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Looks like Ning's decision to go paid-only looks like it's making the company more sustainable. When Ning announced its intention to drop free accounts and force users to pay for their custom social networks, it was a bold move that risked a mass exodus from the serivce. However, if a recent interview with the company’s recently-appointed CEO is to be believed, it’s paid off. Talking to Forbes, Jason Rosenthal reveals: Almost 12% of previously non-paying Ning users have signed up for paid accounts. While that means many free users have fallen by the wayside, Ning now has three times the number of paying customers it had previously. Previously non-paying users aren’t all opting for the cheapest account option. Users spend an average of $318 per year on their Ning accounts. The company is on track to turn a profit by early next year. Rosenthal has big ambitions for the company, eyeing what he sees as a $4bn market of potential customers out there to be taken. In short it looks like a smaller, paying customer base is just the thing Ning needed. As Forbes’ Taylor Buley suggests, “A change business strategy is symptomatic of a company that only has 12 months worth of cash left in their coffers.” Might we see more players in the social media space go down the “Paid only” route, based on Ning’s apparent success? It must surely be a possibility some of them are considering. Original title and link for this post: Ning’s on the up after ditching free accounts

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Building online communities takes strategy and proactive engagement. If you just build it, they won't come! As the world of dominant brands becomes more fragmented, established companies and startups are hiring community managers to cultivate an engaged community in a digital world where customers’ experiences with the product is amplified through social media, whether good or bad. And it’s not just the experience that users value; the relationships and connections they are able to make with companies and fellow consumers are just as important.As a result, engaging users online and off has become evermore important for both companies big and small. That’s because social media has revolutionized the idea of word-of-mouth marketing, providing not only an opportunity for companies to expand their brands but also creating the risk of a customer service nightmare.Community managers, who come in all shapes and sizes depending on the company and its mission, are often the online face of their companies, and more increasingly, offline as well. They’re the social strategist, community builder, storyteller, marketer, product manager, designer and evangelist rolled all into one. But most importantly, they’re responsible in projects and initiatives that strengthen the community of consumers, users and customers of the company.Though there’s no silver bullet to being a successful community manager, for those aspiring to become one, we’ve gathered some tips from community builders on what it takes to land a job and be effective at cultivating community.1. Be an Expert and Evangelist of Your Product or CompanyEffective community managers are not only experts of the company or product they represent, but also are passionate about it. Chrysanthe Tenentes, Head of Community at Foursquare, said good community managers are ones that are genuine advocates and evangelists for their products and their users.“The best community managers are superusers of their products and can understand the passion of the user base, whether someone is complaining or offering feedback,” Tenentes said.This means doing your homework on the company and product. It’s important to research the relevant aspects of the company with a “fine tooth comb mentality,” said Seamus Condron, Community Manager at ReadWriteWeb. This will not only prepare you as you go into an interview for a community spot at a company. Aspiring community managers should do a thorough “social media audit” of the company they’re interviewing with, said Daniel Honigman, Social Media Manager at Sears/KMart Home Electronics. This also means knowing the competitive landscape.2. Love The Product and Company, But Be the Users’ AdvocateUnderstanding the product will help you become better at engaging and understanding the customers and users as well. Mario Sundar, Senior Social Media Manager at LinkedIn, said you should love the product or company you represent, but you should also have an understanding of users’ pain points. He said a community manager should be empathetic, that will help them be better at responding to complaints (and, at times, rants).This is particularly true of customer service teams, and companies like Zappos, he said, have set the bar high in building customer support by empathizing with consumers. “A community manager’s role is no different,” he said.3. Work on Your Communication SkillsOne of the characteristics a community manager should have is that of an engager. A good community manager can engage people in an effective dialogue, said Andres Glusman, Vice President of Strategy & Community at Meetup.com. They understand that their role is to help people and enable their community to connect with each other, he said. To do this, they have to be effective communicators and articulate themselves well.To prepare yourself for a career as a community manager, having a background in either marketing or journalism helps, Tenentes said. Having a communications background and experience in writing will help you be an effective communicator.4. Blog and Have a Social PresencePart of being a good communicator is engaging customers and users with an authentic voice. Practice makes perfect. Having a voice in the community by maintaining a blog, for example, or even having a presence on various social platforms will enable you to become better at engaging, while getting the attention of employers.“Having a blog where you write about the industry is a great way to get companies to pay attention to you, as does having an active Twitter account that indicates you know how to communicate one-to-many,” Tenentes from Foursquare said.Sundar also got help from blogging. He said he found his job for LinkedIn because of blogging and believes taking an hour a day to blog on social media topics will help you stand out from the rest of the social media crowd.