The Average Day – Proactive First
Posted: 18 Sep 2013 11:30 PM PDT
Every morning you face the same temptation.
You want to check your e-mail, visit the community, and respond to what’s happened/happening.
The problem is this doesn’t improve the community. It maintains the community. It keeps the community exactly how it is. You can spend your entire day firefighting. This doesn’t help you, the community, or your company much.
The sad truth is most community professionals spend most of their time which do nothing to improve their communities.
Every morning work on the proactive tasks that develop the community. Always do these tasks first. This typically includes tasks that increase the community’s size, levels of activity, or sense of community.
	▪	Interviewing (or writing questions for interviews) experts / VIPs in your field.
	▪	Organizing upcoming events and activities
	▪	Creating content about members in the community (or scheduling future content).
	▪	Reaching out to potential members and inviting them to join the community.
	▪	Building relationships with key members in the community (regular e-mail contact)
	▪	Identify popular topics and themes for future activities in the community.
	▪	Reaching out to current members to invite them to write regular guest columns, expert advice posts, or become an admin in the community.
If you spend the first four to five hours every day working on these tasks, you should immediate improvement in the community. For many community professionals, simply changing their average day is the biggest, immediate, win they can have within their community.