Thanks to the internet, being a fan of someone means something totally different than it did 50 years ago, 20 years ago, even 10 years ago.

It means access, not just to the person you are a fan of, but to other fans. In general, that’s a beautiful thing. But, inevitably, society is society and bad stuff happens. Fans attack other fans, promote destructive behaviors and engage in a irresponsible manner, even though their intentions may be to support the celebrity they are a fan of. Running fan communities, I have bumped into this.

Here is an idea: Major celebrities could hire a community manager not just to facilitate official community spaces, but also to guide their fans online in best practices as far as how to engage with other fans, how to manage their fan communities and, in general, serve as a useful resource to them.

When people read that last paragraph, I am concerned that they may feel that I’m suggesting that celebrities try to create robots out of their fan base. Fans who simply agree with everything that the celebrity does. That’s not my goal at all. In fact, it’s sort of the opposite. I feel like, with a lot of online fan bases, it is sort of like an echo chamber where if you don’t like what someone does, you are a “hater.” Or if you don’t like what someone does, you get a thousand nasty tweets. I think that celebrity’s have the potential to impact that and having a community manager, an accessible face for the celebrity who specializes in that sort of engagement and can spend time that the celebrity cannot, could prove to be a huge positive.

Celebrities aren’t responsible for what their fans do, usually, but they can have a positive impact. Guidance in these areas could do a lot of good, for both fans and for the celebrity. It’s not like people have to adopt the guidance. It’s just guidance and everyone is free to ignore it and do whatever they want. But in trying to help people, in creating a communications channel where fans can learn what the celebrity supports (and what they don’t), celebrities can use their influence over their fans in a positive way.

The details matter because if the celebrity tries to limit things that they have no business limiting, this could backfire very badly. In order to flesh out where I think they could have an impact, and where I think they should not, let’s touch on some examples. Here are some things that could be useful:

  • Politely, cheerfully and respectfully answering questions that fans have. Running Bad Boy Blog, I have received plenty of short, condescending messages from managers or representatives, for asking very simple, innocent questions. It doesn’t have to be that way. A community manager, with direct access to a celebrity, can be an easier conduit for fans to receive answers through. FAQs, weekly Q&A videos, etc. The celebrity may not have the time to answer, but the community manager does.
  • Communicating the celebrity’s overall belief system to fans. How they feel fans should treat one another, how they view criticism, etc.
  • When someone is being unfairly critical of the celebrity, what should fans do? They will feel the need to defend the celebrity, but are there any lines they shouldn’t cross?
  • Fan communities are self contained and tend to run themselves and be owned by third parties – often fans themselves. They can be great. Providing some tips on how to moderate a community, such as how to stay on the right side of copyright, can help. Many people who start communities have no idea.
  • When clearly destructive patterns within the fan base are identified (such as the Justin Bieber/self harm story), they can be on the front line to make it clear that the celebrity does not encourage that behavior and provide helpful things for those who may be placing themselves in danger.
  • Be a champion of the celebrity’s fans and their diversity and a conduit between them and the celebrity, rather than simply a champion of the celebrity.

And here are some areas that would be inappropriate:

  • While this has obvious promotional benefits, the celebrity’s official pages are where most marketing should live. It’s OK to tweet out that a new single has just been released, but doing it a million times is bad.
  • Pressuring fan communities or fans to promote something. They’ll do it naturally and it’ll feel better for everyone. If they don’t, that’s fine, too.
  • Placing strange or unfair restrictions on fan sites and communities. For example: Telling them that they can’t talk about song leaks or requiring that they not make money from their sites. Leaks are news, you can’t tell your fans to be blind. That doesn’t mean they should host the leak or have it on their site, but they can’t ignore that it happened. Running a fan site can be a full time job. Telling them they can’t make money is ridiculously disrespectful. Do you get paid? Does the celebrity you represent get paid? OK then.
  • Suggesting, in any way, that a fan has to like everything the celebrity does or that fan sites shouldn’t be negative or cover negative news.
  • While you may inadvertently defend the celebrity while doing your job, your role is not to defend the celebrity to random criticisms or to argue with people.

Not every “celebrity” can afford to do this. But major celebrities have teams of people and I see no reason why this person could not be a part of the team. Having a community manager as part of working with an agency is an option, but I would prefer someone who works for the celebrity and has more direct access to them and knowledge of them.

I feel like veterans of community management will be best suited to this sort of role as it requires a level of nuance, understanding and directness (confidence) that someone who is new to the field will not have. It may be necessary to stand up to managers, PR people, etc. who want you to abuse your rapport to push an inappropriate message. In an ideal world, everyone would get it and be on the same page. However, an ideal world is not usually where we find ourselves.

In short, I think this idea has potential and it is possible that it is already being done, in small part, if not in all of the areas I described. What do you think?