A Conversation

about Social Media

Communities

and Engagement

Interview with

Judy Gombita

Judy Gombita is a Toronto-based hybrid public relations, communication management and social media strategist, with more than 20 years of employment and executive-level volunteer board experience, primarily in the financial and lifelong learning non-profit sectors.

She is a principal, co-content editor and Canadian contributor (since 2007) to the global, collaborative blog, PR Conversations and also wrote a monthly column on social PR on the Maximize Social Business site for two years. She is an editorial advisory board member (and contributor) to The Journal of Professional Communication (JPC).

Judy publishes the daily paper @PRConversations Champions and is a member of the Paper.li Business Heroes program; a program dedicated to promoting and recognizing outstanding individuals in the Paper.li community.

Part ThreeSocial Media Communities

and Engagement

3Business Heroes

Interview with Judy Gombita

by Kelly Hungerfordedited by Magda Alexandra Torres

Part Three

Social Media Communities and Engagement

In part II of our interview you outlined in detail how you curate the @PRConversations Champions Daily. I’m curious where else you find useful and relevant public relations and communication content to curate for your community, outside of your daily Paper.li? And will you be introducing any other tools in future?

At one time I was an enthusiastic consumer of Google Reader —for my own

convenience rather than PR Conversations— but I must admit by the time the service

was discontinued my own usage had dropped off substantially. It’s not that the

blogs I had in my Reader weren’t quality ones, it was because most of my reading

time was sucked up in a finite number of properties of known entities. If you always

spend time reading the same people’s thoughts, you miss out on discovering new

people and ideas, particularly if their current social media profile isn’t very high. And

thanks to the democratization of publishing, there are always new writers and ideas

waiting to be found, on a global basis.

So rather than finding an alternative RRS feed—as many did—my reading patterns

became more ad hoc. I began including the formal and informal curation from

others I trusted—or discovered—into my routine. And I try not to spend all of my

time on The Usual Suspects. I don’t just mean long-established and/or populist

bloggers, but also mainstream media (e.g., The Globe and Mail, New York Times) or

tech publications (e.g., Mashable, GigaOm) or recognized management resources

(e.g., Harvard Business Review, Forbes).

I mentioned that Topsy is a platform to find new people. I make use of others such

as CommPRObiz’s daily Top Blogs picks (that publisher Fay Shapiro personally

selects), monitor my LinkedIn Groups and Google+ public areas.

Sometimes I jump on specific Twitter hashtags and find articles. Other Paper.li

Dailies (where PR Conversations or my own account get picked for a Top Story)

can be a great resource if the list has been thoughtfully curated. Ones where the

publisher is based in a country other than Canada or the USA are particularly useful

regarding more global content.

4Business Heroes

“If you always spend time

reading the same people’s thoughts,

you miss out on discovering new

people and ideas. Thanks to the

democratization of publishing,

there are always new writers and

ideas waiting to be found, on a global

basis.”

Part 3. Social Media Communities and Engagement

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Although it’s generally not encouraged, links shared during focused Twitter chats

can be great. (Hint: Favorite them during the chat and revisit them later.) Even public

streams or personal LinkedIn updates, sponsored posts, enewsletters to which I’m

subscribed and the occasional on-target news release provides reading fodder. A

free service like Newsle (which is connected to my LinkedIn contacts) lets me know

about articles where my most-valued professional contacts are mentioned.

Indeed, I’m looking into another formal curation process for the PR Conversations

Twitter (and Google+) account with another platform. It’s GaggleAMP, which

I referenced in the same CommPRObiz (two-part) guest article as I did Paper.li.

Glenn Gaudet, GaggleAMP’s president and founder, has kindly offered me a Public

Gaggle for PR Conversations.

I want to make use of this Public GaggleAMP in a way I don’t believe anyone else

has: Instead of the typical internal usage to external focus, I want to flip the equation

around, and have the majority of Gaggle suggestions for curation come from

external entities (i.e., not the internal principals or better-known Champions of PR

Conversations).

I’m hoping to persuade the quieter members of our PR Conversations “community”

of PR and communication practitioners and academics—particularly ones unknown

to me, from a variety of countries and organizations—to voluntarily join our Public

Gaggle and encourage them to “pitch” relevant and interesting articles and posts,

whether their own or that of others.

If an item is accepted (because I will still make that decision, based on suitability),

the person proposing the article will either receive an author credit or a hat tip for

suggesting it. I believe attribution (with its inherent accountability for rationale) is

important, particularly when individuals aren’t affiliated on a formal basis such as

being salaried employees.

