OCMforum: OCMforum -> A Community Manager Should Never Stop Learning

I truly am fascinated with the interaction of people online, it's one of the reasons I've been a community manager for almost 10 years. The last 6 months or so I have slowly come to the realization that I am good at what I do, and that the community management knowledge that I have accumulated over the years does have worth. I may not be as corporate savvy as some, but is that necessarily a disadvantage? Instead of having my head up in the clouds I have been down in the trenches getting myself dirty, and learning how people tick, but I felt I needed to be better at communicating that knowledge to others. So with that in mind I decided I would take some college classes and dust of some of my brain cells. I figured I've got all this junk going around in my head and I need to learn the tools of the trade to dig it all out.

So why am I waffling on about taking classes and learning new things? Well as we all know communities grow and evolve all the time. New members join, old members leave, the dynamics of the membership change and the site matures and adapts. So all this change means that as a community manager I need to grow with the needs of the community. To be ready for change, to anticipate the needs of the members and to act accordingly

When you've been with your community a long time, and watched it grow in size, its very easy to get stuck in your ways. The "if it's not broken, don't fix it" mentality is hard to break free from, especially if you are afraid that rocking the boat will result in something falling out. But if we don't learn new ways of doing things then the communities that are entrusted into our care will not flourish.

If you don't want to stretch your brain muscles in a classroom then instead learn from other community managers. Find out what works for them, what doesn't. Ask questions of others. Participate in communities for Online Community Managers, read some blogs, read some books. The most important thing is not where, or from whom we learn, but rather that we are open to new ideas and suggestions so that we can grow along with the communities we manage.