Women averaged $77k, and the men averaged $85k. The average annual salary for all participants was almost $81k.
Please check out the following links for more details and stats.

Online Community: Compensation Study
Online Community Compensation: Salaries By Region
Community Manager Compensation Study

July 23, 2009, Kommein did an informal survey.
Judging from the results, there’s no “median” income for a CM - they’re paid somewhere between $20,000 and $80,000 depending on their business and who they work for.
She also found that many are working more than 8 hours a day. I hope those are not the people making $20,000.

Just yesterday the Online Community Report that did the survey last year opened their 2009 Survey.

Salaries have been dropping every month across the board and I don’t think Community Managers will be immune. I think the fear of not having work is causing people to underpitch jobs and work longer than they’re being paid for. Companies who are taking advantage of this do not value you or the community.

Since I started tweeting about what I’m making for supper I’ve had requests for recipes. To fill those requests I’ve started a food blog. It’s still very raw and ugly but it’s doing decent traffic for having been there a week. I strongly believe people should be cooking with their kids more and I hope to foster some of that. Once I’m settled in I’ll get it up to date.

And finally, I’m about to unplug the computer for a day or two while we move out of Bell County and into Austin. I thought Avery Ranch & Parmer was Round Rock but the mailing address says Austin. I’m still a rural girl at heart but I think I’m falling in love with Austin. Will be fun to live there for a while. It’s got a great vibe and the people are smart and friendly. And it’ll be great to no longer have to drive 120 mi round trip for Refresh and Social Media Club.

The Austin Board Game Tweetup will be my first Outing after The Move. Hope to see you there!

Community Manager
Community Relations Manager
Community Liaison
Community Support Manager
Social Network Coordinator
Social Network Facilitator
Social Media and Content Strategy Guru
Networking Ninja
Community Rock Star
Community Development Specialist
Community Engagement Specialist
Community Gardener
Community Representative
Community Coordinator
Community Strategist
Chief Community Officer
Community Curator
Community Director
Community Evangelist
Online Community Organizer
Director of Community
Merchant Evangelist
Online Networking Coordinator
Associate Producer
Director of Channel Partner Development to Leverage the Online Community Space (seriously)
Community Moderator
And of course the plain ole “Admin”

So many titles and yet none of them are inaccurate. (Well, Associate Producer is pushing it.) But it can make it difficult for the job seeker. If businesses themselves aren’t sure what they’re looking for, how will we?

What other job titles for Community Managers have you heard? What SHOULD we be using?

When I was leaving CrowdGather one of the forum admins wrote me a very nice letter. Though we had disagreed more than once, he always knew I cared and had the best interest of the site in mind. He said he would always remember something I had done for one of the users.

In the off topic forum, a member was talking about how her youngest has having trouble with nightmares. My oldest had night terrors when she was little so it’s a soft spot for me. I was still living in Nebraska so I told her if she was comfortable with PMing me her mailing address I would run out to the reservation and and mail out a dreamcatcher that day.

My kids had fun picking out the perfect dreamcatcher in the member’s child’s favorite color. We got pictures of our trip and the things we saw. It became and very fun and interesting thread and was continued when her daughter received the Special, Authentic, Guaranteed To Work Dreamcatcher a few days later.

It was a little thing. Less than $20 and a couple of hours. Completely off topic from the theme of the site (Politics) and devoid of any company schwag. But in that little thing we gained a following of people who wanted to see how it turned out, goodwill not only from the mother but from other members who saw someone who cared, and loyalty from people who associate this site this a pleasant experience. It wasn’t an analyzed, ROI proving, marketing strategy stunt. I was just trying to help a little girl. These are a natural side effect of honestly and authentically caring about people.

It’s these little things that turn users into members. It’s what differentiates you from just another site in the void to a community.

11 Ways to Lose Friends and Followers Online
Though #6 is crap. I follow people I’m interested in. I can’t keep track of everyone. If everyone followed everyone it would be a disorganized, meaningless mess. I want to make real connections.

My favorite new twitter tool is Who Should I Follow. It suggests users you would find interesting. Not just snowballed Twitter Celebs. People you might not find otherwise.

Why Poken needs a Community Manager
I don’t know what a Poken is, but I wish more companies had this kind of attitude. It’s what your customers want.

Twouble with Twitters
If you haven’t seen this yet you’re living under a rock, but this is why so many users are still on “old school” forums. Conversation. Some people still have interests outside of themselves.

