By Shannon Abram, Relationship Manager at The Community Roundtable.
With Memorial Day behind us we’re full-steam ahead in the Summer months (here in the Northern Hemisphere, at least!) This past week we chatted with the community experts that frequent #ESNchat about their expectations for the upcoming months and how they weather the summer from an engagement standpoint. While every community can expect a different experience, we captured some best practices for planning for the warmer months.
1. Take Advantage of Dips in Traffic to Think Strategy
Many of the #ESNchat participants use the slower summer months to think about the overall strategy of their communities, and plan for the months ahead. Several mentioned planning out larger initiatives including playbooks, training and stakeholder engagement. One person even mentioned that summer can be a great time for a platform change – he’s planning on taking advantage of lower traffic to migrate technologies! Use these typically quieter months to think about plans for when things ramp back up.
2. Unique Summer Programming Can Increase Engagement
While some communities slow down as employees take their summer holidays, there are ways to engage those that remain. Often overall workloads are lighter during the summer months, so community managers can roll out more focused programs, or even pilot new programming to a smaller, more engaged audience. One participant suggested a summer book club to connect members, another is launching an advocacy program.
3. When It’s Your Turn – Unplug!
Almost all of the #ESNchat participants admitted that they have a hard time completely walking away from their communities when they take time off. Everyone shared ideas on how to truly unplug and recharge while away from work, including going completely device free, leaving your computer charger at home to ‘ration’ your use and planning ahead with champions that you trust to make sure your community is in good hands. Everyone agreed that time away from their community provides needed distance and perspective, and gives them the opportunity to rest and relax so they come back to work refreshed and energized.
Do you have strategies for handing a summer slow-down in your community? How do you get away from work and ensure that you aren’t checking in too much?
#ESNchat is a weekly Twitter chat for those interested in Enterprise Social Networks (internal social networks for businesses). The topics covered are primarily of interest to ESN community managers, but anyone with an interest in ESNs is welcome to participate. The chat is held each Thursday from 2-3pm Eastern Time. Upcoming topics include:
- June 11, 2015 – Presenting to an Executive Board with Jennifer Honig.
- June 18, 2015 – The State of Community Management 2015.
- June 25, 2015 – Happy Hour! A mixed bag of ESN topics.
Hope to see you there!
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