Traits of an Online Community Organizer (or Our Wish List for BricaBox Employee #1)
Published by Nate WestheimerSeth Godin wrote today that the Online Community Organizer will be an “employee of the future.”
Well, that future is here — and some folks (Josh, Tara, Chris, etc) have been writing about it for sometime.
Here at BricaBox, we’re so sure that community engagement is mission critical we plan on making a community organizer Employee Number One, and will put a call out for resumes soon before launch time.
When that time comes, what are the things we’ll be looking for? Off the top of my head, our community organizer will be:
A Sociologist.
Knowledge of how community works is super important if you’re going to be working within one. I don’t care if you’re an amateur, bar-stool sociologist or if you took classes with Max Weber himself (or Angela Davis!) the community organizer must have a sense for community dynamics and be able to demonstrate it (like with blog postings!).
A Bricoleur.
A bricoleur deals with limited resources intuitively and in a way which is itself art. The art of bricolage is fundamental for BricaBox for two reasons. Firstly, and most obviously, because we are a start-up. We both have limited resources and thrive on dealing with limited resources. We believe that entrepreneurship is like making good french toast: too much batter is when you’re unnecessarily weighed down; too little batter is when you have nearly none at all. The second reason you must be a bricoleur as BricaBox’s community manager is because the BricaBox platform itself is a limited resource with predetermined features. However, the platform also has infinite applications, and finding new ones is where a true bricoleur will shine.
A (technology) Ambassador.
People who “get” technology speak differently than people who “kinda” get technology and those who “don’t get” technology. If you want to be an effective community organizer, you have to be able to natively speak all three (you wouldn’t do community organizing in a predominantly latino neighborhood without knowing Spanish!). Are you the one who got your mom to start blogging? Did you teach your friend what RSS is, or sign-up your book-club for a Google Group? If yes, then you’re a technology ambassador.
An Advocate.
One of the most important reasons to have a community organizer is to have a person focused on the needs of the community and the communication of those needs to the powers-that-be (that’s me and Kyle!). You must be able to stand on a chair and shout passionately about what your constituency needs, because even though you’re an employee of the company, community organizer is not a pseudonym for “Propaganda Artist.” Nonetheless, you also have to be up front explaining why the company does certain things, and even when the community is upset by things, you have to understand that while the community is right most of the time, it isn’t right all of the time.
