Tales, Trials and Teachings of the Community Management World

Great, we'd love to throw a party for the yelpers! So, tell me, what's your day job? asked a very well intentioned local business owner. "Well, being Yelp's Community Manager IS my day job. And my night and weekend job too. We like to call it a lifestyle."

There's lots of Community Management positions popping up over the web. We share some similarities (like no office and no nine-to-five) and likely a whole whack of different responsibilities. In this talk I'll share some of the day-to-day tasks and tips that have made my personal experience as a CM: organizing life and work in a 24/7 info junkie world; online communicating tact; the tales, trials and teachings that building and maintaining community contains. I've learned more in the past 2 years than any textbook, blog or degree could teach. And I'm gunning to share... because the stuff I've learned isn't just about CM'ing, it's about life-ing.

CRYSTAL HENRICKSON. SPEAKER'S BIO

I had studied Communications at SFU, held a stint as a makeup artist, another as a liquor rep, done some biz dev in cosmetics and helped small businesses with their marketing by the time I answered a Craigslist ad for Yelp Vancouver's first Community Manager in the winter of 2009. At the time, the only thing I honestly knew was that the job description spoke to me in a way nothing else ever had. Between sponsoring community and marketing events throughout Vancouver, informing business owners on how to maximize their online presence, authoring the Weekly Yelp newsletter and bringing an online community together offline by hosting parties, I have embarked on the steepest learning curve of my life. I had no idea that becoming a CM would shape my world in the sheer magnitude that it has. And now, my playground just got bigger, as I help a whole team of Community Managers across Canada and the Pacific Northwest cultivate their own communities.