The goal is to make the PR Conversations Gaggle a true PR relationship-building

endeavour with new people, rather than just raise the profile (through a form of

marketing) of our own blog, which appears to be the intention of existing Public

Gaggles. If my active-users goal proves viable, the possibility exists of finding new

guest contributors for the blog. Definitely I anticipate increasing the number of @

PRConversations Champions for our Paper.li list as an outcome.

And if this innovative usage proves successful, perhaps Paper.li and GaggleAMP

will consider formalizing similar collaborations, as your services really are

complementary.

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When we ‘met’ back in 2012 it was due to what I consider one of your greatest talents: community building. What do you value most in your online connections and communities?

Some of the people I value and trust the most I’ve yet to meet in person—that’s the

power of global connectivity and professional and personal sharing. The majority

of these relationships developed one-to-one or in small groups, not so much the

wild-and-woolly ride found in social media platforms. But sometimes initial personal

connections are forged in the public realm—the first digital baby steps in a possible

long and multi-hued journey.

Trust is related to honesty, not only about true knowledge, experience and skills, but

also in the idea of, “Say what you mean, and mean what you say.” And if a joint initia-

tive is undertaken, either the outcomes have to be equal or the person recruited by

the other needs to come out slightly ahead. That’s always been my creed.

Otherwise the “relationship” appears calculating, with too much self interest.

A person isn’t really doing any favours if he or she offers an opportunity and then

later changes the proposal or even takes it away. I like to make connections and find

the right fit for people; the most-valued online acquaintances have a similar ethos

and moral compass. And as a disruptor, I appreciate when other people speak

up when witnessing a perceived wrong-doing or some other kind of “relationship”

aberration.

It’s important to know what a person values and how he or she relate to others

—is it as equals? Can I trust the person’s knowledge, judgments and opinions?

Although overused words, is this person transparent and authentic, plus relatively

free of ego?

I enjoy people who spark my own thinking with new ideas. I appreciate generosity

in giving credit and/or shining the light on others. Is the person listening to what I

have to say before jumping in with personal thoughts? I try—it’s not easy—to show

that same courtesy. As Anna Maria Tremonti suggested to attendees at a CPRS

conference, “Listen to listen, don’t listen to speak.” Debates based on facts and per-

sonal experiences are great; personal attacks, not so much. How a person accepts

criticism is very telling.

From a public relations perspective, I appreciate people who do not subscribe

to all of the stereotypes I detailed earlier—making public relations really small and

limited to media relations, publicity or simply a tactical function of marketing (i.e.,

product or service promotions). Smart people exhibit an avid curiosity in learning

Part 3. Social Media Communities and Engagement

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more about the power and possibilities of public relations in its more nuanced and

mindful manifestations.

On a personal basis, I’m interested in people’s passions, particularly when they

mirror my own—maybe a global traveller, theatre and film buff, opera fan or an avid

reader. Alternatively, I appreciate when a person’s passion for something is so bril-

liantly described that she or he gets me interested in finding out more about it.

Finally, I appreciate a well-developed sense of humour and smart or warm fun. It’s

probably the reason why my favourite emoticon is ;-) .

I’ve found online communities to be rather fluid—one day they are robust and then

poof many members appear to have moved on to other places. This is OK. The

best engagement is rooted in experience and generosity, whether for the short or

the long term.

Communities are an online form of culture and the best ones bring out a natural

energy, passion and joy in people, revolving around ideas rather than sitting at the

feet of one “sage” waiting for pearls of (unquestioned) wisdom to drop out of the

person’s mouth. Brand communities, in particular, should have mindful succession

planning in place, meaning it shouldn’t be all about one individual.

I’ve experienced much of the good (and none of the bad) as described above in

collaborating with the people involved with Paper.li and Small Rivers. It must be

gratifying to provide a valuable assist to thousands of online communities, includ-

ing developing personal relationships with Daily publishers.

Indeed the ability to assist our community in helping them to build their own is extremely gratifying work. The relationships that are built along the way are equally as treasured. Thank you for taking such an active role in the Paper.li community, and for taking time to share your insights and thoughts with us.

I appreciate that you reached out to me for this interview and hope my thoughts

and ideas prove helpful to other publishers. I welcome any questions or feedback

to explore online curation or public relations further.

About Paper.li Business Heroes

Behind every great business stands an even greater community.

Our Paper.li Business Heroes’ program recognizes the extraordinary people within our community who put their best selves forward each day to inspire and guide others in finding answers to questions and solutions for to problems.

About Paper.li

Paper.li provides a no-hassle approach to monitoring topics and content across the social web.

Through advanced semantic analysis we process more than 250 million social media posts in eight languages daily to deliver the topic based content you and your community wants, so you don’t have to.

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