As companies consider how to add a community manager to their repertoire, Nattergalen offers a unique option. I had the opportunity to speak with Marguerite Jussuf, COO & Scott Hammond, VP of Biz Dev’t about their company & philosophy. I was intrigued because I’ve seen them posting in areas where I frequent.

image

Nattergalen offers community management services. That sounds simple enough, but it brought so many questions to mind. They also offer tech solutions for setting up white label platforms so that they’re branded for the customer & personalized. But it was the people solutions that we spent the most time talking about.

Marguerite & Scott are very excited about their young company & their aspirations. They started it in April 2008 & it’s growing steadily. They offer community planning & the high level skills of ongoing community management. Their customer is able to have the benefit of a community manager without having it as an in-house position. The position is provided on a remote basis but with much planning & support before the implementation of the position. Our conversation came back to the pro’s & con’s of ‘working remotely’ a few times.

I asked them about their philosophy of dealing with communities & I was quite pleased to hear that we share many of the same ideas. Whenever I see ‘services’, I have a concern – what are the standards? We had a nice discussion about standards for this emerging profession. Scott had an excellent point that companies are being really trusting when they allow a community manager to serve as the voice for their brand. It’s an incredible responsibility & requires considerable trust.

The one thing that I wonder about when I read about ‘people services’ is if it’s moderation or providing the full spectrum of services. Nattergalen offers the external role of community building as an additional option – Marketing 2.0 services. In my opinion I think that that’s a key piece to grow the community & be a part of the extended community. It’s a time for the community manager to connect with others in the niche, share ideas, learn and promote the brand & community. I think that companies should definitely consider it a necessity.

It was great to hear Scott & Marguerite’s passion in regard to community building & for providing exceptional service to their customers. I look forward to watching their company grow!

For further reading, I have specific information on the community manager role.

What questions do you have for Marguerite & Scott? I’m sure that they’ll be glad to answer them.