Angela Connor released 18 Ways to Engage Users Online on her website last November. It was her first ebook, although she noted at the time that she was planning two more. The ebook is targeted towards community managers — those folks whose job description ranges from social networking to blogging to emailing customers, all in the name of building community for a particular product.

Conner’s background is building community for a local television station — and managing its user-generated content. While her background is journalism, Conner has managed to roll with the changing times and make use of her skills online.

The Content

Conner’s relatively short ebook (weighing in at just 8 pages) officially covers 18 specific tips. My online reading has me trained: when I see a number in the title of a post or ebook, I look for a corresponding list inside. Unfortunately, inside 18 Ways to Engage Users Online, I found only a list of 10 suggestion on offering feedback. While there are a number of other subheadings (“Acknowledge good work,” “Tap into the human condition,” and so forth), my count never hit 18.

Despite the value of Conner’s tips, the structure of the information proved very distracting. The content failed to live up to the promise of the title. It’s salvageable: even adding in numbers (and making the title tie into the actual count) would make it easier for a reader to process information.

The Design

18 Ways to Engage Users Online looks like what Conner described it as: her first ebook. It’s a good start, but a few changes could make Conner’s future ebooks a little easier for readers to use. There’s one issue in particular that I think is pretty par for the course for first ebooks: images. Conner uses just one image in her ebook. Using more could break up the text and make it a little easier on readers who can’t fit a full page of text comfortably on a monitor. The ebook is a little text-heavy, which can make it difficult for a reader to make it all the way through.

There’s an added benefit of breaking up text: Conner easily has enough text for a solid 20-page ebook if she adds in images and some white space.

Overall, I consider 18 Ways to Engage Users Online a good initial effort. The information is high quality — it’s just time to adapt to the ebook format a little more. You can download it for free from Conner’s website.