“I’m constantly surprised by how few of those aspiring community managers actually spend time to manage a career blog where they share tips and tricks on what works and what doesn’t,” he said. “Everyone has a LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter account, but career blogs are few and far in between. Build a brand for yourself with your blog before you actually get paid to manage one.”5. Be AuthenticIt’s not just about having a voice, but having an authentic one. Condron said he tries to utilize his sense of humor when appropriate (and sometimes when it’s not). At the same time, he also does his best to be humble, and let his work speak for itself. “I hate selling myself, and that includes associating myself with silly titles like guru and expert,” he said.Sundar points to examples like Comcast and Dell, which have shown how even big brands successfully present an authentic face while dealing with customers. The key in building trust with your user base, he said, is being authentic and more about the people behind your company rather than a faceless brand.6. Be Multi-Skilled and Prioritize Your Platforms StrategicallyGood community managers are ones that are able to multi-task and are multi-skilled. Having experience in web design, writing, and even some coding helps when you take on projects that involve site integration. It will help you know what’s possible and if you have enough skills to build out site features, it will help make integration more efficient. But, in general, the more skills you bring to the table, the more valuable you are as a candidate, especially for small companies that are looking for a one-person band that can play all the instruments and sing.Condron also points out that the community manager role is very different for each company, and because so many companies are still hiring their first community manager, the role is often defined by your existing skill set. “The more you know, the more you have to offer,” Condron said.Being a good multitasker and having a range of skills also includes the ability to pick your battles, said Katy Zack, Communications Manager at Howcast. She said this means looking at the platforms that are out there, and investing your time and resources based on where your audience is. This means thinking beyond the major social platforms like Facebook and Twitter.7. Listen, Add Value and Build RelationshipsIt’s important to listen to the conversations taking place around your company, industry, or product. Being a good listener will enable you to gather feedback more effectively, feedback that can go towards improving the quality or experience the user has with the product. Also, although it’s important to have a voice in the space, using that voice effectively means adding value to the conversations taking place and not just adding noise to the echo chamber.Sundar also points out that it’s important to strengthen your relationships whether or not you’re looking for a job. “Building relationships is a must for your career, especially for folks in the community space, and is more effective when you’re actually not looking for a job,” he said. This helps create authentic relationships, not just ones that are based on you trying to sell yourself for an open position. If you invest in relationships, it will open opportunities up down the road.8. Engage Online and OffThough online community is important, connecting with people in-person will help strengthen the relationships you build, Zack from Howcast said. Go to the places where community managers come to exchange ideas and network. “Don’t discount the real-life community,” she said. “Find your tweetups and where people with your interests are meeting in real life.”This is also a principal to take once you land a job as a community manager. The offline community is just as important to facilitate through events, meetups and in-person meetings. Tenentes said community managers should reach out to the local tech community, go to meetups (or start their own if there is a lack of community), and meet with people in the same industry. This not only helps in building relationships, but will also help you learn from others in your industry.9. Think Like an Entrepreneur and Be Quick to AdaptCommunity managers have to be entrepreneurial and have a vision for each project, big or small. Building a community means having a strategy for it and the knowledge and drive to implement it, whether with building on a big platform or having a presence and voice on a small one. Sundar said tomorrow’s community manager should be able to adapt to the latest social media technologies. They should also be able to build measurable engagement within that user community, he said.In many cases you have to be the driving force behind a project, with no one pushing the strategy and idea. Having an entrepreneurial spirit will enable you to get things done quickly and efficiently.10. Empower Your Colleagues to Be Community BuildersYou can’t do it on your own. Building community also includes the internal community of the company itself, and being able to empower your colleagues to engage the community will make your job easier and also help them better understand the value in what you’re doing.“If your boss and your colleagues aren’t buying into what you’re doing, your head is going to start hitting the ceiling fast,” Condron said.Honigman, Social Media Manager at Sears/KMart Home Electronics, said this doesn’t mean mandating social media involvement from your colleagues, because it won’t work in getting them interested or engaged. “Find a few folks within the organization you can win over and work with, and let them help you tell your story,” he said.Bonus: DOs & DON’TsHere are some bonus tips and dos and don’t that some of our experts offered as you search and find a career in community management.Chrysanthe Tenentes, Foursquare: “Do apply to work for companies whose product you use and love. Don’t be afraid to reach out to a company that doesn’t have a job posting. A lot of young companies need a community manager but might not realize it yet.”Mario Sundar, LinkedIn: “Before the interview you want to research the folks you’ll be interviewing with on LinkedIn, find common connections or folks who have worked at that company, and ping them should you have relevant questions prior to the interview. Twitter lets you follow the right folks — hiring managers, fellow community and social media experts — in your space on Twitter. Create a separate Twitter list of those folks, since your master Twitter feed may be far too noisy, and set up Twitter notifications so you can better engage with them in real time.”Seamus Condron, RWW: “DO remember that social media and community are rooted in human interaction and relationships. If all you’re doing is promoting the company’s self-interests, you’re not a community manager. You’re a used car salesman. DON’T focus all of your time and energy on shiny tools that create a confusing user experience and de-emphasize the people. Tools are overrated. Focus on the relationships.”Andres Glusman, Meetup.com: “Experiment a lot. Recognize and reward the behaviors you want. Weed out behaviors that are detrimental to culture you are trying to foster.”We hope you found these useful and we want to know what some of your tips are. In the spirit of community, please share them in the comments below!Community Management Job ListingsEvery week we put out a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we post a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the best community management jobs from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!Community Manager at Ballywho Interactive in Wesley Chapel, FL.Community Manager at Ally Marketing in Redmond, WA.Social Community Manager at Publicis in Seattle, WA.Community Manager at Team One in El Segundo, CA.Social Media Marketer and Community Manager at Mob Mobile in Los Angeles, CA.More Job Search Resources from Mashable: - 5 Tips for Aspiring Copywriters and Art Directors - Top 5 Tips for Aspiring Music Bloggers - 5 Tips for Aspiring Social Media Marketers - HOW TO: Score a Design Job - 10 iPhone Apps to Manage Your Job Search on the GoImage courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacockReviews: Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Twitter, iStockphotoMore About: careers, community manager, companies, job search series, jobs, List, social media, tips, trendingFor more Business coverage:Follow Mashable Business on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Business channelDownload our free apps for iPhone and iPad

