Social Marketing Central

I have been a part of message forums and chat rooms for around 15 years now and I’ve come to find that I really enjoy a forum where the Admin/owner of the forum ‘gets it‘.  Recently I joined a message board, which is called ‘a group’ over there, which is operated by a man named Jack Humphrey.  The group is located over at the Friday Morning Traffic and is called Social Marketing Central.

What Do You Mean By “Gets It”?

In 1936, Dale Carnegie wrote a book called “How To Win Friends And Influence People”.  The book has been on the New York Times best sellers list for over 10 years and sold over 15 Million copies.  It’s a self-help book about how to handle people and get them to like you.  I obviously never read the book because I will probably alienate large groups of people by saying what I have to say… but people are resilient, they will get over it. J

What I mean by “gets it” is a combination of things.  I’ll outline some of them and tie them into Social Marketing Central to show why I think Jack gets it!

1. A good administrator of any message board has to have an idea for their board that will draw people.  Jack has over 1437 members on his site.

2. A good administrator of any message board should design their board in a way that is pleasing to the eye.  Take a look at Jack’s site, it’s pleasing to the eye with out being gaudy or overdone. It’s simple, but tastefully done.

3. A good administrator has to offer his or her members some variety.  The forums, or groups, on a message board can all have a common theme - but they should have some diversity to keep the members interested and entertained.  Jack has approximately 31 groups and he allows new groups to be started. Additionally Jack has a variety of topics, which all tie into the Social Marketing theme for the board.

4. A good administrator sets up their board so that the members can contact the admin and find out the rules with ease.  Jack places his contact links and Terms of Service (TOS) at the bottom of his main page. The only easier way is to place them at the top and who really wants to do that.

5. A good administrator makes his or her site easy to navigate.  Jack places his main buttons for navigating his site at the top where members can see them.

6. A good administrator let’s the members and staff know they are in charge, with out being obnoxious and overbearing.  I am not sure if Jack knows how to be obnoxious and overbearing, but he does have a flare for managing people.

7. A good administrator remembers the people element.  Jack seems to not feel the need to belittle or embarrass people, yet he can get his points across.  I like that in an Admin, take this example, for instance.

The Situation

Recently a situation occurred where a moderator, who was not named, made a comment about a member being self-promotional, of course this caused a discussion in the forum.  The situation was brought to the attention of Jack, and he handled it by saying his moderators made a mistake, which apparently was corrected in private, then informed everyone that moderators are people too and make mistakes.  Those weren‘t his exact words, but it was the sentiment… and he was right, moderators are not infallible, which is sometimes something of which we all need to be reminded. On the other hand Jack showed that he was not of the nature that he forgot the member and placed his members as a sort of second class citizen in the group.  His decisions showed that he remembered the human side and treated his members as real people.

On some forums you have admins who are afraid of offending their members by making judgments against them, Jack doesn’t seem to be of this sort.   In the past I have seen him remind an unruly member of the purpose of the forum and sort of suggest that the guy might be happier elsewhere.  In this case he decided that the member had a valid point and went against his moderator(s) decisions.  This ought to set Jack up for the No BS award of the month. J

Social Marketing Central

If you are interested in Search Engine Tactics, Email Delivery, Social Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, or Internet Marketing then Jack’s SMC is definitely one the place you want to be.  Jack has been in the internet marketing field for over 10 years and has acted as a consultant, coach and author.  The man knows of what he speaks.  On his boards he has many members who range from the novice to the experienced pro.  It is urged, on his boards, that the only dumb question is the one not asked.  He wants people to speak up and ask questions, share their knowledge and become better internet marketers in the process.

This, and more, are the reasons for why Jack ‘gets it’.  Jack could easily use his site for a launching place for his own business interests and sites on the net.  He could tell his members that they are not allowed to promote their own blog posts or he could downplay using information from Jack’s competitors.  Jack’s philosophy could very easily be “It’s all about Me, Me, Me!“  These things have been done before on other message forums in the past.  Jack doesn’t do that.  Of course he doesn’t want his help groups to turn into advertising pits, but he does allow people to post articles on their own blogs and utilize them as posts.  He only asks in return that you honor the spirit of the group and the purpose it was created. .