{"id":56,"date":"2011-07-05T15:56:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-05T15:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyoteblog.posterous.com\/do-you-fear-online-super-fans"},"modified":"2017-05-16T18:51:52","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T01:51:52","slug":"do-you-fear-online-super-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2011\/07\/do-you-fear-online-super-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you fear online super fans?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>TechSoup<\/a> recently held an online community meetup regarding building Super Fans<\/a>. The event defined super fans as people online who demonstrate a particular brand of loyalty that, once recognized, stands to benefit your organization tremendously. Super fans are those individuals who are engaged with your organization above and beyond your average supporter<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In other words, super fans are super online volunteers – super-devoted, super-passionate online volunteers<\/strong>. And they usually emerge on your online community, in the comments section of your blog, in the comments section of your Facebook page, on Twitter (retweeting your stuff), etc.<\/p>\n

As I said in the comments section of this blog recap<\/a>: in this era when so many are claiming that most people only want micro-volunteering, just-whenever-you-might-have-time volunteering activities, it’s nice to read an article that acknowledges there are many<\/em> people who want to be online volunteers with longer term commitments and much higher responsibilities, that want to be influencers, not just unpaid task-completers, and there are organizations that really do want such volunteers.<\/p>\n

And as I also noted in my comments: I’ve found many nonprofits greatly fear “super fans” – they fear the intensity of their passion, their motivation, their loyalty and their energy. They fear the super fans unasked-for-suggestions and ideas, their independent tweeting and blogging, their spontaneous helpfulness to “regular” online community members… In fact, many nonprofits will shut down a super fan that they feel is too “super” – not for any policy violation or inappropriate behavior, but because of the perceived pressure such a fan can put on employees and other volunteers (when they “outshine” staff in an online community).<\/p>\n

For the record: I fear not the super fan<\/strong>. I might make a suggestion to an online volunteer that’s a super fan, to make it clear they when they are speaking as an individual versus a rep of the organization, to change the wording on a blog or comment to make it more accurate, to let me announce something to an online forum first, etc. I might ask that super fan to join a formal committee to explore, in a more traditional manner, this or that program activity, outreach activity, etc. But I do not<\/em> want to dampen that super fan enthusiasm! I have no idea how long it will last – will the person burn themselves out in a three months? Less? Super fans are never forever.<\/p>\n

In fact, I’ve turned a couple of online super critics into super fans… but that’s another story.<\/p>\n

I’ve also been a super fan myself, and most of the time it’s been super appreciated – but twice over the years, indeed, I was asked to curb my enthusiasm (“please don’t post to our online forum so much”) – both times by very traditional organizations that have been around a very long time.<\/p>\n

So, why do some nonprofits sometimes fear super fans?<\/strong> Is it the unofficial or non-traditional nature of super fans that causes the fear? Is it that they fear anything they can’t completely control? How do you convince a nonprofit not to fear you, the super fan?<\/p>\n

You can leave your comments here, or you can go over to the TechSoup forum thread I’ve started on this subject and post there<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also see:<\/p>\n

What is “too much” from an online contributor?<\/a><\/p>\n

The dynamics of online culture & community<\/a><\/p>\n

How to handle online criticism<\/a><\/p>\n

Tags<\/strong>: volunteer, volunteers, online, virtual, volunteering, community, discussion, enthusiasm, enthusiastic, supporters, members, fans, critics, critic
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