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As Facebook continues to balloon in size, so too do the audiences that find, “like” and engage with brands via their Facebook Pages. Tomorrow, customer service software maker Parature will release a Facebook application that will help brands enhance the quality of customer service they can provide via Facebook.Parature for Facebook is designed to make a company’s Facebook Page double as a full-featured customer support center.Parature joins likes of Get Satisfaction and its Social Engagement Hub in bringing customer service software to businesses living to the world’s biggest social network.Customer Service Inside FacebookOnce installed, Parature for Facebook becomes integrated into the whole Facebook experience. Page visitors can access the help center via the support tab, but all conversations posted to the wall will be monitored for pre-defined keywords as determined by the company.Parature for Facebook includes four key modules: Find an Answer, Ask a Question, Chat with Live Agent and Monitor. Find an Answer is the self-service knowledge base sub-tab in the support section where customers can search for answers to their queries. Customers can also submit a ticket via the Ask a Question form, or click to start a live chat with a company representative. Monitor is the admin-only section of the app where company representatives can view tickets and flagged wall posts.Facebook support items are also pulled into the company’s Parature Service Desk software, where they can respond, delegate and handle as needed.Thursday morning, Rosetta Stone will be the first company to launch with the Parature for Facebook customer service features. “We put incredible focus on our learners’ success; and providing a superior overall experience. This will encourage our learners to socialize with Rosetta Stone at any time, from anywhere, in multiple languages, and in a manner that fits in well with their communications style. Parature for Facebook is another strategic channel to help us accomplish this goal,” said Jay Topper, senior vice president of customer success.Do you think Facebook Pages can serve as an effective way to provide customer support? Let us know in the comments.Image courtesy of iStockphoto, GodfriedEdelmanMore About: facebook, MARKETING, parature, software, supportFor more Business coverage:Follow Mashable Business on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Business channelDownload our free apps for iPhone and iPad

