On Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011, a number of people interested (or working) in community management got together at pariSoma Innovation Loft in San Francisco to participate in a panel discussion about the past, present, and future of community management.  In a Q&A session moderated by Thomas Knoll, community managers Megan Berry, Maria Ogneva, Laura Gluhanich, and Jenna Langer shared their best practices and strategies for success.

Thomas opened up the panel by asking participants when they had that first "ah-ha!" moment about community.

Thomas poses a question to Megan Berry (Klout) and Maria Ogneva (Yammer) about how to potentially address user support requests, prioritize help, and what sort of metrics one would use to determine this.

Klout scores (and other metrics) alone aren't indicative of how influential a user is. The panel discusses lurkers -- those who might not contribute directly to your community, but can potentially evangelize the your community on other websites, in other mediums, or with their close friends.