Guy Kawasaki is the author of Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions.
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HOW TO: Launch Any Product Using Social Media