experience matters

I always find myself under the spell of the charismatic, in real life and online.
The power of charisma shines through in a person’s online activity, making them, quite simply, really likeable. They listen, are positive and authentic and as a community manager, I actively try to eke out any ounce of my charisma that I have naturally as well as trying to learn from the insanely likeable.

The effect of charisma became glaringly clear after I read an article published by Psychology Today that detailed and quantified its impact on business communication. The article was based on a study that followed an executive education course that culminated in a presentation. The presentations were given in teams and the study highlighted the traits of the team that communicated its final presentation most successfully. I’ll give one guess on a trait that led to success: Charismatic team members. Or what the study called “energetic but focused listeners.” This type of team member helped lead a team to success by enabling higher quality brainstorm sessions, and as a result these teams had “high levels of engagement, trust, and cooperation.” Insert light bulb moment here.

Engagement, trust and cooperation are the foundations of a well moderated and productive community. This finding simply reinforces what good community managers already know: so often, when acting as the conduit between a brand and its community, it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. @Misskatiemo, comes to mind. She’s a community manager for Radian6 who is fairly delightful: answering questions with a virtual smile and wishing community members luck before they present the data they’ve compiled with Radian6.

What Katie and other great community managers understand is that simply saying “thank you for your feedback,” being polite and conversational, all while letting the community know that they matter can prevent social media bombs. It’s important to treat a community member as a part of your team and tirelessly work to get them an answer even in the midst of a how-the-heck-do-I-answer-this-question situation, or better yet, a get-legal-on-the-phone question. More often than not, the community member expects that they’re being listened to and they want to know that their feedback is appreciated.

Haters and instigators exist in every community, but beyond those outliers, a sense of Team Brand or Team Cause exists. Charismatic community moderators instill a sense of trust in their “team” that is apparent when the community can be counted on to answer each others’ questions. I hear @JessiO celebrating these team victories and often look over to see her fist pump and shout a helpful community member’s name. Team: 1, Haters: 0.

If nothing else, a charismatic leader can lend some focus to community and give it some direction as it does some collective brainstorming. With a united front celebrating the brand/cause when it does something awesome and constructively letting them know when a product or action is less than awesome, the brand is always getting a boost either way.