Starting a new on line community space can be a bit like throwing a party. You have the idea, decide on a theme, pick a time and location, send the invitations and wait for the people to show up.

When you open the doors to any new community on the web, having community managers ( party organizers ) are essential; especially in the beginning stages, if you are going have any kind of focused success with your community.

Here’s a story from the book Crowdsourcing about the challenges that Assignment Zero ran into when they created their new community to crowdsource the collection of crowdsourcing the news.

Rather than recruiting people beforehand to manage each topic, doling out assignments, corresponding with would-be contributors or just providing a friendly face – we decided to hold off building this essential layer of community managers until after the party had already started. It was a fateful mistake. The flood of guests made our community’s design flaws quickly apparent.

Baffled by the overall concept and confused by the design of the website and unable to connect directly to a manager or organizer, most of the initial community members simply drifted away.

Communities are about creating and managing experiences. My personal experience as a community manager has shown me that organizations tend to forget about the crucial role of having real people to engage new members. My community manager friends have also experienced this lack of understanding by their organizations. Community managers are critically important to help create a sense of belonging in any new and existing community.

If you’re starting an on-line community here are some things to consider:

• Pre Plan the role of Community Manager
• Your Community Manager will be at the front line of community relationships
• Hire for quality. Excellent people are a wise investment
• Get your Community Manager involved in site organization and planning
• A good Community Manager will be an excellent resource for greater insight into your community