Announcing the Community Manager Google+ Hangout

There’s a great community manager Twitter chat each week, #cmgrchat, but we haven’t seen a regularly scheduled Community Manager Hangout yet! Today we decided with very little notice to host a Google Hangout for community managers. With 1 hour notice, a couple tweets, and a mention on a Skype group, we ended up with 4 participants, 2 non-community managers from the UK and one person that tried to get in but we never said hello to. So how did it go?

Tim McDonald started the hangout from My Community Manager’s Google+ page. Megan Larsen joined in shortly after. We also had David DeWald and Randall Wong  join in. Overall the sound and video was good. Randall let us know that he didn’t have a mic, so although he could hear us, he would have to communicate via the chat. Some observations for future hangouts are: be sure to use headphones and mic; use a wired internet connection if possible; and test your video and sound before joining (do this be starting your own hangout-it will give you a chance to test both before beginning).

So now to the important question…When do you want to have the weekly hangout?

Let us know what day and time would work best for you to participate in a Google Hangout every week.

We know we won’t please everyone, but this will give us the best idea of when most people can make it. Don’t forget, Google Hangouts only allow up to 9 guests, so these weekly chats will be limited, but as this grows, so will the features Google+ has. More will be able to watch and we’ll be able to record the hangouts for all to watch at a later date.

So what are you waiting for? Tell us the best day and time for you to come hang out with us! What? You’re not on Google+ yet? Think this is a stupid idea? Don’t worry, we don’t hate! Leave a comment and tell us how you really feel.

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About the author:

Founder of My Community Manager, Bringing together community managers together through online and off line events. Community Manager for HuffPost Live, Huffington Post's online streaming network. Co-Chair WOMMA's #CMCouncil Innovation & Technology sub-committee. Leading Community for #TChat Former Director of Communications for Social Media Club Chicago Founder of Lake County Social Networking Founder of Chicago Community Manager Group

14 comments
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Richym59
Richym59

I would love to be a part of this in the future whenever I am at home during myleave time. It would be awesome to talk to you guys about the job roles and aspects behind it.

TessaAuza
TessaAuza like.author.displayName 1 Like

I would love to participate! I've done this with Tim once before so I'm ready and set to go. I agree a midday hangout may be tough for most folks but I'd like to see the results of the survey.

QuirkyBean
QuirkyBean

Good going :) I'm also surprised that the 'Community Manager' scene doesn't have an ongoing huddle right now either.

JPedde
JPedde like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

@QuirkyBean I think it's a great idea. But I find that even during #Cmgrchat many people are multitasking (that's what CMs do best) -- so being in a long hour video chat takes away from the tasks and it's hard to commit to. I hope it gets going though, I'd love to see some faces over virtual coffee. ;) Perhaps we can do a 1-2 play of a Chat Topic followed up by a hangout to go more indepth. Lots of possibilities!

QuirkyBean
QuirkyBean

@JPedde@meganlarsen4@tamcdonald - Ever used Whatsapp, Ping, BBM? Huddle = Google's version of this. Google messenger as it were. It's available on the mobile version of Google+ - you can open a huddle with anyone - so if you have a CM circle - you can be connected to all the folks using huddle at all times of the day.

I like it because it's like instant messenger. I think you achieve more of a natural flow of conversation than on twitter/fb.

Have you guys seen/tried it?

Our community has had a 'giffgaff' huddle going now for 189 days. :) It's been a lovely slice of building community spirit.

tamcdonald
tamcdonald moderator like.author.displayName 1 Like

@JPedde@QuirkyBean Thanks Hazel! Look forward to actually chatting (almost in person) with you soon. Jenn, great point. Actually one of the reasons why I'm not able to participate in #CMGRchat on a regular basis. Having some people come and go may help with the total number of people that can participate. Also looking forward to when Google allows all of us to share hangouts with others to view and then post to YouTube right away. I'm really hoping the timing on that will coincide with the hangout consistently getting more than 9 people participating!

meganlarsen4
meganlarsen4 like.author.displayName 1 Like

@JPedde@QuirkyBean Hello and thank you both for the comments! We've hope that with the positive feedback we've been receiving from our community, and with a small and committed group willing to participate, that we'll get this thing going! If not, @tamcdonald and I can talk for days ;) Hope to meet you both there!

Justicewordlaw
Justicewordlaw like.author.displayName 1 Like

If this is actually setup a bit more and marketed ahead of time a lot more people would attend and this would be a great hangout for community managers to express their thoughts.

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tamcdonald
tamcdonald moderator

@Justicewordlaw That's the plan Justice! Have to start somewhere and look forward to picking a time that works for most.

JPedde
JPedde

@VanRiper tried this awhile back to help support CLSWest and community management in general. Not sure it took off... good luck with it though!

tamcdonald
tamcdonald moderator

@JPedde@vanriper Thanks Jenn! Sometimes timing is everything. We'll see how it goes. I was pretty pleased with being about 50% of hangout capacity with less than an hour's notice yesterday. Hopefully with more notice and a regular schedule this will take off. Keep up the great work with #CMGRChat

meganlarsen4
meganlarsen4 like.author.displayName 1 Like

The G+ hangout was indeed late notice, but it was also an indication that we should move forward with the idea! This is a great way to put names to faces, and mutually exchange opinions and information! I'm open to any day...so I'll let our community do the deciding for us : D

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