Work to do. Open email client. See message: "Top Five Ways Social Media Can Cause Death". Must know more. Open message, click link. Enter email address to login to intriguing online community. Get sucked in. Consent to be an honorary "group leader". Email all your friends to join. Time wasted = 3 hours. And your hooked.
One of the important things we are supposed to do with social media is to build online communities and engage our networks. And I wonder why it hasn’t been suggested that we can take some tips from successful cult leaders.
Granted, cult leaders are often psychopaths. But they seem to share some important characteristics with successful community managers. So with that in mind, here are my top seven goals of a great cult community leader:
- Be very helpful and engaging.
- Identify and recruit a first generation of
lost soulsfollowers that will, with your "help", breed additional followers… - Build trust and fanatical loyalty.
- Build internal teams to give members a sense of purpose.
- Give your followers a mission, motivation, and direction.
- Convince them to donate money. (optional)
- Convince them to commit acts of violence, murder, or self destruction. (optional)
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References
What Does it Take to Manage a Community? at Fast Wonder: Online …
Essential Skills of a Community Manager
Craig, You have all the charisma of a successful cult leader 🙂