@ThomasKnoll: @adamjackson Ideas have no value. Only execution has value

@mathewi a community manager’s kryptonite is people apathetic about connecting

Functionality is the only honest gauge for a person’s worth.
- Ask a Ninja Presents The Ninja Handbook
(seriously… get that book.)

It’s a portrait of Pam and Jim from The Office kissing in the episode Casino Night. It was done by Joanna Barnum.

The Pam & Jim watercolor was part of a series she did of famous (if nerdy) couples. I’ve commissioned portraits from her before and always been happy. I love her style, and she’s pretty quick for it being custom work. I had one done as a gift for someone and I think it was the best reaction I’ve ever had from a present.

I recommend Joanna to anyone wanting custom artwork done.

Twestival was a hit. It raised almost $9,000 for charity:water. The music was great. I met a lot of awesome people. By far the best card I got all night was from Jungle Mclovin. I think it was the best time I’ve had since moving to the area 3 months ago. I hope it becomes an annual thing.

I am now working with a startup called Channelfuse as a Content and Community Manager. I’m currently laying the groundwork for Wheels Forum, Biker’s Forum, and Mobiles Forum. More will be launching in the next few months. I’m very happy to be back doing what I do best.

This weekend I met up with a user who I’ve “known” for +6 years. She informed me I’m not as scary in person. I don’t know if that’s a personality or a size thing.
It’s ok for the users to have a healthy fear of you, right? Goes along with the Forum Mom thing.

We’re less than a month from SxSWi. I’m really excited to see some of the people who will be in town and the conversations that will be had. We’re planning a Community Manager Meetup. Let Deb know if you’re interested.

Spring 2009 is feeling really good. New projects, new relationships, new things getting started and growing.

And there’s Social Media Club and a Community Managers Meetup in there.
Did I get that right? Did I miss anything? Is this a tax refund time thing?

I’m going to be a very busy girl.

For example, on Democracy Forums we had someone make a first post:

My friend has been on the road a lot for her political nonprofit work. She has been eating a ton of fast food, which is just so unhealthy and wrong! I’m wondering, do you all maybe have a suggestion about how she can eat healthier on the road? I was thinking leftovers but they spill.

Someone replied, also a first post, telling them about an awesome new portable food storage system!
A quick look at the IPs revealed they were one in the same. In speaking with my admin on that forum he said “I thought it was some people who knew each other from another forum.”

As human verification systems get better, this kind of spam is happening more and more. We’ve all heard about the Belkin embarrassment.
This jerk has gotten his crappy youtube vid half a million views by posting on any and all forums pretending to be a woman who just watched his movie and is so moved by it she has to tell others. He’s learned he can’t get away with it as a first post and makes a few small replies before starting the thread.
A very polite and friendly gentleman who often goes by Emma Smith (he has other names) posts to several of my forums. Shelly researched and learned he makes his money referring people to movies with redirects from his homepage.
I see job listings for this kind of spam often. SitePoint has listings anywhere from $0.10 to $5 per post.

We need an English speaking person, older than 25, capable of promoting a software product on forums, being a good psychologist, capable of writing things as if he were a client or prospective client, creating an overall positive atmosphere around the product. It is not a mere forum posting job, it is a real marketing job, reading into black pr post, making them be ruined by your positive remarks, speaking as 3-4 different persons, creating a plot (script) of the conversation in advance, starting new posts on IT forums and maintaining a positive image of the company throughout it.

This type of spam takes more effort than the bots, but it’s more likely to slip through. Not enough mods know how to identify it. People who have day jobs outside of the community aren’t always cynical enough to be suspicious and start investigating when a newer user mentions a product.

Make your mods aware. Don’t let the “SEO experts” target your community. As spammers get smarter, so must we.

http://www.hulu.com/its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia

This is an amazing example of how it should be done. Acknowledging the users requests as reasonable and valid. Taking the blame and admitting you goofed up. Learning from your mistakes and striving not to do it again.

CEO Jason Kilar understands that Hulu could have the greatest content on the internet, but it would be nothing if there weren’t users there to watch it. Community can make or break a site. Show them you don’t care and they’ll move on to someone who does. The internet magnifies The Rule of 10 exponentially.

The thing I hear most often from users is “It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it.” They WANT to know. They want to be in the loop. They want to be given a heads up before changes take place. They’re not as dumb as you think. They understand that life happens, and that business decisions have to be made. They just want to hear that you’re thinking about them when it does.

If you don’t the bloggers, the tweeters, the forum users will take it and snowball it into a far bigger issue than you imagined.

Kudos to Hulu.