More Community Best Practices

More Community Best Practices


Originally shared by Google+

Community Management Best Practices - Retaining Moderators For Your Community: How To Keep Them Invested
This piece was written by Community Vanguards member Cliff Wade
Introduction

In this article we’re going to talk about community owners and various ways for them to keep their moderators invested within the community and ways that makes it worth continuing to do the job they do that is so very important to each and every community on Google+

There will be ideas of things that I feel might be of use to a community owner or even specific things mentioned by a couple of my own community moderators for the Nova Launcher communities that I’m in charge of here on G+.

Owner vs Moderator: Treat Them All The Same
There is always an owner of a community and then there are moderators of a community in most cases. For me personally as a community owner of two communities for Nova Launcher where I have 3 moderators I don’t separate the two roles.

For me, my moderators are my team members and they work with me, not for me. I treat them as a complete equal to me in every way possible. If they have suggestions or ideas of community settings or something we could change within the community, we discuss it on our Slack channel and then whatever we agree upon, I let them change it or enable/disable it or whatever.

It’s important to make them feel as much as a part of the overall team as possible. When they are able to change little settings like “Hold Posts For Review” or something similar, it gives them a sense of responsibility but it also makes them realize that I as the owner trust them to not mess things up. And that’s definitely how it is because I do trust them. If I didn’t, they wouldn’t be my moderators and someone you don’t trust shouldn’t be your moderator either.

They know and understand things ultimately get discussed with me on any changes within the community, but that’s where me as the owner stops being separated from them as a moderator. We are a team and in our case we are family in a lot of ways. We spend hours and hours talking to each other, and not always just about community related items but about general everyday stuff as well. Again, this gives them comfort and makes them enjoy being a part of everything and in my opinion is one of the reasons why they continue to do what they do when it comes to community moderation.

When They Post On G+, Interact With Them On Their Posts
This is another thing in my opinion as it shows your moderators that you care about them beyond just the community, their duties within the community and similar things.

When they see you interacting with them on posts outside of the community, they get a sense that you care, and you should. These guys and girls are the ones that help keep our communities running as smoothly as possible and without them, where would we be?

They make an everyday general post on G+ outside of the community and you share it, hit that +1 button and then interact via a comment, they know you’re there for more than just their moderator abilities. Again, this hopefully makes them appreciate you more and to want to continue to come back and do the their moderator duties for your community.

Have Fun With Them Outside Of G+
For myself and my moderators, we have a Slack channel where myself, the Nova Launcher developer, our graphics guy and of course the moderators themselves hang out and talk. We have separate chat channels for mod stuff only but we have a #General channel where day to day talk happens. This is where we talk about anything and everything, and even at times a bit of moderation type stuff gets discussed here. But more importantly it’s a place for all of us, but especially them, to wind down, express themselves, talk about the things they enjoy, post a news link they have read and found interesting or whatever else.

This lets them unwind from the moderation duties. As we all should know, moderating can be a stressful job at times and there are times that unwinding and just relaxing and getting away from the “work day” is important and much needed.

Their Opinions Matter, So Let’s Ask Them
As I stated early on I would also be including some information directly from my mods as to what keeps them motivated to want to come back and do this every day.

Ivan Staines provided his thoughts below:
1. We all get on together as a team. To me that's the most important thing.
2. This is never boring, there's always something new or different to get our teeth into.
3. Being able to help newer users who frankly don't have a clue about Nova and what Nova can / can't do is always a little rewarding.
4. I think having a team of mods from all over the place is a good thing as we have such diverse and different cultures and time zones to deal with issues.
5. There's always someone around to help users.

Stephan Schwöbel provided his thoughts below:
1. Broadening my knowledge
2. Applying knowledge to help other members
3. Being part of an international community
4. Meeting the challenges of repetitive questions
5. Developing, pertaining and delivering a communication culture
6. Being there for those who seek help
7. Having fun to work with a muti-cultural moderating team

Conclusion And Final Thoughts
This list of things I’ve mentioned are just a small part of many things you can do to keep your moderators interested in the community and for them to keep coming back. As you can see from a couple of my moderators themselves, they share some of the same opinions and ideas of what it means to be a moderator and what it takes for them to remain invested into the community to continue doing what they do each and every day.

Again, without our moderators we would be in a world of hurt and would have even more things to have to deal with on a daily basis than what we already have and that can often lead the downfall of a community once it were to get to grow to a certain size and we as a single person couldn’t handle it.

Treat them like family and interact with them as well as show them that you truly do appreciate them. Appreciation goes a very long way with most people and chances are it will go even further with your moderators.

Don’t always sit and talk business and all about the community. Have normal everyday conversations with them and show them they are more than just someone who is “working for you” by helping you keep a community clean and organized and I assure you they will stick around.

One final thing I'd like to add as some hopeful inspiration. I took the picture below while in Las Vegas in January 2017 and this picture states something to me with regards to this very topic of conversation. What it says to me is that you want to reach for the highest platform possible when it comes to communicating, dealing with and encouraging your fellow employees, moderators or whatever. No platform is too high to achieve if you put your mind to it.

How does that go along with this picture you ask? For me, I look at it as this. If I can make it as high as that building top then just a couple more steps is the moon and right beyond that is the sky that we all know is unlimited.

Treat your people with respect and appreciate them at all costs. With that you and them both will be successful and likely achieve a lot of things within your community.

Cliff Wade runs the Nova Launcher Beta Community, among others: https://plus.google.com/communities/113183067148724183791
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