By Ted McEnroe, Director of Research and Training, The Community Roundtable
This is it – the final week of survey collection for the State of Community Management 2016. Already, hundreds of community professionals have shared their insights and data – getting their community maturity score and a cup of coffee (or donation in their name) along the way.
Coffee has been around for centuries – but the Community Maturity Score was introduced in 2015 for the first time – the culmination of years of research into how the most effective online communities operate. Every community professional who completed a survey got their scores in each of the 8 competencies of our Community Maturity Model. Awesome, right? We all love getting data about ourselves, whether it’s a Buzzfeed-type quiz (Which Monty Python and the Holy Grail character are you, anyway?) or something more in-depth.
But let me give you three reasons to contribute to more in depth community research.
Your data turns the report into a guide for your community.
A primary goal of The State of Community Management research isn’t just to capture what community professionals are doing, it’s to capture what the best communities do in order to succeed. You want to get there, right? Well, it’s a lot easier to get there if you know both where you are AND where you want to go.
What’s the first thing you need to know when you look at a map? Where you are. Only then can you plot your route.
Data can give you confidence, and give your suggestions greater weight with stakeholders.
Over seven years, The Community Roundtable has become a trusted third-party source for research on community best practices. We hear from dozens of community professionals who use each report for strategic planning and operational guidance. But by taking the survey, you’ll have a better sense of the questions that drive the data.
And, when you present your ideas to stakeholders, you’ll have the data on hand to back up your points, and challenge their perceptions and preconceived notions of community.
One example: Year after year, the State of Community Management survey has busted the 90-9-1 myth – that just one percent of members create the vast majority of the content.
Your data helps you recognize the similarities – and differences – between your community and others.
Let’s face it, community can be a lonely place. When you take the SOCM survey and read the report – suddenly it’s easy to see that the issues you face and the successes you celebrate are being faced and celebrated by hundreds of other community professionals. Every survey we get means we can dig a little deeper into the data and find more comparisons, like:
- You run a nonprofit community – how much do you have in common with for-profit organizations?
- Your community is small – are there lessons you can learn from larger ones?
- How do you compare with other communities using your platform?
We can’t answer these kinds of questions without enough data to make meaningful comparisons.
By sharing your data you’re not only making it more useful to you, you’re making it more powerful for everyone.
We were thrilled with the results of last year’s Community Maturity Scores, but we made some key changes for 2016, too, to make them even better.
So, please, set aside the 20 or so minutes you need to take the survey – and know that what you put into it will only enhance what you can get out of the final report.
And while we’re at it, we’ll even make sure you get a free coffee out of it, by giving you a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts gift card. Go to https://the.cr/socm2016survey to get started – but do it soon. We are closing the survey period on Friday, March 18th!