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A host of links to social media policies to refer to if you're developing one yourself.

Useful social media marketing tools for companies that are looking for consistency of brand communications across networks

The need to leverage social media for business is a no-brainer at this point, but a company's effectiveness on Facebook can be hampered if the account isn't set up properly.

Here are four reasons why your business should be set up as a Page, rather than a standard profile.

Sponsor

Facebook Says So

According to Facebook's terms of service, "Profiles represent individuals and must be held under an individual name, while Pages allow an organization, business, celebrity, or band to maintain a professional presence on Facebook." If your business' profile gets shut down by Facebook for violating this rule, your friends list will vanish with it.

Pages Offer Analytics and Like Widgets

Two really crucial advantages of administering a Page are user analytics and easily-embeddable Like buttons and widgets.

With the recently overhauled Facebook Insights, you can view all kinds of useful data about user activity on your page, including how many likes and comments you received each day, demographic break-downs and much more. This data can be really useful for understanding the characteristics of your customer base, and knowing which wall posts get the best reaction. This data is not available to individual profiles.

Another thing profiles don't offer is the means to embed a Like button and other Open Graph plugins into your own site. This is a major setback for businesses hoping to grow their audience on Facebook.

Pages Can Have Unlimited Fans.

On Facebook, individual profiles are limited to 5,000 friends, whereas Pages can have unlimited fans (or likes). Once your profile friend list reaches 5,000, Facebook will encourage you to set up a Page, but doesn't offer a tool to convert your profile to a Page. For that, you're on your own.

Converting a Profile to a Page is a Nightmare

If you already set up your business on Facebook with a profile, converting "friends" to "fans" is no simple process. The only way to switch them over is to politely ask the friends to do it themselves. This can be accomplished either via status update or by sending them all a message explaining the change and linking them to your new Page.

A third option would be to use Facebook's formal Page recommendation tool to suggest that friends Like your new page. However, this option doesn't give you the opportunity to type a custom message explaining why you're asking them to do it.

When converting friends to fans, it's important to clearly articulate to users why you're asking them to like your business, because in their mind they're already connected to it via Facebook and shouldn't need to take any further action. You'll need to include a concise and friendly note to your users explaining that you're switching from a profile to a Page to better serve them and ask them to click the like button to stay connected.

Whichever approach you take, there's no guarantee that each and every one of your friends will end up clicking on your Page's like button, and repeatedly following up to remind them to do so can annoy users.

At some point, you'll have to decide if you're going to delete the original profile, keep it semi-hidden via privacy settings or just let it sit there. Maintaining two different presences on Facebook can be confusing for your users, and thanks to Facebook's friend recommendation feature, your long-abandoned profile will continue to pop up when friends of friends log in, and the requests will keep rolling in. Discuss

The past day has brought about a subject that, frankly, many of us didn’t know we cared about. In fact, I’d venture to say that many still aren’t aware why GPL makes any difference in our daily life. The heart of this matter stems from a debate between Matt Mullenweg of WordPress and Chris Pearson of DIY Themes. I’ll spare you the details here, but I encourage you to read our article for some back story.  In short, Mullenweg disagrees with Pearson’s use of a license other than GPL for his Thesis theme. The longer version, however, brings about a much deeper conversation.  In what could be a landmark case, Mullenweg has stated that it is possible that he will take Pearson to court over the issue. So Why Do We Care? We care not only because WordPress powers over 3 million self-hosted blogs, but also because GPL covers so much of the software that we use on a daily basis: Mozilla Firefox MySQL Numerous Linux distros Java The rights of those who build on these platforms are protected under the GPL.  That is to say that their intellectual property is protected, and so is their right to profit from that work.  While some have claimed issue with the GPL for being too wide-reaching, the overall consensus of the software world is positive. What It Means To You. If this case reaches courts, and chances are that it would, the sanctity of a big part of the free software movement could finally have a chance to be upheld by law.  As it stands, the majority of licensing issues concerning the GPL are settled far away from courtrooms, and that has worked fine.  But “every dog has its day” comes to mind as we are sitting on the verge of seeing these standards ruled over in a court of law. If Mullenweg’s accusations are proven, then the GPL is upheld.  However, if Pearson were to come out the winner of the case, then the GPL wouldn’t have legal grounds on which to stand.  From that point forward, anyone who built software under the GPL would lose the protection that they are afforded at this time. Licensing and legalities as a whole would change.  Projects such as Mozilla could likely be no more, if there was not suitable licensing for it to work under.  Nobody wants their work stolen, nobody wants it copied outside of specific rules.  Software developers have a right to the protection of their property, and the GPL affords that. The Proof. One of Pearson’s main arguments stemmed from his stance on profits.  He claimed numerous times during his conversation with Mullenweg that his profits would be harmed if he chose to license under the GPL.  However, there are a number of projects that the GPL covers that are profiting quite well. John Saddington, editor of the 8bit network and the lead behind the Standard Theme project, is a perfect case in point.  In fact, he has written on this same subject, voicing his support for Mullenweg and the WordPress project as a whole. From his article: “WordPress is powered by the community and without it WordPress wouldn’t be nearly as awesome as it is today. But, it’s all enabled by the founder’s choice to use GPL as its base and by disrespecting GPL you disrespect others, their work, and the community that supports and uses it day-in and day-out. Once you understand the symbiotic relationship between GPL and the community you realize and understand something very human: Dependence on others and the value that collaboration brings.” Bear in mind that the Standard Theme project is a profitable business that relies wholly on the success of WordPress.  Saddington makes no bones about his support for WordPress, or for the choice of the GPL as its licensing body. Saddington is far from alone in this regard.  Many “premium” themes are available across a wide array of sites including WooThemes and ThemeJam, two of the most well known.  All of the themes on these sites fall under the GPL, and all of them manage to still turn a profit. What’s Next? In short, the waiting game.  We will have to wait and see what Mullenweg decides to do, as the ball certainly seems to be in his court at the moment.  After talking with numerous people today, and reading through the mounting number of comments on our original post, the majority seems to be in favor of Mullenweg’s case. Beyond the morality issues, and “good of the people” questions, there are legalities that have been raised.  One looming opinion is somewhat surprising.  A number of different people I’ve talked to, including my Twitter friend Joe Manna , seem to be of the mindset that perhaps it’s time to give the GPL its day in court. Perhaps that not-so-silent majority is right.  Maybe we’ve reached the point where, in order to move forward, we need a precedent to be set.  Is this the case that will do it?  According to my Magic 8-Ball, “signs point to yes”. Original title and link for this post: The deeper issues behind the WordPress ordeal. Is the GPL in danger?

tombeardshaw

tombeardshaw

tombeardshaw

tombeardshaw

tombeardshaw